Nick and I have tried to find the right words to properly thank each and every one of you, yet no message could ever fully capture what your support means to us or how deeply it has shaped the growth of the NEST. The proper moment for that recognition will come in the gameβs credits... and not only for a select few. As promised, every member of Discord who stands with us on launch day will be honored there.
I still remember how, just four months ago, I was writing on Reddit about a Steamworks bug (here is the post). At the time, around 20-30 thousand of you were already with us, and then Steamworks suddenly displayed 230 thousand instead. Back then, that number felt completely unreal.
The question Nick and I asked each other that day: βWhat if?β... the only thing that followed was laughter, because it all felt far too impossible to believe. I truly wish I had recorded that moment...
On February 17... more than 10,000 of you joined our ranks in a single day, and everything that followed was pure madness. That rollercoaster carried us all the way to where we stand today: among the top #225 most wishlisted games on Steam. There was a moment when so many of you were answering the call that we even broke into the top 100 fastest-growing games on Steam.
πͺ NEST FEST, February 23 to March 2 (our answer to Steam Next Fest) πͺ
That operation taught us far more than how not to run playtests. Above all else, it proved to us once again that we are standing beside a truly exceptional community.
The way you supported one another, the patience you showed under pressure, your participation in the contests, and the effort so many of you put into spreading the word of IRON NEST and creating content around the event are only a few examples. To be entrusted with a force like this is a privilege we are not even sure we deserve, but one we carry with gratitude every single day.
I will not pretend those tests were meant to be anything more than small-scale stress trials, focused on the core mechanics, the tutorial, and the most fundamental parts of the game. The fact that nearly 10,000 of you answered the call was crazy. I am sorry for the moments when the key distribution bots broke down, but I want you to know this: for a brief moment, you overwhelmed Ghostbotβs servers through sheer force of mobilization.
There is probably no greater reward for a developer than seeing so many people that the bot itself could not withstand it.
π Live Event: NEST FEST Summary + FAQ π
In response to your requests, we want to prepare an official NEST FEST recap for you. We want to share both the development perspective and the lessons we took from the event, as well as what we plan to do next based on your gathered feedback. Alongside that, we will also host a live FAQ session where on voice chat you will be able to ask us questions directly, and we will answer them in real time.
Friday, April 10, 2026, at 21:00 (CEST) on our Discord.
Do not worry. We plan to record the entire meeting and upload it to our YouTube channel shortly after the event, so even if you already have plans that day, you will still be able to catch up and hear the full recap.
Direct Link to the Discord event: https://discord.com/events/1410998498094092339/1489934001052323931
If you want to help us push this machine even further, keep the signal alive. Support our posts, share them where you can, talk about IRON NEST, create content around it, and if you have a way to reach press or influencers who may want to hear about the project, we would be truly grateful for that support too. Every action matters. Every voice strengthens the campaign. And every Operator standing with us helps carry IRON NEST forward.
And in return, we can make you one promise: if life grants us enough time, we will keep building for you. Not only IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator, but future projects set in the IRON NEST universe as well. As long as we are here, and as long as this machine endures, we will keep doing our best to give you more worlds, more stories, and more reasons to march with us.
We have lived with this project for so long, and poured so much of ourselves into it, that it has become something far greater than just a game to us.
This project means more to us than anything, and it will stay with us forever.
β οΈ Important β οΈ
- The public demo will deploy during Steam Next Fest in June
- The official release date will be revealed during Steam Next Fest (mid-2026)
- All major console ports are already confirmed
- We are securing the final details and should soon be ready to officially confirm the VR port
- Internal playtests remain active on our Discord