Hey everyone! The Starvester demo will release on Steam on Feb 9, 2026!
Please make sure you've wishlisted the game so you'll be informed when it goes live :) This demo will have all the fixes, optimizations, QOL implementations and balancing changes that were added during the playtest, as well as a couple of extra things including QOL improvements and localized text! I'll release the full build notes in the announcement post when I release the demo on Monday. Thanks to the overwhelming amount of feedback, support and data that I received during the playtest, I feel ready to release the full public version of the demo next week. While it is still far from perfect, I think this is the best version of the demo so far, one that will give a good taste of what the full finished game will be like! The playtest saw over 20,000 players play the game, with a median playtime of 1 hour 36 mins, which is crazy to me. Around ~300 responses on the feedback form and dozens of messages on various platforms like Discord, Reddit, Steam, etc. helped me reach here so far. If you're one of the people who helped out by playing and/or giving feedback, thank you so much! While there isn't any new content in the demo release, I hope you will try it out to see how far it's come because of your feedback! Playtest update v0.4.7 is live now. This will be the final update before the demo release.
Here is the changelog:
- [BALANCING] Ceryx has been re-reworked so that the production rate of Compressed Gas doesn't reduce with time. Instead, the speed boost from Compressed Gas has been nerfed.
- [BALANCING] Upgrade values and expansion requirements have been slightly tweaked to improve pacing.
- [BUG FIX] Minor tweaks related to visuals I am planning to have some regular updates for the demo leading up to the next fest, including a new ending that I plan on releasing on Feb 23! I hope you'll tag along for the ride and see where this game goes. See you all soon, - Shaun (dev)