Starsand Island is yet another title that arrives with the hopes and money of Kickstarter. Many development teams have recently used Kickstarter as a foundation for their jump-start into development and release. Controversies, success stories, and failures come from the site where hopeful gamers donate money to help bring their dream games to life. Starsand Island, in particular, raised over $300,000 USD from over 5,000 different people to back its development and vision. However, did this vision take shape properly in the game’s early access launch?
A world of opportunity
Starsand Island allows players to do a variety of different “jobs” from crafting and farming to exploring and even fishing. According to the development team — “Our wish is for every player to find a path that brings them joy, both in the game and in their everyday real lives” — and that approach is very present in the game. There is no railroading; even from the very start, players are given the option to outright choose what they would prefer to do first in the game.
The game keeps true to its cozy roots, and everything from the music to even the text box for dialogue really comes together to bring a relaxing and enjoyable experience for players. Starsand Island quickly left me with the impression that this is a game that is meant to be enjoyed over time. While progression exists and is very important for unlocks and skills, I personally found that there was next to nothing stopping me from doing whatever I wanted at any given time, barring any restriction based on job level.
Sore sights
While the game is quite fun, I really found myself looking forward to playing more of it. There were a few issues that became obvious over time. I found numerous instances of draw distance issues, even after adjusting settings and trying to go up and down in different presets to identify what would cause it. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the exact cause, but I did notice that it seemed to happen less in certain areas that players spend the most amount of time, which is encouraging.
Another minor issue that gave me a bit of pause was that in certain areas in the game, even though the ability to call your mount or vehicle was available, the ceiling for placing items had been reached. It’s not a massive issue, but more of a confusing “Why is this happening?” feeling that took me a moment to realize.
Starsand Island is in early access, so things that are a bit strange are bound to happen. Luckily, I never encountered anything game-breaking or restart-inducing, which is a huge plus for something in early access.
Cozy beginnings
Starsand Island is a great cozy game, and it has this almost 3D Stardew Valley feel that I honestly can’t get enough of. It’s a good game for coming home and just enjoying your time. I’m not a massive fan of timers in games such as 9 minutes to craft an item, etc. But Starsand Island gives you enough to do that it doesn’t seem like such a big of an issue. There were very few moments that I felt that I was being gated by a timer. Progression felt very fast-paced; in spots, I felt that there was too much to do in a short period of time. Though, to be fair, I am a player who tries to do many things at once, and Starsand Island is not a game that I would recommend doing that with.
Farming felt fun to do, 3D really lends itself to farming sim in my opinion, and it felt almost Rune Factory-like, which is one of my personal favorite games of all time. The interactions with characters was pleasant, and it’s refreshing to see that cozy games have embraced the idea that NPCs are a massive part of the game experience and not just filler. My only complaint is that combat (though very rare in Starsand Island) felt a little dull. I never felt challenged at all. Which is somewhat fair in a game like this, but at the same time, I would expect the facet of the experience to be just as well-developed as others. I also did not like the fishing in Starsand Island, it felt very basic to me and was my least enjoyed “job” in the game.
The island experience
Overall, Starsand Island is one of my favorite games recently. I caught myself waiting to play it more throughout the day. It absolutely needs a few quality-of-life upgrades, but those will just come with time as it is still in early access. If you are not willing to adjust to tweaks that may come to progression pace, or item amounts, and likely a few bugs here and there, I’d hold off for now. However, if you are fully prepared for the early access experience, I cannot think of many better cozy options than Starsand Island.
Something that I feel is hard to ignore with the game is the recent microtransaction uproar. Through my play time and my gathering of player thoughts about the issue while writing this review, I believe it is something to be wary of. Early access and microtransactions have a bad history with each other; however, I can safely say that I do not feel as if my experience was hampered by it. I can also confidently say that, at least for the moment, I do not feel as if the game punishes players, whether it be in missing key quality of life upgrades or being time-gated, etc. Microtransactions at the time of writing are still few, but are only present for cosmetics.
Starsand Island is a nice experience. I am personally very excited to see how it grows, and am very hopeful that we start to see this shift towards 3D cozy life sim games more. It is addicting, fun, and most surprisingly to me, it makes players crave not only the game but the genre itself in indescribable ways.
Starsand Island is out now on Steam Early Access and Xbox Series X|S, with planned release to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 in Summer 2026.
