Here’s a combination of two of my favorite German cultural exports: Dorfromantikthe exquisitely designed, minimalist landscape building game, and Kurzgesagt – In a nutshella YouTube channel with tastefully animated, fascinating and accessible explainers about the cosmos, biology, futurism, evolution and other scientific topics.
Toukana Interactive, the developer of Dorfromantikis working together with Kurzgesagt on Star Birdsa base building and resource management game in which the Channel’s cute, duck-like bird mascots explore space by jumping from asteroid to asteroid, mining, building and creating automated production networks along the way.
The first thing you notice about the game is its appearance, which uses Kurzgesagt’s graphic style (bright colors, clean lines and rounded contours) to depict toy-like, rotating asteroids reminiscent of the Super Mario Galaxy games.
Image: Toukana Interactive/Kurzgesagt
Toukana explained what to expect from the game Steam page and an accompanying one post to Dorfromantik‘s page. Players will use rovers to explore asteroids and discover hidden resources; build mining and manufacturing facilities to research and produce new technology; fulfill missions of the anarchist birds on their space station; establishing trade routes and eventually ascending to new star systems. The asteroids are procedurally generated and the key to the game is using the 360 degree building system to make the most efficient use of the limited surface area of each space rock, connecting units with hand-drawn piping.
Toukana and Kurzgesagt also promise “a mysterious storyline with Kurzgesagt vibes,” “assets and production processes inspired by real science,” and “rogue-lite elements and high replayability.” They warn about that Space Birds However, it is not a 4X game or a realistic physics simulation.
If Dorfromantik is there anything to do, Star Birds will be soothing, absorbent and perfectly balanced. If Kurzgesagt has anything to offer, it will be philosophical, surprising, curious and a bit epic, with a dry narrative. I can not wait. Star Birds is scheduled for release in 2025.