Starsand Island Preview: Exceeding My Wildest Cosy Dreams

Starsand Island has the potential to be the next major titan of the cosy genre, and that’s not a statement that I make lightly. I’ve been sold on the idea of Seed Lab’s Starsand Island ever since the game first landed on my desk. You see, in what’s become an incredibly overcrowded genre, Starsand Island has always made it clear that it’s not trying to be a carbon copy of existing franchise heavyweights, by which I mean the likes of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. It’s instead attempting to be the next evolution, and having been hands-on with the title at this year’s Gamescom, I’m wholeheartedly onboard with Seed Lab’s wildly ambitious vision.

Naturally, the tried and tested elements of the cosy life sim genre are present here. Starsand Island sees the player character leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind to set up residence on the titular island, where you’ll be able to farm, decorate, romance, and fish your days away. I had the opportunity to play through the beginning of the game, creating an adorable character, placing a few items of furniture within my humble abode and planting my first crops, before venturing off to learn about the island’s various professions I could master, whether that be engineering, ranching, or adventuring to name just a few.

At this stage, there’s nothing at all that I can criticise. Starsand Island is a true feast for the eyes with its charming Studio Ghibli-esque aesthetic. Crafting and switching between items all felt incredibly intuitive, while a handy phone made navigating the island and checking my next objective exceptionally easy. Cosy games can often come with a hefty helping of unwanted ‘grind’ within the gameplay formula but my early impression is that Seed Lab has done all it can to make sure that’s not the case here.

As for where Starsand Island seeks to evolve the genre, that’s something I began to see realised when I was introduced to the game’s build mode. On Starsand Island itself, players will only be able to edit and decorate the patch of land they are gifted when they arrive on the island; they cannot make changes to the wider map. That doesn’t really matter though because it just so happens that you’ll also get a nearby island to entirely call your own - and it’s here that you can let your imagination run wild.

Starsand Island, Credit / Seed Lab

Listen, you need to know that I’m someone who’s spent countless years building houses in various instalments of The Sims. It brings me immense joy, and the complexity of the features you find within The Sims has never really been attempted or replicated elsewhere in the cosy genre, until now. Starsand Island’s player island has no limitations. You can change the topography of the area, adding hills, lakes, or alternate terrains. There’s endless flora and fauna to choose from, as well as all of the key building mechanics you could possibly hope for.

This isn’t a ‘pick a house and place it down’ situation. The walls, windows, doors, and roof are all yours to realise. Again, the word intuitive springs to mind, with developers walking me through a quick overview of the mode before loading up several pre-built islands to exhibit exactly what it’s capable of. Dearest reader, my heart soared. This lit an excitement within me that harkened back to the wonder I felt in the 00s, enjoying The Sims 2 for the very first time. I’d hardly picked my jaw up from off the floor when I was also told that Starsand Island permits you to create a home on-the-go too.

Players will also be able to customise a house boat, which you can freely move between key locations - and this too can be extensively customised in the game’s build mode. You shouldn’t just think of this as an opportunity to decide where to place a bed, for example. You can turn your house boat into a fully functioning farm, if you wish, or use it simply as a space to entertain your fellow islanders whether they be friends or something a little more intimate.

You see, Starsand Island wouldn’t be a true cosy life sim if it didn’t have romance options. Thankfully, there are plenty of characters to romance here or, and here’s another one of the title’s unique quirks, you could let them romance you. While it’s impossible to get a feel for a romance system within a short hands-on preview, developers did talk me through what Starsand Island has to offer, and immense care has been put into creating an immersive system that works two ways.

Starsand Island, Credit / Seed Lab

Certainly, you can try and woo an islander of your choice, chatting to them at every given opportunity or gifting them something you’d think they’d like. Uniquely, however, they can also do the same to you. This all ties into the game’s ‘NPC Affection System’ which works regardless of whether your connection with an NPC is romantic or not. Professional and platonic relationships are also affected.

Essentially, NPCs' behaviour will change depending on your actions in the game and I don’t just mean whether you're nice or cold. NPCs will observe what you do, who you help, what you say, what gifts you give, and who you spend holidays with, reacting to all of this. That reaction could come in the form of a subtle facial expression, or it could arrive in the form of a huge romantic gesture. Players are encouraged to see Starsand Island as a living, breathing ecosystem they can hugely effect.

Hyped is perhaps the most apt word to describe my feelings. I love romancing in cosy games as much as the next person, so I’m thrilled to see how two-sided that process is teased to be here. But I’m also hugely impressed by the fact that professional and platonic relationships are valued just as much within Starsand Island, allowing players to engage with and experience the storyline of every NPC regardless of whether they’re the chosen ‘romanced’ one or not. That’s something that’s far too often overlooked in the cosy genre.

Starsand Island, Credit / Seed Lab

It definitely feels that Starsand Island is shaping up to be a game that allows you the freedom to do whatever it is that you want; that’s a sentiment I conveyed to the developers, and recent updates have only proven it to be true. A mount system is already in development, for example, based on early feedback so I have no doubt more player requests will be noted post-launch.

I’m also aware that Starsand Island features a combat system as players deal with creatures guarding the island’s ancient ruins, plus there’s a seemingly comprehensive vehicle system to navigate the island. Neither features were ones I was able to sample in my hands-on, but I did want to give you an idea of the breadth of what Starsand Island has to offer.

Despite being a huge fan of cosy life sims, I’d begun to feel fatigued by the genre in recent years; exhausted by playing through unoriginal copies of the titans that dominate the space. Starsand Island is looking a lot like the game to bring the genre back to life. With bucketfuls of originality and charm, and a huge emphasis on player freedom, Seed Lab may have just unearthed the next big thing.

Starsand Island is currently scheduled to release in Q4 of 2025 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch consoles.