The Signal: Stranded on Sirenis Preview
Goose Byte’s The Signal: Stranded on Sirenis Steam Demo aims high. It’s a survival crafting game with a strong atmosphere, an evocative soundtrack, and bold world-building that draws you in from the start. Landing on an alien planet as part of humanity’s last expedition, you’re immediately faced with the challenge of surviving, studying, and understanding a living world that reacts to your every move. It’s definitely solid conceptually and clearly inspired by genre classics, BUT this demo shows both the strength of that vision and the limits of a five-person indie team still finding its footing.
The first thing that got my attention about Sirenis is its aesthetics. The game's environments are fun and alien without feeling overwhelming, and the mix of biomes, only given a hint of this in what I am calling the “Welcome area”, shows genuine care in design. The visual charm pairs with an ethereal soundtrack that fits perfectly in this world. For a demo, it’s impressive how cohesive the world-building already feels.
Unfortunately, bugs were frequent companions on my playthrough. I encountered everything from broken vehicle crafting stations to enemies clipping through rocks. Even when lowering my settings repeatedly, I found my game freezing and stuttering quite often. I also had to restart after a progression soft-lock. It really was a shame, because the loop of scavenging and creating had really started to click for me, and I can definitely see myself putting hundreds of hours in a later version of this game. To show how fun I think this game will be after some further development... Even though I was soft-locked in my progression, I still spent additional hours just exploring and building my base up just so I could enjoy what I could. After the restart did not fix the soft-lock, then is when I stopped my playthrough.
When the game works, it does a lot right. The pacing feels good. It’s full of fun exploration and slow discovery rather than rushing a player forward. There’s a sense that every crafted tool or harvested resource means something in the larger story of this world. However, while functional and satisfying at times, I do feel that early zones feel a bit too overpopulated with aggressive enemies...including robots, bugs, and magma crocodiles that respawn a bit too often for comfort. Between the combat quirks and technical hiccups, it’s hard to stay fully immersed in that delicate sense of isolation and discovery.
One of the demo’s highlights is its equipment crafting system. The base lets players design and iterate their own mechanical creations, a sandbox mechanic that I could definitely see becoming the game’s defining feature. Unfortunately, this system is also a bit unstable right now, especially with its vehicle crafting mechanics. After reviewing other comments and the community Discord when I got stuck, several players reported bugs that caused their vehicles to vanish or become unusable after death, and some people had the same progression soft-lock as myself as well.
For a studio of only five people, this demo conveys ambition and artistic intent in a way many larger studios struggle to capture. It’s very clear Goose Byte is pouring passion into The Signal. The strong sound design, thoughtful atmosphere, and recognizable style show real talent behind the scenes. One thing I really liked seeing in the discord server, is the responses, previews, patch notes, and candid conversations from the the development team. It's quite clear that they want to make this game as great as I know it can be.
That said, the game needs more time to smooth out some of its wrinkles. Its technical fragility and uneven execution keep it from realizing its potential, at least for now. Still, when relating this game to many big-time studios with hundreds, if not thousands, of employees... I feel like I will choose this over other big studios in a heartbeat. I can feel the magic happening; it just needs more time.
The Signal: Stranded on Sirenis demo is rough but super endearing. Beneath its layers of bugs and glitches lies a world full of potential, promise, and mystery. If nothing else, it’s a clear signal that Goose Byte is a team worth keeping an eye on. For those who love survival games and can forgive some early turbulence, there’s magic waiting here, or if you want to help play test it and be part of the magic, their community is there to welcome you with open arms.