Anime Inspired Life and Farm Sim Starsand Island Hits Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview on February 11, 2026

Chinese developer Seed Sparkle Lab has confirmed its debut title Starsand Island will launch on Wednesday, February 11, 2026 on Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview, positioning the game as the next cozy lifestyle contender with a heavier emphasis on progression systems, collection depth, and modular customization than the genre usually delivers at first drop. 

The studio is launching with 2 editions. The Standard Edition includes the base game and all Early Access content. Players who buy during the launch period will also receive an exclusive Chinese New Year bonus featuring festive outfits and furniture inspired by traditional Chinese patterns. The Deluxe Edition includes everything in Standard plus additional Romanticism inspired content, with refined classical outfits and fantasy inspired furniture aimed at players who want their island life to look fully styled from hour 1.

On the content side, the Early Access build is built around a dynamic seasonal system where each season changes the island’s scenery, atmosphere, and available activities, with the goal of making progression feel like it is anchored to time and place instead of being a flat checklist. Professions have been expanded beyond beginner progression into deeper expert tiers, and the feature list reads like a studio trying to win through volume, variety, and long tail goals rather than a minimal cozy loop.

Farming supports nearly 100 crop varieties and includes a hybridization system to breed unique flowers, plus late game greenhouses that enable year round cultivation of rare plants regardless of season. Crafting adds special machines and advanced tools designed to unlock automation for mining, logging, and farming, which is a strategic move for players who like optimization and building systems more than constant manual chores. Ranching is expanding with over 10 new species such as cows and alpacas, more than 40 subspecies and color variants, and over 10 professional tools and facilities aimed at more grounded livestock management.

Fishing leans into collection and rarity via a Fish Trap system and over 100 aquatic creatures, including rare King Fish such as Arapaima, Long barbelled Dragonfish, and King Glowfish. Exploration and combat add more depth through newly added bows and multiple arrow types with elemental effects, which should give the game a stronger moment to moment loop for players who want adventure between farming sessions.

Social systems are also scaling up fast for Early Access. Seed Sparkle Lab says the roster of interactable NPCs has grown to 15 characters, including 4 new companions for relationship building. NPCs are voice acted, and maxing affection unlocks fully voiced exclusive storylines, which is a meaningful differentiator if the writing cadence holds up through updates.

Housing looks designed for creators and decorators. The Early Access version includes 9 homestead subplots across 3 environments, Blue Beach, Cloudrest Lake, and Windflute Island, plus more than 300 furniture pieces and hundreds of decorative items to support detailed customization. Mobility is being treated like a feature pillar too, with more than 40 rideable mounts and vehicles, including more than 10 craftable options for land, water, and air.

Character customization is positioned as one of the game’s core hooks, with modular outfits that let players mix and match hats, hairstyles, and accessories, plus an infinite color wheel for hair, eyes, and skin tones. Cooking rounds out the lifestyle systems with over 50 recipes that provide gameplay buffs, and the world itself expands further with the Moonlit Forest expansion, introducing 12 new camps and 3 epic bosses.

Seed Sparkle Lab expects Starsand Island to reach version 1.0 in Summer 2026, and the studio says that is when the game will also debut on macOS and PlayStation 5. For players who love the genre, this is a classic Early Access value proposition: jump in early for systems depth and customization freedom, then track how fast the studio can iterate on stability, pacing, and content quality as the roadmap accelerates.

 
Are you picking this up on February 11, 2026 for the cozy farming loop, or for the bigger systems like hybrid crops, automation, boss fights, and fully voiced companion storylines?