‘Please let us focus on making our game in peace’: Starsand Island studio confused by alleged ‘praise-bombing’ attack

The studio behind the recently released Starsand Island has taken the unusual step of calling out people ‘praise-bombing’ its game.

The anime-inspired cosy life sim was released in Steam Early Access and on Xbox Preview on February 11, and is also available on Xbox Game Pass.

However, Chinese developer Seed Sparkle Lab has posted an update on the game’s Steam page questioning the positive response it’s been getting.

“We have recently noticed a large number of overly positive ‘praise’ comments about our game appearing across various social platforms,” the studio wrote.

“At first, we believed this meant our game was being recognized and appreciated. However, we soon noticed something unusual on Steam: some comments were posted after very short playtime, were released at nearly the same time (appeared to be AI-generated).

“This made us realize that something might not be right. Is this some kind of overpraise as an attack? We have no concrete evidence, but it does feel as though someone may be doing this intentionally.

“What makes it even more puzzling is that this approach is not cheap, since leaving a review requires purchasing the game (we later discovered that some of these accounts refunded the game after posting their reviews).”

The studio’s message to the potential praise prankers is a simple one – stop doing it, and let them concentrate on making the game instead of trying to figure out what’s going on.

“We would like to say this clearly: making a indie game is not easy,” the studio said. “We simply want to focus on building a good product and giving the players who truly like our game a better experience.

“So, to whoever may be behind this, please stop. Please let us focus on making our game in peace. We pose no threat to anyone.”

Starsand Island’s Early Access period is being used to finalise the game’s content and “finesse the end-game experience for players”, before its full release this summer on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2 and PC.

While the Early Access version of Starsand Island is single-player only, when the full game is released this summer it will be accompanied by a new multiplayer mode.