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The Signal: Stranded on Sirenis is the debut single-player survival crafting game from Goose Byte, a small indie studio out of Montreal founded in 2021, led by ex-Ubisoft producer Theodor Diea and published by Spiral Up Games. Game development began in 2022, but the studio ran into funding challenges in 2023 - since then, they have been steadily moving forward, sharing early builds, gathering player feedback, and refining the game’s systems.
Goose Byte also revealed that the game’s Kickstarter campaign launches today, September 30th, giving early supporters a chance to back the project and follow its ongoing development.
First impressions
At the start, you can choose between three game modes - Explorer, Survival, and Hardcore. I spent time on both Explorer and Survival, though I didn’t notice any substantial differences during my session.
The setup is straightforward: after crash-landing on an alien planet, your goal is to locate your brother and uncover why you’ve ended up stranded in the first place, a premise that is simple but leaves room for a sense of discovery. What stands out is the way the planet itself communicates with the player, voiced by Patricia Summersett (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild), adding some flavour and a hint of mystery to what is otherwise the familiar survival loop of looting, researching, crafting, building, and gradually working your way through the world.
The art direction here is interesting for a couple of things. Goose Byte cite Studio Ghibli as an influence, and you can see traces of it in the textures and colour palette. A beautiful choice, but one that creates a subtle clash for players like me who favour the more grounded, naturalistic visuals of survival titles - think Stranded Deep or The Forest/Sons of the Forest. Interestingly, this can occasionally work against the experience itself, as enemies can sometimes be hard to spot, which becomes a little wearing over time.
Exploration, at this stage, is fairly contained. My time involved collecting materials to gather research points, fending off robotic enemies and wildlife, and just running around and navigating the terrain, which sometimes can feel a bit clunky. Some systems also feel a little fiddly at present: rotating buildings swaps hotbar items, items occasionally disappear, or hotbar assignment and looting is drag and drop only. These issues aren’t necessarily deal-breakers in this early version, but they do introduce small frustrations.
Despite the things yet to be polished, the studio appears receptive to feedback - I even dropped a few of my own notes to their official Discord channel - and plans for quality-of-life improvements, UI tweaks, and additional content, including new maps, enemies, and weapons, are already underway.
Final thoughts
Just as I am writing this, I'm listening to the game trailer on YouTube in another tab, and I figured The Signal: Stranded on Sirenis actually sounds better than it actually is to play.
At this stage, The Signal: Stranded on Sirenis shows potential but remains a work in progress. The first couple of hours outline the core gameplay and hint at narrative possibilities, but it hasn’t quite captured my attention. That said, the game may well find its audience as development continues and the team smooths out the current issues.
