To the Sky: Stario: Haven Tower’s New Demo Lets You Build Your Own Babel

The city-building genre is no stranger to verticality, but most titles limit players to a few towering skyscrapers. A new indie game, Stario: Haven Tower, is taking this concept to its logical and spectacular conclusion by having players raise an entire civilization on a single, massive, ever-growing tower. Revealed during the PC Gaming Show 2025, a new demo for the game has been released on Steam, giving players their first taste of a beautiful, vertical city builder that is as much about survival as it is about creation. The game’s premise is a simple but powerful one: in a world ravaged by a sandstorm apocalypse, humanity’s only hope is to climb toward the clouds and build a new society, one floor at a time.

A Vertical Ecosystem

The core gameplay loop of Stario: Haven Tower is a compelling blend of resource management, urban planning, and strategic survival. Each floor of your tower is a self-sustaining ecosystem that you must meticulously plan and stack. The challenge lies in establishing a vertical supply chain, which is a new and exciting twist on the classic city-builder formula. You must create pipelines for fluids, routes for hot-air balloons, and passages for manpower to ensure that supplies from the lower levels reach the upper ones. A failure to do so can have dire consequences, from construction stalling on a high floor to panic and unrest on a lower one. This intricate, layered system makes every decision a matter of life and death for your “Towertizens.”

The game is being developed by Stargate Games, an indie studio that has been working on the title for some time. The new demo, which promises over two hours of gameplay, gives players a chance to build a “fundamental but sustainable” tower and explore a few different “sceneries” as they ascend. The visuals are a major part of the game’s charm, with a unique art style that makes the world feel both alien and strangely beautiful. The game is filled with floating islands, unique creatures, and different biomes that you will encounter as you climb higher into the sky. The developers have also promised a number of new features for the full release, including:

• Miracle Towers: Monumental wonders that grant powerful, game-changing benefits.
• Wishboards: A system where you can fulfill your citizens’ personal wishes for special rewards and a morale boost.
• Ritual Platforms: Unique rituals that can be performed to change gameplay mechanics, such as lightening gravity or increasing production.

The Promise of a Towering Future

The release of the demo and the positive buzz surrounding the PC Gaming Show announcement is a major win for the developers. The game has already received “Very Positive” reviews on Steam, with players praising its unique concept and engaging gameplay. The early access release is slated for September 25, 2025, which gives interested players just enough time to try the demo and decide if this towering experience is for them. The developers have stated that they plan to be in early access for 6-12 months, using the time to gather feedback from the community and add new features, including a more open sandbox mode and more decorative buildings. This long-term commitment is a good sign for a game with so much creative potential.

Conclusion: The Sky’s the Limit

In a genre that can sometimes feel stagnant, Stario: Haven Tower is a breath of fresh air. By taking the familiar city-building formula and giving it a massive, vertical twist, the game is poised to be a new and exciting hit. The new demo is a perfect opportunity to see if you have what it takes to guide a civilization through the sky and build a new, cloud-piercing home. The world below may be lost to the sandstorms, but the future of humanity is waiting to be built, one level at a time. Get ready to start climbing, and remember: the sky’s the limit.