Beyond These Stars Builds a City on the Back of a Space Whale
GAME MODE Staff·Oct 17, 2026· 2m read
The new PC city-builder launches in Game Pass with ecosystem management, planetary outposts, and a sentient world named Kewa.
Beyond These Stars launches October 16 for PC and is included with PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate. The strategy game from Balancing Monkey Games and Hooded Horse puts an entire settlement on Kewa, a sentient Space Whale traveling through the galaxy.
The city and its world depend on each other
Players guide the Peeps as they build homes, workplaces, production chains, and logistics networks across Kewa’s back. The terrain can be reshaped with canals and topsoil, while planted forests provide materials, spread the atmosphere, and open more room for expansion.
That growth has limits. Mining, advanced goods, and an expanding population can damage Kewa’s fragile ecosystem, forcing the city to balance production against the health of its living home. A stronger relationship with Kewa also makes the journey more predictable.
Every star system creates a new decision
Players can establish outposts on nearby planets to gather resources without overworking Kewa. Those operations are temporary, however, because the whale may decide when it is time to leave a system. Alien species add trade, objectives, rewards, and new technologies along the route.
The larger mystery connects the Peeps’ ancestors with the history of the Space Whales. That gives the city-building loop a destination beyond survival: each move across the galaxy can reveal another part of their shared past.
