Project Songbird

About Project Songbird

Project Songbird was made by Conner Rush, a solo developer working as FYRE Games, the maker of Summerland and We Never Left from Dread X Collection 5. It came out on 26 March 2026 on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. It holds a Metacritic score of 76 on PC and an OpenCritic average of 78, and its Steam page notes it is still in active development.

You play Dakota, a career musician whose new music does not land with the fans. With a manager pushing for a new record, Dakota goes alone to a cabin in the remote Appalachian forest to find inspiration. Then strange lights start to appear in the woods and lead to doors that open onto places far from the cabin. The look is cinematic: a warm-lit log cabin, birch woods in fog, a glowing door set in a rock, a white chapel, red corridors hung with warped pictures.

Around the cabin you explore a small area and solve puzzles, such as setting a water filter's valves in the order given by nearby notes. Through the doors the puzzles get harder and creatures stand in the way. Stealth works in places, but the rooms are tight, so you also fight with an axe, a revolver and a rifle. Ammo is scarce, and the axe breaks and must be repaired with scrap. There are two enemy types, and one only comes for you when your back is turned. A recorder for collecting sounds and a camera with 20 shots are optional extras. GameSpew called it Firewatch mixed with Silent Hill.

The voice cast includes Valerie Rose Lohman, Jonah Scott and Aleks Le, and the music is by Jacob Noska and Jonah Henthorne of Auric Echoes. Its maker calls it by far the most personal game he has made, and the store page warns of references to and depictions of suicide and animal death.

It suits players who like short, story-led horror in the woods with some puzzles and careful fighting.

How to play Project Songbird

1. Buy it on Steam for Windows, on the PlayStation Store for PS5, or on the Xbox store for Series X|S.
2. Explore the cabin and the forest around it in first person, and follow the strange lights to the doors.
3. Solve puzzles using the notes you find, such as the valve order for the cabin's water filter.
4. Sneak where you can, and fight with the axe, revolver or rifle when you cannot.
5. Follow Dakota's story through to its end, about 4 to 5 hours.

Tips

• Write down clues from notes as you find them; the game has no place to reread them later, and some puzzles need them.
• Save ammo for when you cannot sneak past, since there is little of it.
• Pick up scrap: the axe breaks and scrap is what repairs it.
• Face the enemy that only moves when your back is turned.
• The sound recorder and the 20-shot camera are optional, so do not worry about using them up.

Questions