(Tower of) Bird
BUILD BIG TOWER FOR EGG
Need help? FAQ at bottom of page
It is roosting season on a small remote island, populated only by oddly shaped birds. Build a towering edifice to safely house as many eggs as possible, using birds and their occasional gifts of poop, truly the glue that binds bird society together.
Supports standard gamepads and keyboard controls.
Frequently asked questions (by myself):
- What are the controls?
Use the left stick on your control pad and the A button (X on playstation gamepads)
or use WASD/Arrow keys and SPACEBAR on keyboard - How do I squeeze birds into small gaps?
You can use the DROP button (Space on keyboard, A on controller) to smoosh birdies into spaces they might not otherwise fit - What is POOP dOOd?
Sometimes birds just gotta go. Aim the POOP target at a group of birds and press DROP to stick them together with stringy poopies - Can i POOP EGG?
poopies dont stick to egg - How do i rotate bird?
no
Post jam changelog:
- fixed missing 'press drop to start' text on title screen (accidentally made it invisible before publishing)
Comments (15)
This is so incredibly polished. All those little details: the voices when the poor birds drown, the "egg egg egg" chanting, the music changing pitch and speed, the dizzying wobble on the game over screen, the bird faces that look almost, but not quite, entirely unlike that other game… excellent job all around.
Gameplay-wise, it's fun the first time, and the second time, but it quickly gets a bit same-ish. A lot depends on what birds you get and in which order; a "stash" button a la modern Tetris implementations might help give the player some more control there. Having some less awkward shapes would help too. Fortunately the physics are pretty forgiving, with high friction and low bounce. Maybe a sufficiently skilled player could use moving blocks to nudge things into the right place, but all I managed to do is knock parts of my tower into the water. But even when things go wrong, they do so in hilarious ways :D
SO let's get it out of the way ===> unless the gameplay already exists and I just have never heard of it, this must be turned into a mobile game. It has all the elements needed to be a success: a simple mechanic that is hard to master, gameplay that trigger strong emotions of rage, laughter and (occasionally) pride, and dumb birds. But what neither Angry Birds nor Flappy Bird discovered though is that you can give some additionnal depth by using POOP. And that is what makes this like the next level of mobile gaming.
Anyway what strikes the most for me is the audio aspect of the game, which is I think super fun and satisfying, in particular that genius idea of hyping up the egg approach with voices. The art is good and fitting too, with the most striking thing being the contrast between those birds full of angles and sudden smooth-shaped eggs.
I'm still very bad at the game and I think I still haven't figured out all the hidden rules, but it seems like there's bits of polish that could help gameplay-wise:
- The "shoe-shaped bird" existing in one direction only, making towers feel a bit unbalanced.
- Not sure yet what triggers poop time, but it seems to be a very important aspect of the game as they're the main tool to build solid structures. Clarifying how they are triggered could help
- The scoring system is a bit tricky, with a score of 3 being (I think?) guaranteed, and anything over that being skill eg. stacking a 4th egg before losing the 3rd(?). I would have preferred the game being even harsher and triggering a game over as soon as an egg is lost, with in exchange some ways to make the game last longer if you're good (I never thought I'd ever ask for that but… more poop maybe?)
IMO this is perhaps the best balancing game of late 2019.
I agree with @Wan that it would be a very effective mobile game; I've never pooped on my phone before. Maybe it would benefit from some variation in the challenges (even just some different platforms to build on), and also there seems to be a bug where I can't poop high enough, which could do with fixing. Could always add some goofy stuff like exploding eggs, or perhaps having to make the tower pig-proof.
Good choice of bird shapes. I actually quite like that some birds are asymmetric: it adds to the challenge. I think it becomes challenging quite quickly, but it's possible to master the poop and keep expanding.
It's impressively polished, too. Great SFX and simple but effective graphics. I'd be interested to see the physics configuration too: they're perfectly tuned, which I've always found quite difficult. Very nice work!
I guess you really wanted the bird theme as well?
Fun gam over all!