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Become best friends.

RELEASE

iOS: 9th July 2020

Android: 30th September 2020

PLATFORMS

iOS | Android

DEVELOPER

George Batchelor

DEVELOPER WEBSITE

www.georgebatchelor.com

LANGUAGES

English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Korean, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian

CONTACT

mail@georgebatchelor.com

PRIVACY POLICY

georgebatchelor.com/birdaloneprivacypolicy

A NOTE FROM GEORGE

After Far from Noise came out it took me a while to think of what to make next. I still had a full-time job throughout making Bird Alone. I'd taken an Armistead Maupin book out from the library - Tales from the City, which featured a parrot on the cover. I doodled the parrot in my notebook while looking at the book cover and thought nothing of it. Seeing it later I sketched some leaves around it and the idea for a virtual pet sort of game emerged. The idea being that it would grow older over time, growing through all the different stages of life, including death. I'd just lost a close family member and mortality was on my mind.

I wanted to think about death and growing older, to explore it, to write about it.

Bird Alone took shape slowly over two years where I found time. I didn't feel confident in creating the art style this time, despite having done it in Far from Noise. I wanted something different for Bird Alone. I approached A Liang Chan online, I was a fan of their work and fortunately, they were available and interested enough to create concept art for the bird and all of the scenes. I loved these artworks so much, I recreated them in 3D as closely as possible for all the scenes in the game.

Like Far from Noise, a lot of what I was reading seeped into the text of the game. I wanted the bird to grow up over time and gather new perspectives on life. In the beginning they're full of innocence and curiosity. Towards the end, they become more reflective, drawing from writers like Milan Kundera and Sartre.

It took a lot of testing to land on the right number of days for the game to last. It's difficult to test a game when it takes weeks to get a sense of the experience. I gave it to all my friends and averaged out all of their suggestions into what appears now.

DESCRIPTION

◆ Become best friends with the loneliest bird in the world ◆

Talk about life, make music, draw pictures and write poetry.

Watch your friendship flourish as you grow old together.

Start each day answering your new friend's questions about life, death and the meaning of existence.

Guide the bird through daily life as it confronts the same worries as the rest of us.

◆ What's your favourite colour?

◆ Where are all my friends?

◆ Do you ever think about death?

What will your best friend ask you today?

◆ Draw a picture for the Art Gallery

◆ Write a poem together for the Book of Poetry

◆ Unlock today's plant for the Musical Garden

◆ Rub its belly

Watch each day turn to night

Ponder the changing seasons

Face the heaviness of growing old with a best friend.

Maybe this bird won't be so lonely after all.

FEATURES
Significance of time - The bird grows older in real time, growing through various stages of life, taking on things it learns from the player and making its own decisions about life, death and everything in between. Daily notifications when the bird has something new to share or to ask.

The Art Gallery - The bird will sometimes ask questions that can only be answered with a drawing, each one framed in the Art Gallery

The Book of Poetry - Finish the bird's incomplete poems to create a book of poetry together.

The Musical Garden - Unlock a new seed by playing music with the bird every day and plant it in the garden. Watch the garden grow over the days as each plant blossoms into an evolving musical instrument.

The Waterfall - A theremin-inspired musical waterfall which can be toyed with together with a pond and lilypads teeming with sound and music while the bird sings along.

Changing seasons - Seasons change throughout the game which bring entirely new aesthetics to the world, elements grow and decay, the bird's outlook on life changes.

Musical World - Everything is interactive and alive with music. Every leaf makes a sound, and each change in season alters the soundscape of the game completely.

Real World Connection - Day/night time, weather and moon phase that match the real world wherever you are.

Fruit - Feed the bird a different fruit every day of the week.

ACCESSIBILITY

Text - Options for slower text speed and high-contrast backgrounds
Interactions - All interactions can be completed with simple gestures. Drawing and playing music would be difficult for those with mobility difficulties, but those parts of the experience are optional and do not impede progression through Bird Alone.

CONTENT WARNING

Bird Alone contains themes and discussion of death. User discretion is advised for those sensitive to this topic.

INFLUENCES

Literary & Thematic - The writing of philosophers and psychotherapists who have explored the various ways people find meaning in the lives.