Cozy birdwatching game announcement? As you may have noticed, progress on Jasper Vice II has essentially stopped. As I explained in previous blog-posts, I was feeling burnt-out, and with life catching up with the other team members, it was turning into a one man project. The whole premise that we wanted to explore thematically with JV2 was teamwork, and the importance of every role on a team. It like to develop games experientally, and it didn’t feel right to continue that project on my own. I would love to see the full series come to fruition someday, but for now I’ve let it lie.
Not to say other things haven’t been getting worked on though! There was a large update to Jasper Vice, if you haven’t seen it yet, with lots of fun timed races and such. I helped a number of friends out on their projects, and led a few community game initiatives. As you may have noticed from this post’s title, Soltorch has a new game in the works though too. Let me start at the beginning.
Something new
A thing you all should know about me, is that I’m a Christian. I’m not going to beat you over the head with it, but it does inform how I see the world, and my creative process. What we believe in our hearts can’t help but be expressed in what we make, if we make from our hearts. This new game is no exception.
I was wrestling for awhile with what felt like a creative dry spell. Nothing seemed to be working, and motivation to push forward creative endeavors was pretty low. So I asked God about it. That may sound crazy to many of you, but I just said “God, I don’t feel like I have any good ideas right now, but you’re the Creator of everything. Please give me a game idea to work on.” And immediately I felt the words “Look to the Birds”, connected with something Jesus said in the Bible.
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” – Matthew 6:26
So I had an inspiration, but it wasn’t a game yet. Thinking it through, there were a few ways to implement that concept:
– A game about a bird finding food. But then the message of “the birds don’t worry about that stuff” is either lost, or the game has no challenge.
– A game where you feed the birds. But then the message is true or false depending on your performance as a player. Not ideal.
– A game where you watch the birds feed. But birdwatching is boring, right? …right?
Birding
The idea of just sitting still and looking at birds doesn’t sound thrilling, but if you give it a chance, beware, you might not want to stop! Once you start noticing birds, you see them everywhere, and begin to identify them. As you’re driving down the road a bird flits across in front of you and you go “Oh, that was a red-winged blackbird!”, or you hear a sound out the window and recognize a wood thrush.
It seems like there’s been a rise in birdwatching interest in the past few years, so in some ways I’m behind the curve, but there’s not many good games about it!
The Game
This particular cozy birdwatching game will be set in New England/The Maritimes of Canada, 40-50 years ago. The player is a young birder on a road-trip with their parents, to see a rare and elusive bird being released back into the wild. Along the drive, they stop at a number of different locations (each representing a geographical region). At each stop the player will have the opportunity to observe unique birds, from Black Guillemots along the coast, to Pine Grosbeaks in the highlands. Observation and taking pictures will unlock content in the child’s bird book journal.
There will be some light narrative elements in the background, but I may leave those up for players to discover.
Anyways, that’s a quick overview of the current project in development. One of the 5 biomes is basically complete, and there’s just some balancing to do.
I’ve been streaming development on Twitch and Youtube a few times a week. If you want to chat, drop by, or join the Discord server!
It feels like this game is as much a lesson for me to learn as it is content for me to create. As I said about JV2, it’s important for me to make content out of what I’m living. I need to learn to slow down, focus on what’s important, and not worry about the small things. – SDG