The Bird of the North - a Obra dinn like game

[UlricL]

Hey dear Godot community ! : )

I’m so happy to share my first commercial game done on Godot : The Bird of the North.
First inspired by obra dinn, i cooked my own gameplay and visuals and a mysterious story.

PLAY THE DEMO on steam

There is a demo for the steam Next fest

If you like it, wishlist the game, it can help a lot !

[phoenixdk]

I played through demo, very nice environment and overall style! The Inscryption-like hub sets the stage nicely, with basically the same controls as the main game.

I didn’t really pick up on the story, but I assume it will be told as the game goes on. I didn’t read the news papers at the beginning, trying to play like the average player

How far along is the development, and what are your plans for the game?

Some notes:

• I found the puzzle to be somewhat trial-by-error, which is hard to avoid when the game needs to be inobvious enough to be challenging, but obvious enough that the player can reason themselves to the correct solution.
  If later levels have even more complexity, I think you may want to implement some supporting system(s) down the road - maybe clickable hints are hidden throughout the level, or pairs in conversation get locked in when given correct lines, or any number of other ways to prevent frustration and blind guessing. This game feels thematically like it’s mainly about story, and the challenge is secondary.
• Dialog select would probably give a better overview with a single scrolling list, rather than separate pages of lists. If there is some reason why they’re separated, scrollwheel would be a good way to flip through pages.
• There is no audio level control for in-game ambience (like shouting).

[UlricL]

Thanks for playing the demo ! that’s great to see that people give it a try !

For the story i understand well, i’m the same kind of player. Sadly i have no budjet to add voice presentation of even an animated trailer. But yes my hope is that you discover the story and uncover it during the game and you connect all the missing links, so that’s not a problem. Also the paper news are getting back later when the chronological investigation start since there is clues inside.

How far along is the development, and what are your plans for the game?
The whole game is almost done, i’m fixing stuff there, typos etc and regroup feedbacks, the game will be released in September, i’m not rushing. I’m also starting prototype to get fresh ideas on a new game.

Thanks for your notes as well: for the sentence gameplay it was previously a scrolling menu, but believe me when the game have 24 sentences for 4 scenes to solved, the column system is better. That’s a feedback i got from playtest. And there is a help as well when you attribute a sentene in another scene, saying this sentence is already attributed. Also there is a star on the card to indicate and help player to solved the easiest visions first. But i agree, i could find others way to help players, but i’m off working now on this gameplay, i tried my best there and i want to move forward on a next game. From all the playtest i got ( 10-15 people ) the game can be done without great difficulties, depending the peoples of course.

Thanks again for your help and notes !!

[phoenixdk]

As long as your testers feel the game is intuitive enough (for a new player), everything is hopefully fine

[arassec]

Hi there,
i played through the demo as well. Good job! I had fun and liked the art style. And i well-behaved and read the newspapers as well.

Two suggestions regarding controls:

• Jumping from “bird to bird” with controller buttons like L2 and R2 would have been nice. Targeting the birds manually on a small screen (Steam Deck) was kind of fiddly imho.
• Only the right thumb stick worked (again on Steam Deck) which felt quite unnatural, at least for me as right-handed person. The left one should work the same way, i think.

Good luck with the launch!

[UlricL]

Thanks you ! @arassec

I’m glad you tried on steam deck!

Noted ! Will add trigger controllers for sure, and It’s good to know that you struggle to target birds, i’m wondering how to fixe this… maybe with an help automatic aim when using controllers. I’m curious how i can add that on godot.