[SA Game Jam 2017] Blird Watching

Hey everybody!

As the title suggests, we (Team It's-a-Feature: @creative630, @bestnickname, @steamhat, Richard Ramsbottom, and myself) have made a thing for the SA Game Jam 2017! We're submitting for the professional category, in 48 hours. With those formalities out of the way, let me introduce Blird Watching.

Blird Watching is a game about collecting blird photos for your Instablirdity album. Enjoy.
Controls:
W, A, S, D keys to walk around
Move mouse to look around
Hold right click to aim your camera
Left click (or press the T key) to take a photo (while aiming your camera)
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 keys to change filters (while aiming your camera)
Tab key to open or close your photo album (Instablirdity)
Use your mouse to navigate Instablirdity

Here's a link to itch.io where our build is (busy being) uploaded: creative630.itch.io/blirdwatching

Comments

  • WARNING: put down the sound, the sound got a little... uhm... overworked.

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    some artistic screenshots fresh from the build :D

  • This was brilliantly absurd when we played it at the Cape Town jam venue! I hope this gets worked on a bit further!

    The instagram filters are really inspired! Have you considered putting on that puppy-face filter?
  • Thanks @EvanGreenwood! The puppy-face filter is a great idea, we will definitely look into this.

    We will most likely submit a post-jam update later today with sound fixes etc.
  • Saw this game at the jam. Absolutely hilarious!

    Really dig the environment you guys created, and the kind of polish that has gone into such a ridiculous premise has to be commended. Strong points are definitely the hilarity and the colourful graphics, and I personally think the sound effects added a lot to the humour (...although a touch of volume mixing and a lil more variety could help - continued exposure was a bit grating).

    Other than that... I'm not sure if adding any kind of goals besides taking absurd pictures of dead / dying birds might detract from the experience... Maybe unlockable lenses (more zoom, wide angle etc.) and filters as you progress could be cool.
    Thanked by 2Steamhat creative630
  • edited
    Just uploaded an updated build. It has minor fixes for sound and controls.
    You can now left click to take a picture (or press T) in picture mode. You can press escape to exit the game.

    [Edit:] Seems like when you upload the same folder name on itch it replaces the old build. I will create a for-realsies post-jam build for further edits.
    Thanked by 1Steamhat
  • I really had a good laugh at the blirds falling out the sky, especially the penguins. The little visual cues and sounds were a nice touch.

    I did have an issue with the photo detecting if I had captured a blird. When taking a photo it seem as though anything in the camera frame, even if blocked by terrain, would be captured. I had my spotted number jump by about 10 when taking a photo at the edge facing inward.

    The environment is really cool, maybe a bit larger with more variety would have helped with immersion.

    Well done to the team on a great jam game!
    Thanked by 1creative630
  • @Thelangfordian Thanks for the feedback!

    Yes that is a bug, we need to limit the capture distance and the *ahem* birds that are falling infinitely below you. Also we possibly need a raycast to see if you can actually see them.

    We would definitely have liked a bit more time to work on the environment, but the last minute level design is what we managed to finish on Sunday :P
    Thanked by 1Thelangfordian
  • This was an interesting, chilled experience, chuckled a bit at all the derpy blirds popping out of everywhere and just flopping all over the place. the only issues I felt the game had were the mouse sensitivity was a little too twitchy and because of that I found it difficult to move the camera exactly where I wanted it, and I also had the problem where I could randomly take pictures and the camera would pick up a bunch of blirds I couldn't actually see.

    Other than that though the game was cool, sound effects were awesome, art matched the style of game nicely, the only thing I'd really like to see added to this going further would probably be more types of locations and blirds but I enjoyed this :D
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