Birds With Feelings is a turn-based strategy game where you place birds, who all have different feelings and preferences, into a field, slowly shaping them depending on their moves.
There are lots of birds in this world who don’t understand their emotions, but not your team of emotionally-aware feathered folks. They’re ready to grow and help others grow with them. This squad of bird diplomats are looking to stop a bird-war through speaking to other birds, doing so by helping them understand emotions and feelings of others.
Feelings, if you haven’t guessed yet, have a lot to do with the combat and gameplay of Birds With Feelings. In the game, the outside of the arena contains various birds looking to make it through the space, taking on whatever bird is in their line of site. Each of these outsiders need to have a bird to interact with, however, not all interactions are beneficial.
Your birds each have different emotions guiding them, which interact differently with others. Some birds need to be placed near others in the squad to feel confident – and sometimes that’s just not possible. When birds aren’t confident and are unable to convince the other birds to become their friends, their confidence drops. Their feelings also change from being alone for too long. Allowing your bird squad to participate, leaving them out, them winning over a friend, or them losing all change how they feel at the end of the level.
You’ll see how their emotions are doing in a booklet, where a graph of their feelings is displayed. You may want them to have specific feelings, so referencing this booklet is a big part of the strategy of the game.
I got the chance to check out Birds With Feelings at the Big Indie Pitch at GDC and thought it was a really clever concept. I love the idea of emotions guiding birds, and it adds a very complex twist to strategy games.
Birds With Feelings is slated to release in 2019, but in the meantime, you can check out their website and follow their Twitter for updates.
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