This was a pretty game.
It’s a game where you walk around a real park looking out for birds. There are photographs and external links to the apps the author use in their trips. It’s like if The Fire Tower was more open-ended and let you just go around and experience things.
It’s clearly a love letter to birding, and I really appreciate how the writing captures the enthusiasm of the writer. The feel of noting the birds down on the journal with a button is so rewarding too. It felt like I was on a real nature adventure.
While I enjoyed the photographs, I do wonder if this activated the interactive fiction brain in me. The novelty of The Fire Tower for me is that I had to imagine the park as I trekked along; the cognitive load in this game is greatly reduced with the help of the photographs. I suppose this wouldn’t be an issue if I found this game on Itch without any context, but I like to use my gray matter and visualize the world with text games in IF spaces.
What do people think? It’s a lovely game and I hope more people play it.