Birding in Pope Lick Park
Eric Lathrop
I cannot explain how excited I was to see a birding game in this year’s lineup—I’m a keen birder and have actually been thinking a lot recently about what it would look like in IF, so I was really keen to discover how the author had implemented this.
Firstly, I LOVED that there are integrated links to birding tools. I’m often a fan of games where there’s some crossover into the real world, and I think this is a great way to encourage players not only to engage with the game, but to try out birding in real life. I appreciated the accessible approach to identification too—for example, telling the difference between a Downy Woodpecker and a Hairy Woodpecker. I also cracked up at the ‘weird duck time’ comic (this is also true of birding in the UK).
The writing is simple but effective, with some lovely sensory details and descriptive moments. I would have happily lingered on some of the images for longer.
Visually, I found it a little busy—the uncollapsing text and photos often left me having to scroll to find my place, and the image loading times were a little slow and broke the immersion slightly. Great to have alt text/captions for all the images though.
Overall, I thought it did a really lovely job of simulating the experience of birding—the gentle, meandering pace, the surprise and delight of discovering and recording a new bird. Lovely touch to have the full list of everything you saw available at the end. Also, as a birder from outside the US, it was exciting to discover the sort of birds someone in a different part of the world might see in a typical day! Thank you for making this.