
Factsheet
Developer:
George Batchelor - Creator
Eli Rainsberry - Sound
Allissa Chan - Concept art
Daisy Fernandez - Poetry
Release date:
iOS: July 9 2020
Android: September 30 2020
Platforms:
iOS
Android
Languages:
English, French, Italian,
German, Spanish, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Korean, Japanese
Developer Website:
Game Website:
Press / Business Contact:
Social:
Description
◆ Become best friends with the loneliest bird in the world ◆
Talk about life, make music, draw pictures and write poetry.
Watch your friendship flourish as you grow old together.
Start each day answering your new friend's questions about life, death and the meaning of existence.
Guide the bird through daily life as it confronts the same worries as the rest of us.
◆ What's your favourite colour?
◆ Where are all my friends?
◆ Do you ever think about death?
What will your best friend ask you today?
◆ Draw a picture for the Art Gallery
◆ Write a poem together for the Book of Poetry
◆ Unlock today's plant for the Musical Garden
◆ Rub its belly
Watch each day turn to night
Ponder the changing seasons
Face the heaviness of growing old with a best friend.
Maybe this bird won't be so lonely after all.
Privacy Policy:
Content Warning
Bird Alone contains themes and discussion of death. User discretion is advised for those sensitive to this topic.
Features
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Significance of time - The bird grows older in real time, growing through various stages of life, taking on things it learns from the player and making its own decisions about life, death and everything in between. Daily notifications when the bird has something new to share or to ask.
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The Art Gallery - The bird will sometimes ask questions that can only be answered with a drawing, each one framed in the Art Gallery
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The Book of Poetry - Finish the bird's incomplete poems to create a book of poetry together.
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The Musical Garden - Unlock a new seed by playing music with the bird every day and plant it in the garden. Watch the garden grow over the days as each plant blossoms into an evolving musical instrument.
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The Waterfall - A theremin-inspired musical waterfall which can be toyed with together with a pond and lilypads teeming with sound and music while the bird sings along.
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Changing seasons - Seasons change throughout the game which bring entirely new aesthetics to the world, elements grow and decay, the bird's outlook on life changes.
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Musical World - Everything is interactive and alive with music. Every leaf makes a sound, and each change in season alters the soundscape of the game completely.
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Real World Connection - Day/night time, weather and moon phase that match the real world wherever you are.
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Oranges - Feed the bird oranges.
Accessibility
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Text - Options for slower text speed and high-contrast backgrounds
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Interactions - All interactions can be completed with simple gestures. Drawing and playing music would be difficult for those with mobility difficulties, but those parts of the experience are optional and do not impede progression through Bird Alone.
Influences
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Literary & Thematic - The writing of philosophers and psychotherapists who have explored the various ways people find meaning in the lives.
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Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being
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Jean-Paul Sartre - Nausea
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Irvin D. Yalom - Love's Executioner & Staring at the Sun
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Viktor E. Frankl - Man's Search for Meaning
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No one belongs here more than you - Miranda July
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Albert Camus - The Myth of Sisyphus
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Others
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The playful/unsettling worlds of Henri Rousseau
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The experimental soundscapes of Ryuichi Sakamoto
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Developer
George Batchelor is a video game creator from Manchester, UK currently based in Montréal, Canada. Bird Alone was developed between London, Berlin and Montréal. He works at State of Play as a developer where he has released INKS. (2016) and KAMI 2 (2017). Bird Alone will be his third independent release following Hot Date (2015) and Far from Noise (2017). His work has been exhibited at SXSW, Fantastic Arcade, A MAZE, EGX Leftfield, Bit Bash, CIFF and others.
Images









Original Soundtrack
Created by Eli Rainsberry - https://elirainsberry.bandcamp.com/album/bird-alone-ost
Cover Art by Allissa Chan

Awards & Recognition
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Apple Design Award 2021 Winner - Interaction
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Apple Design Award 2021 Finalist - Innovation
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Google Indie Game Festival Award Winner - 2021
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App Store Editor's Choice - Apple 2020, USA
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Mobile Game of the Year Nominee - Pocket Gamer Awards 2021
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Mobile Game of the Year Nominee - Golden Joystick Awards 2020
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Day of the Devs Official Selection - San Francisco 2018
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A MAZE Awards Nominee - Berlin, 2019
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EGX Rezzed Leftfield Official Selection - London 2019
Selected Articles
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"A lesson in fragility, transience and loss" - Emma Beddington, The Guardian
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"an ally on our journey toward accepting and embracing impermanence" - Jordan Quaglia, Tricycle
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"Bird Alone Is Trying to Help Us Feel A Little Less Alone In Quarantine" - Caty McCarthy, USGamer
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"it's just what I need in my life right now" - Heather Wald, Games Radar
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"Learn the meaning of true friendship in Bird Alone" - Brent Dirks, App Advice
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" I think it won’t be long before I come to love this bird." - Natalie Flores, fanbyte
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"Bird Alone: An Interview with Developer George Batchelor" - Jessie Paige, Keen Gamer
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"this endearing twist on the tend-and-befriend genre is a friend indeed." 70/100, Edge Magazine
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"good tool for tracking your mental well being" - A Kay Purcell, Gaming Trend
Bird Alone Credits
Development
Music
Concept Art
Daisy Fernandez (she/her)
Poetry
Contact
Copyright George Batchelor 2020