A cute free-to-play game, built for short sessions.
Bring out your inner ornithologist when Birdseed launches April. 30.
Developed by Buffalo Buffalo, you’ll grab your camera and snap pictures of different birds as they eat, fly and thrive in calming natural space. The game is free-to-play, but players can purchase in game currency to get things like new items, skins and more.
Birdseed is not only super simple to get into but also designed to be played for short intervals – you’ll hear more about this in a second. There’s no wandering around huge spaces looking for birds – though this would add more depth to the gameplay if you weren’t simply standing there waiting – this means the controls are limited and you really don’t need to know to much to play.
With the game not being overly complicated, let’s jump into the basics of gameplay.
It’s just you, your camera, and trusty journal which shows you bird species and photo challenges among other tabs. Each day you’re able to take a maximum of 12 photos – yes, this game brings you back to the film days of yore, where every image counted.
This is not only a fun nostalgic way to play, but it really makes you focus and think before you snap.
This is certainly something that will throw those who grew up using digital and phone cameras for a loop, as you’ll realize very quickly that there’s no delete button or do overs.
Practice and skill are rewarded here as the better and more engaging your image is, the more stars you’ll get for each shot.
By taking photos and completing daily challenges, you’ll earn bottlecaps. These are your in-game currency which allows you to upgrade your camera and equipment by purchasing new lenses.
Eventually you may want to buy new field guides as well. This will unlock new birds to see and photograph.
If you’re inclined and want to part with your real money, you’re able to purchase rainbow bottlecaps. These allow you to customize your camera’s look, and you can even use these expensive caps to buy yourself more daily shots.
If you’re really hoping to get ahead and take the best photos of rare birds, you can use the rainbow bottlecaps to buy lenses and guides, though it’s better to save your real money.
Mechanically speaking, the game is very easy to pickup and play.
You’ll grab your camera with your grip buttons and shoot photos with the trigger. Zoom by pushing the thumbstick up or down and you can swap your lenses – if you have been able to earn the caps to buy new ones – by pushing ‘B.’
Oh and you open the journal with the ‘A’ button.
Graphically speaking the game is cartoony but bright and very nice to look at.
You’ll feel at peace in the small slice of animated forest where you’ll return daily as you aim to take new and engaging bird photos. For what you get it’s certainly looking good – better than many other games that launch at significantly higher price points than free.
Overall Birdseed is fun for those who are looking for a social game – yes there’s multiplayer – for photography fans, or those simply looking for something new to play in short bursts.
It would be nice to be able to experience new parts of the forest, perhaps selecting where you’ll go each day when you drop in. But the skeleton of what’s here shows a lot of promise and perhaps we’ll soon be able to wander, free to employ real birding skills by exploring, listening and waiting to get our shot.
Canadian based developers Buffalo Buffalo should be very proud of what they’ve done, and hopefully Birdseed gets some updates to make it even more engaging.
Birdseed was reviewed on the Quest 3 after receiving a key through PressEngine.
