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A Bird Story (2014)

Freebird Games

Linux · Mac · PC (Microsoft Windows)

3.30 from 294 ratings

1392 members have it in their collection · 4 playing now · 619 backlogged · 88 wish listed

How long? Main story 1h · 100% 1h (from 28 logged playthroughs)

A Bird Story is a simple, surreal short about a boy and a bird with a broken wing. Its sole purpose is to tell a story, and can be viewed as a narrative/animation with interactivity -- but without a line of dialogue. It is a standalone game with its own beginning and endings; but for those who's played To the … Read more
A Bird Story is a simple, surreal short about a boy and a bird with a broken wing. Its sole purpose is to tell a story, and can be viewed as a narrative/animation with interactivity -- but without a line of dialogue. It is a standalone game with its own beginning and endings; but for those who's played To the Moon, the boy eventually grows up to become the next patient in the series. Read less
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Details

Developers
Freebird Games
Publishers
Freebird Games
Genres
Adventure, Indie
Themes
Fantasy
Series
To the Moon
Steam
View on Steam

Release dates

  • Nov 07, 2014 (Worldwide) Linux, Mac, PC (Microsoft Windows)
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Rating distribution

5 stars
32
4 stars
86
3 stars
120
2 stars
48
1 star
7
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Community All Reviews Statuses

jared_c

Review jared_c 4/5 · Dec 9, 2023

A Short, But Touching Experience

A Bird Story is the second game in the loosely tied together franchise made by Freebird Games, with the first being To The Moon. It's a short story (~90 minutes for me) where you play as a child who comes across an injured bird, rescuing it from other wildlife. Throughout the story then you are taking care of this bird …

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A Bird Story is the second game in the loosely tied together franchise made by Freebird Games, with the first being To The Moon. It's a short story (~90 minutes for me) where you play as a child who comes across an injured bird, rescuing it from other wildlife. Throughout the story then you are taking care of this bird and interacting with it while going about your day to day life. There's no dialog in the game, only expressed basically through emoji thought bubbles. It's a really sweet tale that then sets up their next game, Finding Paradise. There's not much game play here, more playing like a walking simulator, but that makes it feel like an interactive movie. I think I paid $0.99 for it, and feel I would be fine even paying $5 for it. I'm excited to continue this series and see where it goes!

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1 Comment
anarchistica

Review anarchistica 4/5 · Jan 7, 2019

Freebird Games gets it right again

This is a lovely experience. It's quite an accomplishment to make something touching without dialogue or acting. There are few interactive elements, but they allow for some minor exploration and involvement, and they positively adjust pacing. The one criticism i have is that it should be clearer when you are in control and when you're not.

3 Comment
FrozenTrout

Review FrozenTrout 3/5 · Jan 20, 2018

Well done experiment, telling a story with no dialogue or text. I didn’t love it, though.

0 Comment
FrozenTrout

Status FrozenTrout Jan 20, 2018

Finally getting around to playing this. I had started forever ago, but never finished. Let’s see what I think of it now!

0 Comment Permalink
Erkin

Review Erkin 5/5 · Jul 28, 2017

A Bird Story is essentially not a game. It has no gameplay mechanics whatsoever. It is a 'simple and surreal one-hour interactive animation', as stated in the game's description in its Steam store page. The description does a good job of emphasizing that not everyone will necessarily enjoy A Bird Story. Therefore, you cannot criticize it for being a simple …

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A Bird Story is essentially not a game. It has no gameplay mechanics whatsoever. It is a 'simple and surreal one-hour interactive animation', as stated in the game's description in its Steam store page. The description does a good job of emphasizing that not everyone will necessarily enjoy A Bird Story. Therefore, you cannot criticize it for being a simple and surreal one-hour interactive animation, because you had been warned what you would get.

That said, let me give my verdict on this game. Is it a good game? No. Is it a good simple and surreal one-hour interactive animation? Yes, but not everyone might find it enjoyable, because some might not relate to the story, which is quite understandable. If you can enjoy losing yourself for an hour in a visual novel without any dialogues but with touching soundtrack, A Bird Story is probably for you. You may find it even more enjoyable if you yourself have pets you heartily love or love pets/animals in general.

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0 Comment
w33t

Review w33t 4/5 · Aug 9, 2016

Short and moving

A wonderful story without words! I was almost brought to tears towards the end of the story. If you have an hour to kill, you wont be sorry you played it!

2 Comment
deepdoop

Review deepdoop 2/5 · Dec 2, 2014

4/10

I loved To The Moon, like a lot of people, because the story was so disgustingly good and emotional. It didn't matter that there wasn't a lot of interaction on display because I wanted to see what would happen next.

A Bird Story is much shorter and goes for the same thing, but it fails because the plot just …

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4/10

I loved To The Moon, like a lot of people, because the story was so disgustingly good and emotional. It didn't matter that there wasn't a lot of interaction on display because I wanted to see what would happen next.

A Bird Story is much shorter and goes for the same thing, but it fails because the plot just isn't compelling. Part of this is because the wordless gimmick they were going for didn't work, and part of it is because... well, it's just not as interesting.

The game doesn't want to be played. When you do play it they have you just walking and occasionally pressing space to jump in some puddles or something (which is actually one of the better parts). Ultimately, the gameplay is meaningless and without a great narrative to power it, it falls flat.

It tries really hard to make this tale of a lonely kid befriending a bird a heart-wrenching one, with the constant piano (which worked wonderfully in To The Moon), but it's almost too manipulative, too same-y.

The light surrealism is nice, and I thought that the game used its 16-bit aesthetics pretty well, but the visuals didn't have the impact they should have because of, yet again, the story not holding up its end. Surrealism is awesome but surrealism for the sake of surrealism is not. As you fly through the air on a paper airplane, it seems cool for a second, but then it gets dull.

I'm disappointed with this but I still look forward to Finding Paradise.

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4 Comment