30Birds

Factsheet

Developer:
ram ram
Based in Brussels, Belgium

Press / Business contact:
info@30birdsgame.com

Website:
30birdsgame.com

Status:
In development (pre-alpha)

Description

30Birds is a poetic and humorous adventure game which casually mixes oriental fairy tales with modern mystery. It is set in an enchanting painted world where 2D and 3D complement each other in a unique way.

The story takes place in a city made of giant paper lanterns floating in the sky. Each side of a lantern is a hand-drawn Persian miniature like scenery. It is said that the bird goddess Simurgh painted them directly on the night sky. Here, human beings live alongside djinns, and one can either ride a flying carpet or a tramway to reach the next neighborhood.

The player will help a girl named Zig to wake the goddess, who's been asleep for years. They will have to find thirty quirky bird characters, that is, gather all their contacts in a chat app on Zig's phone.

Features

• A unique universe : explore wonderful hand-drawn places inspired by traditional Persian art
• An original story : discover a multilayered narrative sprinkled with goofy dialogues - twists await !
• A non-violent gameplay : observation, pattern-finding, and gamepad magic manipulations
• A colorful cast : meet all kind of bizarre characters - weirdos, djinns, birds and maybe a giant goddess !
• The last generation Gem-Phone™ : gather bird contacts within the ~30birds~ app

History

The project started as an art experiment for an exhibition : the goal was to make the audience experience Persian miniature like paintings in a different way, that is, with a gamepad. That's when we came up with the cube layout : Persian miniatures are vertical pictures, it's a defining feature (as they were illustrations for books). Hence, putting them around a cube is the trick we used to make the miniatures connect and expand, while keeping that vertical aspect, and at the same time, introducing a third dimension in the setting. We conceived it as a cross between a kamishibai and a magic lantern projector. These small four-sided paper theaters naturally became lanterns in the game.

Other inspirations include the novel "My name is Red", a magical realist mystery by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, the city of Istanbul, and the character of Simurgh - a famous giant bird from the middle-eastern mythology, similar to Phoenix. The title of the game - “30 Birds” - is a play on words with the name “Simurgh”, which sounds like “thirty birds” in Persian. This has been used by Attar of Nishapur in his mystic poem “The Conference of the Birds”. In this Sufi text, a group of birds led by the Hoopoe goes on a journey to meet Simurgh, who represents God in that context. Thirty of them make it to the ultimate valley to only find a big lake in which they can see their own reflection...

Credits

Laurent Toulouse
Game design, programming, story, music, production

Coline Sauvand
2D art, story, production

Sébastien André
Programming

Steph Martin
3D art, additional programming

Antoine Jonniaux
2D art, story, game design

Gilles Tricoire / Manu Larralde
Additional 3D art

Charley Rose
Music, sound design

Steven Meyer / Pierrot "Pirolf"
Concept, story

Funding

30Birds has received financial support from the Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles and the SCAM (society of authors)

Contact

Inquiries
info@30birdsgame.com

Twitter
http://twitter.com/ramramgames

Instagram
http://instagram.com/30.birds

Facebook
http://facebook.com/30birdsvideogame