If there’s one thing I think this world lacks, it’s a good birdwatching game. As much as I love sitting on the grass for hours on end, binoculars in hand, sometimes the last thing I want to do is face the great outdoors. Regardless of how much I adore my feathered friends. Luckily, idle birdwatching simulator Birdfull and its Steam Next Fest demo has answered my wishes and let me simulate staring at the same stretch of land in the hopes a bird pops up for a little while from the comfort of my desk.
You don’t need much preparation when it comes to birdwatching, so as you can imagine the demo of Birdfull wasted no time in setting me up and throwing me into the action. Which essentially meant leaving me to my own devices to watch over my garden like a hawk and pray something happened. Much like the real life experience I’ve had with birdwatching in my own garden, the first feathered visitor I got was a humble pigeon, and while I was thrilled about this as an avid pigeon-lover my friendly neighbour was quick to teach me to shoo them away in return for an egg. Which I quickly realised were my key to making any sort of progress.
The more birds that visit your garden, the more eggs you gain over time, which are the in-game currency used to purchase upgrades like a bench and a birdfeeder which increase how many birds you can host at one time, and more premium food for a wider variety. I needed to shoo a few pigeons away before I could purchase my first handful of sunflower seeds and attract my first proper bird. This is where the fun really started. Suddenly I was impatiently waiting to gain enough eggs to buy seeds and hopefully unlock something different from a house sparrow or American goldfinch and quickly meet the limit of birds in my garden at one time.
I can see why Birdfull would work as an idle game, and it’s no better time to have another relaxing game in the mix after the success of Rusty’s Retirement and what feels like a renaissance of desktop pets. Things like this are so fun to leave on in the background while you work away and occasionally check in to see if there are any new additions. But if you’re like me, you’ll spend as much time watching over it as you would trekking through any colossal RPG. It took me an hour of intense staring before I felt like I was finally in a position to avert my attention from solely birding to do something else while my garden quietly ticked away in the background.
But for a demo, there’s a surprising amount of time you can pull from Birdfull. I expected to be limited to five or so birds, but my garden was bustling with feathered friends for the majority of my time. It takes a while to gain enough eggs to purchase a bird feeder, which is the last thing you can do before the demo comes to a close. But if you don’t immediately rise to this challenge, there are a fair few birds you can unlock with just sunflower seeds in your pocket. I happily spent three hours with the demo rolling in the background while I did other things and occasionally checked in to feed the birds, shoo away the pigeons, and check to see whether or not I’d collected the 200 eggs needed for that illustrious feeder yet.
However one of the downsides I did find with the demo of Birdfull is the restrictions on the birds you can see, which I know will carry across to the full launch. The only birds that visit are native to the United States, and while I was a little disappointed that my common visitors here in the United Kingdom weren’t flocking, I like to think this would be a great opportunity to incorporate more variations in future updates. I’d love to see regional packs released that give you the opportunity to customise a garden and attract birds from all around the world. I’ll be honest, it’ll probably be the best chance I get to see a wider variety.
There’s no denying that Birdfull’s demo simulates the feeling of birdwatching to a certain extent, and it’s rapidly risen to the top of games I’m keeping on my release radar despite us not knowing when its launch will be. The thrill I got unlocking a new bird each time I purchased seeds was definitely similar to the feeling I get whenever I see a new bird to add to my spreadsheet in real life. Even though I have my gripes with the variety limitations, I can see the opportunities Birdfull could have in its future, and I hope it gains as much popularity at launch as I already think it deserves.
