Kaelan

Bilgebirds is a turn-based naval strategy game in which you play seven spunky birds defending their archipelago from a host of Krakens. Players take command of a fleet of ships with deep strategic elements including wind speed, currents and procedurally-generated landscapes. Ships are crewed with a colorful cast of characters, from the eccentric Parrot to the sarcastic Crow.

Bilgebirds began at a weekend-long game jam I organized in October 2018 at the Social Media and Collaboration Lab at OCAD University, in which we generated a prompt using InspiroBot. I continued developing the game with Rosalind Chapman until June 2019, when we debuted the game at Bit Bazaar.

Rosalind programmed the game in Gamemaker Studio 2 and took point on the game design. I drew all the art, designed the UI and characters, assisted with combat design and mechanics, and wrote the dialogue, including over two dozen barks.

You can download Bilgebirds for free here.