This bird has been staring at me since it was posted, so I finally decided to follow its example and give it a try. Since playing Bird By Example, all has become clear to me and I will never again have regrets about my ability to bird. I am bird just the way I am, just as bird intended, and life is good because of it.
Not gonna lie, I was so ready to quit this game 5 minutes in until I started finding the hidden levels underground about the female bird and the creepy bones of other birds. This was an interesting experience. Also, thanks for the new word to my vocab, estuary lol
This is one of those games where I went in expecting it to be a cute little game and I come out with several questions, all unanswered... great work :D
You can set the quality level and resolution in the opening dialogue. That should make it easier on the GPU.
However, if it's still slow, it means your computer can't handle the AI computation on the CPU. Optimizations are on the way, but you'll gotta be patient!
Honestly very few games on itch have enthralled me as much as this one has, I really hope to see it go somewhere in the future. I'm very intrigued where you even got the idea for machine learning birds that look and act this way. I will be looking forward to what you do with this game in the future, please do not give up on this interesting project.
Gosh, thank you so much! I'm glad it excites you as much as it excites me!
It started out just as a Unity machine learning prototype, and the birds were a spir-of-the-moment decision that immediately I fell in love with. I haven't looked back.
I'm working on this project almost every day, with sporatic development updates posted to my Discord if you're interested. A big new content update should be out within the week!
Is there any way to follow a specific project on itch.io? Following a dev only seems to alert you when they put out a new title, but I want updates on this.
Awesome project and thanks for sharing it! I only played for about five minutes, but I couldn't see anything to interact with (nothing happens with the bushes and houses). I tried walking in circles around the starting nest to see if the other birds would mimic me, but didn't notice any change in their aimless wandering.
Do you have exaples of actual behaviors the birds can mimic at this stage? I'm sure I wasn't playing long enough to see results, but is would be fun to know what I might try to see some changes in behavior.
Hi Clickityclak! Thank you so much! I'm glad you think so highly of it already.
To answer your question in-depth — In Alpha 0.1.2, the only gameplay that exists is movement and a symbolic, useless punch animation.
Birds will mimic your movement if you are within their line of sight, and you can get them to punch as well by punching while they are looking at you. The more you train this behaviour the more likely they are to mimic it.
The actual parameters of their learning are super rough right now. I'm currently tuning the birds to be less instantaneous with their mimicry, because I've found that they're over-adapting to the immediate moment, and this means they are overwriting long-term behaviours in favour of the short-term.
As for what is planned...
As I type this, I'm working on a huge number of upcoming features. I've already coded the basics for the following:
The collection, carrying, and storing of objects, including an weight-based encumbering system. I just need to spend a day or two animating in Blender.
Punching. It just requires some sort of death system. (I already track hit-points.)
Sustenance. Birds will need to eat or they will die. This will add an amount of natural selection which should help improve the early gene pool a lot. Super important for early-game.
Squawking. Birds can squawk to temporarily draw attention of other birds to themselves. You will be able to do this too. Helpful for teaching other birds
Ranking of birds along a 'success metric'. In machine learning terms this is referred to as a cost function. This will enable prioritization of learning for birds so they don't learn from the shittiest of their peers.
Passing of genes to a new generation, and saving birds' unique neural networks between sessions. (Super super important for deep learning, since the amount of training that needs to happen in a deep network before complex behaviour is seen is substantial.)
Randomized names. (This one is actually finished, but there's no way to display the names.)
'Class archetypes' (think Soldier, Ascetic, Maniac, Farmer). This affects their dispositions toward categories of objects, both within their self-ideal and with their perception of others. This is also finished, but won't become noticeable until we have a few types of interactions happening in gameplay.
Hunting other animals. There is code for this, but I need to create a totally new set of models for the actual mob creatures.
This will take a while and is fairly low priority compared to
gathering/bird-to-bird combat.
This is absolutely beautiful, in the ironic and unironic sense. I love the concept of it; Very simple but also very creative with its execution. It looks promising, even if its a joke lol.
← Return to birds
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
This bird has been staring at me since it was posted, so I finally decided to follow its example and give it a try. Since playing Bird By Example, all has become clear to me and I will never again have regrets about my ability to bird. I am bird just the way I am, just as bird intended, and life is good because of it.
Good job, dev. You bird well.very weird... very funny and i love the smacking sounds
Serves you right for being a fucking fascist.
YESSS
BIRDS...EVERYWHERE.
Its been a while since a game got me to say what the fresh fuck.
I love it, come to mama
Not gonna lie, I was so ready to quit this game 5 minutes in until I started finding the hidden levels underground about the female bird and the creepy bones of other birds. This was an interesting experience. Also, thanks for the new word to my vocab, estuary lol
mark sent me here
This is one of those games where I went in expecting it to be a cute little game and I come out with several questions, all unanswered... great work :D
Mission Accomplished! Thanks for the video MrBobbly!
How is this scary? This is not scary...
boo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I still wonder how its scary...
whoosh
Im still confused.
I played your game and questioned it as much playing it as much as I did looking at the screenshots.
Can you make settings for the display for low pc players?
You can set the quality level and resolution in the opening dialogue. That should make it easier on the GPU.
However, if it's still slow, it means your computer can't handle the AI computation on the CPU. Optimizations are on the way, but you'll gotta be patient!
Also, you can change the quality on the fly by pressing the + and - buttons!
Just as I expected....the update is just as weird and confusing n I LOVE IT! 🤣😂 keep up this work man!!
Always a pleasure, Robson! Thanks for playing the new update!
Just played this game. Was fun to play and look forward to see what gets done to it
Muscle-bound birds gyrate in a corner for 10 minutes. 11 Steroid Fueled Birds out of 10
Things that needs to be improved:The camera pans too fast
Overall the game is good nice job hope the BETA comes out
had fun playing this game
comenze unpoco aburrida pero cuando comenze a perseguir a los pollos me diverti mucho
Very fun and weird. I can see it being much better once some more things to do are added though.
Idk why but being able to go up and punch another bird was oddly satisfying lol
THE LIFE OF JEROME AND HIS 80 KIDS.
lmfao amazing
that shit was fire.
I looooooooove this video!
Bold move going for maximum bird on your first rodeo, not everyone can handle that.
I don't even know what just happened....but it was weirdly entertaining!
Check my confusion out at 6:56
Hahahah, I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for making this!
Thanks for making this umm....game? Hahaha!
gotta say this no fucking game has made me this happy jesus fucking christ
god do I love shitty birds
an mama loves u
finally a good game
the final game
Honestly very few games on itch have enthralled me as much as this one has, I really hope to see it go somewhere in the future. I'm very intrigued where you even got the idea for machine learning birds that look and act this way. I will be looking forward to what you do with this game in the future, please do not give up on this interesting project.
Gosh, thank you so much! I'm glad it excites you as much as it excites me!
It started out just as a Unity machine learning prototype, and the birds were a spir-of-the-moment decision that immediately I fell in love with. I haven't looked back.
I'm working on this project almost every day, with sporatic development updates posted to my Discord if you're interested. A big new content update should be out within the week!
this game is very weird , but very entertaining even if there was not much to do and no sound , good job
Thanks for recording it! More content soon, I promise!
This game was so so weird! It was fun in a way? I just wish there was more things to do apart from punching and running lol.
Thank you so much for playing, and big props to making a video!
I'm working on Bird by Example every day so that there will be more to do. There should be some new content within a week!
So many bird arms. I have no idea what's going on and I love every minute of it.
Wait, your birds have arms? That's not supposed to happen!
Changelog 0.2.1.1:
- fixed bird arms
- added extra existential dread
- removed Herobrine
smacked this into an indie romp. I never read things before i play them and this time that failed me haha. Hope you enjoy my confusion
Your game starts at 4:50
Love love love seeing people play BBE! Made my day!
do you have the controls written down somewhere? my bird mama, poor her, was flailing around on the ground helplessly until i quit the game in pity.
in other words, i cant get up.
There are controls on the billboard in the forest!
A low framerate will cause the physics system to weaken, which is a problem I'm working to solve for 0.1.4.
You can press Numpad -/+ to change the graphical settings on the fly, if that helps raise your FPS at al.
mac version birds convulse on the ground for eternity perfect game ready for release im so excited
Any information you have about this could be very useful!
Do you by any chance get a poor framerate during play?
If so, press Numpad (-) to lower the graphical settings, and see if the birds stand up.
(I have a hypothesis that your issue is due to me accidentally factoring in framerate twice instead of just once for the physics calculation!)
mama loves u
yes.
alpha 0.1.3 is out now
please put it on a usb drive and drop it into any mailboxes you may know of (this is important for the game)
you a cool bird
more soon
Is there any way to follow a specific project on itch.io? Following a dev only seems to alert you when they put out a new title, but I want updates on this.
I have problems with the game.
It has no audio, how can i fix this?
Not a problem! There is no audio in Alpha 0.1.2 😋
please add to this :0
On it! 😉
Awesome project and thanks for sharing it! I only played for about five minutes, but I couldn't see anything to interact with (nothing happens with the bushes and houses). I tried walking in circles around the starting nest to see if the other birds would mimic me, but didn't notice any change in their aimless wandering.
Do you have exaples of actual behaviors the birds can mimic at this stage? I'm sure I wasn't playing long enough to see results, but is would be fun to know what I might try to see some changes in behavior.
Hi Clickityclak! Thank you so much! I'm glad you think so highly of it already.
To answer your question in-depth — In Alpha 0.1.2, the only gameplay that exists is movement and a symbolic, useless punch animation.
Birds will mimic your movement if you are within their line of sight, and you can get them to punch as well by punching while they are looking at you. The more you train this behaviour the more likely they are to mimic it.
The actual parameters of their learning are super rough right now. I'm currently tuning the birds to be less instantaneous with their mimicry, because I've found that they're over-adapting to the immediate moment, and this means they are overwriting long-term behaviours in favour of the short-term.
As for what is planned...
As I type this, I'm working on a huge number of upcoming features. I've already coded the basics for the following:
need to create a totally new set of models for the actual mob creatures. This will take a while and is fairly low priority compared to gathering/bird-to-bird combat.
Hello there! Really nice upcoming features your have here! I can't wait to see them added to the game!
Have you considered participating in our GDWC #gamedev contest?
Check out our itch.io page for more info :)
This is absolutely beautiful, in the ironic and unironic sense. I love the concept of it; Very simple but also very creative with its execution. It looks promising, even if its a joke lol.
If anyone would like a Mac or Linux build of Alpha 0.1.2, let me know!
would love a linux build :)
Sure thing!
Linux + Mac builds are now uploaded! I don't have devices to test them on, but hopefully everything is in working order. Fingers crossed. 😋