[Take Me to the Downloads!]

In time you will understand the birds as much as they understand you.

Download Bird by Example before it's too late. 

Drop thumb drives with Bird by Example into the mailboxes of Baby Boomers. This is important for the game.

🎮 Itch.io | 🎹 Bandcamp | 💞 Discord

🐦Thanks from Noah🐦

Thank you so much for taking interest in this project! All the support and humour I've seen from Itch users like you is inspiring me to really dive into this project. Don't hesitate to reach out and ask questions and give feedback!

Also JOIN MY DISCORD!! I post about development sometimes. It's a great place to get in touch, ask questions, share your own development accomplishments with me, and chat about whatever!

- Noah

⁉ FAQ ⁉

Q: No! Wtf? Why do they have arms?

And thank YOU for joining me today! Please do not swear in front of my birds as they may learn your filth.

Q: This game looks horrifying, why should I not leave immediately?

Bird by Example is — and I say this with great passion:

"A mock RPG where all the other occupants are horrifying birds who mimic your behaviour with deep learning."

It's just like Skyrim but without all those frightening ghouls! In fact, I'll let you in on a little secret... This game IS Skyrim! That's right! I worked on the first version of Skyrim, and it was this! Long before Bethesda was usurped by those fear mongering high-fantasy suits.

Q: Shit... I do like Skyrim...

Yes you do! And it will be just like that! But there will be nothing to be afraid of! In bird world there is nothing to be afraid of! Nothing to be afraid of!

Right now at this very second, the metaphysical bounds of this game hold a throng of hungry birds who wish nothing more than to be like you! Like mama!

These birds have artificial brains that optimize learning challenges using trendy Deep Learning algorithms found in the titular deep and ancient waters directly adjacent to the Silicon Valley. 

You will be helping mama™ teach the rest of the birds basic skills which they can apply using their rudimentary environmental awareness and a knack for peer-to-peer teaching to develop a new world order. A world free from Big Ghoul!

Q: Nothing you just said sounds like Skyrim! None of this even sounds like a game!?

Well you're still here. Thaaaaat's capitalism!

Q: No it's not! This game is free!

And it's called the free market! Please settle down.

Q: Ok, so the birds learn? What do they learn?

The birds always learn from their mama™ (you), so you can always try to teach them new things! This will be important for getting them started, as initially their brains are random and ill-equipped for living in this bird-world.

However, birds also learn from each other! This means you can teach one bird, and that bird will teach their friends! (This is important for the game). But this is a double edged sword as it suffers from the issue that — shitty birds will teach better birds to be shittier.

Q: Shitty birds?

I  can only assume you are as distressed as I am about shitty birds.

So my solution is that I will be implementing a system for on-the-fly success metrics that you (their mother) can set from your town hall! You can design your own success metric and see how it affects your median population. This is important for the game.

Maybe you try out communism (labour = good), or capitalism (personal wealth = good), or a warrior society (mortal combat = good), or a dictatorship (pampering you = good)! The options will be limitless.

Based on the regime you choose, it will rank birds' effectiveness within this regime, and the most successful ~20% of birds within the current regime will be considered 'teachers', and will pass on their knowledge to the youngsters.

Q: But what is a bird?

A bird is a fictional creature which came to me in a dream last February during an especially cold night. I fear they might be inspired (subconsciously) by both a small subset of lizards, and the darker, distrustful side of us humans.

Q: Can the birds die?

No. Next question.

Q: Will the birds be able to die one day?

Okay you caught me — yes — birds will be able to die, but only from violent deaths. They do not age in the conventional sense. This is important for the game.

Amendment: Starvation is also on the table.

Q: Concerning. What's your goal for this project?

I want more than anything for Bird by Example to be a storytelling engine. I want to develop flexible dynamic systems and hope that emergent play... emerges from the interplay between the AIs and (importantly) you, the player.

Q: You were talking a lot about capitalism up there. Are you a conservative?

No! And how dare you!

Q: Umm, I know a little bit about machine learning and I have some questions...

Each bird uses a deep (6 hidden layers) Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) with ~30 inputs and ~10 outputs. I chose a recurrent neural network because they are most handy for working with sequenced inputs. The sequence these birds use is time. They currently run back-propagation every 0.1 seconds and currently have no preference for 'what' they are learning.

They also 'read' about 20 categories of metadata about objects they see in the environment, including but not limited to:

• Does this object evoke DEATH 💀?
• Does this object evoke THE UNKNOWN👽?
• Does this object evoke POWER🤑?
• Does this object evoke COWARDICE😨?
• Does this object evoke CURIOSITY🧐?

And these evocations inform the transferal of skills between objects of similar category! Amazing! Teach a bird to eat a JUICY pineapple 🍍, and if they see another juicy lookin' thing (orange 🍊, snail 🐌, another bird 🦆) they'll probably choose to eat that too!

Q: Cool, this is scary! (?)

Thank you! Yes, it is.

Q: Can I play this game?

Yes! Please do!

[To the Downloads!]

Q: Have you ever seen a bi-

Thank you that's all the time I have today!