For The Birds

A screenshot of For The Birds's landing page and game menu, featuring a scene of an urban green space with the resident and her friend, the mayor, and the hotel manager admiring the surrounding falcons, hummingbirds, and warblers interacting with the greenery. There are buttons to play the game and learn about the game's real-world inspiration. There is also copyright information as follows: © 2024 Vibhu Venkatesh. All Rights Reserved.

Play For The Birds for free in your browser here: For The Birds Game Link.

For The Birds is a hypertext adventure game that follows migratory birds' journeys as they rest in a Texan city. Playing as three humans, you must make choices to help the birds navigate the urban world.

This game is part of Lights Out, Texas!'s state-approved curriculum, which aims to educate Grades 3-8 about the impact of artificial light and urban planning on bird migrations.

STORY WRITER: Aasya Peera (Maritimus Magazine)

PRODUCERS: Audubon Texas, Defenders of Wildlife, Maritimus Magazine, Texas Conservation Alliance, Travis Audubon

SKILLS: Animal Illustration, Children's Illustration, Ecological Research, Educational Design, Game Development, HTML/CSS, Interactive Design, Storytelling

SOFTWARE: Paint Tool SAI, Twine

YEAR: 2025

Game Stills

A still of the game featuring the character selection menu, showing two of the playable characters: a hotel manager and the city mayor. The manager stands in front of his hotel as a bellhop helps a guest with her luggage, and the city mayor is being sworn in after the election A still of the game's character customization menu, featuring the third playable character, a birdwatching-avid resident in a suburb, She is happily watching a hummingbird drink nectar. The player can name this character, with the default name being Jayden. The player is also informed that on the resident's story path, they will be helping a Ruby-throated hummingbird migrate. A still of the game featuring a hotel bellhop informing the manager about bird window strikes, and the manager thinking about how altering the windows this might affect his guests' view. The player can choose between prioritizing the guests' experience and helping to prevent bird window strikes. A still of the game featuring the mayor declaring a wild area a protected habitat, and instead suggesting that city developers instead expand an existing mall by building a new story rather than destroying habitat.
A still of the game featuring a Golden-cheeked warbler finding the protected wild area and making a nest in an Ashe juniper tree. A still of the game featuring the resident telling her friend about the hummingbird she saw, and her friend talking about how light pollution affects birds. She tells the resident about the Lights Out campaign, and there is a hyperlink leading to the Travis Audubon real-world website. A still of the game featuring the resident and her friend emailing the city council about taking action to protect migratory birds, which they then issue a proclamation on. A still of the game featuring a peregrine falcon taking off into the night, with no city lights below to distract from the moon. The falcon soon reaches Canada and finds a mate on time.

The game mechanics involve player input, reading and clicking on hyperlinked text, and picking from multiple choice options. Within the story, there are also external links leading to the real-life websites of the game's collaborating organizations, as well as hover-over terms with definitions.

Depending on the choices that the player makes and how the birds' migrations are affected, the game's ending can change.