Release Date: 2024
Status: In Production
Platforms:
Developer: RAM RAM Games - Business Goose (Based in Brussels, Belgium)
Game Engine : Unity
Press / Business contact: [email protected]
Website: TBA
Lantern City's people are at loss : their Goddess and protector, Simurgh, has been kidnapped!
In 30 Birds, you play as Zig and get to explore the seamless blend of 2D and 3D in this mesmerizing narrative adventure, inspired by Persian miniatures. Wander through the lanterns and help Zig find the thirty talking birds to get Simurgh back! But beware, you might come across curious characters and colorful challenges on your way...
Discover a gorgeous universe laid out on the surface of rotating lanterns. Wander on an open-world inspired by Persian miniatures, meet the local goofs, quirky Jinns and regular weirdos, solve puzzles and various challenges to help Zig rescue Simurgh, the missing bird Goddess!
The project started as an art experiment for an exhibition : the goal was to make the audience experience Persian miniature like paintings in a different way, that is, with a gamepad. That's when we came up with the cube layout : Persian miniatures are vertical pictures, it's a defining feature (as they were illustrations for books). Hence, putting them around a cube is the trick we used to make the miniatures connect and expand, while keeping that vertical aspect, and at the same time, introducing a third dimension in the setting. We conceived it as a cross between a kamishibai and a magic lantern projector. These small four-sided paper theaters naturally became lanterns in the game.
Other inspirations include the novel "My name is Red", a magical realist mystery by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, the city of Istanbul, and the character of Simurgh - a famous giant bird from the middle-eastern mythology, similar to Phoenix. The title of the game - “30 Birds” - is a play on words with the name “Simurgh”, which sounds like “thirty birds” in Persian. This has been used by Attar of Nishapur in his mystic poem “The Conference of the Birds”. In this Sufi text, a group of birds led by the Hoopoe goes on a journey to meet Simurgh, who represents God in that context. Thirty of them make it to the ultimate valley to only find a big lake in which they can see their own reflection...
After travelling to Istanbul, Coline, author and illustrator, and Laurent, self-taught programer and music producer, brought back a candid love of Persian miniatures, with the idea of using them as backdrops for a video game. Together they founded RAM RAM Games.
Business Goose is the result of passionate gamers and creatives (Beau, Sander and Jonathan) meeting at university and bringing their love for video games to a higher level.
They all began working together, with the help of 2D illustrator Antoine and game developer Steph, in 2022, and use the diversity of their expertise and talent to create, much like their team, this unique universe that is 30 Birds.
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