Glass Bottom Games has announced that their upcoming video game SkateBIRD is coming to Nintendo Switch in 2020. SkateBIRD began as a Kickstarter project which was launched on June 10th, 2019, and saw immediate funding success.
Glass Bottom Games is a small independent developer which was founded in October of 2011. They have built their identity on strange and quirky concepts and, according to their website, specialize in making "absurdly cozy games about animals doing people things." SkateBIRD isn't the first title from Glass Bottom Games which has had success on Kickstarter; in 2014 their game Hot Tin Roof raised $25,457, exceeding their goal of $20,000. Hot Tin Roof went on to become a part of 2017's Freedom Bundle, the highest-grossing indie game Humble Bundle of all time.
SkateBIRD is a skating game where the player controls a small, puffy bird skating around a miniature skate park made out of everyday objects like magazines and plastic straws. SkateBIRD reached its Kickstarter funding goal within twenty-four hours of the game's announcement, and on the 10th of December, 2019, a trailer for SkateBIRD was played during the Nintendo Indie World Showcase. A standalone trailer (embedded below) was published on Nintendo's YouTube channel the same day. The game is slated to release in late 2020.
The game has already earned attention for its presentation and concept. The cuteness of the player characters is clearly a major selling point, and Glass Bottom Games is well aware of this, since in addition to skateboarding the birds available for play can also be decorated with accessories like scarves and hats. The Kickstarter for SkateBIRD has also met all of its stretch goals, allowing for features like variable bird shapes, additional levels, the ability to actually pet the birds, and a photo mode.
Many successful indie games are known for presenting strange and unique concepts and building off of them in interesting ways, and SkateBIRD seems poised to follow suit with a unique and endearing take on the time-weathered concept of skating games made popular by the famous Tony Hawk series. Comparisons have already been drawn between SkateBIRD and House House's recently released Untitled Goose Game, which serves as a solid precedent for quirky indie games starring an endearing bird. Untitled Goose Game has achieved great success due to its adorable-if-morally-misaligned protagonist, proving a market for video games starring cute birds does exist. If SkateBIRD can deliver a satisfying and enjoyable gameplay experience, it should prove an excellent way to bridge the gap between fans of skating games and people who love cute birds.
Source: YouTube