The demo of Flock Around has made me realise I don’t have the skills to be a wildlife photographer, but I’d certainly give it my best shot

Birdwatching seems like the kind of hobby that would instil an indescribable zen within you, but the unpredictability of it all makes it feel a lot more chaotic than you realise. Not only are you practically under the control of the weather, but there’s never any guarantee that you’ll see anything good.

That’s why in the bleak midwinter when the last thing I want to do is go outside, I look for games like the demo of Flock Around which let me birdwatch without feeling the bitter cold. Plus, you are almost guaranteed to see a cool bird, which is always a nice plus.

Fortunately, my prior knowledge from lengthy birdwatching sessions means I could identify the cartoonish yet strangely realistic birds from both appearance and song. But, that didn’t mean photographing them was made any easier. Getting too close or speaking too loudly over proximity chat with my pals would cause the birds to fly off, and their sheer speed meant I quickly lost track of where they were and had to do another lap of the park. But, after realising you can crouch and slowly walk towards them, taking pictures certainly got easier.

There is a bit of difficulty when it comes to filling out your guidebook, since some of the birds are quite challenging to track down, but that’s half of the fun. It took me an hour and a half to finally see a yellow-rumped warbler, which reminded me of my year-long desperate attempt to see a common Kingfisher in real life. The chaos of finally spotting it and begging your pals to slow down and shut up so you could get a nice photo is what brings so much personality to Flock Around.

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Players in Flock Around with birds — (Image credit: Secret Plan Games)

Each page of the guidebook tasks you with getting four separate photos of each bird as well. One face on, one from behind, one from the side, and one in flight. When you point your camera to snap a picture, the birds practically pose for you, which is nice since you don’t have to wait around for ages praying for the perfect shot like you would in real life. What I didn’t realise is that these photos are then graded.

The park has no distinct areas, but there are a number of “Develop-o-Tron” boxes around where you can replenish the film in your camera and sell the photos you’ve taken. Here, you are given scores depending on the shot, and marked out of three stars. You’ll earn additional points for how close you are to the bird, as well as whether or not it’s the first time you’ve seen one. The better your shot, the more money you earn as well, which you can then use to spend on clothing for your avatar, or eventually a new gold camera if you earn $50k.

This is by no means a perfect system. On multiple occasions I frantically pointed my camera and leant on the shutter to take numerous photos of the ground, branches of a tree, or a mere flash of a vaguely bird-shaped object, and still managed to receive three stars sometimes. Sure, I’ll take the win, but it still felt morally wrong. Especially when other photos would be met with the “An effort was made – $1” comment whether they featured a bird or not.

At least you’re not punished for taking bad photos. In fact, since all you have to do is run around taking photos, there’s no sort of pressure or punishment for anything. The only vaguely annoying bit of the demo comes when a bird is quite pleasantly sitting on your head, which you and your friends are laughing about, before it flies off and leaves a turd where it sat. Over and over again, might I add.

It didn’t take much time at all for me to want to pour hours into the demo, making sure that every photo of my allocated 20 birds was as perfect as it could be, which is a feeling I’m sure will carry across into the full release—whenever that may be. Flock Around doesn’t have any sort of release window yet, but you best believe I’ll be there ready to see what other feathered friends I can make.

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