Follow the Bird Hero entering the lair of the Iron Owls in this short Action RPG game for Gameboy.

Bird Hero gets their journey interrupted when hit by a lightning bolt and falls on a remote island.

They learn the island is ruled by the Owl King, an evil ruler who enslaves the islanders, making them work in his tower.

Find your way into the Iron Owl Tower, defeat the Owl King and free the island from his evil!

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This game is the full release of my GB Studio project called Swordbird Song. If you have any feedback, questions, or bug and issue reports, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me. I really appreciate that!

D-PAD / ARROW KEYS: MOVE
A / Z: INTERACT
B / X: ATTACK
START / ENTER: ITEMS
SELECT / SHIFT: MAP

Please send me your feedback.
Add me on Discord: freinicke#9304
Instagram / Twitter / TikTok : @freinicke

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A Game By
Felipe Reinicke 'freinicke'

Programming and Pixel Art
Felipe Reinicke 'freinicke'

Character Design
Felipe Reinicke 'freinicke'
Andrea Carpentiere 'andrecarpe'

Music
Matias Panto 'vgm_freak'

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Other Credits

Jeremy Oduber (jeremyoduber.itch.io)
KizulEmeraldfire (github.com/DeerTears/GB-Studio-Community-Assets)
for Fonts

Rekkimaru (rekkimaru.itch.io)
for the GB Studio Dungeon Tileset

Gumpy Function (gumpyfunction.itch.io)
for the RPG Fantasy Tileset

Pearacidic (pearacidic.itch.io)
for dialogue copy revision

MizuMiaw (buymeacoffee.com/mizumiaw)
for creating the game trailer

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Made with GB Studio (gbstudio.dev)

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Special Thanks

All my friends that tested this game!
GB Studio community on Discord and YouTube for all the support, testing, and engagement! You are awesome!

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Please leave your comment or feedback! Thanks!
@freinicke
inventogames.com

StatusReleased
PlatformsHTML5
Rating
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
(75 total ratings)
Authorfreinicke
GenreAdventure, Role Playing
Made withGB Studio
Tags2D, Action RPG, Game Boy, gb-studio, gbstudio, Homebrew, Retro, Top Down Adventure, zelda
Average sessionA few minutes
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Gamepad (any), Smartphone
LinksTwitter, Instagram, TikTok

Download

Download NowName your own price

Click download now to get access to the following files:

Swordbird Song - Iron Owl Tower 3.1.gb 1 MB

Development log

Comments

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Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 70 · Next page · Last page

I was pretty sure the mage boss was elaborately failing to mention that the Enormous Mentor Bird was actually the Owl King, who wanted the battery for nefarious purposes. Which wouldn't make sense actually; the Owls are in charge of the whole facility until you kill them all. Maybe something else similarly nefarious.

This was a decent game. I think a 'skip cutscene' option, and maybe a run button, would have been big helps - the backtracking felt unreasonably padded, and the second bossfight was extremely frustrating because the death penalty was unusually large.

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This was a charming little experience! Good classic 'Zelda' vibes, with a charming cast, and and some neat little dungeons.

The ice dungeon (Icra?) was an absolute highlight particularly the second half. I also really liked that you had to go through each of the dungeons in sequences instead of fully completing one. The Green Maze was another favorite moment with how you executed it.

The spike in difficulty at the end caught me off guard with the ledge-turret sequence, and the final boss - though the latter was more because of how many times I saw the cutscene. Since I died. A lot. But I'm really glad I powered through and ended it!

The cutscenes were great otherwise, and I love how good the pixel art is. There were some rather evocative splash panels, and I loved the design of the characters. 

Edit: The music was pretty good too, with the main theme's melancholy, and the triumphant notes of the track that played during the cutscene before phase 2 of the Owl King.

This was a very charming, fun game. It had "Link's Awakening" vibes, but in a good way. I enjoyed the puzzle elements, particularly in the ice dungeon. Very nicely done, and I appreciated that it told a sweet tale without overstaying its welcome. I hope to see more from you in the future!

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Pretty cool for a Zelda alternative!

pretty cool, short adventure. the only thing i found """""""""""""BAD""""""""" was that if you open the map the boxes go back to their position, the thing? if you are standing in some of those positions you can cross like nothing. it ruins some puzzles and makes me feel like two things, a cheater or a man with a peanut instead of a brain

I don't understand how to open the game, since it doesn't seem to have an "application" file to launch. Is this a fault on my end, or am I just stupid?

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It looks like a gameboy "rom". You will need a Gameboy emulator to play it. There are a number of free ones, for phones, computers, etc. It will depend what you want to play it on.

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Very cute game. Too much backtracking between long, empty rooms. Combat is a chore and the power cell items do nothing when they could've been much-needed health upgrades. 

The puzzles in the icy section are easily the game's high point- fantastic job on those. Same thing with the elaborate cutscenes.

The orb-shooting statues and precarious ledges overstay their welcome after their first or second appearance, and I'm baffled to see them used over and over. The final dungeon's corridor, which is nothing but orb-shooting statues and precarious ledges, is the most tedious thing I've played this year so far. I'd rather do one of those mouse cursor mazes that end with a screamer. The fact there's a combat room right after (and the fact you can get there without the key) is just sadistic.

Most importantly, when making a game, you should pick ONE of the following:
1) A cutscene before a fairly tough final boss, and another after the first phase
2) Unskippable cutscenes
You can't have both.  Not in The Year Of Our Lord 2021/2023.

So yeah I'm not beating this game. Pretty fun romp until the last 10% and a lot of care was put into this (you didn't have to make fully functional maps, but you did and that's fantastic). Overall, that love still shines through.

(P.S. The turrets in the second mage-bird showdown can still shoot and kill you while the boss plays their defeat animation, which locks the player into place. Probably the only bug I've found though, which is good!)

This was a very intricate and great game! Loved all the puzzles and how everything tied together.

 I had an enjoyable time playing it!

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(DO NOT ANSWER, I FIGURED IT OUT MYSELF.)

How do I get rid of cracked blocks like this one?



(+1)

you gotta do the other rooms first to get a sword upgrade that would help

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Yeah, I already figured that out earlier...

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Pros: Classic Zelda-style gameplay.  Good difficulty progression.  Cool art style.

Cons: Slow-paced.  Way too much backtracking.  

(+1)

i have played this but i never got that far

i had go to the middle lever, i had gotten the first and third but not that one, i loved this game so much but i dont understand how to do it, i got by useing the shift where i would reste the game by pressing it

I would really like to own a hard copy of this game. Is there, or will there be a physical copy? 

Really enjoyed this game! There is one bug I found. The room with the broken lever retains a question mark on the map even after the lever is fixed, but there seems to be nothing else inside the room.

The room with the narrow path and the statues at the very end is extremely difficult. Everything in the game until that point has been somewhat easy, but that room is awful. I've even gotten struck by a fireball after falling off the path, which did damage AND knocked me back when I got sent back to the start of the room, so I took 3 from falling off the path at the wrong time.

(+1)

nice game, i enjoyed it very much.

Will there be gamepad support and will you put on steam? Game looks cool

It’s an outright Game Boy rom that runs on an actual Game Boy. It already supports a gamepad - the gameboy’s controls.

(+1)

Hey! This game is dope! I write a blog about indie games and would love to interview you!

(+2)

Hey! Yes! Let's talk! Please reach out to me on twitter, instagram or discord! @freinicke

That was real nice. Only complaint I have is the hurtbox of our hero is a bit big which makes fights feel a bit awkward.

Thanks for playing! I get that, it is something that I plan to fix in the future.

Cool game i love the art

Thank you!

Wait, the plot twist is that there is no plot twist? lol. Jokes aside,  it's an amazingly cute and fun game mate, love it!

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Thanks for playing! It's the plot twist of the plot twist,

"its dangerous to get alone... take this ." 

TA DA DA DAAAAAH!

(+1)

Finished it. took me 4 days . Quite good, you might want to upload it to playstore, it could do really good. Like the feeling of solving seemingly unsolvable puzzles in an area by going to another. Isn't the easiest thing to do but quite gratifying.

(+1)

Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoy! Sometimes I feel if the puzzles were too hard. It is hard to find the balance. 

Love the feel of this, although it would be nice if the music changed in different areas, since the music started to feel old, but other than that, great art, puzzles, mechanics, and everything else. Great game!

Thank you so much! Maybe in a future update I will add some more music variations!

Cute graphics. Loved it.

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Thank you!! 

Let me be honest, I didnt trust the owl/parrot thing at al. Since the end, I expected the final boss to actually be the parrot guy. guess I was wrong :-)

(+1)

Hahaha! I’ve never though that the old toucan would give that evil vibe. She is a nice person. Eeer... Bird. Thanks for playing!

Loved this! Oracle of Seasons was my Game Boy (Color) era Zelda game, and this definitely gave me similar vibes, including moments of uncertainty and very mild frustration (looking at you, bottomless pits) that I found ultimately delightful. They made the victories that much sweeter.

I thought this was overall extremely well done. I loved the last boss fight. I think seeing comments that some people got stuck helped me know not to cling to any one dungeon too tightly, so I found playing through it all smooth sailing. That was definitely a subversion of the usual Zelda formula, so I understand how people felt stuck.

Thanks for making this charming and satisfying Zelda-like! I'd love to see more of Bird Hero's adventures!

Thank you so much for playing! Yeah! I feel That I need to include some sort of hint to break the Zelda mindset and make people go for other dungeons. The end of the ice dungeon is a particularly tricky part when people tend to get stuck. 

Gonna play this on my DSi. So excited.  The art looks cute.

Thank you! I hope you have fun!!

I reeeally loved the game. It’s so cleverly made. It really reminded me of Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga — and it’s my favorite game of all times! The way you see unsolvable elements in a puzzle or areas that you can’t reach, and then you upgrade your sword and realize that it can be done — it's such a nice feeling.

I was struggling in the ice level with the cracked rock, and saw people suggesting adding a dialog box that hints you towards upgrading your sword. The hint is definitely needed, but it would be a lot cooler to not use the game’s interface for it. For example, the animal in the same room could hint on the solution by saying “man, some things just can’t be moved” or something like that.

The only thing I didn’t like was the falling mechanic. When you have to go from one dungeon to another and fall at the end to do it aaall over again it‘s frustrating.

Thank you for this wonderful experience!

Thank you so much. I feel so humble to hear people comparing my game to classic legendary Nintendo games. It warms my heart!

I loved your suggestion about the cracked ice block. I may go with it for a next update. I noticed that lots of people get stuck in the part. 

I get your frustrations with the bottomless pits too. I saw a guy playing the game on twitch and it was painful to see him trying that dungeon over and over again. Hahah. I need to rework that part. 

simple art but very good game

Thank you!

Does anyone know how to get past the Icra level with the cracked stone blocking the way

You may find something you need for one dungeon in another dungeon.

I went as far into all the dungeons as I can and completed the second one (even found the chests) but can't get into the third one with the plant or beat the first one

Don't forget to do side quests! Also the blocks with the arrows mean you can jump down, you might want to check the other two dungeons again

Im loving this thread here. Haha! Yeah. Remember to go back to the other dungeons again. And grab all the energy cells!

love it! 

I got stuck at the final level, parcour was never my strengh ;)

you can do it!! Thanks for playing!!

a pixel art está muito boa, mas a música não devia ser o ponto principal? eu só escuto um loop de 28 notas numa escala crescente e decrescente.. Chega a doer os ouvidos

Obrigado por jogar! Uma pena que a música não tenha agradado. :(

Hi if you would like to make physical carts , let me know, i do this for a living. We can work togheter.

Let me know 

thanks

hey! Let’s chat about it! My twitter is @freinicke or we can chat on discord. 

Deleted 75 days ago
Deleted 75 days ago

do you have a g mail 

Deleted 71 days ago

I finished it! Great Game! I really love it! 

greetings from Berlin 😊

Thank you so much for playing!

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Ei, grata surpresa em descobrir que esse jogo é seu! Estava procurando ele esses dias e nem imaginava que o Dev falava português. Precisamos trocar figurinhas!

Vou baixar para jogar no portátil.

Grande abraço.

você sabe como passa daquela parte do gelo naquele puzzle onde tem o amigo do macaco??;_;

Não precisa ficar tentando essa parte. Vá explorar os outros dois dungeons e vc vai achar o caminho! :)

Okay obrigado :D

Siiim! Sou brasileiro! Obrigado por jogar!

I just finished the game and I absolutely love it. I will post a positive review on my blog.

Thank you so much! Please send me the link and I will repost it on my social media! :) 

I can do that. But it's a german speaking blog^^

That’s ok! I may have a couple of German followers. Hahah!

nem parece br de tão bem feito a arte viado, tu é muito foda, abraço ai

Que nada! Tem muito BR fazendo coisa muito boa por aí! 😁😁😁 Obrigado pelos elogios e por ter jogado!

What a great experience! Loved the whimsical vibes. And the music is perfect!

I too got stuck in the ice area. If you ever do more patches, maybe have a message pop up that says something like, "Your sword isn't strong enough yet" if you hit the cracked block?

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Thank you so much! Really happy to hear that!And Yeah! Definitely this part is a point where a lot of people get stuck. I really like your idea, it gives a hint that the player should go somewhere else without spoiling the experience. 

You're welcome! For me, at least, I assumed each area was a self-contained dungeon like Zelda, so I didn't expect to have to backtrack. Once I understood the rules, though, it was smooth sailing! 

definitely taking note of that for an eventual update. Thank you!

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