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Fowl Damage

The Summer of Demos - Day Eighteen

Fowl Damage

In most platformers, speed and efficiency are the name of the game. You leap from platform to platform, chaining jumps for an extra boost if possible to keep going. If you jump to the next platform in this game, you will be scrambled.

In the opening of the game presented in the demo, you play as an egg rolling around an overgrown factory. Jumping throws you ten times your height in the air and falling more than twice your height will smash you against the surface. Managing your velocity is at the heart of every room in Fowl Damage. Restarting the room when you inevitably misjudge a jump and die is pretty quick, although I felt the time to scramble when I fell down a pit was too slow.

Between the pixel aesthetic, quick restarts in each room and the optional 12 collectible feathers with bubbles around them, I was reminded of Celeste. The boss “fight” at the end of the demo where you flee a robot arm that locks onto and fills whatever row you were on threw me back to the mad dash of Celeste’s Hotel level, although this is not a Celeste clone by any means.

With my fruitless attempt to collect one of the feathers slowing me down, my time with the demo took 15 minutes. Outside of the level, there’s also a level creator with ramps, platforms and bubbles to make your own Fowl Damage in. I look forward to seeing what fans make but am just as interested in playing the full game and seeing the story of my smiling egg.

Behold my masterpiece.

Fowl Damage is an upcoming puzzle-platformer developed by May Gardens with Red Nexus Games and published by Red Nexus Games for PC via Itch and Steam targeting a 13th of September 2024 release. All images copyright of Red Nexus Games and May Gardens unless otherwise stated. This article is going up a little later than usual as I needed more time to polish it.

This article is part of the Summer of Demos series, where I’ll be releasing a Demo Diving preview article each day in July. If you liked this article, be sure to share it with a friend or enemy. If you back me on Patreon, you get access to articles one day before they release anywhere else. If we reach £25/month before the end of July, I’ll extend the Summer of Demos into August.

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