Thank you for the kind words! I tried to make it a complete package with a clear beginning and end :)
To be frank - the reason it's free is because in order to take money for it I would need to create a company, and that's just a whole legal process I can't be bothered with at this particular stage in life hehe. But if a lot of people like it I might take the leap and release other games where I ask for money!
Seb & friends
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Hello! Name's Sebastian - I am a game dev from Sweden, Malmö :)
A couple of months ago I was laid off as the studio I worked at shut down. To cope, I decided to make a game on my own and release whatever I had at the end of those months for free. Throughout this period I was very lucky to have friends join me and contribute with art, sounds and music.
What came out of this is Drillbird - a digging platformer about a tiny bird with a drill as its beak. It’s a pretty chill ~2h long explorative platformer with a focus on juicy gampelay loops, exploration and secrets. Similar games are the SteamWorld: Dig games, Motherload, and maybe a touch of Domekeeper (but less stressful hehe).
This has been some of the most fun I’ve had making games since I started out as a teenager making LittleBigPlanet levels back in 2008. I hope you like it!
Drillbird is available for free as of today here on itch! :)
Play it here: https://mnniska.itch.io/drillbird
Here is a trailer I cooked up:
That's it, bye!
Super pleasant and nice. I love all of the details, the spell animations, (especially the gardening one! I would love more wizard gardening) the lil' night animals coming out.
I found the text bubbles a little hard on the eyes when they flew across the screen everytime sometime talked and also scrolled into existance at the same time. The story itself was nicely built up and had me crying + laughing.
Thanks for making this!!
Hey guys,
I have not had the time to play tumbleseed in a while, but I am glad I took the time today! Booted up the game after a two month abscence.
Here are some notes on the opening parts. Most of it is really minor because you have an amazingly polished game already
- I love how much care is put into the introduction of the game - which I think is needed considering how unique the gameplay is.
- In the opening scene - you start up the first tutorial bit without any sort of menu or settings. This was a bit annoying for me bcause I wanted to set the game to be on my 2nd screen. I realize now I could have just paused..wait have the settings always been in the pause menu?? Now I feel silly.
- Tutorial bit - when exiting and entering houses, the music pieces are individually nice but somewhat jarring to change between in my opinion. It was fine but the transition felt quite stiff music wise. Kinda like skipping a track on a playlist.
- The flagseed initially requires no diamonds but ends up requiring one diamond. Ahhhhhh inconsistencies! I can see your reasoning behind this though, hm!

- I want the deflect shield to have more juice when it deflects!
- When testing powers - maybe have the seed to be tested fly into the teleportation thingy so that it is communicated the power "comes with" the player? Aside from that I am a bit worried players will just grab a power without testing it considering the testing area is above them - but maybe it's fine for players to figure that out afterwards.
- I still did not feel 100% safe when testing powers - losing health was super scary! Maybe..communicate that the player is replaced by some sort of dummy character? The original seed could hang out at the bottom of the screen in a mind control device while a dummy rolls around..but it's tricky to communicate too. All I'm saying is - I knew the rules but was still scared because it was still me rolling around. Color filter is super smart. Shit maybe it's an ancient seed showing how to do it? :O

- No explanations for what the bank or wheel of fortune is? I got to the 2nd area on my first run, maybe that is why? Or is that coming up in a later update? There were no speech bubbles and I was confused.
- SHOPS! Showing three items- alright! However balancing left and right to see the middle item while simultaneously trying to figure out a GIF while evaluating benefits and costs is super stressful! It's super uncomfortable to do two things at once for me - made the shops feel stressful rather than like a treat. Maybe simplifying the shop to only two items (either roll left or right to view item, up to grab it) or finding a less stressful way to preview items could be nice? This is minor, I know!
- On the leaderboards - I got no data. It's all empty. Not sure why. I use the itch.io client. Ohhh that's just steam right? Dang!
- Maybe this is due to itch - when using a PS4 controller on the scoreboard screen - "everyone" and "friends" will have the same X button attached to them, but pressing X does nothing for me?
* By ragequitting when falling down a hole, the playerspeed is lowered until the game is restarted.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp7o4ngHGK4&feature=youtu.be
* This may not be a bug but 100% of my friends are confused about the hitboxes when seeing the tutorial area - since your ingame friends have no hitbox but looks like they would - they think the game overall has inconsistent hitboxes. It obviously gets better once you're in play but I've gotten less good first impressions from it. Might be worth considering tweaking :)
* Oh here's a small one - a questgiver called me Mr. which might not roll with people who dosen't identify as dudes :) It's the reaction to the "get 15 gems" quest
A couple of smaller things
When restarting, you have to wait for the UI to finish popping up before being allowed to roll. Minor thing but I'd love to move at once.
In the crystal rooms, as well as the shops, one has to roll close to items to see what they do. This is a bit irritating to me because a) I'm bad at making decisions and reading while simultaneously controlling the seed and b) it takes time to roll left and right and I want to get back into the flow of the game ASAP. The crystal rooms are already a flowbreaker for me so I'd love to minimize the time I spend there.
To me, the shop seeds seemed a bit expensive - why pay lots of crystals for them when I can just find them in the real world? I might be missing something but I often just skip it to save time.
Also OH MAN THERE WAS THIS WORM and I actually murdered it using a mine seed. It felt AMAZING
Having lots of fun so far! :)
I'm having the same issue in current playthru.
output log: http://pastebin.com/Sw9hcEab
Hi! I am not sure if this is a feature I have not figured out or a bug - but at two times, holes have appeared right where I am rolling. The first time a hole suddenly appeared right next to me (In the place I just had been). Second time a huge hole appeared where I was hanging out, killing me. Did not spot any animations or indications for a hole to appear there. I think this was..once in the 3rd area and once in the 2nd area.
My theory is that this hole creation where the player rolls is in fact a feature- but I didn't spot any feedback or warnings for it and it felt like a bug so I figured I'd tell! :)