Fowl Damage: Walking on eggshells in this upcoming cyberpunk platformer
Fowl Damage is an addictive and polished platformer in which a cute little egg tries to avoid getting their yolk splattered.
Characters in platforming games often show a certain indifference to gravity. Scaling platforms, jumping from heights and clearing large chasms tends to be a piece of cake. Not so here! In Fowl Damage, the player controls a happy-go-lucky egg with one fatal flaw: jumping too far or falling from too great a height turns the player into mush on impact with the ground. Basically, this egg isn't exactly hard-boiled.
Egg puns aside, Fowl Damage plays smoothly with all the hallmarks of a polished platformer. Players traverse levels by dropping from low platforms or landing jumps on higher platforms close to the top of their ascent. Otherwise, it's splat, and back to the start of the room. Played without dialogue or text, the objective of Fowl Damage is to escape the incubator and its cavernous mechanical environment.
Fowl Damage works because the player's susceptibility to cracking open encourages an attentive approach to platforming. Players give much more thought to their vertical journey throughout the game as a result. This is highlighted in the demo's final act, in which players are pursued by a claw that hones in on them, requiring a quick assessment of which parts of the stage are and aren't scalable at short notice.
There are lots of little things to like about Fowl Damage that promise even greater depth in the full game. For one, there's a quite robust level editor, which is an impressive commitment for inclusion in a demo. The editor features some objects and mechanics, like keys, that may end up in the full game. There's also a simple collectible system that amusingly has the player collect light, floating feathers, calmly defying the forces of gravity that confine the player.
Development of Fowl Damage is being led by Canadian independent developer May Gardens, a member of studio Red Nexus Games. Gardens provided art and design for Red Nexus Games' 2022 title Peglin, a pachinko-themed roguelike game that similarly couches its depth in a disarmingly adorable artistic style. Fowl Damage is, in fact, a remake of an earlier game of the same name made by Gardens for the Seattle Indies Expo in 2018.
An updated demo of Fowl Damage was released for the Steam Summer Next Fest. May Gardens and Red Nexus Games expect to release the full version of the game on 14 September this year.
