Rocketbirds: Revolution!

Rocketbirds: Revolultion! is a 2D cinematic action-adventure puzzler game made in flash, developed by Ratloop Asia. It features rich visuals and classic 2D gameplay. Players take control of Hardboiled Chicken in a world filled with angry and often violent birds. Lush graphics, animation, and effects combine with classic gameplay and an intriguing story.

Gameplay
The games' direction is a 2D cinematic platformer that consists of action and puzzles into the mix. The player plays as the main character Hardboiled Chicken sidescrolling over nine chapters with weapons at his disposal along the way. There is also a mixture of puzzles which also features the "Brain Bug" that gains control over enemies to get through certain sections of the game.

Chapters

 * 1) Silo in the Jungle
 * 2) The Morning After
 * 3) Break Dancing
 * 4) Penguins Strike Back
 * 5) Spanking Time
 * 6) Way of the Subway
 * 7) A Bridge and a Half
 * 8) Rock and Roll
 * 9) Double Agents

Concept
The origins of this game came out of Sian Yue Tan, from the developer Ratloop Asia. He had been drawing rocketbirds since at a young age at 14 all his life. Ten years before the release, Yue spent a week making a four minute flash short about Penguins battling against Chickens, called "Pilot." When it was put on his website, he received great feedback and got job offers. He then wanted make a fun pick-up and play that showcased the birds.

He and his team decided on choosing Flash for the game's development to try and get everybody on board for the project. Yue found Flash to be a really good distribution platform since he solved himself problems of getting noticed in the marketplace and that Flash doesn't require any installment, so anyone can just play the game and decide it themselves if they like it to buy it.

Design
Yue had prototypes before any production started. He and the team started a half a year of pre-production which Yue started running and started making it. The basic engine, tools, animation system, event triggers and basic AI took Yue about three months to write and develop. One of the Ratloop partners, James Anderson, joined the project and wanted to do a sound engine for the game. Yue and Anderson worked together for the half year and then hired an artist to help out with the backgrounds to make every screen unique. Trying to be based on games such as Flashback, Oddworld, etc. to get its own unique style, which was able to take a long time within the first three months. The team also had a lot of play testing, mainly for the puzzles to not get lost. As well as getting all the hard parts to make the game polished. The completion of the game took one year and three months.

Soundtrack
The games' soundtrack was used by Yue's friend, Herwig Maurer, who has a MySpace band called "New World Revolution". The music wasn't made specifically for the game nor created for it, but instead, used for the games' music videos and for the game itself.

Post-Production
Despite Yue finding Flash as a good distribution, he wanted to get it out to consoles as well. But he founded Flash as a good way to start, while knowing that people would rather want to play games sitting down in their living room instead of being behind a computer. Yue and his team did eventually bring the game to consoles two years afterwards with Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken to the PS3 with new features.

Reception
The game received positive response from critics praising the action and platforming on the game, with the animation and art design receiving the most acclaim.

Awards
Rocketbirds: Revolution! received nominations as a triple finalist from the 2010 Independent Games Festival for Excellence In Audio, Excellence In Visual Art and Seumas McNally Grand Prize.