Fowl Damage Review – To Make a Great Game, You Have to Break a Few Eggs

You might remember a few days ago, when I published my impressions of Fowl Damage’s demo (and used, essentially, the same quip in the title as this review). In it, I praised the demo for executing perfectly on a simple concept. Between tight gameplay, a fair level of challenge, cute art, and a unique world, my praise for May Gardens’ Fowl Damage was high.

And, upon playing through the full release in a single sitting, all of my previous assessments were proven correct, and then some.

Let’s get it out of the way immediately: Fowl Damage is an indie precision-platformer made by a solo developer, May Gardens (with some help in a few select places). There are limitations. The game is short, the artstyle — while very evocative — is simpler even than publisher Red Nexus Games’ Peglin (though simple is by no means bad, and you should all play Peglin). And while there is a story, the narrative that weaves that story together is essentially nonexistent.

In every other way, Fowl Damage does exactly what it needs to do, and does it well. Comparisons to Celeste, Super Meat Boy, and N++ are all in play, and when a game from a solo dev can stand up to those indie giants, you know she’s done well. But, this is all in the abstract. Let’s follow the omelette recipe, and get specific. For this recipe, there are only 2 ingredients. Firstly:

Platforming – How Far Can an Egg Fall?

To start with: the platforming is just great. You control an egg. You don’t go very quickly, but you have a lot of control over your movement. Control that is essential because of Fowl Damage’s most important gimmick: in Fowl Damage, the jump height of your player character egg sends it high enough to break upon landing. In fact, if the egg collides with anything while going fast enough in the air, it will shatter.

The game is merciful in that it always sets you back at the beginning of the screen you were on, and the game is generous with the length of these screens. Beyond that? The game is hard. Not as hard as some of the most difficult precision platformers around (though we will have to see what kind of levels end up being created as part of the game’s in-build level editor), but hard. On the Celeste scale (something I’m inventing right now), the difficulty of the hardest levels is around the “Base Celeste Chapter 7” mark.

Like most good precision platformers, though, the depth of Fowl Damage goes much further than just “navigate an egg to never fall too far.” As levels go on, you are introduced to grabbing claws, water mechanics, safety bubbles, bouncing goo, and about a half-dozen other mechanics that each, in their own way, add to the complexity of the game’s screens.

Naturally, many of the late-game screens in Fowl Damage are precision nightmares, requiring a lot of focus and accuracy to nail. But there is also a puzzle element, with each screen requiring a pretty exact, not-always-intuitive solution (especially if you want to gather collectible feathers scattered throughout).

Normally, this is never a difficulty for me in these kinds of games, but there were several levels that took me minutes at a time just to figure out their solutions. Given the game’s slower movement speed and player fragility, that is a boon. It isn’t so much about flow, as it is in other games in this genre, as it is about careful thought and ideal execution.

It feels great, and that feel is what separates Fowl Damage from other similar games and really makes it its own, at least within a gameplay sense. It is a “thinker’s platformer,” without verging full-on into the territory of being a puzzle game. May Gardens has done a superb job at creating what might be a new style of precision-platformer, all centered around the gimmick of fragility. Which, if I had infinite time, I could write about a lot more.

But, things being as they are, I should move on, and talk about the other most impressive part about Fowl Damage: it’s artistic merit.

Art – “Chilling, Beautiful, and Occassionally Cute”

The above is a quote from the game’s description on Steam. And I don’t think I’ve ever encountered an artistic statement that describes the art in question quite so excellently.

Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As much as I want to praise May Gardens for her work (and will, shortly), I’m not going to say that pixel art is some revolutionary art style for an indie developer. Nor am I going to act like Fowl Damage’s spritework is especially unique within the medium. You’ve seen indie games with the same quality, and better, before, even just taking into account pixel art. The actual quality of the art is solid — and very evocative of some art in Peglin, which May Gardens worked on as an “additional artist” — but it is not groundbreaking.

But, to now make my point, it certainly doesn’t need to be. The art is clear and exactly, and I find it easier to see what is going on in Fowl Damage than in basically any other particle-filled precision-platformer. I never questioned what anything was, and each gameplay element was clearly depicted and smartly designed.

And now, to make a distinction between art quality and art direction: while the quality of Fowl Damage’s art is good-but-not-great, the art direction of Fowl Damage is absolutely fantastic. And it has to be, since nearly the entire story and world of the game comes from the art (and sound design). There is almost no dialogue in Fowl Damage. There is almost no context. Everything you learn about the story has to be infered from the world around you, and in that way, the art in Fowl Damage is exceptional.

And that is because the story is weird. You play as an egg, trying to find a home. In that goal, you must start in some strange factory, and then traverse a highly mechanized, seemingly-post-apocalyptic world, weaving in and out of off-kilter, oddly beautiful natural environments and haunting industrial ones. The transitions between these two areas are harsh, but frequent, almost like the factory-like infrastructure has grown out of the world.

No answers are given about who build the machines. No answers are given as per what happened to the world. No answers are given as to why you are a sentient egg, or why you start in a factory, or how the only other character in the game (no spoilers) came to be.

You have to infere that all with the art.

To invoke the ever-invoked: it reminds me somewhat of what people imagine Dark Souls to be. A mysterious, destroyed, occassionally beautiful world, where we are given nothing but the level design itself to aid us in understanding the context and story of the game. As a reminder: this is the game where you play as a cute lil’ egg sprite, rollin’ around, and I’m comparing it to Dark Souls (okay, okay, I know; games journalists have only played one game, but its true). And the comparison fits because it really does evoke that sense of haunting, eerie mystery.

Only, unlike Dark Souls, the answers to the questions simply aren’t there. Not even in item descriptions or strange NPCs. And so, you are just left with the sense of darkness and bittersweet serenity. The contrast of that with the cute, yolky protagonist is stark, but it works: you feel like an innocent creature, navigating this strange and decayed world in order to obtain safety. It’s kind of crazy just how much one can get out of such a relatively simple game, and yet it is all down to the art direction.

As odd as it is to say, Fowl Damage has some of my favorite art direction this year. All of it aided by the spectacular sound design that is equal parts nostalgic and uneasy, which I wish I had the time to get into. Instead, I will simply say this: remember the eerie music and distant sound effects from Minecraft? If so, then you’ll already understand Fowl Damage’s sound design, and why it is just as great as its art design.

Garnishes – Level Editing, Collectibles, and Final Thoughts

There are other things I would be remiss to not mention about Fowl Damage. Most notably, there is a “Mario-Maker-esque” level editor, which I desperately hope sees a lot of use so that I can see the game pushed to its limits. I only tinkered for a few minutes with the editor, but even after just those few minutes, I felt like I “got it.” It was intuitive, clear, and feature-complete. In just about 10 minutes, I had a finished (albeit not great) level that was playable and utilized some unique traits of key-doors and slopes.

I can only imagine how much a creative person with sadistic tendencies would be able to make with it. And, because it will be attached to the Steam Workshop, playing others’ levels will be a breeze.

I can’t make any assurances that Fowl Damage will have enough popularity to really end up filled with levels, but the tools are all there. I very much hope to see what people make of it, and am excited to be able to revisit the game whenever I want and experience fresh, user-made content.

As well as level-editing, the other thing I did mention much are the feathers. Like Celeste’s strawberries, these feathers are optional collectibles that are either in difficult-to-reach spots or are hidden away and require vigilance to notice. And, while some of these feathers are simple enough to get, others are… Mind-numbingly difficult.

I was on a time-crunch while playing; otherwise I would’ve found them all, but at least one feather took me nearly an hour to obtain. Another I was only able to notice after finding a secret on my fourth time passing through a level. I only mention this for the sake of completionists, who might want to squeeze a bit more out of the 4ish-hour base experience: the feathers will provide that challenge, and are highly worth going for.

Beyond that, I have little else to say about Fowl Damage. It’s relatively limited scope prevents me from giving it perfect marks, but in every other way, this is an ideal precision platformer. Fair and responsive, while also being difficult and smart. It does something new — both with its gimmick and its overall design philosophy — while still capitalizing on design ideas that worked with previous games in the genre. Its art isn’t particularly unique by itself, but the way it is utilized creates a mysterious, phenomenally intriguing world that somehow makes me ask questions about the worldbuilding of the “egg game.”

In short, Fowl Damage is a lot more than it looks, and is well worth the time of any platformer connoisseur. May Gardens has gone from a name I did not know, to one I will be keeping a close eye on going forward. And, for now, I’d highly recommend Fowl Damage, which released today on Steam. It is well worth the seemingly high-price tag it is asking, and so you can purchase it on Steam here.

Break an egg, gamers.