Game Info
Year
2022
Collection
Mechanic profile
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Vibe profile
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Description
Birdwatcher is a fast, competitive game in which players are rival wildlife photographers on a hunt to snap photos of the elusive and illustrious birds of paradise.
Each player has three actions on their turn, with which they can call birds to their tree from the central clearing and jungle, snap photos of birds in their tree, or run into the jungle to flush new birds to the clearing. Players can also use their actions to set up a zoom lens to capture a bird from another player's tree, or to publish a paper. Photos and publications are assembled from left to right in a player's photo journal where they will score points at game's end.
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 3
This page: 3
Sentiment:
pos 3 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–3 of 3
Video eMbrFpkmRHs
Rules Teach at 0:02 sentiment: positive
video_pk 67990 · mention_pk 164311
Click to watch at 0:02 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Easy to learn
- Plays fast
- Beautiful bird art
Cons
none
Thematic elements
- Collecting birds to score points
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Action points — Players get three action points per turn, with some actions costing two points.
- AI Opponent — A solo mode with an AI opponent (the 'crew') is used.
- card drafting — Players can take publication cards from an academy row.
- Push Your Luck — The game involves deciding when to take birds and potentially risk not completing sets.
- set collection — Players aim to collect sets of birds in their photo journal to score points.
- Variable player powers — There are different difficulty levels (six in total) that can be chosen.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- I think is a very um easy tolearn game and it plays very fast within 30 minutes I'd say and you get to enjoy some really beautiful bird um art
References (from this video)
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Video WzEnHNYqnHw
Unboxing at 0:02 sentiment: positive
video_pk 67991 · mention_pk 164312
Click to watch at 0:02 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Beautiful bird art
- Pleasant and readable card design
- Good for solo play (mentioned by channel member)
- Includes solo expedition rules and achievements
- Thick player boards
- List of actions included on player boards
Cons
none
Thematic elements
- birds
Comparison games
- Wingspan
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card drafting — Implied by the collection of bird cards and scoring publications.
- set collection — Mentioned as a potential similarity to another game, Wingspan: 'maybe aside from the set collection'.
- token management — Tokens are gained from cards and can be spent or used for end-game points: 'you have Nikon which will allow you to gain um those tokens which could be spent or you could actually just gain points at the end of the game for them'.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- this is bird watcher a game by Zakir Jaffrey and art by Lauren Helton
- this is published by oni games and Renegade game studios
- the bird watcher solo Expedition nice
- don't think this is going to be anything like wingspan at all maybe aside from the set collection
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video XkXubo3faJE
Ryan and Bethany board game reviews Review at 0:07 sentiment: positive
video_pk 62307 · mention_pk 154811
Click to watch at 0:07 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Easy to learn and teach, aided by clear theming
- Beautiful artwork and evocative subject matter (Birds of Paradise)
- Engaging anti-blocking dynamic via hate drafting
- Multiple scoring avenues (sets, publications, tokens) add depth
Cons
- Bugs token mechanic feels secondary and easy to overlook or forget to use
- Some token interactions require careful attention and may be underutilized by players
Thematic elements
- Array
- Bird watching in a nature-themed environment with three locations (Academy, Jungle, Clearing)
- Informative and enthusiastic with educational notes about birds
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card drafting — Players draw bird cards from the available pool to populate their options and determine scoring potential.
- Card drawing — Players draw bird cards from the available pool to populate their options and determine scoring potential.
- end game bonuses — End-game points come from multiple sources, including sets, publications, and tokens/symbols collected on cards.
- End-game scoring via publications and tokens — End-game points come from multiple sources, including sets, publications, and tokens/symbols collected on cards.
- set collection — Players aim to collect sets of birds to place in their photo journal and score points for completed sets.
- take that / interaction — Players can call birds over from other players' trees, which can lead to competitive, sometimes disruptive, interactions (hate drafting).
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- I thought this game was really easy to learn and really easy to teach.
- The card art is evocative... these birds of paradise are just so wild.
- It’s a really fun mechanism that you can do... hate drafting.
- This might be a game you can introduce to new people or to new Gamers because of that.
- If you're not playing mean you're missing out a little bit of fun and probably some points too.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–3 of 3