What if birds had guns?
The Falconeer's sole creator walks us through a demo of his gorgeous dogfighting game set on the backs of big birds.
VIDEO: The Falconeer live demo and interview, also available on YouTube.
Don't laugh. It's an important question. I've been thinking about it since I was eight years old, and clearly I'm not alone in thinking it would be extremely cool—and the end of humanity's dominion. The Falconeer, a dogfighting game set on the backs of big birds, turns the question literal.
You pilot a huge falcon with a gun over a drowned ocean planet, taking on rival factions and uncovering the magical mysteries at the heart of The Falconeer's fantasy world. Think of it like Tie Fighter or X-Wing, but with massive environments, some light RPG progression systems, and a deep narrative.
It's gorgeous and chaotic and—sad people, this one's for you—so, so pensive and somber. Even wilder is that The Falconeer is a solo project. Developer Tomas Sala (who you might know as the creator of the legendary Skyrim mod Moonpath to Elsweyr) has been chipping away at The Falconeer for a while now, and his game development and world building chops are clearly worthy of the task. There's nothing quite like it.
We had a chance to sit down with Sala at PAX East this year to chat about his passion project and get a better sense of how it's put together and plays. Come for the birds with guns and stay for the horseshoe crabs with cannons.
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James is stuck in an endless loop, playing the Dark Souls games on repeat until Elden Ring and Silksong set him free. He's a truffle pig for indie horror and weird FPS games too, seeking out games that actively hurt to play. Otherwise he's wandering Austin, identifying mushrooms and doodling grackles.