She could leave. She doesn't.
Watch the First LookA hummingbird appeared on my balcony, 22 floors above Burnaby.
Soaked by rain, she kept coming back to the feeder I put out.
Did she still have a home to return to?
That question became this game.
Her neighbourhood is inspired by Edgemont Village in North Vancouver, my first home in Canada, where I saw my first hummingbird.
An Anna's hummingbird returns to the neighbourhood where she was born.
The people here have moved too fast to tend their gardens.
She has come home
to make a home.
A nest, for the life to come.
One twig. Then another.
Then another.
She carries one material at a time. Each has its own weight and balance.
She feeds.
The garden answers.
She is a pollinator. The flowers she feeds from spread new growth.
She is not the only
mother here.
Each of them has a song of their own. When she meets them, it weaves into hers.
A thousand wingbeats,
just to stay in one place.
Her flight is modelled on a real Anna's hummingbird. She hovers, darts and flies backwards.
Night comes.
The nest holds.
The camera tells the story. Every moment is choreographed like a scene in a film.
She stayed, and the people around her remembered how to care.
Now the life to come has a home.
The studio
Hover Studio Games is an independent studio in Burnaby, B.C.
I'm Jan Rimar Suratos, founder and creative director. I trained as a ballet dancer and choreographer, and graduated in computer science from UBC Okanagan. My stories are shaped by dance and by film.
I make games about B.C., with B.C. artists, composers and specialists.
So that small lives like hers always have a home to return to.
Updates on development, the Steam page when it goes live, and the occasional small thing worth sharing.
She's on her way.
Thank you for being here before it begins.
We'll let you know when she arrives.