A New 2026 non-AI Commodore 64 Game: Snowbird

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By Kodiak


Below is the prototype title screen for my new game, Snowbird, which is largely based on unused assets from the abortive Deep Winter project, as well as surplus materials cut from Parallaxian.

To save time, even the font is a modification of the "Delorean" font I made for my font article.

The title screen was designed and coded over the space of around 7 days (with some extra touches still to be added at the end), since which time two of the game's four landscapes have been designed (albeit with some final polish to be added later).

Given that Seawolves lacked a high score feature in its original version (even though I fixed that latter issue with a patch), I started this project with the title screen first and had on-hand music originally composed for Seawolves (which suits this game far better, in my opinion).

The game itself should be ready before Parallaxian, the latter game being delayed by my illness in the spring and then other work commitments for most of the summer, but it is so close to completion that it really only needs a few more months to polish it up and get it working on cartridge.

Snowbird, meanwhile, is about a bird that forgot to set his alarm clock and was left behind when all his mates migrated south for winter, so he has to make the journey on his own, facing many hazards along the way.

The game's feature set is as follows:

  • 100% hand-coded and designed, with zero use of AI, to keep everything "real".
  • Extensive use of ECBM graphics, because this isn't 1985 any more.
  • Smooth parallax scrolling.
  • Special weather effects.
  • Wavetable sound effects.
  • Cute'em-up gameplay.
  • Cutting edge production values (more important than ever now that the C64 scene is swamped with AI slop).


The game features 4 landscapes:

  1. The Snowy Mountains.
  2. The Arid Desert.
  3. The Grassy Meadows.
  4. The Rainy Forest.


I am holding back on showing the landscapes and sprites at this stage due to the phenomenon of late in which game devs make announcements and show some WIP, only for a newbie "coder" to jump in a few days later with their own interpretation - generated by AI, of course - and stink the place out with their worthless effort.

So for now all I can do is be vague about the game and show its title screen, hoping that this will be an adequate teaser until the game is ready for launch.



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