Hello, dear flock!
So.. a lot of people asked us about the name change and if this is "The Birdcage" (previous name) or a new game. So.. first of all, we want to clarify:
Yes, this is "The Birdcage" and yes, we changed the name
So... we are happy to present the new logo and the new name! :)
There were a few reasons for the name change and we'll be happy to explain them and how the new name was chosen.
Firstly - we'll be honest and admit that while "The Birdcage" is a name we loved, it had a big problem with it because of the movie... we were aware of the movie when we first came up with it, but more people got confused by it than we were expecting. People kept asking about the connection between our game and the movie and as you all probably know.. there is really no connection what-so-ever. To add to the confusion, a few months ago a mobile game with the same name was released and while we (think) we were working on our game for longer and you can't really trademark a "Birdcage" because it's just a word, we wanted to avoid confusion.
Second reason which is connected to the first is... well.. SEO. When people were searching for the game they heard about somewhere, they found themselves with a lot of info about the movie or the other game and that's obviously not an ideal situation. We would much rather you guys actually finding the game you are looking for for obvious reasons and we believe it's better for everyone.
We wanted to do this for a while now, but were waiting for the right moment and we felt that right before opening the Steam page would probably be it.
Now.. for the new name and how it came to be:
Fanart by Yarden Weissbrot
So, we think it's pretty clear we do like the mental image of a birdcage and it makes perfect sense with our story and the game. So, we did want to keep that image and not to go too far away from the original name so people would still recognize it.
The SEO came as a big consideration again - being more experiences with game development now than when we begun, we knew we wanted something that will stand out when searching for it and it seems that "Of Bird and Cage" is something that does that.
But it wasn't all technical of course. Most of the considerations were "artistic". It's been more than 3 years that we've been working on the game and while the difference between "The Birdcage" and "Of Bird and Cage" might not seem huge - it just better works for the story as it was shaped during that time. It's not a story about a birdcage (although Gitta IS in a mental birdcage of a sort).. it's a tale of a bird and a cage, at least this feels more accurate to us.
There was actually another huge reason for why we feel this name is perfect, but we can't share it without spoilers - you will have to guess it for now. We did hint already though that Metallica fans would have a pretty big clue there ;).
We hope you guys like it and would love to hear you thoughts on the matter (and all matters).
Thanks, drear flock!
"Of Bird and Cage" Team