We’ll be working on a review for Project Songbird, so I got in touch with Conner Rush at FYRE Games to talk a bit about the game and its development. Come check it out!
PS4Blog: Good morning! Thank you for joining us. Could you please help us get started by telling our readers a bit about yourself and your work?
Morning! My name is Conner. I’m a 24-year-old indie game developer from Pittsburgh, and I just really love making games! I’ve been doing game dev since I was about 10 years old, and released my first game nearly a decade ago, which is crazy to think about at this point. My new game, Project Songbird, is definitely my biggest and most ambitious to date, and I’m so excited for people to finally get their hands on it.
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PS4B: On that note, you’re now getting ready for its release on PlayStation 5 on March 26. How would you describe Project Songbird to someone who’s new to the game?
Imagine the combination of a survival horror game along the lines of Silent Hill or Alan Wake, but framed in the narrative structure of something like Firewatch or What Remains of Edith Finch. Project Songbird fits comfortably within those 2 worlds, being primarily focused on telling its story and delivering that high-quality, emotional narrative while still not shying away from those classic survival horror mainstays like puzzle solving and tense combat.
PS4B: How long ago did you start to work on the project? How has Project Songbird changed and evolved between the initial concept phase and the version we’ll soon get to play?
I started working on Project Songbird at the very tail end of 2021 while I was in college. Admittedly, though, the development wasn’t consistent for all of that time. Obviously, school was a massive chunk of my time, and then right after, I entered the workforce as an engineer at Schell Games in Pittsburgh. I had also developed We Never Left at the time in partnership with Dread XP, and ended up working on their QA team for a while, contributing to games such as My Friendly Neighborhood, Sucker for Love 2, and Dread Delusion. All that to say, development for Project Songbird was fairly on and off, but I did what I could whenever I could find the time.
I always tell people that if you read the first draft of the Project Songbird script after playing the final game, it would be absolutely unrecognizable outside of the base concept of Dakota isolating in the woods to record their album. Figuring out how to not only best tell this story, but how to do it in a way that was enjoyable in video game form was a real challenge, and it required a lot of balance between where I want this story to progress and where I want to integrate more gameplay and interactivity.
Ultimately, though, I think that the final version hits that balance perfectly, and the response so far has been so overwhelmingly positive!
However, one thing that’s never changed is the overall theme. I treat all of my work, video games or otherwise, as my own personal diary, and my games tend to center around topics I struggle with or concepts I find scary in my everyday life. It’s absolutely been an outlet. I think that becomes very clear in the full release.
PS4B: Any plans for a potential physical release for this psychological horror experience on PlayStation 5?
Well, I guess that depends… how much would you like to see a Project Songbird physical edition?
PS4B: And that’s all the time we have for today. Is there something else you’d like to add before we go?
Definitely be sure to wishlist Project Songbird on your platform of choice, and don’t forget to check it out on March 26 on PC, PS5, and Xbox! Also, be sure to follow me wherever you use social media so that you don’t miss out on any big news! Can’t wait to hear what you all think!
X: https://x.com/FyreGamesReal
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fyregames.bsky.social
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@treasureman
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conner_w_rush/
