Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2018
The King's Bird
Developer Serenity Forge
The King's Bird is a platform game developed by American indie game studio Serenity Forge and published by Canadian indie game publisher Graffiti Games. The game was released for Windows on August 23, 2018 and presented at PAX East 2018 and the E3 Media Indie Exchange. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
197 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Sep 7, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
57
Mixed
109 positive · 83 negative
95% range 50–64%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 109 | 83 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
5 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
416 of 603 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 197 · most liked firstThis one hurts a lot. I would absolutely love to absolutely love The King's Bird. The monochromatic palette, the minimalist presentation, the way your character's singing entwines with the lovely background music every time you start swooping through the sky. The King's Bird might be one of my favourite representations of flying in a video game, working as a 2D Super Mario 64 where you swoop to build momentum. When everything lines up, and you know the exact line through the level, hit every…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For *nearly* the entirety of this game, I was amazed at how delightful it felt to play, even when failing a tricky jump repeatedly. The challenge curve is perfect, and the wonderful art direction keeps spirits high as new obstacles appear. HOWEVER, this changes *very* abruptly at the end. The last couple challenges presented by this game are genuinely frustrating. Yes, the finale of a game like this should absolutely test the entirety of what you've learned. But this game grabs you by the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Learning to fly but I ain't got wings.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In my ongoing and likely futile effort to write a Steam review for every game in my library (#490 out of 639)... it's time for The King's Bird. I went into The King's Bird assuming that I would not enjoy the game, and I didn't—but not for the reasons I expected. I've played a lot of games over the years and have developed very specific tastes: when I see the term "precision platformer," that's almost always a big red flag for me, indicating that I'm not in for a good time. And The King's Bird,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty aesthetic game that works with the steamdeck. However I cannot recommend due to the movement being somewhat scuffed, when you're near the end of a jumping sequence and then the character decides to slide down instead of up is really frustrating. Repeating the same jump several times made the game far too tedious for me. It visually has a chill vibe but the gameplay severely took away from that
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The King's Bird is a challenging platform game that heavily focus on speed and 'aerial manoeuvring'. Pros: A fresh way to play platform games. (At least for me) Developers are kind enough to add assist mode which will make the game easier. You can access to most levels after the main story, so you can finish levels you haven't completed and get the collectibles. Cons: In-game button hint does not change when you have a different keybinding. Everytime you launch this game, it always detects…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The tutorial is awesome fun. It promises thrilling platforming, flying around, having a great time. It also hints at a lot of plot to be uncovered. Actual gameplay fails to live up to this. The controls are finicky and frustrating. There are far too many possible actions (eg X + Up to cling to a ceiling, very similar to X and then Up to fly) and you'll spend a lot of time going back to the checkpoint over and over again, unsure what you did wrong (or, sometimes, unsure what you did right).…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love these types of games and as soon as I saw the trailer I bought it. BUT I was disappointed almost immediately... Even though the graphics are very beautiful and the music uplifting, the character controls are awful to say at least. As I see it, the developers wanted to make the game playable by pressing as few keys as possible. That makes the combination of keys VERY "time-sensitive". You can press the same two keys 10 times and instead of getting the wanted action 10 times in a row,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →They keep putting collectibles right before the exit, but they also put a checkpoint in the exit. If you miss the collectible but hit the exit you can't go back one checkpoint to try again, you can only restart the level.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really want to get into this, but the controls feel really loose and difficult to get control of.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Here's the thing... I would've loved to love it but I don't. The movement engine has some resemblance to Speed-runners (at least I think so) in terms how momentum is built and preserved, However the character feels a lot heavier and less responsive in terms of how he accelerates(which is fine). At times it feels amazing to build speed by diving down from a really high point and clearing large distances while chaining more moves throughout the level. But most of the time, I just find it really…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →🔴WE'RE LIVE🔴 with The King's Bird, a hidden gem platforming game that I should have played a long time ago! www.twitch.tv/dawnryo #vtuber #envtuber #golive
unlabelledView post →While the design of this game has potential there are some glaring issues. Im gonna make it short. The movement is all over the place. Most of the times it doesnt feel satisfying and feels janky. It has those moments where it shines but those are rare. There are a lot of mechanics which are not indicated to the player in any sort of way which in term makes the player run in circles. I found it very frustrating and I feel like the developers instead of taking the aspects that work, they force…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A lovely but stale game. The King's Bird is one of those games that looks really good, but fails to live up to its visuals. The game is a pure platformer with some interesting movement mechanics, but these mechanics have some issues that prevent the game from really having a great feel to them. The regular run in this game feels slugish, but when you start to chain different moves together the movement quickly becomes too fast to react to. The checkpoint system is lenient, so it's not a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hardcore difficulty clashes with the whimsical vibe. There are assist options bringing it to tempo, but even then the flow is off. No camera controls and awkward running mechanics lead to frequent pitfalls. Visuals are the one thing going for it and even they get a little samey.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At the start of this game you see what this game could have been. For a moment you will think you are experiencing that. Then you quickly realise there are issues with the way things control that prevent it being the fluid gliding platformer you want it to be. No it is not your fault, it is indeed edge cases in the games control code that were not handled properly and parameters that were not quite tuned correctly that destroy what is otherwise a beautiful experience :-(
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Far too difficult. The game is more fun if you enable assist mode.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you like playing parkour games with fixed, accurate, responsive controls, good luck to you! This game cannot be consistent in any way shape or form with your inputs. Absolutely everything feels like you're gliding constantly with absolutely no control of your character, beyond the basic ability to jump, and yet the game often demands precise wall jumps that need you to dash-jump at the wall, so you impact the wall at the exact highest point of your jump, then dash once you impact the wall…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →keyboard controls are very bad, even new bindings feel awful to play with. In-game hints dont change with new bindings. Hint suggests you can dash up walls but after 5mins of trying I've gave up. You cannot reset bindings back to default without manually re-entering them yourselve, despite there being a custom option. I assume controller would be better - but would definitely say avoid as a keyboard user. Game tries too hard to be artsy, doesnt have enough explanation of whats going on and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I discovered this in my library one day and to my surprise it was quite enjoyable. Not sure how and when I got it, maybe I lIked the art style, which is one of this game's biggest strengths. The controls are alright, as some other reviews mentioned, they could use some polishing but I think all levels were doable, yet never felt too easy. The soundtrack isn't bad, but it's kind of repetitive, which reminded me of the old super mario bros games. The gameplay at times felt more like a super meat…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Have to accept that this is simply too diffucult for me. Still think it's a good game, but the trailers are misleading. Rarely will you fly through the levels easily, it's mostly trial and error from check point to check point.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good bones for a precision platformer, and it looks rather large. It had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, the controls are extremely inconsistent. If you buy this game, you can expect your character to commit suicide on more than 1/4 of all dash jumps (most jumps are dash jumps). This dampens the gameplay experience.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Completely underrated. I'll admit my first impressions were not great, as the game felt awkward and janky to play and warm up to. However, in less than an hour of play, things started to click and that's where the level design and mechanics really start to shine. If you try this, give it a fair chance, as it will take some time to get used to. I'm not surprised to see familiar names of the top runners from Dustforce, as well as the devs citing the dustforce team as one of their main…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game definitely isn't bad or meritless, it's just not worth the asking price in my opinion. I got it because I saw it compared to Celeste, and while I can see the similarities, it's nowhere close to Celeste in terms of quality. Pros - Pretty aesthetics - Good music - An interesting take on precision platforming Cons - High skill floor and only moderate skill ceiling - learning gameplay involves a lot of trial and error, and the character feels clumsy and uncontrollable until you're near…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Celeste, but a floaty ice level. When it's good, it feels really, really good. But precision platformers need to feel skill-based: when you die, it should feel like *your* fault. Not make you say "What do you *want*" over and over at your screen.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really want to like this game, it has a great art style and music and at times the controls feel very fluid and satisfying, but a mixture of major difficulty spikes and bad UX holds it back. The difficulty spikes I'm willing to look past because they're very relative based on player skill but I shouldn't have to look up a tutorial to get past a trivial moment of the game because I'm not thinking on exactly the same track as the developers. I would hazard a guess that the developers were…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After the first hour: This is a platformer that is just uplifting. There's something beautiful about the King’s Bird. It’s not just the art but it’s the whole package. The music especially makes each level a joy to play through. I particularly like the feeling of motions and momentum here. There’s almost a flow to each level that makes the player moving through it wonderful. There’s a good challenge, but when it clicks everything works well. There are also bonus collectibles that…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is *fine* but it never felt that amazing to me compared to other well known platformers. The collectibles did not seem worth going for for me, and they were small enough to not even notice at times. I was on the fence for reviewing this or not, but the clincher for me: I had to quit at one point in the middle of a later segment and... it lost my save. If you already have this game, it could be worth a shot for you, but for me, I would not recommend going out of your way to buy this…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →We're going to be checking out a little-known game called The King's Bird tomorrow at 4pm PST / 7pm EST! I had the pleasure of playtesting the demo the developers, @serenityforge.bsky.social , wanted to bring to E3 over a decade ago. I'm incredibly excited to try the full game! It's been too long.
unlabelledView post →لامريكي كان يتهرب من السرعة الترددية للبستم لانها تساوي = استهلاك . واصلا مايوفرها نظام ohv حقهم ولهذا تجد الامريكي فيه ضعف بكمية الهوا ويصرف رغم راحة دورانه وبالنهاية تصميم بسيط ضعف الاحصنة معناته لو واحد تبغى تجاوزه وزود بنزين ترجع يمين وتعدل مراية الوسط وتشوف الدقن
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →SpeedRunners vibes, but where the gameplay experience in that momentum-based game is often chaotic, and intense, but fun (item usage), The King's Bird, so far, has offered a continuous peaceful experience; having Bloom disabled, the environments are quite 'clean' overall, the music — although limited when it comes to track count — contributes to a feeling of 'fleedom' (even though you're trapped story-wise), and I, for one, found that the protagonist Quill controlled very well intuitively.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tried to like this game, however that's hard to do when the controls are so bad and inconsistent. it was fun for the first 1 maybe 2 hours. However, the game does not even attempt to introduce challenges and mechanics in a gradual way like, for example, celeste does. it just drops you into a room full of challenges and says "k, now figure it out" which for some people might be fun, and maybe for some other types of games that approach might work, but nah, not for me. At least the soundtrack…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A platformer with a flight mechanic and beautiful art, but I found the controls are way too intricate with no proper ramp up. Basically every mechanic is frontloaded into the game and then off you go to deal with tricky platforming. It made it hard to get into.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For a while there has been debate of which one is more important in games: presentation or gameplay. Here comes an interesting example to look at. On the one hand there's the beautiful scenery portrayed in a silhouette style that just captivates you even with screenshots. Every level has a different color pallet, giving life to the different kingdoms our silent protagonist passes through. Moreover, despite the lack of dialog, the plot is told through cut scenes, paintings and a musical tone…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The King’s Bird is a really cute and challenging platformer. It is simple to understand as the mechanics are very basic. It can be veeery difficult though. The art style is interesting, and the soundtrack is amazing. Great atmosphere. Good game to kill some hours and chill (even though it can get frustrating sometimes).
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No. It was nice the first 10 minutes, where you soar through a level and I though this is fun and felt free, until you get to the actual platforming and it was infuriating experience because of the controls. Also why do I need to collect bugs? If the game was like the first ten minutes getting harder and harder I would have loved it, but the way it is, I don't like it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am only 39 minutes in and WOW this game is EXHILARATING!! The feeling you get when you fly for the first time and suddenly the map whizzes by but you just manage to make it through on the first try. WOOOOO!! I literally cheered and laughed a hard belly laugh! It was incredible! EXCELLENT gameplay! And then... THE MUSIC. Oh my goodness, the music is equally as freeing and exhilarating. Could not get enough of it. I just couldn't wait to finish the game before saying this is astoundingly fun…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →When I saw the trailer I thought this is the type of game which tells a story, while you travel through the world. But in principle the game consists of a hub world, from which you get into small levels with different themes. In each level you can collect some insect thingies and try to reach the goal quickly to get onto leaderboards. Imo this takes a lot away from its charm. I would've preferred a game along the lines of Knytt Underground or a linear game like Limbo. The controls in this game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Where is the bird Great game though
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to play this game not only for the gameplay, but for the story, that's why I don't recommend this game. Almost 2h playing this game to just ~5min of story.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The visuals and trailers made me think this was going to be a chill artistic platformer like GRIS but instead I got Super Meat Boy mixed with visuals that look pretty but can make it hard to pick out important details. Also not a fan of how every area is a hub divided into several doors. each with a handful of levels and all must be done in order to progress. That may be good for completionists but it felt really tedious and repetitive. As for the story there barely is one, mostly told through…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was surprised but good this game actually is seeing that it got only 73% positive reviews I can see some parts being annoying and mechanics being clunky but it happened rarely and only on levels where I cant fly which were least fun part of the entire game but other than that mechanics are great, I think the problem most people face is fact that you get thrown into levels without the game explaining any of the mechanics and expecting you to figure it out on your own which honestly was the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So I got to the Fallen Kingdom section (having beaten one of apparently 3 other kingdoms?) and after quitting the game and reloading I'd found that my save was seemingly wiped? I guess that's a sign as good as any that it's time to call it there. The score is excellent with the dynamic vocals timed to your flight and the artstyle is generally quite appealing to look at however the movement system, while possessing a high skill ceiling, does not often feel satisfying or responsive enough at the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolutely not. I would love to love this game with the nice minimalist aesthetic. However I cannot recommend due to the movement being janked af. The learning curve is so thrash that I didn't even finish the first level. Repeating the same jump/fly several times made the game far too tedious for me to bother. It's most likely a skill issue and maybe if I put more time into it and getting a better grasp at the controls I would appreciate it more.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a momentum based platformer, feels really really good when you're flying through the levels. The level design is also quite creative and demanding in many places - I really enjoyed figuring them out. The art and music are great in my eyes, although they may be repetitive to some. The story is something I didn't pay much attention to, and it isn't intrusive at all. So... this game is kinda great, except... there's a LOT of caveats: First and foremost, it does not convey its controls and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →When the gameplay hits, it really hits, and you really feel free. Slightly held back by repetitive level visuals (even if they are beautiful) making it harder to feel a sense of progress, but overall good game and well worth it if you like 2d platformers.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was enjoying this game, but there is a really bad design flaw where when you are trying to dash up on a wall, it sends you down instead for some reason. I tried multiple times to somehow stop this from happening, but unfortunately it seems to be part of the game. I have no idea why the dev decided to code in a downward dash (or maybe it's a bug), but it makes it frustrating when you are holding the analog stick up and you are still dashing down. If this ever gets fixed, I'd love to buy the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved this game, especially the way that each level has its own mechanics and tricks. I really enjoyed the gameplay, the game isn't straightforward and you have to figure out most of the movements yourself, which can be funny or annoying depending on the player, but I liked this aspect of the game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game looks really fun, and in a rare moment, is often very fun. However, I had some performance issues, that would stutter my frame rate a lot. But more than that, the game felt very punishing to learn. To the point where I was just like "why am I putting myself through this" and put it down, and I'm a DS veteran. Furthermore, the things you are meant to collect are sometimes basically invisible against the background, and I have 20/20 vision. Can't imagine what it would be like for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun and challenging. Maybe a little too challenging at some parts. Rage quit inducing, but worth it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'll recommend this one with caution, since there's some expectations that weren't met, while others were: 1) Flying around feels awesome in the beginning, it's just like the trailer 2) I was stuck for a good 10 minutes in the first level because I could not figure out the exact mechanics for a difficult jump - it is something I'm still not 100% sure about after 2 hours of play, but it has something to do with using dash and then ceiling grab (and dash again?) at the precise time to send the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's yet another beautifully designed non-game where the play control mechanics and the artwork are the entirety of what it has to offer. It's vaguely fun for like a half-hour. Maybe I'm not patient enough for this particular type of side-scroller. Like many similar indie "games" of this nature, it feels like a demo for something that could've been evolved into an actual game, but wasn't.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Очень похожа на Dustforce, но ГОРАЗДО хардкорнее. Причём сперва игра кажется релаксирующим платформером, а потом начинаются долёты, перелёты, недолёты, узыкие дырки на скорости. Игра выжимает механики на максимум - это круто в целом, но то как она это делает - уже просто перебор. Аж подташнивать начало от постоянного кружения. Особенно убивает пиксельхантинг, который с корявой физикой движка попросту невозможен и преварщается в варение игрока на медленном огне. Я согласен что есть места где я…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i think this is a game for controller players, cannot play this game on mouse and keyboard. useless. nice visually and nice music, but controlls are poopoo
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Quite repetitive and challenging, but not particularly entertaining. Controls are a bit finicky on PC.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has a really cool aesthetic, and I was looking forward to playing it, but I just didn't find it fun. Where it suffers the most is in the controls: the control scheme tries to squeeze a ton of functions into just 3 buttons, with only one of them representing a consistent verb: A to jump. The other two buttons, RT and LT are contextual and inconsistent: you need to memorize the combinations, as if it was a fighting game. Want to run fast? RT. Want to slide? LT. Want to grab a wall? RT.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Extremely delightfully good. A bit of a learning curve on the controls, but once it clicks it feels SO good. Only downside is that, as great as the music is, there is a single track for all of the Forest (first) region and oh LORD does it get repetitive and irritating quickly. I recommend turning off the music after the first 10 minutes in each region, since it'll just start to grate.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The controls and the game mechanics are very different from all other platformers and the behaviour of the player ends up unpredictable in many situations. The game has good promise but the movement mechanics make for a steep learning curve and take the enjoyment out.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First few minutes and I'm lost and hit a wall to the right and left of map. No way to know what to do next, tutorial consists of a few pictures. Feeling real clumsy and lost, so quitting and uninstalling.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is one of the best indie platformers I've ever played. I thoroughly recommend that you play this game. It has a lot of levels that have great replay value. In my case I completed all the levels 100% and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is quite challenging at first getting the hang of it, but once you piece it all together it controls itself seamlessly. I think you should play all the levels at least two times to get the best of the game, the first time to collect all the items and the second…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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