From the first time you look at it, the idea behind Flock is easy enough to understand. You’re a small person sitting on the back of a large bird, while a whole gaggle of colourful creatures follows your every move. Over the course of the game, you will find more such creatures to add to your flock and zoom around a beautiful island with them, an idea partially inspired by development duo Ricky Haggett and Richard Hogg’s previous work on 2014’s Hohokum – in which you play a giant snake who can pick up friends to ride around on your back.
Hohokum and Flock evoke a pleasant sensation of flight, and designer Haggett of studio Hollow Ponds readily admits to a love of Microsoft Flight Simulator and the wingsuit flying game Superflight. “There was a lot of effort put into the movement in Hohokum, and while these are two different types of flying, the same is true here,” Haggett says. “We’re always aiming for that pleasant lack of friction.”
“I think it’s the feeling of moving in a free and expressive way,” artist Hogg says. “In the early stages of making this game there was the idea of making it about snowboarding or skiing, which has the same feeling of flowing, exuberant movement. You’re obviously flying in Flock, but you can never go up really high into the sky, you’re only ever just off the ground.”
Instead of aimlessly skimming through clouds, Flock wants you to fill a field guide by finding as many creatures as possible, hidden in different locations and at different times during the day. If you know Hogg’s work, you’ll know to expect eccentric made-up creatures, but the design philosophy behind his trademark whimsy sounds rather simple.
“I guess that’s what my job is, really, staying in a playful space where you’re inspired by the real world but add a bit of comedy to it – also, trying to combine features in any interesting way,” he says. “For instance, there is a creature that’s like a conga eel, but it’s got very meerkat-like behaviour. It will poke its head out of holes and vanish again quickly. Mike [Robinson], our programmer, does a really good job of making creatures move in familiar ways.”
The design of the creatures is also influenced by their environment, an island Haggett describes as a place that isn’t particularly large but “full of nooks and crannies” to conceal discoverable creatures.
“I sometimes imagine creatures to behave in certain ways because well, look at them, that’s just what they would do,” Hogg says. “But then we have to look at it from a gameplay perspective and where we’ve placed them and go ‘what do we actually need? Do we need a creature that hides here? Do we need something that players can chase around? Do we need more nocturnal creatures?’”
Flock can be played solo or in co-op with a friend, and the designers hope that it will be a chill shared experience. “We hope that people play this together while talking about something completely different,” Haggett says. “This isn’t a game that requires people to strategise or focus intensely on what’s going on.”
The easy satisfaction of completing tasks under no pressure is what unites all of Haggett and Hogg’s games, and it is what they’re aiming for with Flock, too. “Hopefully players aren’t given, like, significant impetus in any particular direction,” Haggett says. “Just imagine yourselves as bird watchers, out on a nice walk.”