Just Crow Things: A Sandbox of Chaos
Welcome back to my ongoing Guerilla Collective Showcase series. These articles highlight one game I saw at the Guerilla Collective Showcase in Los Angeles last week. The games were all shown in a livestream presentation on Thursday and the in-person event took place not long after the Summer Game Fest showcase on Friday. I’ve already had the chance to talk about Fallen Aces, now out on Steam in Early Access with Chapter 1, and Grit and Valor -1949, a tactical mech rogue-like. So feel free to read about those games too. Make sure to stay tuned for more indie games from this showcase.
Today’s game is Just Crow Things from developer and publisher Unbound Creations, the makers of Rain on Your Parade. This chaotic sandbox of a game, as the name suggests, has the player fly around as a crow, doing crow things. Progression is measured through reaching different levels, starting with the urban small town and eventually reaching places like ancient Egypt. Each location has various quests to complete which can vary from rescuing lost squirrel babies to destroying a loud birthday party.
While at the Guerilla Collective showcase, I had the chance to talk to the Founder and Creative Director of Unbound Creations, Jakub Kasztalski. While I didn’t get the chance to try the demo at the live showcase, I had a great time watching someone else wreak havoc and talk about games. Fortunately, when I got home from Summer Game Fest, I found that Just Crow Things had a free demo available on Steam during June’s Next Fest. So that meant not only could I get my hands-on demo of the game, but you could too, if you have a computer that will work with it.
Getting into the gameplay, there is not a lot to juggle. This is not a stressful game that needs you to be on your toes at all times. It’s mostly about exploring the area and completing small tasks and puzzles. As a crow, you can pick up and use all kinds of items. You can swing a baseball bat, play an instrument, drop acorn bombs, and tag mailboxes and walls with cans of spray paint, just to name a few. It also wouldn’t be a chaotic, silly game without the ability to drop airborne poops that, ridiculously, can destroy parked cars.
Sure, Just Crow Things involves a lot of stealing items and using tools to complete tasks, but I have only barely touched on the chaos side of things. When playing this game, it’s easy to think of another bird that creates chaos, the goose from Untitled Goose Game, and this crow definitely has some similar outlooks on life. But while the goose might spray someone with a sprinkler or put the gardener’s rake in the lake, this crow will accidentally destroy a concert stage. The walls fall and trap people, things are set on fire, and anyone left standing runs screaming for safety. So while they are similar, Just Crow Things is not afraid to get even more chaotic.
If this game sounds fun to you, I highly recommend checking out the demo during Steam’s Next Fest. The ongoing fest of free demos only lasts until the 17th, so after that, I can’t guarantee that the demo will stick around. Either way, I recommend going to Steam and adding Just Crow Things to your wishlist to support the developer. The full game does not have a release date yet, but I am hopeful it won’t be very long. When it does launch it will be available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One & Series X / S, and Windows & Mac via Steam.