I Am Seagull

That is our Beach! The amazing sandbox with LOTs of people.
The gem of our Island, the Lighthouse! Who knows which secrets lies there...
We also have a nice city on our island.
Dance and enjoy the music!
Why not just hang around and make some friends!
Welcome to I am Seagull! Where all your (Seagull) dreams come true.

Inspiration

We wanted to capture the chaotic comedy of real seagulls—those loud, fearless, fry-stealing beach troublemakers—and turn that energy into a playful sandbox full of creativity and surprise.

What it does

I Am Seagull lets players become a mischievous seagull causing mayhem along vibrant coastal environments. Steal food, prank humans, collect shiny objects, build your flock, complete challenges, and explore a physics-driven world built for comedy.

How we built it

We developed I Am Seagull in Unreal Engine 5, using it not only for gameplay systems but also to create all in-game animations through its built-in animation tools. All characters and props were modeled in Blender, with additional texturing work done in Substance Painter to give everything a stylized, fun look. To capture the right personality, movement, and mischief, we watched hundreds of videos of seagulls trolling people, studying their behavior to make the game’s chaos feel authentic and hilarious.

Challenges we ran into

Balancing realistic bird movement with fun, responsive controls took significant tuning. Creating believable NPC reactions without overwhelming performance also required careful optimization. We also faced major challenges in making a large island environment feel alive while still running smoothly—tweaking each actor, animation, polygon count, LOD setup, and reducing draw calls to maintain a stable framerate. On top of that, we pushed to use the latest Meta technologies to keep the experience as engaging and performant as possible.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re incredibly proud of how funny, expressive, and instantly entertaining I AM SEAGULL became. One of our biggest achievements is the sheer number of NPCs we can keep active at the same time while still delivering smooth performance. Each character features unique animations and reactive behaviors, and seeing them all interact with the seagull’s chaos feels alive and dynamic.

We’re also very proud of our art pipeline. We managed to create the entire art of the game in a surprisingly short timeframe, thanks to a streamlined workflow between Blender, Unreal Engine, and Substance Painter.

Another major accomplishment is the scale of the world. The game is huge—especially compared to other physics-heavy titles we've built—yet remains cohesive, playful, and full of personality.

But above all, the most important achievement is simple: the game is genuinely FUN.

What we learned

Small interactive systems can create huge comedic payoff when combined playfully. We also learned how important expressive controls and quick feedback loops are when designing character-driven chaos.

What's next for I Am Seagull

Expanding new regions to explore, introducing more seagull abilities, adding cooperative and competitive flock modes, and evolving the world with seasonal events and player-driven chaos challenges. And who knows? Maybe even Multiplayer!