- Full Mod and Steam Workshop Support! - 30 September 2026
Hello birders!Today we've got a SUPER exciting announcement! We're enabling the Steam Workshop for Flock Around and providing tools for full mod support!Since releasing Flock Around and the DLC maps, we’ve been amazed at the reception from our players. We love seeing the amazing fan art, map ideas, and suggestions the community provides. As the months have gone on, we have realized that, as a small dev team, we can’t keep up with the appetite for new birds and content.We don’t know your local regions as well as you do. We don’t know the quirks of your local birds. You know what makes your local areas special, what birds should be on the list, and how they should act.As we’ve teased in a few recent posts, we’ve been hard at work for months adding full mod support for Flock Around. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to add your own birds, cosmetics, and even maps. We think tha…
- Cardinal Cove DLC - 11 September 2026
Hello Birders!Get ready to grab your friends and your binoculars and jump back into Flock Around for its newest map, Cardinal Cove!This map is based on the east coast of North America, with 40 brand new birds to find and photograph across three coastal biomes.This DLC also features fun new animal themed cosmetics to dress up with and really blend in to the local fauna.The next thing on the horizon for Flock Around is mod support, where we plan to give you all the ability to add birds and more to the game!Thank you all for your support, DLC releases like this help keep our studio going! - Friend Shaped Games
- Steam Community Items! - 13 August 2026
Hello Birders!We have just released Steam Community Items for Flock Around!Now you can earn trading cards of some of your favourite birds, craft cool badges, and buy beautiful new profile backgrounds in the points shop: https://store.steampowered.com/points/shop/app/3618030We'll have more news coming soon about the next map and mod support!
- The Quest Update! - 5 August 2026
Hello Birders! Today we have a big update for you that has been in the works for a while. This patch addresses a lot of the feedback we've heard over the past couple of months and we hope it makes the game feel even better! We are really proud of Emu Island but we felt like it was missing something, so we've added birds to increase the content in the DLC. For those of you running out of ways to get money and having a lack of things to do once the guidebook is complete, we have a brand new quest system! Finally for those still on the shiny hunt, we have a major quality of life improvement to how Shiny Bells work. We'll have more updates to come over the next few weeks with even more quality of life improvements, features, and even some preliminary mod support! Patch Notes 1.1.25 New Birds Arriving in Emu IslandWe feel we missed the mark a bit on the amount of content in the Emu Island DL…
- Emu Island - 16 July 2026
Hello Birders! Emu Island, the first DLC for Flock Around is available NOW! We hope you all enjoy exploring the new biomes and encountering all the birds! 1.1.8 New Feature: Pins (Base Game) There is a new cosmetic type: The PinInstead of buying pins, you unlock them by completing the Big/Giant/Enormous Year achievements as well as the Shiny Birds achievement.If you already have these achievements in Goose Lake, you will already have some Pins.A new batch of pins will be added for each new map (including Emu Island!)Pins are NOT required for the "Dripped Out" achievement.New Map: Emu Island With the purchase of the new DLC you can now explore Emu Island and its 32 new birds and new points of interest across 3 new biomes!Emu Island has a new Guidebook for you to complete. However your upgrades, items, and money will come with you.Some birds (eg: Emus) do not fly, so instead of capturing…
- The Selfie Stick Update! - 15 June 2026
Hello birders, this morning we have another update for you that adds a much requested item! 1.0.61 New Item: Selfie Stick!There's a new item that can be found at the Bluff's shop.This way you can take photos of your cool outfits, snap a picture of a bird on your head, and take selfies with friends!Linux Native BuildWe have an official Native Linux build!Hopefully this means a better, more stable experience for Steam Deck(*) and Linux Desktop players! (*) Steam Deck seems to only see the Proton (Windows) build still, we might need Valve to re-evaluate the game to get the Linux build showing up on Deck. We'll be asking them to re-evaulate soon because we're hoping to get Deck Verified! Steam Deck / Big Picture Mode Improvements When entering a lobby code, the game will open the Steam Keyboard automaticallyYou can now use Text Chat in Steam Deck by pressing D-Pad Left (this can be rebound)…
- American Woodcock (and more new birds!) - 8 June 2026
Hello Birders! We've been hard at work on a new region map (we'll have more info soon!), but ahead of that we have a new update for you all. By popular demand, the American Woodcock (along with a few other birds) dances its way into Goose Lake!Patch 1.0.47NEW BIRDS5 new birds have found their way into Goose Lake!We've got: Black Chinned Hummingbird, Golden Eagle, Mourning Dove, Pileated Woodpecker, and the vagrant (but requested so often it would be silly NOT to include...) American Woodcock.(spoiler on the last bird in the list): American Woodcock has a special animation for walking along the groundUtility UpgradesThere is now a new upgrade category called "Utility"There is now a Utility Upgrade that increases your hotbar capacity, up to 9 total slots!We also moved the Scrapbook Pages to Utility.This means you no longer need to max out Scrapbook Pages to get the Camera Upgrades achieve…
- Quality of Life Improvements - 13 May 2026
Hello Birders! Today we have another patch that includes a variety of quality of life features, requested tweaks, and more bug fixes! We just wanted to give everyone a heads up that things might slow down a bit until mid-June, as now that the game is in a stable state for the vast majoirty of players, the team is going to take some much needed time off. We'll still be monitoring the server and steam discussion forums, but don't expect us to reply with the speed we have been the last few weeks. Patch 1.0.31 Major Feature: Warp Totems!Each biome's shop now has a new section. Currently the only item in each section is a Warp Totem that will teleport you to that biome.Major Feature: Shiny Bell!This item can only be bought in the Snow Biome. It's a consumable item that spawns a Shiny Bird instantly! Shiny hunters rejoice!FixesPressing the Guidebook key while Identify Birds Upgrade is active…
- Patch 1.0.28 - 7 May 2026
Hey Birders, We have fixed the duplicate-host bug that a lot of you have been seeing. We've decided to package the fix with a bunch of other tweaks that we had in the hopper. Hope you enjoy! 1.0.28 Small FeaturesProactive Save Backups: The game now makes rotating backups of your save data, so if you lose power or something while the game is mid-save, you should still have a backup to fallback on.Retroactive Save Backups: There is now a debug command redevelopallphotos that will read every photo you've ever taken and instantly runs it through the develop-o-tron. This will recover a good chunk of lost save data, it won't re-buy your upgrades or re-assemble your scrapbook, but it should return your stars and money you've earned.Clicking the button to ban a Player now has a confirmation dialogueBug FixesFixed bug involving "duplicate hosts"Whistles are now affected by "SFX Volume" (was cons…
- Patch 1.0.27 - 5 May 2026
Hey Birders, we have a new patch that adds a lot of fixes, stability improvements, and a much-needed moderation tool. We're going to be doing more bug-bashing in the near future. 1.0.27 Major Feature: Banning You can now "Ban" players from your lobby, preventing them from being able to rejoin.When you ban a player, they will not be allowed to join any lobby you host ever again.You can unban them manually in the developer console with banlist (to list IDs of all banned players) and unban (using the ID from the first command). I don't expect you'll want to unban people often so this is high friction on purpose.Level Changes Birds should no longer perch on top of bushes that have other bushes stacked on top of themThere is now a Dock in the marshMinor Features Lobby Code Only lobbies will now show up in the Join Game menu if your friend is the host.Fully replaced the profanity filter.Scrap…
- Public Lobbies and Text Chat - 1 May 2026
Happy Friday birders! We've got a MASSIVE Friday Update for you! Flock Around Version 1.0.21 In this update we've added Public Lobbies, Text Chat, and FIVE NEW BIRDS!! Major Feature: Public LobbiesWhen you select Join Game you will now see ALL public lobbies.Your friends' lobbies will be bubbled to the top and highlighted in green.When hosting a lobby, you can select "Lobby Code Only" and it will not show up in the public lobbies list.Major Feature: Text ChatYou can now press the "Text Chat" keybind (defaults to T) to start typing a message.When certain gameplay events happen (shiny spawns, biome unlocked, player joins/leaves), a message will be logged in the chat.We have a basic profanity filter (just because you'll be playing in public lobbies and we wanted something). We're using a list of words we found online so if there's a bad word you think we should add or remove, let us know!M…
- Patch 1.0.14 - 27 April 2026
1.0.14Level FixesFixed some rock colliders, again (shakes fist!)The cave to Snow no longer has holes that peek out into the sky boxOne of the Snow Point of Interests is no longer culled by Detail DistanceThere is no longer a gap between Marsh and the main Lake water.Birds ChangesBirds should land on your head more often! As of late they've been doing it basically never.Changed alpha blending settings on birds (this will get rid of the black outline that birds have, maybe fixing some graphical bugs on macOS)Fixed necks on back-facing poses of Swans, Bufflehead, and Hooded MerganserMiscAdjusted French translation on "Bushtit"Fixed some typosIdentify birds no longer lowers framerate while holding the camera (still might lower framerate while scoped because the game is doing more work to figure out what birds are on screen). This is similar to the binocular update last patch.The Remember Sc…
- Weekend 1 Fixes - 26 April 2026
Hey Birders, we've got yet another patch that should bring even more stability to your play sessions!Patch 1.0.13Bird ChangesAdjusted Common Grackle sprite.Common Loon no longer waddles on the shore, it was pointed out to us that Loons only take off from water and this is easiest way to represent that in our game.Graphical adjustments to various bird necks in back-facing poses.Adjust center-point for Front/Back facing poses of the Trumpeter and Mute Swans (was lower on the body, now it's more centered near the neck).Similar adjustment made to the Canada Goose.Level ChangesA LOT of fixes to Goose Lake to prevent players from getting stuck.Fixed some wall that were not blocking the camera's line of sight, allowing you to take pictures of a wall and get credit for the bird on the other side.Fixed some weird perch points that caused birds to appear to perch in mid-air.Other StuffWhen a Shin…
- Day 1 Patch! - 25 April 2026
Hello birders!Thank you so much for making this such an awesome launch. Thank you for your bug reports, steam reviews, and kind words ❤️Yesterday and this morning we have put out two hotfixes that address the majority of issues that have come up for some players (thankfully these seem to be only affecting a small group of players, but we want to make sure everyone has the best experience possible!) Flock Around Version 1.0.7 and 1.0.8We upgraded our internal engine. This should fix that darn Black Screen bug that some people have been seeingEnabled Occlusion Culling on many more surfaces, for some folks this should lead to a dramatic improvement in framerate.Reduced the Shiny Alert sound volume (we will look into more changes to this sound in the future)Adjusted Shiny spawn rates Bug Fixes Changing render scaling should no longer break... everything (previously: identified incorrect bir…
- 1.0 Release! - 24 April 2026
Hello Birders! We are thrilled to finally get Flock Around into your hands!Goose Lake is now yours to explore!Unlock 6 biomesFind 60 birdsUpgrade your gearBuy whistles and birdseedPut on an outfitFind points of interestGather your friends and go birding together! In the next few weeks we plan to add:More birdsNew itemsText ChatQuest systemThe ability to show photos to friends in gameQuality of life improvementsBeyond that, we are getting started on the next region map which will have new biomes and many new birds! Thank you all for supporting Flock Around, we’ll see you at the lake! Secret Plan Games
- Bug Fixes and Maintnenance - 2 March 2026
Hey birders! We've got another Demo Update. This is a small-ish update that's mostly just refinements and fixes.Major Features:We made a bunch of changes to how ratings work... again.Each bird now has custom tuning that determine it's "size" and "center" and various other parameters. 3 star photos on Canada Goose In Flight and a Soaring Osprey should be more consistent now.Your Guidebook should maintain it's existing ratings.Minor Features3rd Person Mode is now bound to F5 (no longer needs a console command!), can be rebound in the settings"Birds Identifier" Upgrade no longer requires the bird to be alone in frame, it now picks the bird that is biggest and most centered. It's also just more generous in general so you see it activate more often.There is now a volume slider for just bird SFX (this includes whistles). So you can mute the whole game except for the birds.FixesFixed alignment…
- Steam Next Fest! - 23 February 2026
0.9.2 Patch NotesHappy Steam Next Fest everyone! We are excited to bring you another demo update!Major FeaturesAdded 5 new birds!! Bringing the demo's total to 25!Changed the way the Develop-o-tron gives stars. Getting 3 stars is now much harder (but hopefully more satisfying!)The old system was designed before we had camera upgrades, now that you can upgrade your zoom, the Develop-o-tron has higher standards.We value your feedback, if it's too hard/too easy, let us know!Minor FeaturesThe Tutorial Area now looks a lot nicer.Added more Shops around the map so they're easier to access.Photo Detail Popup (the thing that opens when you click Details on the camera roll) is now animatedFixesIf you took a picture of 2+ of the same bird species in one photo, develop-o-tron would always say "1 of same species" instead of "2" or "3" or however many birds there were.Bushtit now has 2 separate call…
- Localization and Sound Update! - 17 February 2026
Hello Birders! We are excited to bring you another update ahead of Steam Next Fest! 0.8.11 Patch Notes Major FeaturesThe game is now localized to several languages: Spanish, French, German, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, and Simplified ChineseWe've got a TON of new sounds effects and ambient soundsWe're not done yet so a lot of this is still work-in-progress, we just wanted to show you what we have so far.Minor FeaturesThere are now moving clouds in the skyYour hands no longer bob while jumpingUI screens should only show the green box if you're using keyboard/controller UI navigationBird scientific name shows up in the guidebookBullock's Oriole is significantly quieter (guess who had their volume cranked up testing sound effects)Camera Scope Mode is set to "Toggle" by default on macOS (previous default made it impossible to take pictures on a touchpad)Clicking on the focused p…
- Gamepad Support Update! - 3 February 2026
Major Feature Really, there's just one major feature update: The game now has robust Gamepad Support! The game should be fully playable with a gamepad out of the box.In service of this, basically every UI screen in the game got some kind of rework or adjustment, too much to list!Button glyphs should correspond to the device you're using (eg: PlayStation controllers will see different button glyphs than a Steam Deck)You can now bind multiple inputs to the same Action (eg: Move Forward can be bound to both W and Left Thumbstick Up).You should also be able to seamlessly switch between controller/mouse/keyboard at any time. Breaking Changes: As a consequence of the above work, all of your existing keybinds have been reset. Sorry! It (probably) won't happen again!This is a huge sweeping change to the game and it's entirely possible we missed something. Please report bugs if you notice…
- Demo Shop Update! - 26 January 2026
Hello Birders, We are excited to bring you a new update for the demo that adds a bunch of requested features and fixes! We will continue to improve the demo as we move towards the full release in March. Major Features: You now have a Hotbar of items, you start out with a Camera and a pair of BinocularsThere is now a Supplies Shop next to the first Develop-o-tronAt the Supplies Shop you can buy Seeds, different birds prefer different seeds, check out the Guidebook to know which bird likes which seeds.Also at the Supplies Shop you can buy Whistles to attract birds of specific species.You can also upgrade your Equipment (Camera and Binoculars) at the Supplies shop. Minor Features: Camera (and Binoculars) remember their zoom level (if you zoom to 4X, unscope, re-scope, it goes back to 4X instead of 1.5X)Some birds (namely: Woodpeckers) will sometimes peck on tree trunksSome birds now hop ar…
