Bum-barrels twit on bush and tree
Scarse bigger then a bumble bee
And in a white thorn’s leafy rest
It builds its curious pudding-nest
Wi hole beside as if a mouse
Had built the little barrel house.
– John Clare

Teulu is a game about bumbarrels – or long-tailed tits – gathering food and building a family flock through the four seasons.

Please note that most features listed below are not implemented, but are to be regarded as statements of intent.

The game has only been built and tested under GNU/Linux. To start the game on GNU/Linux, go to the game directory and write $ ./teulu.

Note that the game natively runs windowed in 640x480 resolution. To up scale the window, use the -s n flag, where n is an integer upscaling factor, e.g. $ ./teulu -s 2 to scale the window to 1280x960 pixels.

There is also a -f flag to force full screen mode, however, since this may mess up your display settings it is not recommended. Use at your own peril!

You may need to install some requirements in order to get it to start. See Requirements below for more information.

The objective varies a little during the seasons, but the main objective is always to eat and stay alive. Different food gives different amounts of energy and points, and some food may have other effects as well.

Gather food, avoid predators, and make new friends!

Gather food, avoid predators, make new friends, and keep them safe and warm!

Gather food, avoid predators, make a nest, and bring food to your family!

Gather food, avoid predators, bring your family to food, and enjoy the sun! Don't forget to hydrate!

Use Select (left mouse key) to fly towards a the pointer. Holding the button will lead to continuous flight, double-clicking will result in a single hop, or a dash if airborne. Flying takes energy, so be smart about it!

Use Adjust (right mouse key) to interact with the environment: eat bugs and other food and pick up materials. Use Shift+Adjust to catch a bug or pick up a piece of food without eating it, press again to let go.

Use the call key (default: C) to call others in your flock towards you, for instance if you've found a good food source.

Use the warn key (default: X) to warn others in your flock of danger, for instance if you've spotted a predator. Warning will make you more visible to predators, which you can use to lure them away.

Others in your flock may call or warn as well, so listen carefully!

Use the sleep key (default: Z) to go to roost for the night. The others in your flock will join you, and once you've all settled the day will end. Remember that sitting in the middle is warmer than on the edges!

To quit, close the window or press either Esc or Q.

The game has so far only been tested on Debian GNU/Linux. It is based on SDL-1.2 and may require you to install som dependencies. On a Debian-like system, this should do the trick:

$ sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian libsdl-image1.2 libsdl-gfx1.2-5

Additional dependencies for SDL1.2 are these, though they should not be needed at the moment:

$ sudo apt-get install libsdl-mixer1.2 libsdl-sound1.2 libsdl-ttf2.0-0 libsdl-net1.2

If you want to build Teulu from source you need the development headers as well. These can be installed using this command on a Debian-like system:

$ sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-gfx1.2-dev

Again, there are a few other SDL1.2 development packages. These should not be necessary to build Teulu at the moment, but may be required in the future:

$ sudo apt-get install libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libsdl-net1.2-dev

Teulu - A game about bumbarrels gathering food and building a family flock

Copyright (C) 2021 Ida-Sofia Skyman (Bumbarrel Computing)

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.