AMA / The Merlies - Ask us anything about our game: The Merlies! The team is here to answer ! 🐦🌱

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Hello r/NintendoSwitch**! We’re the team behind The Merlies! 🐦🌱**

We are Darjeeling, a small independent studio based in Paris, and today four of us are here to answer your questions:

• Thomas Sandmeier (Game Designer)
• Florence Rivières (Narrative designer) - https://bsky.app/profile/rivieresflo.bsky.social
• Xavier Thiry (Music composer – OST)
• Marc Lustigman, (Creative producer and co-founder of Darjeeling)

The Merlies is a “wholesomevania” where you help a tribe of tiny, fragile birds find each other after a great storm, in a cozy solarpunk world where humanity’s forgotten junk becomes their treasure. There are no enemies and almost no pressure: you progress through solidarity.

The project started to grow in 2022. Back Then Cosmografik was filing entire Moleskine notebooks with sketches of little birds (back then, they were called the ‘Tinies’ / xsee below). The concept was lovely: a tribe of anthropomorphic birds, adorable yet fragile, who emerge from the ground to build a community in a world where humanity is nothing more than a vanished civilization.

We literally fell in love with the characters, but also with the promise of their world. It just felt right: behind the softness of the drawings and their childlike charm, there was something tragic, something deeply melancholic. That paradox won us over straight away. In these tiny creatures living in a world far too big for them, we saw a metaphor for ourselves, a humanity being offered a second chance. What if we could live together differently? Live in greater harmony with nature? Put the joy of small things back at the heart of our lives?

Deep down, the Merlies spoke to us about solidarity, about the art of turning fragility into strength, and about the ability to find contentment in simple things, like marveling at the beauty of the world, something that feels so distant from our modern lives today.

The Merlies launched on Steam and Nintendo Switch on September 29.

Please ask us anything ! We’ll be happy to reply !

TRAILER : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfq6RPIYLi4
BUY IT ON SWITCH : https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-merlies-switch/
BUY IT ON STEAM : https://store.steampowered.com/app/2521160/The_Merlies

OFFICIAL COVER

1st Concept Art from Céline Veltman - https://www.celineveltman.com

1st sketches of the Merlies from Cosmografik

1st sketches of the Merlies from Cosmografik

1st sketches of the Merlies from Cosmografik