A Letter from the Migratory Birds

A short narrative experience about grief, memory, and unfinished words.

An illustrated desk with letters, a photograph, and a window overlooking trees

Tech Stack: Unity 6
C#
Role: Programmer
Core Mechanics: Paper Cutting & Collage
Drag-and-Drop Puzzles
Team: ida (Designer)
Corvus (2D Artist)
xch0702 (2D Artist)

A Letter from the Migratory Birds is a short narrative experience about grief, memory, and unfinished words.

Explore a quiet room filled with letters, notes, photographs, and fragments left behind. Through simple interactions, piece together a story about love, regret, and saying goodbye.

The Challenge

Implement a grid-based system to identify the letter fragments placed by the player and check whether they are arranged in the correct order.

Use ScriptableObjects to manage content across six in-game days, including character dialogue, UI, and each day’s letters and puzzles.

Interaction Flow

The story unfolds over six days, with five puzzles followed by an ending. During the first five days, players follow the same sequence: receive letters from the migratory birds, read them, cut them into fragments, and assemble a collage.

Each day’s solution reveals words the protagonist wanted to say but never had the chance to express.

01 Receive Letters

Begin with letters and explore the personal fragments left in the room.

Opening the game and receiving letters at the desk — Receiving letters.

02 Cut the Paper

Use the paper-cutting interaction to turn the material into fragments for the collage.

Scissors cutting paper into smaller fragments — Paper cutting.

03 Assemble the Collage

Drag and arrange the fragments on the page through collage and drag-and-drop puzzles.

Dragging paper fragments and words into a collage — Assembling a collage.

System Architecture

I built the six-day experience around one shared gameplay scene, with each day’s content defined in a Days Data ScriptableObject.

Six daily LevelData ScriptableObject assets in Unity

These assets configure the available letters, dialogue, puzzle solutions, and interaction modes. LevelManager loads the current day’s configuration and activates the relevant content, allowing the same scene and interaction systems to support different daily experiences.

Day 1 Inspector configuration showing letters, dialogue, background and target sequence

Separate components handle paper flipping, cutting, and dragging. The grid snaps nearby letter fragments into place, helping players align their collage. Each fragment has a predefined ID, allowing the system to compare the arranged sequence against the target order. Once the sequence is correct, LevelManager triggers the closing dialogue and advances the day. Dedicated modules support the later hover interaction and final text input within the shared framework.

Letter fragments placed on the collage puzzle grid in Unity

Play the Demo

Play on itch.io

Showcase

Exhibited at Crash Festival, The Malthouse, Canterbury, UK · 13–14 August 2026.

L.Z