Watch the release trailer:

Of Bird and Cage is a dark, twisted game specifically tailored to its music. Submerge yourself into the power of metal music like never before with a two-hour-long story of trauma, violence, and madness based on the ‘Beauty and the Beast’

See our posts on featured artists from (ex) Guns N’ Roses, Epica, Within Temptation, and many others:

• Kobra Paige (Kobra and the Lotus)
• Davidavi ‘Vidi’ Dolev (Gunned Down Horses)
• Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (ex-Guns N’ Roses)
• Rob van der Loo (Epica)
• Ruud Jolie (Within Temptation)
• Casey Grillo (ex-Kamelot)
• Rocky Gray (ex-Evanescence)
• Mike Lepond (Symphony X)
• Danny Worsnop (Asking Alexandria)
• Tina Guo
• Snowy Shaw (ex-King Diamond, ex-Therion)

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A new Of Bird and Cage patch has arrived! The patch introduces several gameplay fixes and solves the issue with broken achievements. 

Read the changelog here:

• Fixed the following achievements: 
  • Bulls Eye
  • A True Addict
  • Professional Drunk
  • Stealth
  • Crazy Driver
  • Code Master
  • Completionist
• Fixed the following issues in Prologue (House):
  • A long loading time when opening the main menu 
  • [Controller] Getting stuck in openables (doors, closets, lockers) 
  • [Controller] Loading screen B Button (going to the main menu) 
  • [Controller] Ending sequence (going from the ending screen after the prologue to the main menu) 
• Fixed the Collect Clothes quest in Trailer Park 1 (Beauty and the Beast)
• Fixed the following issues in The Time Has Come (Alley):
  • Generator has a blurred screen
  • Bres disappears after falling from ladder 
  • General collision issues
• Changed the following in Subconscious (Dream 2):
  • Increased the decal glow of the bird on the first stone in the sequence
  • Fixed the Run Over Tormentors quest
• Fixed the issue with the dealer continuing to hit Gitta during the ending sequence in Huff Huff and Puff (Warehouse 4)
• Fixed the issue with a double of Gitta appearing when pushing a crate in Hear Me (Warehouse 5)
• Fixed the issues with the trip wire trap and quests appearing during cutscenes in Father (Trailer Park 2)
• Changed suicide letter format from female to male in Father (Trailer Park 2)
• Fixed the Achievement system
• Fixed the issue with the Drug Vial counter filling in whenever talking to the dealer in Huff Huff and Puff (Bar)
• The number of story-items on the ending screen was changed from 29 to 30 and at the end of Act III from 4 to 5
• [Controller] Changed dragables and large movables to RT/R1 on controllers instead of X/Square
• [Controller] The controller’s layout text was fixed to the correct layout in the pause menu
• [Controller] Fixed slow walking animations
• Fixed the issue with an infinite loop of loading when clicking back during a loading screen
• Fixed the issue with the pause menu staying on screen when spamming ESC and pause 
• Fixed the issue in which the player was able to freeze a song’s timer while playing regularly

Thank you for all your feedback so far. Feel free to share even more suggestions or your impressions in our Steam Discussions and on our Discord server.

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Casey Grillo is best known as the drummer for the symphonic metal power band Kamelot, which he joined at the early age of 21. But his love for the drums started much, much earlier. He was born in Oklahoma to a musical family and a house with a drum kit. As the youngest of three siblings, his brother and sister had learned to play the drums and became an inspiration for him to try it out for himself. He discovered his passion for percussion at the tiny age of eight.

Casey was already becoming known to the music world at the age of 16, when he played and toured with Debra DeJean. In 1997, Casey replaced Richard Warner as the drummer for Kamelot. He went to play with the band for more than 20 years and contributed to nine of their albums. If forced to choose, Casey is proudest of The Black Halo album he recorded with Kamelot, saying that it was a turning point for the band.

Kamelot is one of metal’s most active bands, but if you thought that maybe Casey sometimes just had enough of all the travelling, recording, and long hours, you’re rather mistaken. “Everyday going to work for me is like it’s not work, it’s just a lifestyle, you don’t want it to end, you know, it’s like going off on tour is like going to camp or something, you know, like going band camping. It’s just an experience!” he told Nerissa Alison.

Casey played drums for Kamelot for more than two decades. Prior to the recording of their album The Shadow Theory, Casey announced he would be leaving to pursue other musical endeavors and spend more time on his other business projects. 

He went on to join Queensryche as their touring drummer. Casey’s initial interest in the band wasn’t what you would probably expect. “My wife and I, we actually fell in love together listening to Queensryche… Queensryche was kind of our music underneath the beginning of our relationship, when we started dating and stuff. So it was like our theme music behind us…. So we’re huge fans. And I was a huge fan when I was a kid.” he said in an interview for Blabbermouth.

Some might wonder if playing the same instrument for several decades doesn’t get a little  tiring. It certainly doesn’t for Grillo, who shared how he stays motivated with Musikholics: “I really love playing music… I dig the people that I work with and that really helps.”

Despite his amazing career, long list of albums he played on, and unique talent, Casey is still intrigued in learning new things and developing as a drummer through playing many different types of music and in various styles, including his work on Of Bird and Cage. If you want to hear the song that best showcases Casey’s drumming talent (including complex double bases), give “Descent of an Archangel” a try. 

Thankfully for future generations, Casey has no intentions of keeping his experience to himself and now teaches others how to play the drums. “Students can bring out the best in you. Makes you know what you need to work on and every student is different so you have to teach each person differently. I love that I have to be on my toes when I go to teach.” he told Rocknotes Webzine. Besides teaching, Casey also runs his own business, Drumstatic, which produces drumheads and skins for A-list music stars of all genres.

Are you a fan of Casey Grillo? Let us know on Discord and follow Of Bird and Cage on social media to stay updated.

Of Bird and Cage is already available on Steam. Get it now!

Check out our other articles about the musicians working on Of Bird and Cage:

• Meet Snowy Shaw
• Meet Mike LePond
• Meet Tina Guo
• Meet Danny Worsnop
• Meet Rocky Gray
• Meet Ruud Jolie
• Meet Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal
• Meet Davidavi ‘Vidi’ Dolev 
• Meet Kobra Paige

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Snowy Shaw is one of the great and talented musicians who contributed to this game. What is his story? Why did he join the Of Bird and Cage project?

Snowy Shaw, whose real name is Tommie Helgesson, was born in July 1968 in Sweden. Shaw himself states that the first 20 years of his life were spent in “a passion and devotion for heavy music horror & superhero comics and playing the drums.”

Shaw considers his official “professional and public birth” to be 1989, when he became the new drummer for the Danish heavy metal band King Diamond. From this start, he went on to form Memento Mori with two other musicians, and joined Mercyful Fate while also working on a solo project called The Shaman. In 1994, Snowy also joined the one-album supergroup Ill Will. In 1996, Snowy began to really demonstrate that he’s not just a drummer, by contributing as a multi-instrumental solo artist on a tribute album to KISS. 

For those who want to categorize Snowy Shaw, you’ll find that he’ll have none of that: “…personally I don’t really care about belonging to any specific subgenre or categorization. I thrive on diversity; and I’ve noticed that I tend to grow tired and lose interest before too long if I only get to have one outlet and express one kind of emotion and attitude.” Shaw told Damnation Magazine.

In 1997, Shaw quit all the bands he was in to give his full attention to his own band—Notre Dame. Here, he expanded far beyond the drums and instead played the guitar, bass, and keyboard as well as doing the vocals.

Three years later, Snowy was asked to join the melodic metal band Dream Evil by guitarist and producer Fredrik Nordström. Snowy declined, but agreed to do some drumming for their first album Dragonslayer. Two years after that, Snowy changed his mind and joined Dream Evil and toured with them internationally. He continued playing in Notre Dame at the same time.

In 2004, Notre Dame disbanded and a year later, Shaw left Dream Evil to work on solo projects. Some thought that the different bands that Shaw played in influenced his solo work and music, but he sees it the other way around: “I have a pretty wide range of musical influences to begin with, which has been useful and come in handy when I have chosen to involve myself with all those various bands or projects…I’m not saying that I haven’t learned a hell of a lot from my involvement with all these bands, but my music taste and skill-set hasn’t changed or been altered significantly I think. I’ve just done it on my own terms and to the best of my ability.”

His career began to expand further outside of music and Shaw not only was a part of the symphonic metal band Therion, but was also hired to design and create stage visuals. “I’ve done quite a lot of props for videos, photos etc for Dimmu Borgir among others but specifically for stage it’s basically just Therion, Dream Evil, XXX and Notre Dame. And some stuff for Kee Marcello’s K2 and my old bands,” he told Metal Assault.

In 2018, Shaw released White is the New Black, his debut full-length album. “So, when I eventually reached the point where I should pursue my solo career, I opted to allow myself complete artistic freedom and not limit myself to do only one of those music styles and directions. I took it upon myself to create that kind of situation I had longed for as an ART-IST, which also meant that I had to found my own record & production company, Wunderwurld, and be 100% independent” he told Damnation Magazine. The album received very good reviews worldwide and was named “Best Rock/Metal Album of the Year” in five countries. It’s a great testimony to all of his skills as a musician, singer, songwriter, and musical composer. 

See more about Snowy Shaw’s music here.

Interestingly for a heavy metal musician, Shaw also published an autobiography entitled The Book of Heavy Metal, a 464 page mammoth of a book about both Shaw and the real world of metal music. Shaw himself describes it as “the story of a manboy who refused to grow up and give up his dream.”

It’s this mindset, one of constant curiosity and dreaming, that has been the driver of Shaw’s career. “As a creative artist I think it’s essential to never stop being curious and moving forward, in order to maintain the passion and lustfulness. Keep that child inside alive. I’ve been able to do so, because I’ve never been afraid to take on new challenges and follow the path wherever my heart leads me, I think.”

The vast array of things Shaw has done over the last 30 years has led him to be called a “worldwide underground superstar” with a reputation for being “one of the most hard-working, multifaceted ‘art-ist’ with loads of groundbreaking creativity and integrity.” according to Blabbermouth.

When asked about his hobbies, Shaw comes up a little short, realizing all his interests and passion in music. “There’s nothing in the world that gives me more pleasure than to write songs and create those little worlds.” he told Metal Rules.

Are you a fan of Snowy Shaw? Let us know on Discord.

See our other articles about the musicians from Of Bird and Cage:

• Kobra Paige (Kobra and the Lotus)
• Davidavi ‘Vidi’ Dolev (Gunned Down Horses)
• Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (ex-Guns N’ Roses)
• Ruud Jolie (Within Temptation)
• Rocky Gray (ex-Evanescence)
• Mike Lepond (Symphony X)
• Danny Worsnop (Asking Alexandria)
• Tina Guo

Join our newsletter and receive a free gift

The post Of Bird and Cage—Who is Snowy Shaw? appeared first on Allingames.

We’ve compiled a list of great games that don’t take entire months to finish. Some are quick finishes, some are ideal to pick up and put down according to your schedule without having a negative impact on your gameplay. In short, we’ve got you covered with the best short games.

8 of the best short games from All in! Games

Tools Up!

If you’re looking for fun, short games to play with friends, this local co-op game will hit the spot. Challenge your inner renovator by painting walls, moving couches, and putting down tiles in timed challenges and according to supplied blueprints. Join up to three players and watch everything go hilariously wrong in the blink of an eye. Level-based gameplay makes it a great short game to play with friends. When you’re done in the house, take your tools and friends to the garden in the Tools Up! Garden Party DLC.

Approximate time to finish: 6.5 hours

Get the game:

Paradise Lost

What better way to spend a little free time than to travel to an alternate time! Play as Szymon, a young boy who finds an old, World War II bunker that houses more than just military secrets. What makes this title one of the best short games is the ability to stop and start the game nearly anywhere you want without losing your place in the story. Careful though, Paradise Lost has everything needed to pull you in and make you forget about the ticking clock all together!

Approximate time to finish: 4 hours

Get the game:

Lumberhill

Lumberhill is a ridiculously hilarious and chaotic multiplayer party game that is perfect when you only have a bit of time on your hands. Though you can play solo, it’s a totally different experience when you gather up to three friends and play in multiplayer. Play in co-op mode as lumberjacks and chop down trees or gather sheep (or dinosaur eggs) together before time runs out. Or go into versus mode where some play as lumberjacks and some play as nature and both teams get in each other’s way. In short, Lumberhill is one of the best short video games you’ll find.

Approximate time to finish: 3 hours

Get the game:

Little Racer

This dynamic racing game is perfect when you want to relax after a hard day at school or work or if you’ve got a boring weekend on your hands. Speed your colorful race car solo or with up to 4 people over 130 different levels that include the desert, hot lava, and the sky. The simple controls don’t take precious hours to master. The level editor lets you make your own, unique racing tracks, which makes the time to finish this game almost infinite. Thankfully, since this is a racing game, you can pick it up and play whenever and wherever you want, making it one of the best short games for Switch as well as a great Switch game for travelling this summer.

Approximate time to finish: ∞

Get the game:

Red Wings: Aces of the Sky

Why spend time daydreaming when you can actually have your head in the clouds! Red Wings: Aces of the Sky is an arcade action game that puts you in the cockpit of a WWI fighter plane. Launch local co-op mode and have some flying fun with friends or join versus mode and try to knock each other out of the sky. With short levels and quick flying sessions, this is one of the best games to play in short sessions.

Approximate time to finish: 5 hours

Get the game:

Metamorphosis

In Metamorphosis, you play as Gregor who’s been turned into a tiny bug and needs to take an extraordinary journey through a surrealist world to unravel the mystery of who turned him into a bug in the first place. Simple mechanics make it super easy to learn and play so that you can spend your precious minutes crawling up furniture and meeting interesting characters along the way. Don’t feel like playing? Just listening to Garry Schyman and Mikołaj Stroiński’s haunting, award-winning soundtrack, available on Spotify, is a great way to take five. One way or another, Metamorphosis definitely ranks high on the list of great, short video games.

Approximate time to finish: 3 hours

Get the game:

Of Bird and Cage

If little time-outs filled with music keep you sane throughout the day (and, let’s be honest, life), then Of Bird and Cage is right up your alley. Play as a young, 25-year-old drug addict and watch your decisions influence this metal-music-driven narrative. The whole playthrough only lasts a couple of hours, but you can also pause and pick up the game if you have very limited playing time, earning it a place on the list of the best short games.

Approximate time to finish: 2.5 hours

Get the game:

Deadlings

Death had way too much free time and began “Project Deadlings”—training a massive army of cute little zombies. And now Death is super overworked and needs your help to lead the horde through a lab filled with traps and puzzles. Though Deadlings is one of the longer titles on this list, needing a whole work day to complete (this is not a suggestion), it has over 100 bite-size, short levels that actually make it a fun, short game to play.

Approximate time to finish: 8 hours

Get the game:

So there you have it. Whether you’re waiting at the doctor, taking a taxi to a party, wondering what to do with a free Saturday afternoon, or just frantically clutching on to the last days of summer vacation, All in! Games’ best short games will definitely level up the fun. 

Do you have a favorite short game? Is there a short video game on the list that you want to try? Let us know on Discord.

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LePond’s destiny became tied to music when he attended a Kiss concert as a teenager. Seeing the group’s bass guitarist Gene Simmons play inspired LePond to get his own equipment and take. After working on his skills for some time lessons for some time, he met Michael Romeo in 1998 through a mutual friend. 

Michael Romeo was the guitarist of Symphony X and was one of the band’s founding members. After two tough auditions, LePond was accepted as a permanent member. ‘I have stayed with Symphony X because I truly believe we are the best metal band in the world and I still get excited to record CDs and tour with them,’ said LePond in an interview for K.K.Downing. 

Symphony X is a progressive metal band, currently consisting of Michael Romeo (guitar), Michael Pinnella (keyboard), Jason Rullo (drums), Russell Allen (vocals), and Mike LePond (bass). The first album Michael LePond worked on with the band was V: The New Mythology Suite, released in 2000 with lyrics inspired by the myth of the lost city of Atlantis.

As for his other projects, Michael LePond also joined a progressive rock/metal band formed by Dutch drummer Collin Leijenaar and German guitar player Daniel Fries. The band released their first album, Harmagedon, in 2012. Connected to the belief that the world will end in Armageddon, the album puts biblical texts to music as well as descriptions of apocalyptic scenery mixed with themes of hope.

In 2014 LePond started another side project, the band Silent Assassins, with Alan Tecchio (Watchtower), Metal Mike Chlasciak (Halford), and Michael Romeo (Symphony X). The band released their first, self-titled album the same year, followed by Pawn And Prophecy in 2018.

The video game Of Bird and Cage is one of the most recent projects LePond has been involved in. It’s a two-hour-long story of trauma, violence, and madness accompanied by a powerful metal soundtrack. In the story, Gitta Barbot, a 25 year-old drug addict, tries to escape the physical and mental prison of her captor—Bres Lupus. Your choices will decide how the story ends.

Are you a fan of Mike LePond? Let us know on Discord.

See our other articles about the musicians from Of Bird and Cage:

• Kobra Paige (Kobra and the Lotus)
• Davidavi ‘Vidi’ Dolev (Gunned Down Horses)
• Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (ex-Guns N’ Roses)
• Ruud Jolie (Within Temptation)
• Rocky Gray (ex-Evanescence)
• Danny Worsnop (Asking Alexandria)
• Tina Guo
• Snowy Shaw (ex-King Diamond, ex-Therion)

Join our newsletter and receive a free gift

The post Of Bird and Cage—Who is Mike LePond? appeared first on Allingames.