The Falconeer was almost ‘The Dragoneer’ says developer Tomas Sala

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Fanatical’s interview with the dev behind the new open-world aerial combat game launching November 10th

Huge warbirds set the scene in The Falconeer as you take to the skies for aerial combat in an open-world environment – but your trusted feathered flight companion was almost a different creature entirely, according to the game’s developer.

In an exclusive interview with Fanatical ahead of launch, The Falconeer developer Tomas Sala explained how a mythical beast almost became the focal point of the game,  before he decided to use the mighty warbirds that you’ll see in the finished product.

“I think on Steam someone is asking for flamingos,” laughed Tomas. “Giant battle-ready flamingos. I did try dragons, it is a fantasy game after all, even though it’s got some hard sci-fi edges to it rather than magic missiles type fantasy.

“I tried dragons, and there are some still in the game as an enemy or as a ridable mount for allies, but at that time when I was still working on that part and making those decisions, Game of Thrones had just come up – I thought ‘everyone’s doing dragons’ so let’s try something else, it was that simple. I put a bird in and it just clicked.

“Dragons are cool – certainly, definitely – but giant flying birds has that epic feel, I don’t know why, but it has its own sense of epicness so that felt really natural. There are many other enemy mounts in the game, enemies ride giant beetles, giant flying eels, flying mantarays, and blimps – so there’s lots of different vehicles, and I did toy with the dragons of course.

“I toyed with the idea of making some of those [dragons] ridable, but story-wise it didn’t entirely make sense because some of those are really horrible enemies that you meet and the people wouldn’t welcome you in their port. But who’s to say that, for DLC, it would be fun to try something else – but for now it’s all ‘The Falconeer rides warbirds’ and it’s all bird focused.”

“There are quite a few birds that you can purchase in the game and unlock, some of those are more inspired by ravens for instance, there’s a really nice dark one. There are a few types of warbirds but they’re all the giant bird of prey style basically.”

The Falconeer is available on Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, and PC – grab your officially licensed The Falconeer Steam PC key from Fanatical now and save 15%!


Every game that you purchase in Fanatical bundles or across the Fanatical Store, is officially licensed and rewards the hard-working developers and publishers behind each and every title.

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