Your mission in Escape From Duckov: Waddle through post-apocalyptic ruins, scoop up loot, and get your tail feathers out of there. Avoid heavily armed marauders and toxic storms and everything will be just ducky!

This cute twist on extraction shooters (games where you search dangerous environments for resources to haul back to your base) pits your lone bird against a hostile world. Explore woods, warehouses, and wasteland towns for gear, then feather your nest with crafting stations that crank out everything from first-aid kits to machine guns. The farther you trek from your underground bunker, the better the potential loot—but the more likely you are to run a-fowl of foes who shoot first and quack questions later.

What we love: When well-laid plans go hilariously awry. Check just one more building before heading to the extraction point and you might wander into a surprise ambush—frantically reloading and bandaging your wounds as you flee honking bandits. Escaping by the skin of your beak is a hoot!

Quick tip: You can’t duck bullets, so prioritize finding (and maintaining) a good helmet to protect your crested noggin. Then work on nabbing a military-style headset from a loot chest or fallen foe—it’ll let you hear enemies before you can see them.

Meet the creator: Escape From Duckov was hatched by Team Soda, a four-person studio that’s part of Shanghai-based video platform Bilibili. The game’s producer, Jeff Chen, has played more than 1,400 hours of the multiplayer extraction shooter Escape From Tarkov, the inspiration for Duckov’s cheeky name.

More must-play Mac games: