Music and Silence in Botinicula

"Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music."

Hamlet, Act II Scene 2.

Narrative in Botinicula is not told through words via the drawling exposition of the protagonist. Instead every leaf, every insect and monster bristles with emotion, life and characterisation. Embedded in this cacophony is a story about life and death shown through music and silence. Life is articulated as creativity which is fed to the player through the sounds and music of this beautifully orchestrated game. Every leaf that the mouse brushes over has a sound that tinkles, as though the cursor was itself an intergral part of the eco-system. The player's actions seem to breathe life into the game, which in turn becomes an instrument. Silence is death.

The protagonists are five small creatures, three of them are types of seed; Mr. poppy head, Mr. Lantern (he looks like a hazelnut or acorn to me), and Mr. Feather, ( a sycamore seed). The fourth critter is Mr. Twig covered in tiny buds and the final, Ms. Mushroom (marital status unknown, and considering that mushrooms can produce either asexually, or sexually this seems appropriate). The gendering of these characters is simply a tool of anthropomorphism, as little narrative is given to the relationship between the protagonists. Instead   these creatures each represent the continuation of life as they carry not only the desire to protect life but the potential to create, regrow and repopulate. In contrast, the antagonists are black spider-like blobs that pump life out of the trees wasting the resources to asexually produce a consumptive population.

As this trailer shows there are unfriendly creatures in the ecosystems, but these natural predators are contrasted with the villains which rot and destroy the trees themselves. The buzzing beetle articulates a natural hierarchy whilst the silent, stealthy monster spider destroys the ecosystem. The musical atmosphere which is so lively is replaced by silence once the spiders infiltrate. Botinicula's narrative is therefore nuanced enough to not articulate a moral world, but the only honest struggle; between life and death.

Saving the world can wait ^_^

The game's introduction of the antagonists, which grow bigger and bigger as they feed off the trees make the protagonists seem terribly small. Trapped in an already potentially hostile system, they now have to find the courage to fight the encroaching pollution. Essentially the seeds, twig and mushroom run errands for other creatures. Finding lost children or helping to power the hot air balloon that allows the other inhabitants to escape the now dying trees. Tiny actions, such as giving a family a seed to eat instead of a live chicken help in the bigger picture by pushing forward the friendlys' escape. 

In one room the player enters to find piles of dirt. When they are clicked, small shoots grow and produce buds. On the end of one bud forms a beehive, which pollinates the flowers. One of the flowers climbs higher and produces a landscape, and then a further flower becomes a mini hot-air ballon which carries a tinycreature up the landscape. Clicked on again, the critter gives the player a flower which leads to the completion of part of a mission. The room is a microcosm for the game, which in turn suggests that the seemingly random actions of the player can set in motion, and develop beautiful systems. Were I teaching secondary Biology, Botinicula would be on the syllabus. 

As the game pushes you into the darker recesses, the root system, a series of errands are created. Rather than instigating a final solution, these puzzles seem to suggest that there will be no escape. They offer instead small comforts. One creature has lost his trumpet, another, the small orb that brought him light. As the game grows darker, it imposes the hopelessness of the task. Even if I do find that trumpet, how will I ever stop the impending destruction of these myriad lives, all for the purpose of the growth and consumption of a single species. 

But we can just plant more trees! Right?