Game of Faune : How does Bug Fables transform a tiny bit of garden into a credible world?

When you were young, did you imagine stories about the insects you observed? Personally, I loved watching them, especially bees. And even though I still love observing them, I no longer attribute great adventures to them, any more than I do to birds. Everything is more logical now, some would say more sinister. And even though the child’s soul remains in this curiosity, it no longer indulges in such credulity.

But let’s take another moment. Imagine a garden. And in this garden, barely larger than four square meters, there are kingdoms of insects. Political intrigue, diplomacy, technology in a world where every stone is a hill, every puddle of water a river, every fountain an ocean. I’ve talked about this in previous analyses here and elsewhere (In french I’m afraid), but making a believable animal universe is often complicated, as developers sometimes have to bend reality for the sake of their world or mechanics. But unlike Endless Ocean or Alba, where animals are a pretext for adventure, the game Bug Fables, released in 2019 by Moonsprout Games, builds its plot and circumvents the notion of credibility in its universe through the use of its own basic material. More varied, smaller, but above all easier to bring together in one place, Bugs offer a plasticity that justifies the presence of species from different regions, with distinct customs, characteristics, and habits. While the reason for the existence of the world of Bug Fables is never really mentioned, the game leaves room for interpretation of an adventure taking place in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have disappeared. An overturned insectarium would have allowed all the species of Bugaria to come together, establishing the peoples and rules of the world.

Bugaria thus has a distant past, immortalized in numerous tales and legends, a recent past evoked in everyday conversations, but above all a present with its inhabitants, its Kingdoms, its technology, its economy, and its fiery political relations. These are catalyzed by the rise of the tyrannical Wasp Kingdom and the frantic search for the famous thousand-year-old artifact mentioned above, the Everlasting Sapling, whose power seems immeasurable. Following the chance discovery of a fragment of one of these artifacts, Vi, Kabbu, and Leif, our three protagonists, are commissioned by the ant queen Elizant to find the remaining pieces. The “ Team Snakemouth” must then travel throughout the kingdom of Bugaria to unravel the mysteries of the object, splitted between duty and suspicion.

If this premise, coupled with the paper aesthetic, reminds you of the Paper Mario series, that’s perfectly normal. Bug Fables claims to be one of its direct heirs, in terms of its narrative, pace, and structure. But never mind that, it is far from being a copy/paste of the Nintendo series, managing to transcend the original. Transcend is the word: Bug Fables, behind its cardboard scenery and seemingly simplistic intrigue, is indeed an exceptional game. While I won’t dwell on all the good things I think about the title ( buy it), one of the game’s great qualities is its ability to create a coherent entomological whole.

And it all begins with our dysfunctional trio of protagonists: teenager Vi, twenties Kabbu, and thirty-something (well, almost) Leif, who joins them a little later. Each character has a unique design, which I’ll come back to later, but also a distinctive color and personality that not only makes them instantly recognizable, but also allows them to evolve throughout the adventure, in a chemistry I rarely see in a game. It is through their eyes that the player will discover the world of Bugaria and all the synergies at work there, making them much more like ambassadors in the medieval sense of the term than explorers. The game is divided into chapters, each of which allows you to discover a new region and all of its systems.

For example, Chapter 3 takes Vi, Kabbu, and Leif to visit the continent’s technological hub, the Bee Hive. Its rather futuristic architecture contrasts sharply with the apple juice bricks that become houses and the forks that become makeshift bridges in the low altitude areas. Ultimately, little attention is paid to it, but the universe of the title is surgically consistent. If you’re curious, the telescope at the entrance to the Hive reveals the developers’ diabolical logic. A logic where plastic boats used to reach an island made of car Tires rub shoulders with the dubious readings of some, card tournaments and the curses of others. Some might say “easy,” but it still took imagination to come up with it and make it all believable.

The final touch of credibility comes from the bugs, of course. Mar, one of the game’s developers, is a huge entomology enthusiast, and his extensive knowledge has enabled him to flesh out his universe with numerous little touches of originality. It starts with our dysfunctional trio, with one small detail. Vi, Kabbu, and Leif all belong to different species. Vi is a Western Honeybee, while Kabbu is a Rainbow dung Beetle and Leif is a magnificent Iotaphora admirabilis, an Asian butterfly with no equivalent name in English. In reality, belonging to a real species was imagined retroactively for Kabbu and Leif, the latter being originally red. Speaking of Kabbu, according to the real animal that he portrays, it’s incredible horn can dug pretty easily on the ground and that influence the skill set of our character, in exploration and battles.

While some elements are simply design choices, such as Artis the secretary , which echoes the morphology of the Orchid Mantis, other details are even more subtle. For example, the game plays with Seb and Madeleine, Seb being a Cicada and Madeleine… a Cicada-Killer Wasp ! Later in the game, the Team Snakemouth will have to face a giant millipede, a mythical creature from the Far Grasslands. One of its attacks has the ability to poison you, a behavior that was discovered very recently and in a rather dire way when a 4-year-old child died after being bitten by one in 2014, while the 30cm insect was trapped in a soda can. One last anecdote: one of the other bosses in the game, the Tidal Wyrm, a genetically modified worm, was supposed to be a Sand Lion (or Ant Lion), but this didn’t fit with the karst environment imagined by the developers.

In the opposite way, the latter were forced to take considerable liberties by playing on the players’ suspension of disbelief. For example, one boss, a Peacock Spider, plays maracas, while the Madesphy (a type of Caterpillar) have been made even more hideous in the game than they are in reality! The question of their locomotion also arose, and bipedalism was ultimately chosen to represent the insects. Only a few remain on their six limbs, perhaps in an attempt to characterize a certain ancestry. But perhaps the most interesting example comes from diving insects, which have diving suits, masks, and snorkels. In reality, insects do not breathe through their mouths but through numerous openings on their abdomen called spiracles (not all of them). In other words, to be consistent, the developers should have invented a bubble system around the animal’s body, which would have made the player question about its function.

Of course, I’ve only told you a fraction of what makes Bug Fables exceptional, both in terms of its entomological treatment of its universe and the universe itself. It’s a clinical game in its approach, and anyone wanting to make a game involving animals should take a look at its example, without forgetting all the subtleties that another animal universe can involve. Doing the same thing as Bug Fables but with birds, for example, would require careful consideration of the differences in environments between species and the range of sizes, from the 5 cm Anna’s Hummingbird to the 3.5 m wingspan of the Snowy Albatross! And all that is without even imagining a coherent universe in which to integrate your animals and have them participate in a great adventure. Even without that, I recommend Bug Fables. There has been a lot of talk about Clair Obscur this year. It was my violinsless Clair Obscur of 2020. And I’ve been waiting since five years now for its replacement.

Oh and…Happy birthday, Bug Fables !! Time…flies.

And thank you to the wonderful Hisha to help me writing this paper. Hope you enjoyed it and If it’s the case, don’t hesitate to share it. See you next month ^^