It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Some games are made to make you smile, fall in love, and get lost in a magically created world, and few games can delight you like Botanicula.

Botanicula, a charming adventure/puzzle point-and-click, is available for only $9.99.

Little feather-fly, glowing nut/bulb, mushroom, fungus, and branch-guy--here’s the party of five little tree-friends that need your help to save their home-tree from evil black spidery monsters. On your way you will find dozens of tree-creatures: reimaginations of frogs, flies, bees, and beetles, all beautifully (and bizarrely) hand-drawn and animated. The whole environment is alive with chirping, buzzing and music. Actually, the whole environment is music--all your actions will be accompanied by symphony of chirps, tweets, growls, hums and gulps, all created by the band DVA, that won the game Excellence in Audio award at IGF.

Amanita Design, authors of Samorost and Machinarium, have created an adventure subgenre og their own: one where the exploration is as rewarding, touching, and delightful as the actual puzzle-solving. The simplicity of controls (click something when your cursor turns into a hand) combined with gameplay that encourages exploration (click everything that turns your cursor into a hand!) and brilliant ideas offer an amazing experience beyond regular point-and-clicks. You will want to find all the easter eggs before solving every puzzle and when you do, you will want to share this game with all of your non-gaming friends as an example of something that will delight and astound anyone.

[url=http://kotaku.com/5902784/the-splendid-botanicula-overflows-with-weapons+grade-joyfulness" target="_blank]Kirk Hamilton from Kotaku summed up Botanicula[/url] with a number of “100% true” facts. We found his summation so accurate we thought we’d include a few of them here:
* Botanicula is so adorable that it can only be controlled by picking up a puppy and moving its puppy paws on your computer's trackpad.
* Botanicula is so charming that it stole Julia Roberts away from Pretty Woman-era Richard Gere. He was pretty pissed but reported that he "couldn't stay mad at [Botanicula]".
* Botanicula is so clever that it snuck up behind the raptor that snuck up on Muldoon in Jurassic Park. "Clever game," said the raptor.

Botanicula is probably the closest thing to that dream you once had you never wanted to forget because it was so creative and fun. If you forgot that dream, get it back for only $9.99 now on GOG.com.
avatar
DaveMongoose: If GOG does give refunds then they'll probably have lost money overall, and the only people to benefit will be Amanita who got the free publicity and a cut of the sales that didn't get refunded.
I thought a refund means actually changing to a different game. If they actually can return money (can you? is GOG so damn awesome?) then it really sucks...
avatar
DaveMongoose: If GOG does give refunds then they'll probably have lost money overall, and the only people to benefit will be Amanita who got the free publicity and a cut of the sales that didn't get refunded.
avatar
theadam: I thought a refund means actually changing to a different game. If they actually can return money (can you? is GOG so damn awesome?) then it really sucks...
They better should be. Once the new EU legislation kicks in, you can demand a refund of a digital games for up to two weeks (of course, only if it is "unopened": no download/key given). But that will take a couple of years to come into effect...
Post edited April 19, 2012 by SimonG
While the whole indie bundle must have been a bad surprise for the folks of GOG, I loved the way they handled it - top contribution in the humble bundle! This is why I love and support you guys. I love Amanita games but they stumbled a bit with this one.
You could have publicly complained but instead you set out to get the best deal for your costumers and fans as I am sure you had a friendly talk with the folks of Amanita.
So, having already bought the bundle - they are also nice guys that I have respect for - and as I was already planning to buy Botanicula later on on GOG, I will do just that.
Dont forget that on GOG you'll get:
19 wallpapers, 35 avatars, 22 artworks, 12 character cards, 3 authors photo, 24 design sketches and now, thanks to the folks at Amanita and GOG, the soundtrack, artbook and machinarium.
It is still a great deal and a way to support indie games coming to GOG.

Thank you guys for all the hard work!

P.S. Theme Hospital Kicks Ass! Thank!
Doh! I preordered Bontanicula and already bought Machinarium on GOG. :(
Post edited April 19, 2012 by Barry_Woodward
avatar
Barry_Woodward: Doh! I preordered Bontanicula but already bought Machinarium on GOG. :(
Enjoy them I preordered both (not Machinarium from GOG of course) and the gmaes a gems. Shame about all of this but it'll get sorted, I have to say i'm really looking forward to this art book.
I also pre ordered, I like supporting indie developers (and Gog!)

I must admit I raised an eyebrow when I saw the new humble bundle advertised in my
email this morning.

The majority of my donation for the humble bundle goes to Childs Play, which I note isnt the charity for the latest package.

Therefore I am less inclined to buy it, so I feel I still made the correct choice in purchasing it on GoG. (I already own Machinarium and Samarost 2)
avatar
sbenrap: I'm really tempted to pay 0.01$ to the HIB and give it to a tree (yes, I know this costs them money, THAT'S the point)
I don't think HIB guys are to blame here; besides, they've done a lot of extraordinarily awesome stuff with all their bundles and attitude to gamers, and Linux & OS X support.
I also bought the Humble Botanicula Debut Bundle for the full soundtrack before I knew Amanita Design would offer it here for free tomorrow. *facepalm*
Post edited April 19, 2012 by Barry_Woodward
avatar
sbenrap: I'm really tempted to pay 0.01$ to the HIB and give it to a tree (yes, I know this costs them money, THAT'S the point)
avatar
mgol: I don't think HIB guys are to blame here; besides, they've done a lot of extraordinarily awesome stuff with all their bundles and attitude to gamers, and Linux & OS X support.
Both HIB and Amanita are to blame here (Amanita more than HIB), it doesn't take a lot of common sense to understand that having a pre-order + better offer on day0 release will piss off many of the people who pre-ordered (me included).

I usually pay above the average for the bundles, and will likely do so in the future, but this was a dick move. Period.

GOG are ok in my book and have resolved the matter professionally, they apologized for something which was not their fault and did their best to compensate all those who pre-ordered with extra goodies, even though they didn't have to.

Amanita, on the other hand, are NOT ok in my book, and frankly, anything short of an apology + HIB key (yes, including Kooky) to ALL who pre-ordered in BOTH GOG and GG will not return my faith in them. My next Amanita game will be bought in a PWYW bundle.
I heart GOG as much as anybody, but I'm willing to pay more for the HIB than Botanicula on GOG because they have a Linux package (I understand it runs on Adobe Air but still...)
A little post I made about this issue.

http://videogamepotpourri.blogspot.com/2012/04/news-botaniculas-release.html

Please point out any factual errors if you find them.
avatar
Aningan: I apologize if I came on too strong but I don't think you understand how GOG giving away games works. For one thing they don't actually own the games, they are a store, and as such they would need to pay the publisher their cut even if they give away the game in some competition or something like that. In some cases, such as Fallout or Broken Sword for example, they will have the publisher's permission to do it but obviously that publisher will still want to make money even while still being extremely generous so they are not going to send keys to everyone, they'll put up the offer and who gets it gets it. When they give away coupons for 5.99 or 9.99 they actually pay for the publisher's cut (and the bandwidth costs of course).
You really really don't make sense :) Sorry, I had to say that.

Amanita is the owner of Machinarium, so nobody is losing any money. Just GoG, that is paying for extra bandwidth. It's simple.
avatar
gameon: And people are still downvoting me. Thanks a bunch people. Maybe you want me off the site too?

I started today with 46 rep, its gone down to 44. Please dont punish me any more.
They downvote I upvote you so it is a balance :D
I'd like to add my voice to those of the people who are very upset about this whole pre-order thing.
I love Amanita's games, and had been often googling botanicula, hoping and hoping for it come out. Finally saw GOG had a pre-order. Great stuff! A chance to play the game as soon as possible. Then yesterday (release date), I waited the entire day in my time zone with the game still unreleased, and no comments from GOG or Aminita about what was going on.
During this time I also found out that the 'extras' GOG had weren't that special - for example the wallpapers are available for free on the Botanicula site.

Finally today I see that there is a fantastic, cheap humble bundle, with lots of Amanita stuff I really want, and even better Steam keys, which would be much more convenient for me.

I feel like I made a huge mistake using GOG,, and can't really see how they could make this up to their customers without giving them a fully unlocked humble bundle code, which seems very unlikely.

I'm not sure who's to blame, but the whole thing has made me surprisingly sad about supporting indie games.Especially as there were free torrents available long before the game was even out.
Post edited April 19, 2012 by Talafar
avatar
Talafar: I'd like to add my voice to those of the people who are very upset about this whole pre-order thing.
I love Amanita's games, and had been often googling botanicula, hoping and hoping for it come out. Finally saw GOG had a pre-order. Great stuff! A chance to play the game as soon as possible. Then yesterday (release date), I waited the entire day in my time zone with the game still unreleased, and no comments from GOG or Aminita about what was going on.
During this time I also found out that the 'extras' GOG had weren't that special - for example the wallpapers are available for free on the Botanicula site.

Finally today I see that there is a fantastic, cheap humble bundle, with lots of Amanita stuff I really want, and even better Steam keys, which would be much more convenient for me.

I feel like I made a huge mistake using GOG,, and can't really see how they could make this up to their customers without giving them a fully unlocked humble bundle code, which seems very unlikely.

I'm not sure who's to blame, but the whole thing has made me surprisingly sad about supporting indie games.Especially as there were free torrents available long before the game was even out.
GOG don't need to make anything up. They didn't make the deal with HumbleBundle guys. Amanita Studio screwed up and that is it. They need to A) Fire the guy who made that deal... B) Give him to the angry mob :D