Borb the Birb

In all the hubbub around world events and the unknown future, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. When stress threatens to make you break down and give up, a kind word from a friend or family member can be just what you need to keep going. But, if your friends are unavailable and you don’t want to talk to family, you can do what I did: check out Borb the Birb.

Borb the Birb, by Ludonaut and available on itch.io, is incredibly simple: When you click on the screen, you’ll get a random animated picture of the titular character, with a random animated inspiring quote or helpful bit of advice above them, in random colors, while some chill music plays in the background. The arrow keys can be used to move the quote on the screen, which will rotate around its center if it bumps into Borb. If you press the spacebar, a picture will be saved onto your computer. If you click again, you’ll get a new image and quote to interact with. That’s all.

There’s not much to Borb the Birb, to be sure. If one were interested in the question, there could be a debate about whether or not it qualifies as a game or just an interactive software-based toy. Whatever you’d classify it as, I was surprised by how much it turned out I needed Borb the Birb.

Without going into too much detail, I was having a bad week when I discovered Borb the Birb. The kind of week that makes you afraid for the future of everything, and questioning a lot of things about your life. Here I was, in the midst of the most fear and depression I had felt in years, and there was Borb the Birb. There was this silly, chubby little bird, giving me compliments and telling me everything was gonna be okay. Empty platitudes, honestly. There was no way this thing, this program, could know everything would be alright. I still don’t know it will. But it felt good that someone, or something, was willing to say it. It was reassuring. It was pleasant.

I came closer than I’d like to admit to crying.

So, the question of whether Borb the Birb is a “game” or not is completely irrelevant in my opinion. I certainly think it is. Someone very likely feels it’s not. What it is, is nice. And charming, and sweet, and endearing, and positive. It’s exactly what I needed it to be when I found it, and that’s good enough for me.