This game has topped my list for Most Anticipated Seriously Beautiful Game for some time now. Amanita Design is a small group of indie game developers responsible for some very cool, short point-and-click Flash games in the past: Samorost1, Samorost2, and Questionaut, which was nominated for a British Academy Award. Hell, they’ve even made a short little adventure for a band I’ve enjoyed listening to in the past, The Polyphonic Spree, which includes some previously unreleased music. In each case, the recognizable artwork is beautiful, the gameplay is light and engaging, and the accompanying music and sound effects are charming.
For a while now they’ve been bringing this same style to a full-length adventure, Machinarium, which is an IGF finalist this year for Excellence in Visual Art. I’ve been following along from afar, and every small snippet I’ve caught has been raising my expectations. Now some new preview footage is available, and it offers a juicy look into more of the artwork and gameplay.
Machinarium Preview 02 from Amanita Design on Vimeo.
For those interested in reading more, there was an interview with the developers about a week back on Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Or, just visit the Machinarium website for more vids and screenshots. I wish them great success with this game, and I’d like to see it win the Visual Art award at this years IGF competition. If you can’t tell, I’m looking forward to playing.
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2 Comments
I’ve been very much looking forward to this as well. I love how well they capture a mood with their work.
Yep, the audio and visuals perfectly compliment each other. It’s one of the big indie releases that I’m looking forward (so, in a few words: me too!).
The puzzles shown for the most part make sense, but having played Samorost, I fear that at times the game will transform into pixel hunting. Either way, it’s just too charming to dismiss.