Roots to robots

It has been fascinating to follow the evolution of Amanita Design's work from the original Samorost 1 through to their latest offering, Machinarium. The first, while it introduced an innovative visual style and type of gameplay that inspired a slew of imitators, was formally little more than a loosely associated collection of hallucinatory set pieces. Machinarium, by contrast, is a much more mature and focused game. Samorost 2 was an important intermediate step, utilizing motifs from the original game and just beginning to rationalize that surreal, oneiric world by introducing elements like characters, plot, spatial continuity, and logical causal relationships. Machinarium takes the final step and brings us to a world that is solid and grounded, with rules and interlocking parts that fit together like — well, like a machine.

In Samorost 1, nothing was grounded — not even the ground.

It's like the druggy haze of Samorost 1 was already starting to clear in Samorost 2, and now with Machinarium Amanita has clambered out of the beanbag, combed its hair, put on a suit and tie, and gone out into the real world. Interestingly, the references to hallucinogenic substances that peppered the Samorost series (the name "Amanita" refers to a type of toxic mushroom, which is also the studio's logo) are largely absent from Machinarium, and the earthy roots, furry forest creatures, gnomes, and cosmic little green men of Samorost have been replaced by an industrialized metal cityscape of dive bars, jails, factories, and bombs, populated by rusty robots and hunks of junk, cops and crooks and gamblers and beggars. Is this what the world looks like when you come down?

The brave new world.

Paralleling this aesthetic evolution is a complementary formal one. Samorost 1's "click anywhere and things happen" mechanic has been gradually whittled down to a more traditional system of agency, and in Machinarium the player directly controls the main character, a charming tin-can robot, who walks, stretches, collects and manipulates items within his immediate sphere of influence. (Except for during the first two minutes, that is, where the player acts on the environment at large in order to bring the pieces together to assemble the robot in the first place — a final transition from the old ways to the new.) Gone is the out-of-body dissociative experience of Samorost 1, where the player's and main character's motivations were aligned, but their actions disjointed: the player operated directly on the environment while the sprite sat down and watched, with the player in the role of an unseen godlike manipulator, or maybe the world itself. It was the perfect gameplay model for what represented essentially a really groovy trip.

Sitting back and taking it all in.

It would have been interesting to see that mechanic developed further, but Amanita chose the opposite route and made the game world and mechanics more concrete, not less — and Machinarium is definitely the stronger for it. It's a rich, tightly-constructed game, made with purpose and clear direction. I would love to see Amanita — or someone else — go down the other path someday, though. It's perhaps a greater challenge to make a sustained, meaningful experience out of the whimsical illogic and disembodied agency that characterized Samorost 1. Can the player's sense of identity be even further shaken? Can the bounds of cause and effect be further strained? Can the resulting journey cohere and add up to something more than a succession of novel and entertaining images?

The first denizen of Samorost you encounter: a toked-out dude with his hookah.

Amanita seems to have shelved the hookah for now, and I'm glad to follow them out of the wild and into this exciting new urban junkscape. But I wouldn't mind going back occasionally into that wild forest, just for a little while. Just one more hit...

Machinarium is here!

Machinarium was just released on Friday, and it's bigger, longer, and better than anything Amanita Design has done before. It's got gorgeous visuals, an intriguing world, well-constructed gameplay, and a truly stunning soundtrack.

I'll elaborate on my impressions of the game in another post, but for now, I just want to remind everyone that it's time to go and play it. Go buy it now, or try the demo first if you really need convincing.

The Blue Beanie

The Blue Beanie is a new game by digital artist Daphne Lim, a student at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia, with music by Mark Holdaway. Inspired by Samorost, it's lovely new addition to the genre, a brief but beautifully executed piece with a gentle atmosphere of whimsy and woodland fantasy.

Thanks to Monalena for the tip.

Get your Machinarium now

Machinarium, the highly anticipated new game by Amanita Design (creators of Samorost), is due out in October 2009, and is available for pre-order now. Pre-ordering will get you $3 off the regular price of $20, as well as a "pre-order pack" containing a selection of hi-res images and mp3s from the game.

Art games and not-games

Echogenesis is an interactive flash artwork in which you are encouraged to explore and engage with a series of natural environments, moving tableaux inhabited by various creatures and suffused with smooth ambient soundtracks. There's no game, no goal, just the experience, like a pleasant jaunt through a virtual biodome.





Tale of Tales is a progressive development studio that fosters a gaming experience that goes beyond traditional mainstream genres. Emphasizing "innovative forms of interaction, engaging poetic narratives and simple controls," their projects tend to eschew competitive goal-oriented formats to focus on folkloric storytelling and the artistic experience.

The Endless Forest is a shared multi-user online 3d environment (it can be run as a game, and doubles as a screensaver) that exemplifies the Tale of Tales aesthetic. The world is an infinitely tiling forest which players are free to roam in the form of strangely eerie human-faced deer. Various items and locations in the environment produce various magical effects, such as changing the pelt or horns of your or another's avatar, and during special events the environment itself might become mutable, and experience transformations such as falling snow or a field of flowers coming into bloom.

Interaction with other players, who are identified by unique glowing glyphs in lieu of names, is entirely nonverbal, conducted in the cervine manner of head shakes, foot stomps, bellows, and nuzzles. Not only are you thus insulated from the possibility of encountering foul-mouthed trolls shouting "PwNeD, N00b" and the like, but people have tried and failed to disturb the tranquility of the environment: "it's impossible to grief the other damn deers!" lament a gang of Age of Conan PvPers, after all their hostile gestures are interpreted as friendly overtures. When there is no wealth or status to accumulate, nothing but the experience itself, there is nothing to threaten.





The Graveyard is not properly a game, but a kind of interactive visual poem using a game-like interface. You "play" an old woman hobbling slowly through a graveyard towards a bench. (Don't try to go off exploring on the side-paths -- as soon as I started my adventurer spirit got the better of me, and I soon got my avatar trapped in a corner off-screen. Stick to the path, lady.) Once you sit on the bench, you are treated to a song. Then you leave. That's the so-called "trial" version -- the full version, available for $5, is identical except that it includes the possibility of death.

With its painfully unheroic protagonist, strictly linear path, and moody, black-and-white visuals reminiscent of an old, distressed film, The Graveyard uses the gaming format to challenge the very idea of what a game is, and explores the possibilities of the medium as an avenue for artistic expression. The Graveyard is uninterested in setting you a challenge; it's telling you a story.





The Path and 8 are two more traditional games both in development by Tale of Tales. Based respectively on the folkloric roots of the Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty stories, they are conceived as story-driven adventures incorporating unusual gameplay features, such as 8's semi-autonomous main character who must be coaxed and guided rather than directly controlled.






Thatgamecompany specializes in games with innovative, offbeat mechanics that offer challenging gameplay in tranquil, pleasant environments.

Their breakout hit, flOw (featured here previously), the game where you play a simple sea creature continuously growing as you consume other creatures, folded a deceptively simple concept into an immensely satisfying experience. It was developed into a download for PS3, and has won numerous awards.





Their second offering, Cloud, which also garnered a couple of awards, was inspired by Katamari Damacy among other things, and features a unique game mechanic in which you fly around the skies controlling masses of clouds, in order to form particular shapes or make rain. It's a dreamy, exciting experience, offering a kind of wish-fulfillment for the longing to fly and a joyful, no-pressure challenge to complete.





Thatgamecompany recently announced their latest project for the PS3, Flower, which from the looks of the trailer will embody a the same sense of beauty and freedom as celebrated in Cloud -- perhaps this time with flower petals standing in for water vapor.





The Truth is What You Believe is an interactive flash work that invites you to "Participate in the world of Tom and Daisey", and promises "total consciousness on your death bed" if you complete it. It resembles a Samorost-style game in that you must hunt pixels to trigger events that will get you to the next stage, but the imagery is oneiric, poetic rather than narrative. It is essentially the abstracted world of a dream collage, where such basic logic as "keys open doors" applies, but otherwise all bets are off. More flash curiosity is to be found on the main site.





Tiny Grow is a charming and diverting little toy where you use a spinner to randomly grow alien plants and plantlike-devices, which you can then manipulate in various ways. There's no goal and no point, just some neat and strange things to play with.





Describing itself as a "digital poem/game/net artwork hybrid of sorts," game, game, game and again game is a kind of anti-game manifesto in an interactive, game-like form, in which the stated object is "move around, think." Executed in scribbles of pen and crayon, spattered with words and fragments of text, this game is a parody of a game, its pointlessness a shouted challenge.

Update from the Samorost world

No, Machinarium isn't finished yet. But it's coming along, and while we wait, there are a couple new Amanita side projects to explore, plus some other Samorost-style games from new talent (and some older talent I've never gotten around to linking).

First up is Questionaut, a game Amanita created for the BBC. Designed for 11-year-olds, it's an academic quiz game with questions on math, grammar, science, and so on, wrapped up in a whimsical adventure quest through one of Amanita's signature enchanted worlds. The groovy, chill music you hear is by Floex, the musical project of Tomas Dvorak, who did the soundtrack for Samorost 2. It's pretty and sweet and fun and maybe, if you've forgotten everything from school, just challenging enough, too.





The other project Amanita has going on on the side is Podvedomim, a flash art/local installation project that you can unfortunately only experience half of unless you happen to be near Brno, Czech Republic. If you are, then you can take up the challenge and go discover a series of interesting objects and secret spots in and around the city, like an Aeolian harp or a bit of sylvan sculpture; the rest of us will have to settle for interacting with them through the site's lovely flash app, which is a pretty good consolation prize.





Choice is a beautiful experimental flash art game by a student from Taiwan's Ting Lung University. The combination of strange, fantastical imagery and photography of abandoned and distressed places, with a moody soundtrack to match, creates an eerie, evocative aesthetic reminiscent of games like Gwen and 99 Rooms (for more on which, see previous posts here and here). It's a wonderful journey and not to be missed.

The text is all in Chinese, though it is not necessary to read it to complete the game. Should you desire, here is a translation and walkthrough. If you get stuck, before resorting to the walkthrough, you might want to first try clicking on the book in the corner of the screen -- one click will provide hints (in Chinese), and the second will reveal any clickable hotspots. One more tip: remember the number you are shown at the beginning of the game. Really. I wish someone had told me that. I didn't even recognize that it was a number.





Pricilla Gone Missing is a nicely executed game by Swedish designer Johan Törnkvist, the first of a planned multi-part series. A basic Samorost-style flash adventure with inventory puzzles and some very nice scenery.
Walkthrough at Jay Is Games.





Lenses is a short Japanese game in which you must craft and manipulate lenses for various purposes. Due to the language barrier, your task is not always clear; I found some help in a walkthrough, but I'm not sure if there's a more organic way to the solution. Gameplay issues aside, there are a few nice moments and elements in this quickie offering.

The latest in Samorost-style games

Things are looking good. First of all, there is a new project from Samorost creator Amanita Design: it's not Samorost 3, but a new game, called Machinarium. And boy, does it look good.

It's due in late 2008, and you can hang out at the new Machinarium forum for a dose of hype to hold you over until then.





I realize I haven't actually presented any of Amanita's non-Samorost games here before, so in case you've missed them, you'll want to check these out:

The Quest for the Rest is a promotional game created for the band The Polyphonic Spree, in which members of the band go questing for their missing fellows. It's a lovely little game, with all the ethereal beauty and whimsy of the Samorost series.





Rocketman VC is a very short game promotional game made for Nike, in which pair of scientists work to power up a pair of basketball shoes. Despite the un-magical premise, Amanita's signature style and flair make it worthwhile.





The Pantry is not a game, but an interactive toy. Play with the things on the shelves to trigger strange effects.





Now that those are out of the way, some games that are actually new:

Haluz Games, the development studio of Tomas K., who brought us the delightful Samorost-inspired Haluz (see my original post on Haluz here), is back with a nicely redone site and a splendid sequel: Haluz2. Samorost's influence is even more apparent in this game, which is a little less cartoony and more magical than its predecessor. Fans of Samorost will feel right at home among its photorealistic mossy, mushroomy landscapes (drawn from photos of sites in the Carpathian mountains), drippy caves, growing flowers and assortment of birds, bugs, and woodland creatures. Other influences the creator has named include Shift and Wogger.

Taking another page from Samorost, Haluz Games has adopted Amanita's Samorost 2 distribution model -- the first few levels of Haluz2 are available to play online for free, with the remaining levels and soundtrack available to purchase. The full game can be downloaded for offline play with or without the soundtrack, and the soundtrack is also available for purchase as a CD. (Unfortunately, there is no game and soundtrack CD package.) I bought the full bundle, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. Haluz is a worthy newcomer to the burgeoning Samorost-style genre, and deserves support. I'd love to see a Haluz3 someday.

Haluz2 walkthrough at Games on the Web.





Automaton is a very cool steampunk game that follows the adventures of a telekinetic automaton and his creator. Nice plot and scenery, and great steampunk atmosphere, including a nice historical montage by way of exposition. The text could have used a good editor, though. The game can either be played online or downloaded for offline play.
There is a walkthrough at Jay is Games if you don't like the one that comes with the game.
Via Brass Goggles.





Curious certainly is. It's a promotional game for the University of Salford in Manchester, and it's a nonsensical, kind of cartoonish photo collage of random events set vaguely in and around the Salford campus. Except for the pictures, it doesn't seem to have much to do with the university, except I suppose the spirit of playful discovery desirable in a prospective student ("limitless possibilities" is the tagline). Typical Samorost-style gameplay: help the character progress from one side of the screen to the other through a series of levels. It's quite cute. Just curious, is all.
The game provides its own hints, but you may want this walkthrough at Free Games News.

New in Samorost-style games

Turns out that while I haven't been paying attention, people have kept on making games. A lot of them. It seems that a lot of my old favorite designers have been cranking out new games in their series, too -- quite a few new titles I'm pretty excited to play. And I'm not even going to think about the room escaper situation. I have a lot of catching up to do.

It appears that one of my dearest and most favorite game categories -- that's right, Samorost-style -- has accumulated a more manageable number of new members since my last headcount, so let's start with those.

Haluz is a great new game by Slovak designer Tomas, made as a tribute to Samorost. Even the name is a nice hat-tip: similar to samorost, which is a Czech word meaning "a root or piece of wood resembling a creature" and also "a person who doesn't care about the rest of the world", haluz is a Slovakian word meaning both "tree branch" and "strange or dreamlike", from the same root as hallucination. Pretty nifty, eh?
You can read a brief e-mail from the author explaining the name and other things in the Haluz article at Free Games News. The game has its own walkthrough -- there's a link at the bottom of the page.




Gwen, which bills itself as "The Chinese Samorost", is a very nice addition to the genre. It was created by a team of four designers from Taiwan, and is referred to in some places by the alternate name "Hell". Sumptuous graphics, a pleasant ambient soundtrack, and lots of extra animations and non-plot-advancing things to click on and play with make this a very nice way to spend a few minutes. A journey through a series of seemingly unrelated locations decorated with Buddhist trappings leads to a brief, mystical experience of an indeterminate nature...I wonder if it means something.
There's a walkthrough at Free Games News, but you can also click the question mark in the upper-left corner of the screen to get in-game help in a nifty graphical format that avoids any language issues.




Wogger is a curious game, another of those that's clearly been heavily influenced by Samorost. The first part of the game is very abstract, and doesn't begin to make much sense until the main character shows up more than halfway through the first level. The gameplay is fairly limited and very linear -- usually there's only one hotspot at a time to click, and nothing else to play around with until you find that one little cluster of pixels. The very nice graphics compensate for this somewhat, though, and I love the surreal setting. It's pretty fun all in all.
Walkthrough at Free Games News.




The website of Japanese designer Hanamushi provides enjoyment and frustration in pretty equal measure. The games aren't new, but every time I tried to see them the flash apps wouldn't load properly, until today. This seems to be a recurrent complaint, so you'll just have to try your luck and hope for the best. Many times you'll see just a blank white screen that doesn't seem to be loading. There are reports that something will happen if you just wait -- that it's just very slow -- but I've never seen that happen.

The site has also apparently undergone a redesign since my last attempt, and now features an attractive flash interface, in both Japanese and English (vexingly, I can only get the Japanese version to load at the moment, so I don't know how easy the English site might be to navigate). In any event, here is a direct link to the flash gallery, where you may sample the following games:

First is a short and bizarre mini-game called Wheat Straw Girl, which I might call more of an interactive artwork than a game. There are just a few moves to make, which lead to a quick, somewhat inexplicable demise. But hey, the art is pretty neat.
If you really want to see it, there's a walkthrough by Shakespeare at the game's Nordinho thread (under "Game 1").




The real item of interest is the multi-part Pokku's Friend, which is a very nicely-executed game in the true Samorost tradition. There are even some interesting puzzles along the way, like rotating puzzle pieces and spot-the-difference games.

Here is my summary of the storyline as explained by a Jay is Games reader:

Pokku was a lonely boy who spent all his time alone, doing nothing and feeling nothing, when one day there appeared a horned boy who introduced himself as Tum, and told Pokku that they would be together for a while. Pokku asked how Tum knew his name, and Tum replied that he knew because they were friends. Pokku walked away, saying he didn't want or need a friend. Startled, Tum called out "wait up!", and ran after him.

Later in the game, Pokku and Tum are separated, and Pokku is confronted by a dark image of himself, who tells him that he doesn't need any friends. The image changes into a monster whom Pokku must defeat to save Tum.

Tum and Pokku are reunited in the end. When Pokku throws his hat off, it signifies that he has come out of his shell and opened up to the world.

Hopefully some knowledge of the plot will increase your enjoyment of this very lovely game. The walkthrough is also in that same Nordinho thread (the two entries for Game 2).




The next item in the gallery is not a game but a very cool flash animation called, as near as I can tell, Fantasy Girl. It's basically an extended hallucination, possibly a fable about the power of books.




The next thing in the gallery is I don't know what, and the last one, the one without a thumbnail, just looks like a playful piece of flash art, but I'm pretty sure that's it for the games. If you're having problems accessing them, you can also try the mirrors for Wheat Straw Girl and Pokku's Friend at Jay is Games.

Bird's Way certainly isn't one of the most challenging games I've ever seen, but it is among the most darling. In this cute Japanese offering you must clear obstacles from the path so that the little bird can pass and deliver a bone to a dog friend. Short and sweet. (See, if I were really corny I might have said something like "short and tweet," but that's just not the way I work.)
You really need a walkthrough? Here you go.




Sononamo is a basic Hapland-style game in which you must perform a series of actions in a precise sequence in order to escape the house. The game has a few notable drawbacks -- there seems to be only a single sequence that works, even when the actions don't seem to have any bearing on each other, and there's essentially no feedback. Plus the game seems to be plagued by quite a few bugs. I haven't been able to complete the game because the red man never walks through the window when he's supposed to, even though it worked on the first try. Some sound would be nice, too. But if you're into this kind of game, you still might want to give it a try. If this isn't your favorite genre, it won't win you over. You'll want a walkthrough, found at lazylaces.




Blast Off! is a cute cartoon game where you have to perform actions in the correct order to launch a rocket. Short and pretty simple, and fun.
Walkthrough at Nordinho.




Alfa is a decent stick-figure game in which you must overcome a series of obstacles in order to accomplish your deepest desire to get sucked into a whirling vortex of color, your monochrome existence apparently having become no longer bearable to you. Simple but nice.
There's a walkthrough in the comments for the game.




In Escape from Alcabrass, you must help a snail escape from an evil chef by clearing a safe path for him in three different scenes: the laboratory, the kitchen, and the sink. It's a nicely-done game with shiny graphics and wacky sound effects, and it's pretty fun.




Hapland fans, rejoice, for there is a new sequel out, and it is good. Hapland 3 is just as fiendishly clever and maddeningly complex as its predecessors, and perhaps even a bit more so. One of the great things about the Hapland series is just how entertainingly things can go wrong -- which is a good thing, because there are a LOT of ways to screw up.
Have fun, and here's a walkthrough at Jay is Games if you need it.




I've got a lot of gaming ground to cover still, so how about Grow-style games for next time?

Samorost 2, Chapter 2

The CD version of Samorost 2, containing both chapters and the soundtrack, is finally here, available at the Samorost Cafepress shop. As soon as I learned this fact I immediately bought it, along with a cute Gnome mini-button. Everyone should go out and buy the game right now -- support Amanita Design so we can have a Samorost 3!



The soundtrack was a nice surprise compared to the original -- it has twelve tracks and is a full forty minutes long. And the music, of course, is great.

I finally got to sit down today and play Chapter 2, which was wonderful but naturally far too short. And I was finally able to complete the second half of the walkthrough I started. You can view the whole thing at my original post: Samorost 2 Complete Walkthrough.

Seven new Samorost-style games

Previously: Six cool Samorost-style games and Even more Samorost-style games.

Since I've made these posts, more and more games have been appearing in this popular new genre. Here are the ones I've collected so far.

The work of designer Wada Che Nanahiro isn't all that new -- it's been among my favorites for a long time. Originally I was going to classify these as interactive eye candy, but I realized that there is more gameplay substance to them than that, and at least one of them is definitely Samorost-style. That would be TCB Museum ("Things Come up to my Brain," a great name), a whimsical house of wonders you must explore to recover five hidden stars. I love Nanahiro's sketchy nineteenth-century cartoon style, faintly reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's animations.
Walkthrough at the Nordinho forum.




There's also the Treasure Box, which is basically a giant puzzle-machine. Simply solve the puzzles to clear obstacles and allow the ball to progress through the box's Rube Goldbergesque mechanisms. Make it to the end to reveal the treasure. Both these games are simply delightful, and it's a shame I've taken so long to post them.
Walkthrough at lazylaces, btw.




There are two new games out by Kristjan Lutz (creator of Sangar Sabriina, Sabrina in North Pole, and Save the Kiddo). Cross the Cliffs is very short, and uses an unusual control system with different actions, "use" and "get". There aren't very many steps, but the interface is a little tricky, and you may have to resort, as I did, to this ten-step walkthrough (there's a link to the help forum at the top of the game page).
By the way, bonus points to anyone who can identify where the game's intro music was lifted from. I was quite surprised when I heard it.




The other is Indiana Jones and the Sacred Fortune. This one is quite nice. It's a basic, well-done Samorost-style game, with attractive graphics and reasonable puzzles. Some of them must be solved by dragging in addition to point-and-click.
There are walkthroughs for levels 1-4 and levels 5-7 in the game's help thread.




Puzzleland is an enjoyable game with low-key graphics and interesting puzzles, similar to Hapland or Industry. It's one of those where the order of your actions matters, and if you mess things up you'll have to reset.
Here's your walkthrough.




Small Forest Story by Japanese designer Watarigraphic is short, simple, sweet, and cute. There's not too much hard stuff to figure out, and some small furry animals and nicely painted speckly scenery. Play.




I suppose that Castle isn't really a game. Click on the landscape to make a castle and its surroundings grow out of the ground, and just keep searching for the hotspots to make the scene develop and evolve. It's really very charming. You can even play around with the intro while it's loading.
Via Ursi's Blog.




Up next: Text Adventures and Interactive Fiction.

Eye candy for your fingers

Or, in other words, "More interactive eye candy", as promised.

Castle Arcana isn't a game at all...it's just a delightful, whimsical, hand-drawn castle and grounds full of fun nooks and crannies to explore. Wait, I lied -- there is a hedge maze game. You can even go for a short drive or take home some souvenirs from the gift shop.




AOOA is a very interesting puzzle/game/interactive artwork. You are presented with a phone booth which you are told can take you to other places (not quite like the Matrix). Play around with the various objects in each level to reveal the number to your next destination. There's very little to figure out, so you mostly just get to sit back and look at the nice things.




TheHOUSE looks at first like another haunted house game, but in reality there's nothing to solve -- it's just a click-through spook-fest where you just find the hotspots to keep the shocks coming. With a suitably dark and grim atmosphere, and lots of jump-out-of-your-seat surprises (if you don't handle this sort of thing well, be warned!), this nicely-constructed experience should enjoyably fill a few minutes of your dark and stormy nighttime browsing.




This is a repost, but worth it. La Pâte à Son is a wonderful toy where you can put together pipes and different attachments to construct a music machine. Colorful beans are piped through the system, creating smooth, jazzy music in their various interactions. Apart from actually building the machine, there are plenty of options to play with, like bean number and frequency, and the quality of the notes produced. Great fun.




I'm not sure how to describe Opniyama. Superficially it resembles a platformer game. It's a huge, hand-drawn environment full of strange creatures and doodles, through which you must navigate by walking and jumping with the aid of a sort of grappling gun. Occasionally you will acquire seeds, which you can plant to grow into different kinds of plants. There seems to be no goal aside from the sheer pleasure of encountering odd and lovely things.




Next time: New Samorost-style games.