PAX 2009 is coming very soon, and in anticipation of its arrival I am going to be presenting an ongoing segment regarding Independent Games. Each article will focus on one game from the Penny Arcade Expo's 10 Independent Games Showcase. First up is the highly-anticipated Machinarium.
The name of the game evokes Steampunk-esque images of mountainous iron machines, with grinding gears and a dusty, barren landscape for the backdrop. In this case, the name has been aptly chosen. Even when viewing screenshots of this game it is easy to see why Machinarium won the 2009 Independent Game Festival's award for Excellence in Visual Art. Upon arrival into this dreary yet aesthetically stunning world, you take on the role of a little robot who was thrown onto a scrap heap. The art style appears to be Tim Burton-meets-dark-and-dreary-future, and it works...beautifully.
There has been a lot of anticipation for this game simply because of its visuals, but there is much more to look forward to. Machinarium is being created by Amanita Design, the Czech company best known for the Samarost adventure games. Samarost was created as a thesis project by Jakub Dvorský, who later joined with a few others to form Amanita, and their decision to make a full-length adventure game was to be based on the success of Samarost 2, which they released as shareware. As we can see today, Amanita has become the classic case of an indie studio that released innovative products and is now hoping to capitalize on their success by bringing on additional developers and releasing a full-length, nearly full-price ($20) game.
And what a game it is going to be! From the previous games we can expect Machinarium to be a very difficult, non-standard adventure game that requires a lot of thought. Based on interviews and hands-on previews of the game we know that you can interact with some objects only if you are close to them, so positioning (and being tall or short) makes a big difference. This is not a game where you are told exactly what you need to do and are all but handed your entire inventory, then leaving with so few choices as to what to do next that you can find the answer through random combinations of items and actions.
I am a die-hard PC adventure gamer at heart. I have been fondly eaten by many a moat alligator, I fell in love with Manny Calavera, and just recently I have become intimately re-acquainted with Guybrush Threepwood and his little hottie Elaine. While the old text parsers were highly frustrating, I can't help but feel that many of today's adventure games have gone to the other extreme and are just too damn easy. Unlike many titles that have "graced" store shelves over the past few years, this simple flash game has me bouncing in excitement.
From everything I have read and seen in the previews, Machinarium seems to be to adventure games what World of Goo was to puzzle games. A simple, point-and-click flash game put out as an inexpensive digital download by a (relatively) unknown developer that seems poised for greatness. The visuals, the music, the setting, and the gameplay appear ready to pull the player in and fully immerse he or she in our poor little robot's universe. This game is definitely on my must-have list for the year. It should be released in October of this year for Windows, Mac, and, according to the developers...Linux!
Want to know more about the finalists listed for PAX's Indie Showcase this year? Check out the post from The Baroness here!
Video from Amanita Design
Photo credit: Machinarium.com
