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12 months ago
Feature: Batteries not included
Happy holidays! Time to see what’s in your stocking. Oh, it’s another copy of The Golf Handbook (Third Edition). And some toenail clippers. Great. No, honestly, that’s fine. It’s not like little Jemima over there is dashing about in her cool lion slippers, making you ache for an era of innocence and novelty that you can never revisit. And who cares if she’s clashing her…
3 years ago
Feature: Chill out
Navigate the gallery by clicking on the left and right arrows or use the left and right cursor keys on your keyboard! Real life is rubbish sometimes, and there’s nothing that video games can do about that. But I know that if I’ve had a particularly tough day at work, then sitting down at my PC and visiting a different world can often be exactly…
The makers of Samorost, Botanicula and Machinarium have announced a new game. It’s called Chuchel [official site] and judging by these two teasers it looks in keeping with the studio's tradition of odd games with even odder names. We don’t have much else to go on yet, however, just a couple of short trailers showing off what I’m guessing is the grumpy protagonist. Come and…
4 years ago
Feature: Get the bug
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. With Samorost 3 out last month, hopefully interest in creators Amanita Design is high. Perhaps you missed their utterly lovely Botanicula [official site]?
Feature: Organismic
From the team most famous for Machinarium, Aminita Design, comes the third game in the Samorost series. Don't worry if you've never heard of the first two - they were both tiny Flash games. Samorost 3 [official site] is a full-length, full-screen adventure that requires no prior knowledge. How does the adventure/puzzle game hold up at this scale? Here's wot I think:
6 years ago
Feature: Amanita on Sequels, Sound and Stanley
Just as night follows day, just as dog follows rabbit, just as Shia LeBeouf follows Daniel Clowes from a safe distance, a nomination for the latest game from Amanita will, it seems, always follow the announcement of another Independent Games Festival. This year, the makers of Botanicula and Machinarium are taking their charmingly odd, experimental puzzle-adventure Samorost3 to the show, where it's nominated for Excellence…
2015! That's an insane release date for a videogame! There won't even be PCs by then. We'll all have Google Glass injected into our eyeballs and iPhones surgically implanted up our bums and Microsoft Surfaces built into our toilet seats. That's definitely the future. Everyone will want closed, locked, tyrannical software ecosytems by then. Why, PC gaming has died 42 times this year alone, so…
7 years ago
Welp, I guess that's it, then. We can't escape it. The Steam Summer Sale's returned, but honestly, can you remember a single moment before it began? Was there ever a moment before it began? Maybe we're trapped in some infinite, Groundhog-Day-style loop of spending, obligation, and guilt. Maybe we'll never escape. Maybe this is the least threatening eternal hell loop ever conceived. But oh well, because…
The power of the demo! It's not that I didn't notice John's joyous effusions about Botanicula, heck, I had to fetch the mop and bucket from the cellar and clean up afterwards, but despite all of that I didn't actually play the game. Today Amanita have made a demo available, played directly in your browser at the website, and now I have played it. I…
8 years ago
The decision by Amanita to put out the stunning Botanicula as part of a Humble Bundle on the day of release sounds, at first, like a lovely idea. A brand new game in a pay what you want bundle? Amazing! Except of course for those who pre-ordered it at full price. Personally, I think the $10 it would have cost anyone is a bargain for…
Feature: Save The Trees
Amanita's Botanicula is out in one hour, and you're going to like it very, very much. But, er, we recommend your hold off on purchasing it until 6pm. All the pics in this review can be clicked on for full-size versions, which if you've any sense will be gracing your desktop immediately. I've played it through and fallen in love, and you can find out…
Playing the preview code of Botanicula made me so happy one of my legs fell off. So I'm delighted to report that everyone's going to have a chance to squeeze off their limbs with excitement on the 19th April, when the full game comes out. To commemorate, a new trailer has appeared, which you can see below. You'll likely lose a toe.
Onlive and the IGF are spooning for a fortnight. The sensual lovers are celebrating the Indie Gaming New Year by giving you access to 30 minute demos of 16 IGF finalists. The alphabetically sexy list of games is: Atom Zombie Smasher, Be Good, Botanicula, Dear Esther, Dustforce, English Country Tune, Frozen Synapse, FTL, Lume, Nitronic Rush, Once Upon a Spacetime, POP, SpaceChem, To the Moon,…
Feature: Amanita Design does the chat
Next up in our series of chats with (almost) all the PC/Mac-based finalists, it's the near-legendary Jakub Dvorský from Amanita Design, creators of Machinarium, Samorost and, soon, Botanicula - which is up for the Excellence In Visual Art and Excellence In Audio awards. Here, Jakub talks indie, experimentation and his answer to the most important question of all.
Coming later today, we'll be posting a chat with Amanita Design (Samorost, Machinarium) mastermind Jakub Dvorsky about new game Botanicula, the IGF et al, but as part of it he passed along a couple of mega-charming (I do like using the word 'mega'; it reminds me of being young and over-excited about new issues of Look-In) and never-before-seen new trailers that entirely deserve their own…
When pestering Amanita for our preview of Botanicula, they also sent over a collection of new hi-res screenshots for the game. And they are far too beautiful not to pass onto you. So below they are, clickonable for growth. Do so, because their reduced forms don't do them justice. I apologise for the forthcoming angst over which ones should be your desktop backgrounds.
Feature: Gargles and mouth trumpets
I've had my hands on a preview build of Amanita Design's Botanicula, a return to their origins of organic exploration, rather than Machinarium's more rigid adventure style. And I'm pleased to say it seems to be working so far. A broad, beaming smile is not a facial expression games frequently paint over my face. Botanicula's endless inventiveness, delight in intricate throwaway details, and ludicrous levels…
Aw, basically. This is the first teaser for a 'point and click exploration game' due from Amanita Design (they of Samorost and Machinarium) in conjunction with animator and sometime collaborator Jára Plachý, and it's really quite adorable. Also visually and sonically nuts, as is the Amanita modus operandi.
9 years ago
Feature:
Machinarium creator Jakub Dvorský was at this weekend's GameCityNights event, announcing not one, not five, but three new games to come from Amanita Design. We dispatched monocled investigator Brendan Caldwell to track him down and find out everything possible. Dvorský tells us how he plans to rescue the adventure genre, his views on piracy, and what we can expect to see in the new projects.…
