Gamincs Blog

Machinarium is a puzzle point-and-click adventure game developed by Amanita Design. It was released on October 16, 2009 for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, on September 8, 2011 for iPad 2 on App Store (iOS) and on November 21, 2011 forBlackBerry PlayBook. Demos were made available on September 30, 2009. It was also being scheduled for a future release for the Nintendo Wii's WiiWare service, but as of November 2011, it has been cancelled due to WiiWare's 40MB limit. In March 2011, Amanita Design announced that Machinarium will be headed to PlayStation 3's PSN. Amanita Design are also preparing a port for Android.

Gameplay

The goal of Machinarium is to solve a series of puzzles and brain teasers. The puzzles are linked together by an overworld consisting of a traditional "point and click" adventure story. The overworld's most radical departure is that only objects within the player character's reach can be clicked on.

Machinarium is notable in that it contains nodialogue, spoken or written, and apart from a few tutorial prompts on the first screen, is devoid of understandable language entirely. The game instead uses a system of animated thought bubbles. Easter egg back story scenes in the same format can only be revealed by idling in certain areas.

The game employs a two-tier hint system. Once per level, the player can receive a hint, which becomes increasingly vague as the game progresses. Machinarium also comes with awalkthrough, that can be accessed at any time by playing a minigame. As with dialogue, the walkthrough is not in written or spoken form, but instead a series of sketches describing the puzzle at hand and its solution. However, the walkthrough only reveals what must be done in that area, and not how that puzzle relates to the game chronology.