Machinarium and Samorost2

Prince Toad · 12-25-2009, 04:13 PM

I'd just like to draw some attention to these beautiful little point-and-click puzzle/adventure games from Amanita Design, a couple of brilliant and presumably high Czechs. I got Samorost2 for half off, $4.99, due to the sale, and I think Machinarium is 50% off too, though I bought it before at full price for $19.99. They're short but the art is astonishing and the puzzles are pretty fun and creative. If you're into weird craziness I strongly recommend these, especially since they're on sale.

Kargath · 12-25-2009, 06:40 PM

Machinarium

Just a note that getting them from the official site gets you the soundtrack (you want this)

***Cosmonautical*** · 12-26-2009, 01:41 AM

Just tried the demo of Machinarium. Not too bad, but the lack of look functions or how the use cursor won't show up unless you're standing next to the spot in question can be infuriating. IE: I can't know there's a dial to control the pole unless I can tell the pole is mobile. I can't know the pole is mobile without knowing there's a dial to control it. I can't know that I need to crouch down to reach the dial if I don't know there's a dial. If I don't know there's a dial to reach, why would I crouch down to climb under that thing to get to the dial that I didn't know was there, that controls the pole that I didn't have any reason to think would move?

Prince Toad · 12-26-2009, 03:54 PM

Machinarium can be frustratingly difficult. Fortunately there's a hint thing built into the game, just click on the little book in the upper right. The one thing is that there's a reason to move to most places, or put another way, anywhere useless tends to be off limits. If you can go next to the little dial thing there's probably a reason for doing so. Of course there might be more than one reason to go to a certain place, it's not always obvious. So yes it takes a lot of patience, but most of the puzzles have good logical solutions. (Not all. A few are kind of dumb.)

***Cosmonautical*** · 12-27-2009, 07:23 AM

^Spoiler Below

To reach the dial, you have to crouch down and crawl under something that looks a bit like a boiler on legs. I tended to figure there might be something to do down that way in particular, but I can't read the minds of the developer to see that they didn't put in extra places to go just to stump me - or that I would need to go down there later. Nothing to indicate when or why I should be there, essentially. Besides, there's nothing to indicate there are usable dials on that panel, it just looks like the same junk everything else unusable does. Outside of random trial and error, there's really no reason why I would crouch down to shimmy over and see if there's any reason why I would fiddle with that thing. I didn't know I needed to reach it, so why would I think there must be a way past the boiler thing? Didn't help that I looked too damn tall, even as short as you can get.

That hint function wasn't any help, either. It just shows you a picture of how you succeeding in the last stage of the puzzle, not how to get there. I already had a clear indication of what needed to be done, they show you that simply by the animations prior to the puzzles.

Also, limiting puzzles to single areas as they did takes all of the puzzle elements out of it. Decent adventure games let you travel between different areas and do different things in the meantime, if you're confused. Not so with this, as far as I've seen.

Now, graphically speaking the game is decent. Artistically, it's phenomenal. Its resolution compatibility is very minimal, though, and it's dependent on Flash of all things. Not saying Flash is the worst environment for a game, but it doesn't compare to something that works in traditional resolutions or functions as a standalone program. Could've used some more variety of environments, too, from what I saw. Based on the demo I would not pay money for the game, though.

I almost think the answers are just too obvious, anyway, and the hints relating specifically to the answer and not the acquisition of the answer really pissed me off. If you get the items in the game before knowing the solution, that's not really a problem. Unless it's just a ludicrous solution (like attaching a rock to a balloon and blowing the balloon over a vine, then popping the ballooing with a thorn from a pricker plant and a reed, blow-dart style, which would then drop the rock onto a vine to loosen said vine so you can pull yourself out of the quicksand you've fallen into..... Ugh, that part of CoMI made no sense. Especially since I had a skeleton arm with glue all over it that I could reach the vine with easily... Or since I would've obviously had better luck just throwing the damn rock than pretending the balloon would stop floating just above the vine...), you shouldn't need a hint concerning that.

Prince Toad · 12-27-2009, 03:34 PM

The way I thought about it was, if I had to just randomly click around everywhere to advance, there was something wrong, unless when I found the solution I realized it made sense and I just hadn't thought of it before (in which case it was my fault). That happened a lot in Samorost2 but I felt it didn't happen, or very rarely happened, in Machinarium. I guess you thought differently. I forgave it in Samorost2 because the art was so damn awesome, but I didn't feel the need to forgive Machinarium-- and even if I had, like you seem to, the rest of the game (art, music, story/little flashback things) would have made it worth it.

I dunno. This isn't really worth arguing over. Obviously I liked it and you didn't.

***Cosmonautical*** · 12-28-2009, 01:11 AM

Yeah, I hadn't intended on making a big deal out of it. The game has kind of tossed out a lot of what makes adventure games fun, to me, is what I wanted to put across. Still intriguing, and the visuals are very impressive.

Prince Toad · 11-26-2010, 12:54 PM

Machinarium is five dollars right now. You should really buy it if you haven't already.

Robotazy · 11-26-2010, 06:38 PM

Click to view video.

Prince Toad · 11-27-2010, 01:53 PM

Yeah, the music is just as fantastic as the art. This is a game that should be brought up in "games as art" discussions. The story is also pretty touching, if simple.

12-25-2009, 04:13 PM	#1
Prince Toad Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Rookery Gender: Posts: 11,720 Thanks: 50 Thanked 65 Times in 56 Posts	Machinarium and Samorost2 I'd just like to draw some attention to these beautiful little point-and-click puzzle/adventure games from Amanita Design, a couple of brilliant and presumably high Czechs. I got Samorost2 for half off, $4.99, due to the sale, and I think Machinarium is 50% off too, though I bought it before at full price for $19.99. They're short but the art is astonishing and the puzzles are pretty fun and creative. If you're into weird craziness I strongly recommend these, especially since they're on sale.

12-27-2009, 07:23 AM	#5
*Cosmonautical* Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I rub my tilde all over your asterisk Gender: Posts: 28,100 Thanks: 2,151 Thanked 5,338 Times in 2,433 Posts	^Spoiler Below To reach the dial, you have to crouch down and crawl under something that looks a bit like a boiler on legs. I tended to figure there might be something to do down that way in particular, but I can't read the minds of the developer to see that they didn't put in extra places to go just to stump me - or that I would need to go down there later. Nothing to indicate when or why I should be there, essentially. Besides, there's nothing to indicate there are usable dials on that panel, it just looks like the same junk everything else unusable does. Outside of random trial and error, there's really no reason why I would crouch down to shimmy over and see if there's any reason why I would fiddle with that thing. I didn't know I needed to reach it, so why would I think there must be a way past the boiler thing? Didn't help that I looked too damn tall, even as short as you can get. That hint function wasn't any help, either. It just shows you a picture of how you succeeding in the last stage of the puzzle, not how to get there. I already had a clear indication of what needed to be done, they show you that simply by the animations prior to the puzzles. Also, limiting puzzles to single areas as they did takes all of the puzzle elements out of it. Decent adventure games let you travel between different areas and do different things in the meantime, if you're confused. Not so with this, as far as I've seen. Now, graphically speaking the game is decent. Artistically, it's phenomenal. Its resolution compatibility is very minimal, though, and it's dependent on Flash of all things. Not saying Flash is the worst environment for a game, but it doesn't compare to something that works in traditional resolutions or functions as a standalone program. Could've used some more variety of environments, too, from what I saw. Based on the demo I would not pay money for the game, though. I almost think the answers are just too obvious, anyway, and the hints relating specifically to the answer and not the acquisition of the answer really pissed me off. If you get the items in the game before knowing the solution, that's not really a problem. Unless it's just a ludicrous solution (like attaching a rock to a balloon and blowing the balloon over a vine, then popping the ballooing with a thorn from a pricker plant and a reed, blow-dart style, which would then drop the rock onto a vine to loosen said vine so you can pull yourself out of the quicksand you've fallen into..... Ugh, that part of CoMI made no sense. Especially since I had a skeleton arm with glue all over it that I could reach the vine with easily... Or since I would've obviously had better luck just throwing the damn rock than pretending the balloon would stop floating just above the vine...), you shouldn't need a hint concerning that. Last edited by Cosmonautical; 12-27-2009 at 07:43 AM.

12-25-2009, 06:40 PM	#2
Kargath et in Arcadia ego Join Date: Jul 2001 Gender: Posts: 8,334 Thanks: 1,226 Thanked 780 Times in 488 Posts	Machinarium Just a note that getting them from the official site gets you the soundtrack (you want this)

12-26-2009, 01:41 AM	#3
*Cosmonautical* Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I rub my tilde all over your asterisk Gender: Posts: 28,100 Thanks: 2,151 Thanked 5,338 Times in 2,433 Posts	Just tried the demo of Machinarium. Not too bad, but the lack of look functions or how the use cursor won't show up unless you're standing next to the spot in question can be infuriating. IE: I can't know there's a dial to control the pole unless I can tell the pole is mobile. I can't know the pole is mobile without knowing there's a dial to control it. I can't know that I need to crouch down to reach the dial if I don't know there's a dial. If I don't know there's a dial to reach, why would I crouch down to climb under that thing to get to the dial that I didn't know was there, that controls the pole that I didn't have any reason to think would move?

12-26-2009, 03:54 PM	#4
Prince Toad Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Rookery Gender: Posts: 11,720 Thanks: 50 Thanked 65 Times in 56 Posts	Machinarium can be frustratingly difficult. Fortunately there's a hint thing built into the game, just click on the little book in the upper right. The one thing is that there's a reason to move to most places, or put another way, anywhere useless tends to be off limits. If you can go next to the little dial thing there's probably a reason for doing so. Of course there might be more than one reason to go to a certain place, it's not always obvious. So yes it takes a lot of patience, but most of the puzzles have good logical solutions. (Not all. A few are kind of dumb.)

12-27-2009, 03:34 PM	#6
Prince Toad Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Rookery Gender: Posts: 11,720 Thanks: 50 Thanked 65 Times in 56 Posts	The way I thought about it was, if I had to just randomly click around everywhere to advance, there was something wrong, unless when I found the solution I realized it made sense and I just hadn't thought of it before (in which case it was my fault). That happened a lot in Samorost2 but I felt it didn't happen, or very rarely happened, in Machinarium. I guess you thought differently. I forgave it in Samorost2 because the art was so damn awesome, but I didn't feel the need to forgive Machinarium-- and even if I had, like you seem to, the rest of the game (art, music, story/little flashback things) would have made it worth it. I dunno. This isn't really worth arguing over. Obviously I liked it and you didn't.

12-28-2009, 01:11 AM	#7
*Cosmonautical* Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I rub my tilde all over your asterisk Gender: Posts: 28,100 Thanks: 2,151 Thanked 5,338 Times in 2,433 Posts	Yeah, I hadn't intended on making a big deal out of it. The game has kind of tossed out a lot of what makes adventure games fun, to me, is what I wanted to put across. Still intriguing, and the visuals are very impressive.

11-26-2010, 12:54 PM	#8
Prince Toad Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Rookery Gender: Posts: 11,720 Thanks: 50 Thanked 65 Times in 56 Posts	Machinarium is five dollars right now. You should really buy it if you haven't already.

11-27-2010, 01:53 PM	#10
Prince Toad Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Rookery Gender: Posts: 11,720 Thanks: 50 Thanked 65 Times in 56 Posts	Yeah, the music is just as fantastic as the art. This is a game that should be brought up in "games as art" discussions. The story is also pretty touching, if simple.