JD: Yes they told us that it's their most visited game and the feedback from teachers and players is very good. RPS: We certainly wish such things like Questionaut had been around when we were at school. I consider our games as fully audio-visual-interactive pieces so the music is very important for us. He already knew Samorost1 when I asked him to create soundtrack for Samorost2. I felt that his music would be perfect for our style so I contacted him and luckily he was very glad to work with us. JD: First I had his album Pocustone at home and I liked it a lot. RPS: How did you first come to work with Tomas Dvorak? How important do you think his music has been to the success of your games? On the other hand the atmosphere is still slightly dark so it's in opposition to that funny side and that is interesting for us. There are some quiet jokes and funny characters, however we don't like humor at any cost. JD: We wanted Machinarium a little bit more funny. Can you talk a bit about the art design, and the reasons behind these themes? The artwork shown from Machinarium shows similar themes, but slightly more optimistic, with glimmers of colour, and cheerful-looking robots. RPS: The sombre atmosphere of the Samorost games perhaps came from the dark, worn organics and creaking, rusted machinery. Of course we are doing all graphic parts and animations in computer so we don't use scissors and camera, but most of the animations are done essentially similarly - frame by frame and very carefully. It's similar to puppet animation only it's 2D. JD: It's a simple classical animation technique when you paint all parts of character's body separately, cut it out with scissors and the animate it frame by frame under the camera. RPS: You've mentioned that the animations for the characters is a "cut-out animation technique". No more brainless clicking :) We believe the game would be a good tool for brain training. Everything is more logical and the player really has to think about the puzzle before he is able to solve it. JD: Perhaps it's not because the project is larger but yes, we are creating puzzles much more carefully now. RPS: Are you having to create puzzles differently? Also we need more patience as the developing process is really long and it's always difficult to stay concentrated on one project for such a long time. Therefore it's more complicated, but we have also more fun and the results are better. JD: Yes it is different, mostly because we put together bigger team and the communication among us is now a very important part of the work. RPS: Has the process been very different? We were also encouraged to make bigger game by the players of our previous games. In a bigger game is more space for creating story and atmosphere, and the player is more sucked into it. JD: It was my dream for many years to create full-length adventure with a little different graphic style. Why did you choose to go in this direction, making a longer adventure? RPS: We're very excited at the idea of a full-length Amanita game. Of course our hero must stop them and also rescue his friend robot-girl. In the game he returns back to the town and meets the gangsters from Black Cap Brotherhood - they are just preparing a bomb attack on the central tower where the town ruler has residence. Jakub Dvorský: Yes, the story is about a little robot who has been unjustly thrown out to the scrap yard, out of Machinarium, which is town populated only by robots. RPS: Can you tell us a bit about Machinarium? A poor robot's been thrown out of the city, right?
![samorost 3 questionaut samorost 3 questionaut](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d5/6f/f6/d56ff65108cdb66f2a88558995158911.jpg)
We spoke to front man, Jakub Dvorský, to find out more. Machinarium is their first full-length project, hand drawn and meticulously animated, about a city populated by robots. As well as the gorgeous Samorost games, they've also produced equally charming Flash games for the BBC, Nike and The Polyphonic Spree. Amanita Design have quietly made gentle adventure games for a few years.