Imaginarium

1/08/2013

Can We Put a Price on Imagination?

If we look at things that way, how much would you pay for a product of good imagination? Throughout human history, we’ve learned that most of the things that make us truly human came from creativity and, more often than not, pure imagination. From our earliest steps, when we were still children, we were building our own little worlds. Worlds only we could understand. Some of us grew up with toy cars, some with Barbie dolls, and some with imaginary friends... Some of us will never grow up, and will always remain children, at least on the inside. There are those who know how to share such important things with others, and for that, I’m forever grateful.

The ones to whom I owe a special standing ovation go by the name Amanita Design. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, I’ll introduce that team of geniuses a bit later.

Commodore 64
Commodore Cassette Player
Sinclair ZX Spectrum

I had the “luck” of growing up in Yugoslavia, especially during the time when Ante Marković was president, before our beautiful, big country turned into a race to see who’d join the European Union first. I’m not here to get political, this is just a reminder that we, too, once lived happily. Life was good.
My love for video games began with the Commodore 64. Before that, I spent countless hours on the ZX Spectrum at the home of my parents’ friends. Do you remember endlessly adjusting the cassette head and trying to load games by hitting just the right RPM on the tape deck? While I do enjoy trips down memory lane, I still prefer the modern era when it comes to gaming because it simply delivers unbeatable fun...

During the war, there was a long stretch without any video games, until I got my first PC and with it, the first floppy disk games. Some of them were so big they required several disks! Later came CD-ROM titles, followed by the first DVD-ROM games...

As a gamer, I’ve developed a pretty specific taste in games. I never liked first-person (or any-person) shooters, but I still enjoy watching my wife’s younger brother play them on his beast of a computer, with everything maxed out. Every time he asks if I want to try, I just wave it off.

Point-and-click adventures, puzzle games, and all the titles that defy traditional genres are what I prefer. Even though Need For Speed and Test Drive franchises have gotten a bit bland lately, I still make sure to check out every new release. I’d love to get a PlayStation or Xbox and really dive into the Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport series, but that’ll be solved very soon. Racing games are pretty self-explanatory, so I’ll focus more on the ones I mentioned at the start:

Need For Speed: The Run
Need For Speed: The Run
Test Drive Unlimited 2
Test Drive Unlimited 2
Forza Horizon
Forza Horizon
Gran Turismo 5
Gran Turismo 5

First of all, anyone who’s never played The Secret of Monkey Island has never truly experienced what real gaming is. That franchise is the very reason I fell in love with those types of games.

Secret Of The Monkey Island
Secret Of The Monkey Island

Another cult classic is Abe's Odyssey and its sequel. And the monumental masterpiece The Neverhood must be mentioned too. From the same era comes the legendary Grim Fandango.
To all modern gamers: maybe these games look silly compared to today’s blockbusters, but these relics are overflowing with imagination, unlike today’s highly polished but often soulless productions.

Abe's Odyssey
Abe's Odyssey
Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango
The Neverhood
The Neverhood

It warms my heart to know there are still wizards out there creating magical games for relics like me. Recently I discovered Braid, Limbo, and Trine (does anyone else notice the five-letter pattern in the titles?), each of them perfect in their own way, and great mental gymnastics. If you enjoy such experiences and usually avoid shooters where the only goal is to blast anything that moves, these games will delight you. I should also mention World of Goo and Super Meat Boy.

Braid
Braid
Limbo
Limbo
Trine
Trine
World Of Goo
World Of Goo
Super Meat Boy
Super Meat Boy

But back to those lovable lunatics from the Czech Republic, Amanita Design. Their first game is called Samorost and it’s incredibly sweet and free to play online. I suggest you go do that right now before continuing this post. It’s not going anywhere. Here’s the link to Samorost.

Soon after, they released a sequel, which was just as charming, but the best was still to come.
If you’ve never heard of Machinarium, go Google it right this second. And if you have heard of it, you probably just smiled in approval.

Machinarium is quite possibly one of the five best games in the world. What a fantastic world they created! When I play it, I feel like I’m playing something exactly the way I would have made it, if only I had that kind of creative energy in me. Now that it exists, it’s just… perfect. If only it were that easy to make a masterpiece like this...

Your jaw will drop constantly, especially when you consider the fact that it was made on a tiny budget of $1,000! I don’t want to spoil anything, I just want to encourage you to dive into this magical world and discover how brilliant it is. I’ll just say that the main character is a little robot named Josef (named after the man who coined the word robot). You can buy it on Machinarium’s official site (or download it elsewhere),  you’ll thank me later.

Machinarium
Machinarium
Machinarium
Machinarium
Machinarium
Machinarium

And the joy doesn’t end there: they’ve announced a new game this year, intriguingly titled Botanicula.

Botanicula
Botanicula

I hope this post inspires you to dig up some of your own childhood favorites and long-lost gems. Feel free to share them in the comments so we can all enjoy them together.

P.S.: Get the soundtracks from Amanita Design games too, each one is as delightful as the game itself.