Samorost
Encyclopedia
Amanita Design
Amanita Design is an independent Czech video game developing company that was founded in 2003 by Jakub Dvorský. The company has made several Webby Award-winning games, as well as educational and advertising minigames and animations, all using Adobe Flash. Clients include BBC, Nike and The...
. The first game of the Samorost series, it was released in 2003 for free at the Amanita Design website.
Development
Samorost was created by Jakub Dvorský while he was a student at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, department of Graphic Design and Visual Communication in 2003. Although short and simplistic in its gameplay, its surreal graphics and memorable score made the game stand out.
The object of the game is to avert a collision between the gnome
Gnome
A gnome is a diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature...
's home planet and a large incoming spaceship
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
.
Samorost was nominated for the Webby Award in 2004 and the Top Talent Award in 2003.
Gameplay
The player interacts with the world with simple point and click interface directing a small, white-clad humanoid with a little cap and brown boots (called simply "gnome" by Dvorsky). The goal of the Samorost games is to solve a series of puzzlePuzzle
A puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution...
s and brain teaser
Brain teaser
A brain teaser is a form of puzzle that requires thought to solve. It often requires thinking in unconventional ways with given constraints in mind; sometimes it also involves lateral thinking. Logic puzzles and riddles are specific types of brain teasers....
s. The puzzles are sequentially linked forming an adventure story. The game contains no inventory
Inventory
Inventory means a list compiled for some formal purpose, such as the details of an estate going to probate, or the contents of a house let furnished. This remains the prime meaning in British English...
or dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
, and the solving of puzzles mainly consists of clicking onscreen elements in the correct order. Solving a puzzle will immediately transport the player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
to the next screen.
Aesthetics
The games feature surrealisticSurrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
organic scenarios, that mix both natural and technological concepts (often featuring manipulated photographs of small objects made to look very large), creative character designs and unique musical atmosphere
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
. Music tracks are available through iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
.
Soundtrack
A soundtrackSoundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
for the video game Samorost was written by Tomáš Dvořák for Amanita Design
Amanita Design
Amanita Design is an independent Czech video game developing company that was founded in 2003 by Jakub Dvorský. The company has made several Webby Award-winning games, as well as educational and advertising minigames and animations, all using Adobe Flash. Clients include BBC, Nike and The...
. It wasn't officially released on any format; however, it was ripped from the game by a fan and uploaded to the Internet.