Machinarium developer's adorably unhinged Chuchel gets its first proper trailer
"Stealing cherries is wrong."
Amanita Design, the developer behind such gorgeously, gloriously surreal point-and-click treats as Machinarium, Samorost, and Botanicula, has unveiled the first gameplay trailer for its upcoming comedy adventure Chuchel, due out next year on mobile, PC, and Mac.
Chuchel was first announced at the tail end of 2016, and follows the delightfully unhinged Chuchel as he embarks on a grand adventure to "retrieve his cherished cherry". Unsurprisingly, it just gets weirder from there: "Outsmart the Pool Monster, escape frenzied Pac-Men and master the bird race. Join forces with Chuchel's buddy Kekel and show the mischievous Chrchel that stealing cherries is wrong."
Polygon has managed to tease out a little more information about Chuchel directly from Amanita, and it sounds completely delightful.
Amanita's goal this time around has been to create an experience which is a comedy first and foremost, and Chuchel the character was specifically designed to resemble classic comedy movies archetypes. "He gets angry very easily," says Amanita, "acts silly all the time and it's fun to watch him do pretty much anything."
Chuchel will take the same basic form as the studio's previous point-and-click adventures, but will be far less beholden to the genre's traditional puzzle focus. Instead, Amanita intends the experience to unfold somewhere "between a video game and animated short films."
Amanita is choosing to focus on "the main character, humour, animation, and sounds" this time, rather than complicated puzzles which interrupt the flow of the story. There will be puzzles, says Amanita, but it sounds like these will be simplistic diversions that sit alongside more comedic "interactive gag" sequences focussed on "telling good jokes".
Amanita's output has been consistently wonderful over the years, so there's good reason to be excited about Chuchel. And based on everything shown so far, it certainly doesn't look like it'll break the studio's winning streak.