Machinarium released late last week to a wave of favorable reviews and fan reception. It seems every few months there is always that stand out indie game that receives the proper amount of media attention and fan tribute to really up the ante when it comes to developing indie titles. This time around, it was definitely Machinarium.

I was able to sit down with Jakub Dvorský, lead designer behind Machinarium, to discuss everything that went into making the game and what future plans (like porting to other systems) Amanita has in store for the little bot who could:

Geoff Gibson: First allow me to congratulate you guys on releasing your game. I enjoyed it tremendously and am only craving more now that I’ve completed it. Truly… Anyways, on to our first question; where did you come up with the overall style for the game? How did you give it that unique, slightly dystopian look but at the same time give it so much life and wonder?

Jakub Dvorský: To invent and create the final look of the game was quite long process. At the beginning we knew we needed a different look from our previous games which is also very different from most of the current games and match the world of rusty robots. We felt we needed something warm with visible human touches in it to create a contrast to the robotic world, so we came up with idea of hand-drawn backgrounds which are scanned and finished on a computer. Also animations are mostly hand-animated frame by frame, sounds effects were live recorded and music full of real instruments.

Geoff Gibson: Some previews pointed towards Machinarium being about discrimination. Was there any sort of philosophy embedded within the game?

Jakub Dvorský: No:) It’s just simple and a little cliché story which we tried to tell lightly and in a funny way. The story or any philosophy behind the game shouldn’t override the gameplay itself.

Geoff Gibson: How has the initial reception been for Machinarium now that the game has been released to the public?

Jakub Dvorský: It’s awesome – I didn’t expect so many nice reactions. I knew it looked good, but I was surprised that so many people praise the puzzles and other elements of the game as well.

Geoff Gibson: Machinarium was released on the PC, Mac, and Linux. Are there any plans to maybe release it to other platforms in the future, say iPhone or Xbox Live Arcade?

Jakub Dvorský: Yeah, we want to port it also to other platforms, but nothing is confirmed yet.

Geoff Gibson: Now that your game is complete what’s next for Amanita Design? Would you like to continue the story of Machinarium or begin a fresh project?

Jakub Dvorský: We have still a lot of work with Machinarium, so it’s too early to talk about next projects, however I have a couple of ideas in my head.

Geoff Gibson: Would you like to say anything else to fans of your game?

Jakub Dvorský: Thanks a lot especially to those who pre-ordered Machinarium or who bought Samorost2 in the past, because it enabled us to work on the game independently for those three years.

Geoff Gibson: Thank you for taking your time to answer these questions. We are all HUGE fans of Machinarium at DIYgamer.com and it was truly a pleasure to play your game.

So there was definitely some interestig nuggets of information in that interview, mostly that Machinarium is being planned to get ported somewhere and also that they aren’t finished with the world of Machinarium. DLC? Sequel? Who knows? All I can say is that I’m definitely excited to relive that experience once again

[This interview was lightly editted for grammar.]