So maybe, just maybe, pirates do have hearts. Amanita Design has sold over 17,000 copies of Machinarium in the past week alone. And the better news is that their sale is being lengthened.

The “Pirate Amnesty” sale for Machinarium has been extended from August 12th to August 16th, giving everyone a chance to snag that fantastic graphical adventure for a mere $5.

If you don’t realize it yet, this is a fantastic sale for a fantastic game. Don’t forget you can download the full soundtrack as well for buying it.

And if you’re a pirate, make sure to buy four copies.

Here’s the link to the official sale.

While there are plenty of great byproducts that can result from PC games, one of the always prevalent downers that a developer for the platform must take into consideration are pirates. More specifically piracy rates. These tend to run especially high on indie games which favor accessibility and openness to their would-be communities, and are generally void of any form of DRM.

Amanita Design’s Machinarium is no exception to the sad truth of piracy. The developer recently revealed that “only 5-15% of Machinarium players actually paid for the game.” Meaning up to 95% of those who played the game did so by pirating it. Instead of throwing a fit about the situation, AD has conjured up an Amnesty Sale, which offers a legal copy of the game which includes the soundtrack for 75% off its standard price.

They hope the low $5 tag gets some of the pirates to reconsider getting the game in the right way, though the offer is open to all through Thursday, August 12. If for some reason you’ve yet to check out the game, you’ll find that most everyone around here and everywhere else will tell you to go do so.

On One’s Own is a column about, you guessed it, independent gaming. The wayward wanderings of DIYGamer’s James Bishop might lead to probing art, gameplay, design, reception or a number of other aspects related to independent games. But you can rest assured that all things indie will be carefully considered on a weekly basis.

It seems like over time there are just some genres of gaming that fall by the wayside. Either new genres rise to take their places, old ones meld together to form an abomination or people just plain stop playing the games released in a specific one at which point developers finally realize it and stop making them. This is a normal cycle of things, really, and it should not surprise anyone when developers stop making games that do not sell.

Up until recently, this is, more or less, what I figured happened to the adventure game genre. The evidence was all anecdotal, sure, but even as an avid gamer doing freelance journalism the last true adventure game I had played was back in the middle of the 1990s. While I was playing Doom 2, networked with my brother, I would also occasionally dabble with Hugo’s House of Horrors.

Hugo’s House of Horrors, and its sequels, ran via DOS, had a command line interface and required knowledge gathered outside of the game to complete. If you weren’t aware of the name Bram Stoker, you were plum out of luck. Looking back on my experiences now, I’m a little surprised that it didn’t bother me that I had to jump through all of those hoops. Considering that I barreled through the original plus sequels, I suppose I’m even more stubborn than I previously thought.

But Hugo and his little misadventures would never see any similar titles join my ever-growing collection of games. Well, not until recently at least. As I have become more involved in the independent gaming scene, I have slowly rediscovered my apparently ageless love of the adventure game thanks to a little title called Machinarium by Amanita Design. You may have heard of it.

Not only has Machinarium been kicking around my PC, Telltale Games’ Sam & Max series has joined in the fun as well. To be fair, Sam & Max actually started the party but much like the cute girl you just can’t bring yourself to talk with I avoided it at all costs. I purchased the first and second seasons of Sam & Max back during Christmas, as they were on sale for the criminally low price of $14.99 or thereabouts. Machinarium actually came much later to my attention but was also picked up during a sale.

Machinarium was, however, the first of the two that I booted up. This all came to a head less than a month ago when looking at the various games I owned yet had never played. After compiling my incredibly huge list, I began making mental note of which ones were and were not considered indie. Have to build up my street cred, you understand.

Booting up Machinarium for the first time was like opening a box hidden at the bottom of your closet for years when you move: full of memories and cobwebs. The cute little robot inexplicably reminds me of Hugo, thus bringing on the nostalgia, and my return to adventuring form could charitably be referred to as “rusty” at best.

Though it scratched an itch that I no longer even realized I still had, Machinarium is still an adventure game. This might just be my own preferences talking, but logic and/or puzzle games still leave me rather unsatisfied when playing for long bouts of time. I am prone to becoming frustrated with a puzzle and just giving up rather than trying to work through it.

I would argue that’s a fair response to a puzzle game. Somewhere along the line, it stops being fun for me. Why play a game, especially if you’re looking for entertainment, when it’s just not fun any longer? And yet, I continue to play! Both Machinarium and Sam & Max see playtime, not much but some definite chunks, during my typical week. It certainly seems that both have something going for themselves that defies my somewhat irrational hatred of the perceived tedium inherent to adventure games.

Reading that last sentence is a bit of a puzzle in itself so let me attempt to clarify further: the game manages to make me want to play even though I don’t like the game. This effect is somewhat baffling to anyone who has never played either title. It’s akin to looking someone straight in the eye and explaining how much you hate how hard some of the puzzles in Braid were or how difficult you made them by not making the right jump at the exact right time in the correct loop of time. At that point, your hypothetical listener should look at you and respond, “Then why play?”

Maybe it is just me but my answer invariably comes out something like, “Because there is so much more here than just the game.” The game is just the mechanics beneath the surface. The game is how it communicates progress, the way in which we determine when we are done and how well we did. In the most common sense, the game can also be considered to be the humorous dialogue, the charming characters and the incredibly cute graphic design decisions. I would argue, however, that these actually function secondary to the mechanics of the game. Like water seeping from a tailpipe, they are a byproduct.

In Machinarium, I could not care less about fixing a little bucket designed to drop something I’d rather not contemplate too long down a chute or into a cart. In Sam & Max, I often get frustrated with the tried-but-true steps of speaking with Sybil and Bosco, two characters often important to solving whatever caper’s on the menu. Those are just samplings from both games where the mechanics, the means by which the game progresses, bogs down everything else that I like about the game.

I push myself through the tedious dental-related psychosis analysis—you read that correctly—because of the dialogue between Sam, Max and the various characters and props scattered throughout the scenario. Machinarium’s art design is simply a wonder to behold. There’s a reason it’s won awards for art direction—it’s simply gorgeous to look at. Any given screenshot is worthy of being a wallpaper of its very own.

Perhaps my problems, as illustrated above, are why the adventure game genre became synonymous with action/adventure and sometimes just plain action. God of War is a fun romp, mechanically and aesthetically, and doesn’t suffer the same pitfalls. Of course, it has its own Achilles’ heel but that’s neither here nor there. The point is that the adventure game evolved beyond Machinarium and Sam & Max’s brethren to something engaging in more than just a single aspect and has left behind, well, leftovers.

And leftovers are great! Even though my father refuses to eat them, leftovers remain a staple in my diet. Sam & Max (as well as a number of titles in Telltale’s catalogue) is a holdout from earlier times. It harkens back to the days when DOS was a common way to begin a game. The same goes for Machinarium. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just not for me.

You’ve probably been there too. Ever seen a movie where you absolutely despise the protagonist, antagonist and female lead but love the characters playing out just to the side of the action? That’s how I feel about modern adventure games. It parallels the hilariously-bad movie Twins. God of War and the like are the Schwarzenegger’s of the gaming world whilst Sam & Max is the Devito: it uses humor to compensate.

If you’re one of the many who have already purchased and/or donated your chosen price to the excellent Humble Indie Bundle promotion, check your email. Amanita Design apparently was feeling a bit left out and decided the best way to remedy the situation was to join the party late instead of never. Those who have purchased already will find a new email from Wolfire Games that contains a download code for Amanita’s excellent puzzle sequel Samorost 2, a nice extra gift to an already fantastic deal.

The title has been added to the whole bundle from here on with the offer supposedly ending sometime early this week (no actual end date was announced.) With how things are going–so far $678,000 has been raised in all–perhaps an extension is called for this oh humblest of indie bundles.

For those who have yet to grab it, what is your malfunction maggot? If you don’t have any money right now just buy low and donate later, I’m sure the developers will understand! Unless you own all the games and don’t have any friends who like an awesome gift there’s no reason for anyone not to participate.

Machinarium seems to be in the headlines a lot lately, and it deserves all the attention it can get.

This weekend we announced that you could snag the Mac version of Machinarium for free on Saturday, and sorry if you missed it. But around that giveaway, parts of the indie community cried foul that Macgamestore was taking advantage of Amanita Design by giving away their product without any compensation to the creators.

But shortly thereafter Macgamestore rebutted that Amanita Design would indeed be paid for all the licenses they gave away.

I emailed Jakub Dvorsky of Amanita Design and he confirmed that, “there was some confusion about that Mac Game Store promotion, but it seems everything’s settled down now. Yes, they will pay us for each downloaded copy.”

So in the end, it’s kind of a shame for anyone who didn’t snag the game during the promotion, as you were still indeed supporting independent game development. If you missed the promotion, there’s no reason to still not get a copy. It’s not that hard to drum up a few dollars for the game.

Spring Cleaning Contest!

Did you know we are running a kickass forum contest where you could win a copy of Machinarium, Shattered Horizon, or Aaaaa! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity?

Check it out!

UPDATE

This was just buzzed my way and I must pass it on for any and all gamers with a mac: Today only The Mac Game Store is giving away super-indie Machinarium. Just giving it away for free!

Even if you don’t own a Mac like me, you feel like you’d want to grab a code just to hoard it away like a precious gem you could never unlock–except by obtaining a Mac of course. The Store is actually offering something special each day for the next seven, though I don’t think they’ll all be free award-winning adventure games.

The offer only goes through today, April 24, so hurry you only have a few more hours!

It was a busy weekend over at DIYgamer, Erik’s post about Machinarium versus Microsoft really seemed to strike a nerve out there. We hope some of you who checked out the news stick around, as we have a lot to offer in the indie game arena when it comes to news, reviews, previews and interviews. And don’t forget our ongoing forum giveaways – we currently have two copies of Plain Sight we’re giving away at the end of the week.

My fiance and I have just begun the overwhelming process of packing up our apartment for our pending move to San Francisco. There is something extremely cleansing about throwing out and recycling junk you realize you’re never going to touch again. In the maelstrom of getting rid of things, I came across two things from GDC last month that I had forgotten about: papercrafts. I had two sitting in a stack of papers that I hadn’t yet touched. One for Warioware D.I.Y. which was all pre-perforated and snapped together within fifteen minutes, and one for Frobot, which I ended up spending more time on than I care to mention. But the end result was this dynamic, blocky duo:

You can note the scraggly cuts and rips all over Frobot, and the shiny perfection of Wario. On that note, while Warioware D.I.Y. is not of itself an independent game, you can certainly create games that perfectly fit our whole philosophy. Has anyone gotten to play around with it yet? A buddy of mine who works for Nintendo swears by the game and was trying to tell me about a text adventure he was creating. Sooner or later I’m finally going to have to settle on a portable gaming device to invest in, because I’ve been without one for quite a while. My old cell phone runs Tower Blocks, but that’s about as “game anywhere” as I get. Warioware D.I.Y. certainly sounds like it has some potential for anyone to create something, so let us know what you’ve been working on.

My preorder for Sleep is Death rolled in on Friday, and around midnight I got a text from a friend asking if I wanted to take it for a spin. I agreed, assuming that maybe he had learned a thing or two about playing it (this was before the first two tutorial videos were released). He hadn’t, but suggested just “diving in” might be the best way. It wasn’t, but I will admit that the follies of trial and error on a thirty second counter can be hilarious.The first run through as I hosted consisted of elements appearing and disappearing, failing to get and dialogue text to come out correctly, and after a few screens of chaos, finding the “The End” icon and calling the game. The second run was a little better, as at least I got the characters to talk and managed to move the same characters from scene to scene. I even managed to do some sloppy pixel manipulation to change artistic elements. But all in, it was still chaos. We finally got to switch sides after some IP issues, and I was less overwhelmed by the player side. My controller reacted swiftly to my dialogue choices. I literally spit out my coffee after he took my reference of escaping from a “swarm” and filled the screen with video cameras, which look like bugs, all things considered. Anyone watching us would have called it a failure, but we sure learned a lot. Now to find some spare time and get creating again. The preorders are closed, but you can snag two copies this Friday for $14.

This should be a good week over at DIYgamer. I talked to Zack Johnson, the creator of Kingdom of Loathing, on Friday, all about the state of the game and their new project in the pipeline. That will be going up in the next day or two. James wrote up a good column about the game last week. The two of us have been playing it for a long time. Other than that we have some XBLIG reviews coming up and of course, up-to-date indie news.

Feel free to leave any thoughts of your own here in the comments or over on our forums.

Update: Jakub Dvorsky has confirmed that everything mentioned below is true and that he was quoted accurately.

Original: XBLAFans is reporting that after six months of discussion Microsoft has refused Amanita Design’s award winning adventure game Machinarium for the XBLA due to the fact that they “don’t support games which aren’t Microsoft exclusives.” Meaning, available on other OS platforms than Windows as the game is available for both Mac and Linux.

The site claims founder and lead designer of the title Jakub Dvorsky informed them of the decision:

“Microsoft just refused Machinarium for XBLA after a half year of talking with them. They like the game and know it would be very successful on their platform, but they don’t want to support games which aren’t Microsoft exclusives. Machinarium isn’t, since we’ve also released versions for Mac and Linux. We have another option to approach some big publisher to bring the game to XBLA, which is quite absurd to do and lose maybe a large part of revenue because of that.”

Disappointing to hear to say the least. I haven’t heard of this policy before, and can’t come up with a case before this that can be applied. We’ve contacted both Amanita Design and Microsoft to confirm the facts and for any additional comment.

I’ve been meaning to post this for quite a while, ever since I first heard about it from Amanita Design.

Jakub Dvorsky, from Amanita Design, production designed the feature film of puppetry and it looks fantastic, with hints of Pan’s Labyrinth and even old Henson films like The Dark Crystal. It’s directed by Jan Svěrák and is supposedly due out in May 2010, though I don’t know when we’ll see a subtitled version hit this side of the water.

Here’s a little blurb about it along with the trailer:

Kooky´s Return (Kuky se vrací) is a combined puppet and live action feature based on a child’s fantasy. A seven year old boy whose teddy bear Kooky has been thrown away wonders what his toy is up to in the big world out there, imagining Kooky as he tries to find his way back home.

It’s not often that I can jump for joy at the nomination of an indie title which is surrounded by mega mainstream ones. In this case, our collective 2009 indie of the year strikes back by being a finalist in the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. These awards are presented by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. While most of the finalists for any category are mainstream titles such as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and so on, Machinarium has managed to snag a nomination in the “Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction” category.

Machinarium will be going up against Assassin’s Creed 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Resident Evil 5, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Congratulations to Amanita Design because we couldn’t agree more! Machinarium was a title that broke the barriers between indie and mainstream. Sure, we may have talked it to death over the last year, but there’s no denying its success as a deserved feat.

Who do you think should win out of those 5?