Machinarium Dev Amanita Design Announces Its Next Game, Botanicula

Machinarium developer Amanita Design has announced its next title, a "point and click exploration" game called Botanicula. The game stars five "little tree creature" friends who set off on a journey to save the last healthy seed from the tree they call home. A trailer was released Monday, which shows a game rich in Amanita tradition: detailed art, an affinity for nature, and a natural (if underused) evolution of the classic graphic adventure game craze of the 1990s. This will be the first original game from the studio since 2009's Machinarium, a game whose accolades include the Independent Game Festival's Excellence in Visual Art award, as well as being named Gamasutra's own top indie game of 2009. The studio has been focusing on porting the game to other platforms, most famously to the iPad, where it debuted at number one in the paid charts last week. Botanicula is set to release sometime next year.