VIDEO: An interview with Lukas Kunce of Amanita Design
It's the week of the Game Developers Conference here in San Francisco, which means devs from all over the world are in town to show off their games, talk about how they're made, and throw business cards at strangers.
Lucky for us, Lukas Kunce of Amanita Design, creators of point-and-click classics like Machinarium and the Samorost series, was kind enough to sit down with me away from business card firing range. We had a nice chat about their most recent game Chuchel, what they're working on now, and the future of adventure games.
We also learned a bit about what the studio is working on now, including a horror game and another built of 3D scans of cardboard creations. For fans of fluff, we also discussed whether Chuchel will get the plushie treatment, what the hell the blockchain is, and brainstormed what an Amanita shooter would look like. (Hint: it won't look like anything.)
Your flapping heads for this episode:
You can find this eerie face on Jarom r Plach 's website, the only game project without a name or description.
During a GDC interview with PC Gamer, Lukas Kunce of Amanita Design, creators of point-and-click classics like Machinarium and the slapstick comedy adventure Chuchel (which is a riot), confirmed that the studio is working on four new games, one of which is the studio's first attempt at horror.
It's the most games the studio has worked on at once, says Kunce. "We usually had one game going on at a moment, but now it's four."
While chatting about the musicians behind Amanita's games, Kunce gave us a few hints about what to expect.
Yeah, it's like Chuchel is a full out burst of comedy, this is a full out burst of disturbing things.
Lukas Kunce, Amanita Design
"Right now, Floex is not working on anything, but he's probably going to start working pretty soon on one of the four secret projects, and DVA are working on another from Jaromír Plachý, who just finished Chuchel," says Kunce. "And he's already almost finished another game."
Jaromír Plachý is better known putting his creative energy into some of Amanita's more buoyant, pleasant games, but if he can do scary as well as he does cute, then we're in for some prime spooks.
"It's going to be a horror game, actually. Yeah, I've already played a bit and it's so disturbing," Kunce tells us. "Yeah, it's like Chuchel is a full out burst of comedy, this is a full out burst of disturbing things."
We should know more by the end of the year, but Kunce didn't want to make any promises.
The horror game will probably be whatever the opposite of this is.
When I asked if Amanita was always going to stick to 2D design, Kunce dropped a few details about one of the other three games in development.
"Well one of the games is played from the 2D perspective, but it's actually made in 3D, so we can probably say we're not 2D anymore."
He continues, "All of the assets and all of the buildings in the game and characters are made from actual cardboard and painted and stuff. And then they're scanning it into Unity and kind of animating it and post-processing it. It's got a super unique look."
You'll be able to listen to our complete conversation soon, in which we ask what an Amanita shooter would look like, whether Chuchel will get the plushie treatment, and what the hell the blockchain is.
