Machinarium

The goal of Machinarium is to solve a series of puzzles and brain teasers. The puzzles are linked together by an overworld consisting of a traditional "point and click" adventure story. The overworld's most radical departure is that only objects within the player character's reach can be clicked on.

Machinarium is notable in that it contains no dialogue, spoken or written, and apart from a few tutorial prompts on the first screen, is devoid of understandable language entirely. The game instead uses a system of animated thought bubbles. Easter egg backstory scenes in the same format can only be revealed by idling in certain areas.

Machinarium opens with an overview of the eponymous city as a disposal flier launches from the pinnacle of its highest tower. The player character, a robot called Josef (named after Josef Čapek, the creator of the word "robot" and brother to Karel Čapek) is dumped on a scrapheap, where he re-assembles himself and sets off for the city. Entering the city, he discovers a plot by the Black Cap Brotherhood, the three criminal antagonists, to blow up the city's tower. He himself is then discovered and locked up.

After breaking out of prison, Josef aids the citizens of the city, as he discovers the mischief which the Brotherhood has been working. Shortly after flooding the Brotherhood's room (leaving them incapacitated), Josef locates his girlfriend Berta, who has been locked up and forced to cook. Unable to free her, he works his way to the top of the tower. After he foils the Black Cap Brotherhood's plot by disarming the bomb taped to the tower, Josef reaches the highest room, in which the story began.

Machinarium was developed over a period of three years, by seven Czech developers, who financed the project with their own savings. The marketing budget for the game was $1,000.

The game was in development for the Xbox 360 platform for a period of six months; however, Microsoft, whom the developers had approached to publish the title on Xbox Live Arcade, ultimately decided not to do so. Microsoft does not allow games to be released on Xbox Live Arcade without a publisher attached to the title, and the developers were reluctant to approach a third party to publish the game, as this would mean that profits for the developers from sales over Xbox Live Arcade would be greatly reduced.

Machinarium was well-received on release; on the critic aggregate sites GameRankings and Metacritic, the game has an average score of 85% and 85/100, respectively.

In 2008, it won the Aesthetics award at IndieCade (the International Festival of Independent Games). It won the Excellence in Visual Art award at the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival and the Best Soundtrack award from PC Gamer in 2009. During the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Machinarium was nominated for "Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction" by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences; it was also nominated for a Milthon award in the 'Best Indie Game' category at the Paris Game Festival.