Tim Schafer has released a trailer for his next downloadable game, Stacking, starring Charlie Blackmore, the worlds littlest Russian stacking doll.
Tim Schafer, the mind behind Tales of Monkey Island, Brutal Legend, and the recent downloadable game Costume Quest, is back with his next downloadable, Stacking.
The trailer, found here, shows that being the smallest stacking doll in a world entirely populated by stacking dolls isn’t really a bad thing. Charlie can jump into his larger brethren, taking advantage of their unique abilities. And these being stacking dolls, the whole idea is putting many dolls inside of larger dolls, something that Charlie will need to do in order to complete the range of puzzles featured in the game.
The player will be rewarded for experimenting with the different dolls, and most puzzles can be solved in a variety of different ways. Need to circumvent a guard? Sure, you could try sneaking past him, but why not distract him with a pretty female doll instead?
What seems interesting about this concept is that it seems to combine two ideas from several other of Schafer’s games. In Psychonauts, the player was able to jump into other character’s heads, while in Schafer’s most recent game Costume Quest, the main characters’ abilities differed depending on what clothing they were wearing, and different costumes were required for completing puzzles. Drop those two concepts in a food processor, and you end up with a creamy, delicious game called Stacking.
Another interesting facet of Stacking is that it seems to set a trend for Schafer. Costume Quest was a downloadable game, and Stacking will be as well. With Schafer’s reputation of making high-quality, well-written games that don’t sell, perhaps his thinking is that moving to downloadable games (which are easier to make successful) will help alleviate his long-standing problem.
Hopefully the game will showcase the wit Schafer brought to games like Psychonauts and the Monkey Island series, and based on the trailer (and, let’s face it, the fact that Tim Schafer is involved), the game will have a strong thread of humor.
The game is expected for release on XBLA and Playstation Network sometime in 2011.
Source: IGN
