There's something alluring about the world of Samorost. It is at once both verdant and barren, creepy yet inviting, whimsical yet stately, and behind every gnarled old twig await untold enchanting surprises.
Plantage brings us another glimpse of this fantastic world in this short animation by Jakub Dvorský of Amanita Design. Set to music by Under Byen, Plantage is not so much a story as it is a solemn celebration of life and rebirth. View Plantage.
If you can't get enough of the Amanita Design team's work, there are a couple of screenshot teasers from their upcoming downloadable game Machinarium, available later this year. Fantastic!
Wow man, than was amazing. Angelic and beautiful stuff.
Wow, the screenshots from Machinarium look absolutely incredible. Samarost 1 and 2 are among the best online games I've ever played, so I'm pretty excited. I'm pretty sure Plantage is old though, I believe I saw it a while back. Maybe I'm just dreaming...
Rough translation of the Danish lyrics:
Dancing so quietly
In the empty halla
Nodding against glass
Outside the plantation grow
The low whisper of the tribes
The crystals edge
And time is crisp
A pidgin with a beating heart
When (you) stop and listen
To the dreams of the plants out there
Seaping in through the seams
And the fabric crackling to the floor.
Ah, Under Byen, legendry band (in my oppinion anyway) and the images go so well ^_^
heheh, I havnt been commenting round here much in the last year or so, but I have been here, just being quiet ;)
OMG! OMFG! These Amanita guys are driving me nuts with the sheer awesomeness and completeness of their graphics. And now with Björkesque musical accomaniment. Amazing.
Sorry about the missing screenie. It's fixed now.
lovely.
Hey Frederik, thank you for the lyrics.
(Denmark is a great place by the way. I love your kanelstang, and also the lavish use of icing on your pastries. Oh yeah, and there is a kagehuset in København that makes the best cake ever, worldwide. And now your bands are cool as well...)
It is absolutely impossible to describe what the Samorost games (and now this animation) do to my emotions. It's that indescribable reaction that tells me I'm experiencing true art. It's what I am constantly searching for in a gaming experience as well. What I love about this site is that there are so many other people who understand that. I can hardly wait for their next game.
That video has been made years ago. Anyway, music and visuals are really good.
Yes, Plantage is not new, but we've never featured it here before, so it's new to us.
And we do love to feature things like this, even though it's just an animation. It brings necessary color to our world, as dsrtrosy mentions (Thanks, dsrtrosy!).
And it does whet our appetites for more great things to come this year from Amanita design. :)
Maybe I'm just small-minded, but wasn't that supposed to be a game?
Nope, it's an animation. I don't believe it was ever designed to be a game, nor did we label it as such. It's a music video for Under Byen created by Amanita Design.
It's a nice animation but i'm dying for a new game from amanitadesign. I already finished both Samorosts.
The "Plantage" music was premiered online in November of 2004. But I hadn't seen it in a while, so that was great. Thanks for the reminder.
Anyone curious about the music should check out should visit Under Byen's MySpace at www.myspace.com/underbyen (as their website www.underbyen.dk is down at the moment). For more detailed info see the "fansite" at www.larsdideriksen.com .
The album from which "Plantage" comes is from 2002 is called "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" (It's Me Keeping The Trees Together) and is in my humble opinion a bit of a masterpiece. It was their second album of so far three in total. They also released some EPs. A new live EP comes out next month which actually has Plantage on it where the band plays it together with a bit symphonic orchestra.
When Amanita came out with this music video it was great to finally see a video when that came two years later. Felt a bit like a "remix" of a song one already knew very well.
Lars
Just 1 word.... wow....
I can't get to the page. Maybe it's too busy, maybe it's down. But you can get a (smaller) look at the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyFBXcjJjh8
Or just go to YouTube and search for "Plantage".
Kevin
have you played wogger?
I think when you find anything by Amanita for the first time you are comletetly blown away by the beauty and adorablitiy (is that a word) of the whole thing its like
an addiction and you are always left craving more
I cant fault anything
I agree Vieena. These games are amazing, but I always feel kind of empty when they're over, just because it stopped.
That was truly beautiful. I loved how the forest was on one tree.
Truly amazing.
I found that beautiful and moving beyond words. I think it just shows you how insignificant we are in the vastness of the universe, and showed it beautifully at that, with this tree and forest within each other metaphor that I have never thought of before.
The music was astounding, just perfect for this incredible little animation. When I clicked the link, I did expect just a tiny bit of interactivity, but I think that may have ruined it. The thought of stopping all of those lovely graphics so that we humble gamers can fumble about with clicking and trying to "get" the idea is just awful. I think the whole point of this is that you don't need to think about "getting" it, you just watch, you listen and it really makes you think what a wonderful world we have here, even though we as a species have messed it up.
Yes, I am also waiting in eager anticipation of a new Amanita Design game(aren't we all?), but for now this is enough. I shall now go and contemplate the meaning that I gathered from this. That's what else is fantastic about it. Everyone takes away a different meaning that they interpreted from it. Mine is the beauty of our world and the vastness of the universe, the idea of smaller worlds within worlds, as demonstrated here, perfectly as always, by Amanita Design.
And if you did bother to read all of this, I hope you can begin to think about what this amazing animation has meant to you. Like everyone else, I think that words cannot describe it. Thank you.
Woah. That was amazing...
I thought it was a game! It sucked that I sat through that, when I was hoping to play, but the pictures were nice.
To be honest i thought it was cute but the very end was a bit silly :-/
If you wanna see a really gorgeous "celebration of life" look up Sakura Drops on youtube. It's just spectacular.. the pinacle of gorgeousness. Maybe that's why I'm unmoved by this.
just wonderful but i didnt get a clear meaning of the video
Update