Stacking (video game)
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''Stacking'' is an
adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
puzzle A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed by
Double Fine Productions Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American First-party developer, first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double ...
and published by
THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initial ...
; like Double Fine's previous ''
Costume Quest ''Costume Quest'' is a party-based role-playing video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ on October 19, 2010. In the game, the player controls a child who is trick-or-treating with their twin on Halloween night when th ...
'', it is a smaller title created during the development period of ''
Brütal Legend ''Brütal Legend'' is an action-adventure video game with real-time strategy game elements created by Double Fine and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was released during October 2009 in North America, E ...
'', and was released in February 2011 for the
Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
and
PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
video game consoles. A
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version was released on March 6, 2012. A
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
version was released in May 2013. The game is based on the Russian stacking
matryoshka doll Matryoshka dolls ( ; rus, матрёшка, p=mɐˈtrʲɵʂkə, a=Ru-матрёшка.ogg), also known as stacking dolls, nesting dolls, Russian tea dolls, or Russian dolls, are a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside ano ...
s, an idea coined by Double Fine's art director, Lee Petty, who saw the dolls as a means to replace the standard player interface used in graphical adventure games. The player controls the smallest doll, Charlie Blackmore, who has the ability to stack and unstack into larger dolls and use their abilities to solve puzzles to allow Charlie to free his older siblings and put an end to child labor enforced by the antagonist, the Baron. Puzzles within the game have multiple solutions, and include additional puzzles and challenges that allow the player to explore the game's world outside of the main story. ''Stacking'' was well received by critics and praised for its alluring appearance, humorous story, and accessible gameplay for casual players.


Plot

Set in a fictional version of the industrial age, the story begins with William Blackmore, a professional
chimney sweep A chimney sweep is a person who clears soot and creosote from chimneys. The chimney uses the pressure difference caused by a hot column of gas to create a draught and draw air over the hot coals or wood enabling continued combustion. Chimneys ...
, leaving his family to take a job under a powerful industrialist, the
Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...
. A few months later, with William having failed to return and the family deep in debt, the four Blackmore children (Albert, Agatha, Abigail, and Archibald) are forced into
apprenticeships Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
by the Baron's agents, leaving the youngest, Charlie, alone with his mother Agnes. A few weeks later, a pigeon arrives with a letter from Albert, who reveals that the Baron has split up him and his siblings, forcing them to work as slaves. Charlie subsequently sets out to rescue them, recruiting a friendly hobo named Levi to help him set up a hideout in an abandoned section of the Royal Train Station, where a strike has forced the station's management to use Albert and other children as
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...
shovelers. Charlie sets up a meeting between the strike leader and representatives from the Train Guild, breaking the strike and freeing Albert. Another letter, this time from Agatha, then leads him to the Baron's private cruise ship, the ''Commodore Perry'', which is currently embarked on a never-ending voyage. By turning a small group of wealthy and influential passengers aboard the ''Perry'' against the ship's captain, Charlie forces him to return to shore, allowing Agatha to return home. A third letter leads Charlie to slip aboard a massive
zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...
hosting an international summit on whether or not to ban the use of child labor, which the Baron has rigged by abducting the ambassadors opposed to him. Charlie frees them and they manage to pass a formal ban, but the Baron subsequently orders his men to overload the zeppelin, intending to kill the delegates in a staged "accident". With the help of Abigail, who he rescued earlier, Charlie and the ambassadors fix the damage and save the zeppelin before it crashes. In an attempt to win back the public's trust, the Baron announces plans to send all of his former child laborers on an all-expenses paid vacation using his newly-constructed private
train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...
. However, the whole thing turns out to be a trap; the Baron and his stockholders intend to transport the children to an offshore factory, outside of international jurisdiction. Furthermore, the entire Blackmore family has been taken hostage, watched over by the Baron's henchmen, the Generals. Charlie manages to subdue them individually and free his family, including his father. Unfortunately, they are unable to stop the train before it reaches its destination, and the Baron reveals his true plan: to turn the factory into an
artificial island An artificial island is an island that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means. Artificial islands may vary in size from small islets reclaimed solely to support a single pillar of a building or structure to those tha ...
and sell the children as a cheap labor force. Together with his family and friends, Charlie strips away the Baron's layers until they are both the same size. The Baron summons guards to assist him, but Levi and his hobo cousins show up in a makeshift
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
and defeat them. Charlie and the Baron then confront each other in a final duel of
rock-paper-scissors Rock paper scissors (also known by other orderings of the three items, with "rock" sometimes being called "stone," or as Rochambeau, roshambo, or ro-sham-bo) is a hand game originating in China, usually played between two people, in which each p ...
, ending with the Baron being thrown into a pit filled with captive orphans who tear him into pieces, leaving behind only his
monocle A monocle is a type of corrective lens used to correct or enhance the visual perception in only one eye. It consists of a circular lens, generally with a wire ring around the circumference that can be attached to a string or wire. The other ...
and top hat. Upon returning home, William takes a better-paying job, finally freeing the Blackmore family from poverty.


Gameplay

The player controls the smallest doll, Charlie Blackmore, who is attempting to reunite his family that is being forced to work for an evil industrialist named The Baron. Charlie is able to jump inside dolls that are one size larger than he and control them, as long as the larger doll is facing away from him. If the player already controls a stack of dolls, that stack can jump into a one-size-larger doll as well. The player can also unstack the dolls at any time in order to enter dolls smaller than his current stack. Certain unique dolls, outside of Charlie, have their own special abilities—such as the ability to unlock doors, float to higher locations, or lure other dolls around, which can be used by the outermost doll. Thus, the player must stack and unstack the set of dolls possessed by Charlie to solve puzzles throughout the game. Later puzzles may require the use of multiple dolls to combine their skills. The various challenges for each mission contain multiple solutions, with rewards offered for finding all of them. For example; in a challenge where the player must clear out a lounge of rich people, players can either sneak in a poorly dressed man into the party, or have another character flatulate into an air vent to clear everyone out. There are also rewards for completing side missions, discovering unique dolls, finding and stacking a matching set of dolls and performing "Hi-jinks" with certain dolls. Along with achievements and trophies, rewards can be viewed via dioramas constructed by Charlie's hobo friend, Levi.


Development

''Stacking'' is the second game, following ''
Costume Quest ''Costume Quest'' is a party-based role-playing video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ on October 19, 2010. In the game, the player controls a child who is trick-or-treating with their twin on Halloween night when th ...
'', to come from Double Fine that was initially created during an "Amnesia Fortnight" event during ''
Brütal Legend ''Brütal Legend'' is an action-adventure video game with real-time strategy game elements created by Double Fine and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was released during October 2009 in North America, E ...
''s development period. Tim Schafer had used the Fortnight during a time where the fate of ''Brütal Legend''s publication was unclear, dividing the company into four teams to prototype smaller games. The game's creator and project lead is Lee Petty, who had been the art director for ''Brütal Legend''. Petty had wanted to create a contemporary
adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...
, maintaining the characters and stories while reinventing the normal
point-and-click Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and cli ...
interface used for such games. After observing his daughter playing with
matryoshka doll Matryoshka dolls ( ; rus, матрёшка, p=mɐˈtrʲɵʂkə, a=Ru-матрёшка.ogg), also known as stacking dolls, nesting dolls, Russian tea dolls, or Russian dolls, are a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside ano ...
s, he realized that the dolls themselves could be the characters, the inventory, and the action verbs at the same time. Petty and Schafer later reflected that the use of dolls, a common toy, would help to make the game appealing to the casual player, as they would quickly understand the mechanics of stacking and unstacking, while still having an allure for hardcore players with deeper gameplay mechanics. The idea of using these dolls would later be of benefit in production, as the basic structure of the doll model in the game's engine could easily be reused for the more than one hundred unique dolls within the game. Schafer assisted in helping Petty to write the game's story and to design some of the puzzles. Schafer estimated the total budget for the game at $2 million. The game contains a central hub
level Level or levels may refer to: Engineering *Level (instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights *Spirit level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical *Canal pound or level *Regr ...
, the Royal Train Station, and four additional levels that the player travels to through the Train Station. Each level was designed with a number of puzzles that allowed the player to approach in any order, while keeping the level size small and uncomplicated to prevent the player from becoming lost. Most of the puzzles have been designed with multiple solutions; Petty stated they wanted to cater to both the casual player, who may only want to find one of the solutions to progress in the game, and the more dedicated player, who would likely spend time to discover all of the intended solutions. This was furthered by allowing the player to freely roam through previously-completed areas to complete all the puzzles, including after completing the main story. The puzzles and challenges were designed to be able to be completed in short segments, giving the player more freedom to play it at their own pace. Petty wanted to make sure the player had time to contemplate the puzzles or explore the environment in a manner of older adventure games, though still assured that his environments felt alive and animated. The levels themselves are designed using a mix of the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
and
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
designs, using virtual household items such as marbles and safety pins, an inspiration that came from interest in dioramas and miniature stages. The game itself presents cutscenes with dialog in the fashion of early
silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
s, where a text plaque is shown to show the dialog after it is acted out and scene takes place on a theater stage. As part of the game's promotion, Double Fine offered a set of matryoshka dolls based on characters in the game; the initial run was sold out in less than 24 hrs. THQ released a
downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...
. The first add-on, "The Lost Hobo King", has been released in April 2011, and includes new dolls and a new stage to explore. It focuses on Charlie helping Levi's uncle Rufus to find the crown to become the king of hobos in the town of Camelfoot. ''Stacking'' along with ''Costume Quest'' were owned by publisher THQ at the time of their bankruptcy, and at the time, these assets were sold to
Nordic Games The Nordic Games were the first international multi-sport event that focused primarily on winter sports, and were held at varying intervals between 1901 and 1926. It was organized by Sweden's Swedish Central Association for the Promotion of ...
. In November 2013, Double Fine and Nordic Games negotiated a deal for Double Fine to take over publishing rights for both games, while Nordic will help to publish and distribute retail copies of these games and Double Fine's ''
Psychonauts ''Psychonauts'' is a 2005 platform video game developed by Double Fine Productions. The game was initially published by Majesco Entertainment and THQ for Microsoft Windows, Xbox and PlayStation 2. In 2011, Double Fine acquired the rights for t ...
'' for Windows and Mac OS X systems in early 2014.


Reception

''Stacking'' has received largely positive critical appraisal. Most reviewers commented on the short length of the game if one simply progressed through the story without exploring any of the alternate solutions or side puzzles, and may be considered too short a game for the $15 price. Many felt that with the full exploration possible within the game, ''Stacking'' is well-worth the price without becoming too long or repetitive; Chad Sepieha of ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' stated that the game is "a great example of what a $15 digitally distributed game can be", while Justin Haywald of
1UP.com ''1Up.com'' was an American entertainment website that focused on video games. Launched in 2003, ''1Up.com'' provided its own original features, news stories, game reviews, and video interviews, and also featured comprehensive PC-focused conten ...
found strong preference for the way that ''Stacking'' "condenses a fun experience into several great hours rather than overextending itself". The game's core gameplay was considered to be very accessible, in part due to its alluring visuals. The controls were considered simple enough to be easily taught to a casual player, and provides enough hints so that the player rarely will be stuck to progress in the game. The use of multiple solutions to solve various challenges was praised; as stated by Jeff Marchiafava of ''
Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...
'', providing multiple solutions helps to " olveone of the most common problems with the dventure gamegenre" as players do not have to guess at one specific line of thought programmed by the developers. The multiple solutions also provide a means of enticing players to seek out all solutions, as finding the solutions can be "logical and rewarding to work out", according to
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
's Carolyn Petit. Christian Donlan of
Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...
considered this design one that "actively encourages a second play-through and an addled imagination". Many reviews noted that most of the puzzles were somewhat simple, solved with the use of only one doll only until late in the game, making for some awkward pacing in the game. In particular, late in the game, players can combine the special abilities of certain dolls when stacked, a gameplay feature that would have been more interesting to explore earlier in the title. The added collection and Hi-Jinks goals were found to help with extending the game beyond the core story and provide ways of experimenting with the dolls to find solutions for the main puzzles. Some reviewers commented on a few issues with the game's camera in tight places and some other small technical issues, but felt these did not mar the overall experience. ''Stacking''s story and artwork were highlights of the game. ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''s Steve Boxer found the game's art to be "utterly delightful" and "sumptuous". Donlan considered the game's world a "wonderfully crafted place" that was able to combine "the echoing grandeur of 1930s architecture and sooty technology with the home-made ingenuity of ''
LittleBigPlanet ''LittleBigPlanet'' (stylized as ''LittleBIGPlanet''; abbreviated ''LBP'') is a puzzle platform video game series created and produced by British developer Media Molecule and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Most games in the series ...
''". Reviewers noted that the game is able to take serious issues such as the Great Depression and child labor, and turn them into a humorous backdrop. Kristine Steimer of
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
affirmed that the "witty dialogue and goofy animations amplify the fact that this game is not actually socialist propaganda". Reviewing the game's Linux release,
GamingOnLinux Linux gaming refers to playing video games on a Linux operating system. History Linux gaming started largely as an extension of the already present Unix gaming scene, with both systems sharing many similar titles. These games were either m ...
reviewer Hamish Paul Wilson gave the game 8/10, commenting that "''Stacking'' is a good example of what can be done by a developer with limited resources and a lot of creative output". He also added that "with a fairly competitive price point and a solid Linux release, there is very little reason not to try the game for anyone who may be so inclined to try their hand at a little Matryoshka body snatching".


References

*


External links


Official siteDouble Fine's official site
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