Questionaut

With a mix of educational value and an interesting art style, this 2008 offering by developers Amanita Design is a unique game in the early history of the creators of Machinarium. The game was commissioned directly by the BBC, and is a fun piece of gaming history that not too many people know about.

Questions and Answers

While Questionaut isn’t the longest game out there, players who dive into its wonderfully illustrated setting will be treated to an inspiring and creative video game experience that isn’t quite matched by any other game in recent history.

Questionaut features a traditional and hand drawn art style, taking heavy inspiration from other indie games released around the late 2000s and 2010s. Fans of Braid, Limbo and of course, the developer’s own hit game Machinarium, will feel right at home as they make their way through the game’s selection of simple puzzles and challenges.

The main focus of Questionaut is to teach and entertain young children. Because of this, the game is full of questions on the topics of Mathematics, English and Natural Science, and children will need to answer these questions in order to progress through the game.

Higher and Higher

Although Questionaut is an educational game, there is also a somewhat simple, but very charming story to follow too. The player takes control of the protagonist, an aeronaut living on a quaint, sketch-book island in the sky.

At the start of the game, the story opens as the player sits on their island home with their friend Vodník (a turtle type creature who is perched atop of a strange tree). A gust of wind blows away the hat which Vodník is wearing, and so it is up to the player to get it back.

Going off in a small hot air balloon, it’s up to you as the player to ascend higher and higher in search of the hat, stopping off at different levitating planets in order to get more air for your aeronaut balloon.

Each one of these planets is home to animals who are experts in different topics such as Mathematics or English. Once on a planet, the player will need to answer questions and problems asked by these animal experts in order to progress. If the player gets a question right, they will receive additional air for their balloon, but if the player gets a question wrong, they lose air. By getting enough questions right, the player will be able to ascend higher to the next stage.

The game is made up of 8 stages in total, and each stage has its own unique theme and set of characters for the player to interact with. The floating islands that make up each stage all have strange, but eye-catching designs that help every planet stand out from the others. There’s a literary themed planet with stacks of books and an old woman with a typewriter, as well as an icy chemistry planet full of beakers and bunsen burners.

This is accompanied with unique themes for each stage, in a soundtrack that makes heavy use of funky percussion that’s bound to get stuck in players’ heads.

PROS

• Fun, educational and very entertaining for younger children
• Great art style with lots of character
• Awesome, catchy soundtrack

CONS

• Not as engaging as the developers’ other games
• Very short
• Only recommended for younger players