Double Fine Productions and THQ today announced the first details for Stacking, the second collaborative effort between the companies. Double Fine is the studio of famed game developer Tim Schafer, who has recently tried his hand at downloadable “casual” games via Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network.
Stacking will be available via XBLA and PSN in early 2011.
Stacking is a third-person adventure puzzle game that makes players laugh while challenging their perception and intellect. In Stacking, a family of Russian stacking dolls has been separated by tough economic times. The youngest doll, Charlie Blackmore, begins a heroic effort to bring his family back together. But he’s one size smaller than any other doll in the world. Players will help Charlie, who is all too accustomed to being overlooked and dismissed, discover that his size can be his greatest strength.
Created by Double Fine project lead Lee Petty, Stacking requires players to capture and stack dolls together, then use each doll’s unique abilities to solve the game’s challenges. As more puzzles are solved, new dolls are acquired and the game’s visually lush, carefully constructed story unfolds.
Unlike most adventure puzzle games, every challenge in Stacking will have multiple solutions and players will be encouraged to discover them all. They’ll also discover a wide variety of new characters and side activities, which will allow them to accumulate hundreds of in-game awards.
Double Fine’s Tim Schafer said about the game: “What Lee has created with Stacking is something truly awesome — a game with a great story and puzzles, and a completely fresh method for interacting with them both.”
