We mentioned Machinarium about a year ago when we covered it in our IGF roundup. The game was nominated – and eventually went on to win – the $2500 for Excellence in Visual Art, which isn’t hard to believe when you see the hand-drawn detail that was crafted into every scene.

All that effort is evident in boingboing.net’s gaze into the sketchbooks of Amanita Design’s Jakub Dvorsky and Adolf Lachman. It’s heartening to see people sticking to the tried-and-trusted pen-and-paper design scheme; it’s equally heartening to see that people exist who have a handwriting that’s as indecipherable as my own, though it probably doesn’t help that it’s all Greek Czech too.

And, apparently, the ‘later this year’ release date cited in our original mention of the game turns out to be tomorrow, proving that Dvorsky’s release scheme is as nebulous as his handwriting. What’s undeniable, however, is that after such gems as Samorost and its sequel, I’m really looking forward to given this one a shot. And for those of you who can’t wait to get their $17 worth, you can grab the demo for the game here.

– Chippit