Pilgrims

Pilgrims is a short point-and-click adventure from the studio Amanita Design, the creators of Machinarium and Samorost, built on their tried-and-true style of hand-drawn worlds and puzzle-solving without a single word of text. The player accompanies a small wandering character who, on a journey through a land full of strange creatures and situations, meets a number of characters – from a lost knight to peculiar animals – and must help them or outwit them in order to move on. The most distinctive feature is a card-based system of options, where the player chooses from several cards with items or actions, and the same situation can often be resolved in several different, often funny and surprising ways, which invites repeated exploration.

The visual style is typically Amanita – illustrated, colorful, and playful, complemented by gentle music and precisely timed sound effects that build a fairy-tale-like, slightly absurd atmosphere without a single written word. Thanks to its short length, simple mouse-only controls, and the absence of a language barrier, the game is accessible even to players with no experience with classic adventure games, and it works as a smaller, experimental project among the studio's larger titles, meant more for a single sitting than for long-term play.

Pilgrims was received as a charming, funny little piece that shows Amanita Design can offer inventive gameplay and distinctive humor even in a small format and with limited resources, without losing quality. It still serves today as a pleasant, undemanding introduction to the studio's style for new players and confirms the reputation of Czech indie development as one of the most creative and recognizable in Europe. The game also shows how, even with minimal resources and a short runtime, one can build a memorable world with its own characters and rules, without the player feeling that anything is missing. The short runtime thus paradoxically works as an advantage, since it forces the creators to concentrate every idea into a single, well-executed scene.

Why play it: If you're looking for an undemanding and funny introduction to Amanita Design's style, Pilgrims, despite its short runtime, offers a memorable world where every idea is concentrated into one well-executed scene.