Machinarium developer in "love" with iPad

Amanita Design is super keen on the "relaxed" nature of the iPad 2, which will soon be graced by a port of Machinarium.

"We've been interested in tablets since the first iPad appeared. I love the idea of tablets as a gaming device - it's similar to books or magazines. You can play anywhere and especially in relaxed conditions," designer Jakub Dvorsky told Gamasutra.

Amanita's iOS love doesn't extend to the iPhone 4, and the memory contraints of the original iPad will keep Machinarium off it for now.

"The screen is just too small, and without zoom functionality it would be unplayable," Dvorsky said.

"It would probably be possible to make the game work on iPad 1 if we re-do it again from scratch, which is still a possibility."

The chance of an iPad 1 release is helped along by the extensive rewriting Amanita has conducted for the upcoming PlayStation 3 version, which the designer calls "the best Machinarium experience ever". That said, there's no date for the PSN release yet.

"We developed the game for PC and Mac and released it when it was ready. Then we started thinking about a tablet version, and at the same time we started working on the PS3 version, which is the most complicated so is taking the longest to finish. So we are releasing immediately when the game is ready," Dvorsy advised.

Machinarium, a whimsical point and click, builds on the success of Amanita's previous release, Samorost.