Depending on perspective, Double Fine’s next downloadable game, Stacking, can either be about a young boy’s search for his missing family (and ultimately, his father), or it can be about taking dolls from behind and then having them fart on or punch others with reckless abandon. Project director Lee Petty (art director for previous Double Fine games) and studio founder Tim Schafer prefer to shy away from the latter definition, though — Schafer’s revision: “any doll facing away from you.” However you word it, Stacking is ultimately a graphic adventure featuring matryoshkas that stack into each other for distinct abilities.
Like Costume Quest, Stacking tells its story without voiceover — it even pursues a more stylized approach by purposefully mimicking silent movies; “We set the game in the late Victorian era, up until the early silent film, so we get to have these ‘silent film stageplays’ as we call them,” notes Petty. The intro — combining film grain, dialogue cards, purposefully herky-jerky animation, and accompanying piano music (some licensed classical pieces, some by former LucasArts composer Peter McConnell) — establishes the eight-member Blackmore family. One day, the Blackmore patriarch gets a job as the Baron’s new chimney sweep, and leaves for work…only to not actually come back. Weeks later, the Baron’s men come to collect the rest of the Blackmore children (save Charlie, the tiniest Blackmore and the player character), and it then becomes up to Charlie to not only free his brothers and sisters, but also find his father once and for all. Along the way, Charlie will fix, sabotage, collect, and fart his way through various adventure game-style puzzles.
