Sproing
• Undercover will be released in September 2006 (in German speaking territories)
• The topic of the game is WW2, which Sproing Managing Director Harald Riegler considers very exciting: “There is a ‘mystic’ aspect of this period, which has been often used in adventures or in movies – see Indiana Jones. There are so many myths about that time, that it is a never ending source of inspiration for our stories. On the other hand there is in my opinion the fact that so many bad things happened at that time which demand a heroic story. These events are still touching so many people, and it is still today a very good feeling to fight that evil.”
• The developers try to stick as closely as possible to the historic facts. In their eyes, the WW2 setting is not yet exhausted as it is in shooters.
• About 20 people work at Sproing. Most of these people are currently working on Undercover.
• There will be NO UFOS in Undercover
[comment: a big German tabloid recently said that Hitler planned to build UFOs as a secret weapon for WW2]
House of Tales
• The protagonist of the upcoming House of Tales title “Overclocked” will be an Ex-Army psychiatrist named Dave McNamara who is called to New York in order to examine five young people that lost their memories and identity. These five characters have a horrible common background, which will be unraveled by McNamara during the game.
• Lead Designer Martin Ganteföhr says about the controls in Overclocked: “You will be able to leave a screen simply by clicking on the exit of the scene. The character will appear on the next screen immediately without having walked the whole distance.”
• The character animation is being realized with extraordinary effort. “We make ALL animations for ALL characters with Motion Capturing. The shooting is very expensive and exhausting, but it’s worth it. It not only looks amazing, it also allows us to integrate gestures and body language which is more meaningful than any dialogue”, says Ganteföhr.
• The shooting will be done in one of the most renowned and best equipped European studios and will take approximately ten days.
• The game will be released in April 2007.
Artematica
• The Italian developer Artematica is currently working on the mystery adventure “Belief & Betrayal” which will be mainly based on historic facts. Game Designer Riccardo Cangini announced a new concept for the inventory which will be a central feature of the game.
• Cangini says Belief & Betrayal is no game for kids. He expects a 16+ PEGI rating because of the violence in the game. Still, Cangini says that B&B is not as brutal as any FPS and that the violence will only be shown if it makes sense in connection with the story.
• The game’s protagonist Jon Danter is a very sophisticated character with a strong background, which is uncommon for most computer games. Danter is a well-off wearer of Ducati jackets and rich enough to spend the rest of his life doing nothing, but on the other hand he is a torn personality which hasn’t found his way yet.
Micro Application (Dreamfall)
• The fights will play no major role in Dreamfall. “You don’t have to win any of the fights with Zoe. However, this will be the case with April and Kian, but since they are much better fighters it won’t be too difficult. Moreover, it may happen only three or four times in the game”, says Product Manager Francois Logeais.
• Francois Logeais about the gameplay and controls in Dreamfall: “Easy to handle, no learning curve, comfortable […] That's the same for the gameplay : all the elements which made the success of The Longest Journey (storyline, characters, mature dialogues) have been preserved and even enhanced by the integration of more diverse and deep gameplay.”
• Dreamfall is more than an interactive movie, says Logeais: ”Yes, storytelling is very important in the game but it permanently requires the player to act and to make decisions to go deeper into the story. Puzzles, fights (which can be avoided) and stealth sequences are really part of the storytelling as they make you feel closer to the characters for an unprecedented immersive experience. I think Funcom definitely achieve their goal on this side.”
Micro Application/ White Birds Productions
• Benoit Sokal confirms that the upcoming adventure game Paradise will be more difficult than his older games. Playing time will be around 20 hours.
• There are three main sources of inspiration for "Paradise". Sokal’s own childhood, in Belgium, when was told stories about the "fabulous" Belgian-Congo, Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness" and Coppola's "Apocalypse Now", and Sokal’s wish to tell a love/hate story between a child and her father.
• Sokal prefers women as heroines in his games for two reasons: ”I am heterosexual and I prefer to spend two years of development with a women than with a man. And second I believe that women have more intelligence than men, namely to solve adventure situations: they use their brain rather than their muscles.”
• According to Product Manager Vincent Munoz from Micro Application, Paradise will have a couple of action sequences, but it will certainly still be a classic adventure game.
Pendulo Studios
• Pendulo’s Rafael Latiegui on the Runaway 2 delay: “Nobody is happy with delays, however we decided the most important thing was to achieve the best quality of the game, not to keep the release date. We are on schedule at the moment and all I can say is that the game will be great.”
• There will be no more pixel hunting in the sequel – no more “nail puzzles” like in Runaway 1, promises Latiegui.
• Runaway 2 will “definitely” be longer than RA1
• Besides Runaway 2, Pendulo is working on another adventure project.
• Somebody of Penulo’s friends inspired them in creating the character Rutger from Runaway 1.
Future Games
• Future Games are very proud of the success of Black Mirror, but in their eyes a sequel is not very probable, and if there will ever be a Black Mirror 2 then it won’t be written by the same authors.
• Future Games promise that the ending of upcoming Reprobates will be completely different to those in Black Mirror and Nibiru. Marcel Speta says they really had many reactions on both games, but the majority of the customers actually liked the endings.
• CEO Martin Malik doesn’t want to talk too much about Reprobates, but unveils that it will take place on two islands of an ocean, and that the atmosphere will be rather dark.
• Some people complained that Nibiru is a little bit too short. Speta says that this was intended, Nibiru was designed for a wider gameplay community. Anyway, customers who weren’t satisfied with that point in Nibiru will be more satisfied with Reprobates, which will have a much deeper storyline.
Frogwares
• Frogware’s CEO Wael Amr was inspired by Jules Verne very much. He read the book “Around The World In 80 Days” at least six times. For the future Amr plans more fantasy related topics for his games, but they will also be linked to reality.
• Amr is not interested in other gaming platforms besides the PC: “I'm not interested in other platforms, they even have no real reason to exist in my opinion. I don't look to them or play on them. PC is more than enough to explore all possible ways to create, communicate, share for the rest of my life.”
• Frogwares are working on the next Sherlock Holmes game which will be available by the end of the year.
• Besides that, Frogwares are working on another project which Wael Amr calls a “next-gen” adventure game.
