Gnome's Lair

The Sea Will Claim Everything Postcard

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:16:00 +0000

Sadly, I don't have the time to properly review The Sea Will Claim Everything by Jonas Kyratzes, even though it is the game we are debuting via Bundle In A Box - Adventure Bundle. I do, on the other hand, have the time to impress you with the above postcard (disclaimer: not really a postcard; more of a screenshot). You see, it's not only a beautifully hand-painted picture, but one hiding dozens of whimsical details and a myriad hotspots. Even the tiniest of books on the upper shelf comes with a silly/serious/satirical/brilliant title and author, and absolutely everything you see surrounding The has a story to tell.

So, uhm, grab the game, will you?

It's Alive! Bundle In A Box - Adventure Bundle is alive!

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:18:00 +0000

Yes, it is true. Bundle In A Box - Adventure Bundle, the indie gaming bundle I and Kyttaro Games have been working on since, well, December is finally live! And it comes with its Indie Dev Grant, its important charity, its unique twist on the pay-what-you-want model, its DRM-free downloads and, well, all sorts of bells and whistles you can discover over at the bundle site itself.

What I'd rather talk about here though are the games we've managed to secure (for your eyes only). Let me present them, starting off with a title that's making its exclusive world-wide debut via Bundle In A Box:

The Sea Will Claim Everything by Jonas Kyratzes. A huge, stunning, brilliantly written foray into the debt-stricken Lands of Dream and Jonas' magnum opus. Also a game sporting wonderful hand-drawn graphics, a fantastic soundtrack, a huge and incredibly detailed world, demented characters, and, yes, great puzzles!

Gemini Rue by Joshua Nuernberger and Wadjet Eye Games. The indie neo-noir masterpiece that has won a ton of awards and I reviewed (and loved) not that long ago.

Metal Dead by Walk Thru Wall Studios. Games with zombies are common. Games with a heavy metal theme are too rare. Metal Dead is unique, funny and brilliant. Remember my review? Good.

Ben There, Dan That! (Special Edition) by Size Five Games. A surreal love letter to the Lucasarts adventure and a surprise indie hit I've actually complete three times. The Special Edition comes with all sorts of extras. Oh, and here's an interview with Dan Marshall; the heart of Size Five Games.

Time Gentlemen, Please! by Size Five Games. BTDT's direct sequel and an even better game with extremely stylish graphics and Nazi dinosaurs.

1893: A World's Fair Mystery by The Illuminated Lantern. Text-adventures (or is that interactive fiction?) are far from dead and Bundle In A Box is doing its very best to bring them back into the hearts of the masses. 1893, one of the last commercial offerings of the genre and a huge and lavishly illustrated mystery, is finally available as a DRM-fee download.

The Shivah by Wadjet Eye Games. The historically important point-and-click adventure that kickstarted Wadjet Eye Games and a most excellent and at times taxing game with atmospheric graphics and some innovative puzzles.

As for the extras that will unlock as the bundle reaches wider audiences, they are pretty exciting themselves. We've managed to box (heh) the never-before-seen Making Of Metal Dead booklet, and the original soundtracks of both Gemini Rue and The Shivah into a lovely digital present any adventurer should enjoy.

And, that's that. Better head over to Bundle In A Box methinks...

Oh, and please do help spread the word by writing, blogging, twitting, facebooking (?), redditing and googleplusing about it. Thanks!

Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land Review

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:13:00 +0000

Sometimes the truths of the universe are too shocking for us to accept and some other times cosmic realities simply cannot be understood. Still, I just can't comprehend why Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is the only (and thus first) Lovecraftian, turn-based, tactical game I've ever encountered; let alone one of the few games to use the trenches of WWI as a dark and desperate setting.

On the other hand, ignorance is bliss and creative people get strange dreams courtesy of the Outer Gods, who have been slumbering and waiting for an ambitious take on X-Com that will actually feature Dark Youngs, undead soldiers, mad mages, hints of Reanimator and the spawn of Cthulhu. Happily, said dreams spawned The Wasted Lands, which, as should have already been made blatantly obvious, is a lovely turn-based, tactical affair with a few RPG touches.

You get your characters, your action points, your experience points, your oppressive 3D terrains, your campy but delightful plot, your spells, your otherworldly monstrosities, your cultists and your zombified soldiers in one of the most honest (and cheap) strategy games I've recently played. What you also get is a truly elegant adaptation of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu rules, the first ever sanity mechanics to actually work in a wargame and a most successful atmosphere.

On the downside, this is a really short game sporting ten or so missions, that will last you for roughly ten hours, and, irritatingly, a game with a few control problems. Apparently, its iOS roots haven't been ironed out, but trust me when I say that you'll very soon be used to its, uhm, eccentricities. Oh, and you can only grab it over at the universally unknown Intel AppUp online store, meaning that more middleware will have to be installed on your ever-encumbered PC.

Still though, hadn't had this much fun with a turn-based strategy game, since, well, X-Com and that should be all you need to know.

Verdict: Cthulhu would smile and devise new tactics.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

Bundle In A Box to launch on May 23

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:14:00 +0000

Yes, the Bundle In A Box - Adventure Bundle will indeed launch on May 23; that's a week from now! Head over to bundle-in-a-box.com, bookmark the site, subscribe to the newsletter and wait for those seven brilliant DRM-free games I have personally hand-picked. Oh, and you do know we are debuting one fantastic new game, don't you?

Adventure Lantern - the May issue

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:38:00 +0000

Another month, another issue of Adventure Lantern. Download the (free as ever) magazine here and read all the latest adventure related news, as well as an eclectic selection of reviews, previews and interviews. Expect quite a bit on The Dream Machine, The Journey Down, The Walking Dead and The Lost Crown. Oh, and while you are at it, do not forget to read (or, well, listen to) this excellent interview with Chris Jones on Tex Murphy - Project Fedora that has just been posted.

Grab a Fedora and Kickstart Tex Murphy - Project Fedora

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:28:00 +0000

Tex Murphy, adventure gaming's fedora-wearing, wise-cracking, lovable and down-on-his-luck detective, has been solving crimes ever since his first appearance on 1989's almost classic Mean Streets. More than a few games followed and each and every one of them managed to be a mostly brilliant, generally succesful and usually innovative point-and-clicker that humorously managed to mix sci-fi and noir elements.

Now, as you may have noticed, there hasn't been a Tex Murphy game since Overseer and that was back in 1998. But, as with the recent blooming of the Adventure Renaissance apparently anything can happen, a Tex Murphy Kickstarter campaign happened and you should definitely support it.

Project Fedora, for this is how the game is currently being called, is aiming to be the best Tex Murphy to date, and, well, hopes are high. It will apparently be another FMV/3D trip to post-apocalyptic San Francisco that will reunite creators Chris Jones and Aaron Conners and resolve any cliffhangers that may have been tormenting you those last years. Oh, and, so you know, there are some excellent reward tiers to help you part with your money; $15 will indeed be buying you a copy of the game.

[EXCITING UPDATE]: The ever-brilliant Adventure Lantern posted a brilliant interview with Chris Jones on Project Fedora for you to read/listen to.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

The Prestigious 2011 AGS Awards

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:29:00 +0000

Yes, reader, it is that time of the year again and the adventure gaming community, or, well, the Adventure Game Studio part of said tasteful community, is presenting its prestigious and much coveted awards: the 2011 AGS Awards. Find out which brilliant games won the popular vote below and do allow me to congratulate three of my favourite games for their success: Gemini Rue, Blackwell Deception and I Fought the Law, and the Law One.

Best Game: Gemini Rue by Joshua Nuernberger and Wadjet Eye Games | Nominees: I Fought the Law, and the Law One, Blackwell Deception, King's Quest III Redux, Technobabylon Part 3.

Best Gameplay: Gemini Rue by Joshua Nuernberger and Wadjet Eye Games | Nominees: Arden's Vale, Blackwell Deception, King's Quest III Redux, Space Quest: Vohaul Strikes Back.

Best Original Story: Gemini Rue by Joshua Nuernberger and Wadjet Eye Games | Nominees: I Fought the Law, and the Law One, Chance of the Dead, Draculator II, The Far Corners of the World Chapter 1.

Best Dialogue Writing: Blackwell Deception by Wadjet Eye Games | Nominees: I Fought the Law, and the Law One, Barn Runner 5, Draculator II, Gemini Rue.

Best Puzzles: The Far Corners of the World Chapter 1 by Wesray Productions | Nominees: Arden's Vale, Gemini Rue, Technobabylon Part 3, The Visitor.

Best Short Game: Arden's Vale by Antipus | Nominees: Chance of the Dead, Draculator II, Submerged - LaSol, The Unfolding Spider.

Best Non-Adventure Game: Cart Life by Richard Hofmeier | Nominees: Concurrence, Prime Minister's Questions: The Game.

Best Demo: Wretcher by Alan v. Drake | Nominees: City, He Watches.

Best Player Character: Gemini Rue by Joshua Nuernberger and Wadjet Eye Games | Nominees: I Fought the Law, and the Law One, Chance of the Dead, Draculator II, The Unicated.

Best Non Player Character: Space Quest: Vohaul Strikes Back by Team VSB | Nominees: I Fought the Law, and the Law One, Barn Runner 5, Draculator II, Gemini Rue.

Best Background Art: Gemini Rue by Joshua Nuernberger and Wadjet Eye Games | Nominees: I Fought the Law, and the Law One, Concurrence, King's Quest III Redux, Space Quest: Vohaul Strikes Back.

Best Animation: Adventure: All in the Game by Akril | Nominees: I Fought the Law, and the Law One, Arden's Vale, Draculator II, Gemini Rue.

Best Character Art: Gemini Rue by Joshua Nuernberger and Wadjet Eye Games | Nominees: I Fought the Law, and the Law One, Chance of the Dead, King's Quest III Redux, The Unicated.

Best Programming: Cart Life by Richard Hofmeier | Nominees: AGS Ceremony 2010, Concurrence, Gemini Rue, King's Quest III Redux.

Best Sound Effects: Gemini Rue by Joshua Nuernberger and Wadjet Eye Games | Nominees: Egress - The Test of STS-417.

Best Voice Work: Blackwell Deception by Wadjet Eye Games | Nominees: Gemini Rue, Draculator II, King's Quest III Redux.

Best Music: I Fought the Law, and the Law One by Ben Chnadler (music by Sebastian Pfaller and David Pfaller) | Nominees: Blackwell Deception, Gemini Rue, King's Quest III Redux, Space Quest: Vohaul Strikes Back.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

Thomas Was Alone on IndieGoGo

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Tue, 08 May 2012 06:40:00 +0000

Ever since Gnome's Lair came to life back in the first days of 2006, it has been happily enjoying the works of Mike Bithell and that, dear reader, is one of the reasons the particularly exciting Thomas Was Alone IndieGoGo campaign couldn't go unnoticed. The other reason is that Thomas Was Alone is an excellent minimalist puzzle platformer about friendship and, rather obviously, quality game design that simply has to be properly made. You know, complete with voice-overs, sleek graphics and all the demented puzzles we could ask for, so well, why not reserve your copy and help it out?

Fracuum by Tyler Glaiel

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Fri, 04 May 2012 06:46:00 +0000

Like a psychedelic version of the Atari 2600 Adventure on steroids, Fracuum is a brilliantly designed and utterly mind-bending maze game. It has you navigating a complex and expertly designed labyrinth that feels quite a bit like a zoomable fractal, while avoiding baddies and collecting points and power-ups. Play it and have your mind messed with.

Rise of the Videogame Zinesters

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Thu, 03 May 2012 08:10:00 +0000

I hate motivational and/or inspirational books. They are always written by some sort of half-illiterate manager person, are morally dubious and tend to forget (as George Carlin once pointed out) just how motivated Hitler was. Happily, and despite some pretty silly things I've read online, Anna Anthropy's Rise of the Videogame Zinesters is not a motivational book. It's a bleeding manifesto; some sort of a DADA/Bauhaus attempt to strengthen the popular assault on corporate gaming, provide it with the necessary tools for the job and inspire it.

Now and to keep things simple, here's what I have to say: if you ever thought of creating a game, if you ever created one, but even if you have never played a game before yet feel you have things to share with the rest of us, this is a book you simply have to grab.

Rise of the Videogame Zinesters starts off by explaining just what a game is and what it can achieve in order to swiftly focus on games created by individuals; auteur games. Admittedly, this might sound pretentious or even of elitist origins, but, trust me, it's not. Far from it really. What Anna Anthropy wants is for people to express themselves via the creation of games; easily and without the need of assembling teams or raising money. She doesn't attack the other ways of creating them mind (well, she does have a few things to say about the shitty corporate offerings of today). She merely points out that you could and should do it.

Yes, that would indeed be YOU. Probably even me too.

A game after all can be about anything; just like a short story, a poem or a fiery article. It can be personal, political, funny, fun, thought-provoking, wildly innovative, aesthetically important or something its creator simply had to share. What Anna urges us to do with this book is to actually let our creative selves free to, well, create. She even provides with some ideas on the processes, sites and tools that should help us.

What's more, she takes it upon herself to convince us that a game can also be created by anyone: freaks, normals, amateurs, artists, dreamers, dropouts, queers, housewives and probably even those dreaded geeks. Just not fascists; their games are bound to be as grotesque as the insides of their heads, but I digress.

What I wanted to say was that this book is brilliant and very well written indeed. It's most inspiring, deeply personal and filled with helpful tips and ideas and should even come in handy for people professionally creating games. It even reveals some shocking yet not entirely unexpected truths regarding the way game design universities overwork their students in order to prepare them for the notorious crunch big developers will subject them too.

Read it.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

Bundle In A Box - Adventure Bundle

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:41:00 +0000

You must have noticed I haven't been writing too often for Gnome's Lair lately, but a) that's about to change and b) I've been incredibly busy with both IndieGames and working on that bundle I keep mentioning. The good news is that the very first Bundle In A Box is just around the corner and has gotten a subtitle that shouldn't really shock anyone: Adventure Bundle. What's more, our teaser site is already up and you should really visit it over at bundle-in-a-box.com. Oh, and do find out more about it over at the Kyttaro Games blog.

Roar and Rampage in Roar Rampage

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:42:00 +0000

Following the excellent blogging style of both freeindiegam.es and OW Videogames I'll simply urge you to play Roar Rampage. You'll play as a pixel-art and very green version of Godzilla in a brilliant, physics-based, side-scrolling take on the Rampage! formula. Expect to be entertained.

Let A Thousand Free Games Bloom

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:12:00 +0000

Okay, one thousand free games would be a tad excessive, but half a dozen ones would be more than appropriate for this most interesting of springs. Besides, I hadn't done one of those freeware lists for quite some time now and the voices were rather angry; they also insisted on being as eclectic as possible...

Vidiot: Described by its creator as Halo meets Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, this is a truly demented offering and a delightfully weird collection of mini-games. Oh, and it can easily be used do emotionally scar your kids and/or pets.

Poacher: Metroidvania done by wise game critic and accomplished adventure designer Yahtzee and done right. Also, with a healthy does of humour. Also, also, one of the very few games pitting you against rabbits. Fluffy ones too.

UNGA needs MUMBA: Hunt a mammoth! Be a successful stone age hunter! Feel like Unga! Meet Mumba! Love Nonga! Enjoy the excellent graphics and voices! Solve puzzles! Explore caves! Point! Click!

Orbiter 2010: Still haven't managed to buy Mass Effect 3? Well, I wouldn't worry. Orbiter is here and it will let you explore space in a much more realistic and cost-effective way. Should probably last longer too, as this is a proper simulation.

Masters of Constantinople: Text away in a tale of intrigue, mystery and Byzantine betrayals while the Empire crumbles and knowledge has to be preserved. It's a very interesting choose-your-own-adventure affair with more than a few meaningful choices.

Epic Sax Game: Because it almost sounds rude and is the most brutally hard rhythm game I've ever encountered. Still, persevere and you'll be rewarded.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

April's Adventure Lantern

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:44:00 +0000

One more issue of the finest of adventure gaming fanzines has been released and you can download it over at Adventure Lantern. It is customarily free, has been crafted using only the best PDF materials available and sports reviews of J.U.L.I.A., Amnesia, Limbo, Cthulhu Saves the World and Dead Cyborg, an interview on Delaware St. John 4 and more than a few newsbits. So, uhm, hooray!

J.U.L.I.A. Review

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:35:00 +0000

I am so glad I decided to not provide you with review scores reader dear; so absolutely delighted. Summing up J.U.L.I.A. in a simple score would have been utterly impossible. Even deciding on what I really thought about it turned out to be pretty taxing. Better though to start at the beginning.

J.U.L.I.A. is a science-fiction game, casting you as Rachel Mannors, the sole survivor of a space expedition gone spectacularly wrong. Rachel, an awkwardly 3D modeled yet decently voiced character, is woken up from cryo-sleep by J.U.L.I.A., the spaceship's AI, only to discover she's all alone in a malfunctioning ship light-years away from Earth and apparently stranded in a solar system with dully named planets. What's more, something has gone spectacularly wrong on said planets. Something that eventually led to the death of the rest of the crew and the endangerment of alien life.

Truth be said, J.U.L.I.A., and that's the last time I bother with these fullstops, has a very interesting, if slightly melodramatic, plot. A proper science fiction story to be precise, that isn't afraid to touch upon important matters and never fails to be atmospheric. What's more, JULIA is one of those very rare games you can't simply describe with a screenshot and a genre categorization. You'll have to go on and play it (its demo at the very least) in order to fully understand its gameplay; you know, just like back in the old days, when reading a review and looking at some pics in a magazine simply left you bewildered...

At its core though the game can be described as a choose-your-own-adventure styled piece of interactive fiction with an interesting graphical GUI and a ton of mini-games thrown in. Needless to say, the text adventure-y parts of the game are by far the best. They are well written, brilliantly supported by the graphics and cut-scenes and -especially towards the end- by a fantastic map system. The problem though is that these section are pretty short and essentially without any challenge to speak of.

Most of the challenge is to be found in the aforementioned mini-games and, sadly, this is where JULIA's main problem lies. The vast majority of mini-games on offer are ridiculously easy and feel largely unconnected to the game's setting and the situations at hand. What's more, the difficult ones are usually both too hard and badly explained, making for a gaming experience that ranges between dull and frustrating.

On the other hand, I am really glad I played JULIA. Despite its shortcomings, it's a very brave, very ambitious and definitely innovative game with a strong focus on telling a story that's actually worth sharing. I do believe it's the first step in the right direction; a diamond in the rough, an impressive new way of approaching interactive fiction and an idea that has to be nurtured and supported, if only to give the devs a chance at perfecting their formula.

Verdict: A flawed but unique gem.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

Dan Marshall of Size Five Games gets interviewed

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:03:00 +0000

Dan Marshal of Size Five Games (formerly known as Zombie Cow Studios) has been crafting indie games for more than a few years now and is actually preparing something rather ambitious even as we speak, which, well, does make sense for an indie developer I suppose. Anyway. Here's the interview with the man that can be both funny and, funnily enough, designing anything from run-and-gun to point-and-click games:

Though I'm pretty sure it's not needed, could you please introduce yourself to the illustrious Gnome's Lair readers?

Hello! My name's Dan, I run Size Five Games which used to be called Zombie Cow Studios until I realised how much I hated that name. So I changed it, which kind of weirdly worked out because all the press about what a stupid thing to do it was meant sales shot up.

I made a couple of adventure games called "Ben There, Dan That!" and "Time Gentlemen, Please!" which were very well received. We then did that Channel4 sex-ed game called Privates which everyone just referred to as "the vagina game".

Mind you, I do believe I remember your work ever since those PC Zone articles on Gibbage. Is that really how you entered the world of game development?

Not really - as a kid I always used to tinker about with the likes of Klik 'n Play. One day I decided to learn 'real' programming and picked up a C primer. I'd been working on Gibbage for about 18 months, teaching myself how to code along the way, when I dropped the editor of PC Zone a line to see if he'd be interested in a developer diary. I decided it was a fairly unique thing to be doing, since the indie scene was waaaaaay smaller back then. Anyway, he accepted and that's how I started doing bits and bobs for PC Zone. But the truth is that the 'monthly updates' on my progress were largely things that had happened about a year previously.

And you have now moved on to the world of BAFTA ceremonies. Quite an impressive achievement. How did you do it?

Magic, largely.

In reality: no idea. Channel 4 gave me some money to think up a stupid (albeit sexy) idea, which I then spent on assembling a team, kind of like something out of a blockbuster movie, but way more low-key and with more nerds involved. So I grabbed Lemmy and Binky, who have gone on to work wonders with Project Zomboid, and they programmed and arted a load of stuff. I cried a lot, things went wrong, more things went wrong, and then at the end a game came out.

After that, it was up for a BAFTA which, preposterously, it won.

You've also been instrumental in the recent rebirth of adventure gaming and have managed to remind everyone just how delightfully wild a point-and-click game can be. Why did you decide to go on with Ben There, Dan That?

Ben There, Dan That! actually started life as a stupid little game to bring some attention to Gibbage, which was selling for REAL MONEY. After two years of solid development, I wanted something small and silly to do, and BTDT was the result - it was largely a product of Ben and I going to the pub, having stupid conversations, which I then programmed into a silly-but-charming little game.

On release, it wound up being WAY more popular than Gibbage and eclipsing it entirely.

What were you aiming for?

We were just making a game like the old Tim Schafer/ LucasArts ones we used to love; there really was no big 'thinking' behind it. We weren't aiming to bring back the genre or anything. We were just doing it for the love.

Was it its success that spawned Time Gentlemen, Please?

Yeah, BTDT did really well. We'd talked about doing a sequel, and left it kind of open for the possibility, but all we had was a name. BTDT had done really well and I was getting lots of emails requesting another - Ben and I went to the pub on the understanding that if we could think of something good that didn't feel trite and forced, we'd do it. We wound up sitting in the boozer crying with laughter over some of the stuff we'd come up with, and I guess from there we had no choice...

And how about another sequel? Think it will be possible? Hope it would be able to live up to them lofty expectations?

We're looking into it. The third game, Revenge of the Balloon-Headed Mexican, wound up getting canned for various reasons, which can pretty much be summed up as: it was exactly the same thing again. So, yeah, we've toyed with various other ways of doing another sequel, and it's certainly a possibility when we finally work out an amazing way of doing it that feels fresh and different enough.

Considered the crowd-funding solution?

For a new Dan and Ben game? Nah. I'm generally anti-alpha funding. Not for other devs, I think it's great for them. But mainly because I do all the work; Ben helps with the design stuff, but I do all the code and art and most of the writing and design... so if I suddenly die horribly, all that money would be for nothing and angry gamers would basically wind up forcing Ben to suddenly learning programming and Photoshop. It'd be a disaster. There'd be binary all over the place, peoples' computers exploding. Doesn't bear thinking about.

What's more, I'm a bit worried about alpha funding from an 'entitlement' point of view - some of the devs I've spoken to have found their angsty backers constantly berating them for crimes like 'taking a weekend off'. One guy told me he was living in a perpetual crunch, because if he stops his backers get angry. I'm too laid back for any of that sort of nonsense.

As soon as I run out of money, I will change my mind entirely.

You do love variety, don't you? From 2D shooters, to puzzle games, to full-blown adventures, to the run and gun of Privates and the stealthy Swindle. How difficult is it to successfully design all those decidely different games? Don't you confuse yourself?

I guess it comes from the fact that I'm an eclectic gamer - I love all sorts of different things. Growing up I was all about the adventure games and the platformers, but I'm a massive FPS/ third person nut as well. I dabble in everything from little freeware indie games to big RPGs. I quite like the fact I'm constantly doing different things, it means there's fresh passion behind every project. If I was still making point-and-clicks, I imagine they'd have gone pretty stale by now, whereas I'm itching to do something like that again...

On to Privates then... were you shocked when people (especially those Xbox people) considered a funny and deeply educational game offensive?

No, not really. I knew from the off getting it on Xbox would be a challenge- their Rules and Regulations are laid out for everyone to read, and Privates broke most of them. I'd kind of hoped it might just get through because of all the frightfully-worthy educational content. Sadly, it turned out rules is rules. That whole thing wasn't nearly as exciting in real life as the screaming "MICROSOFT BANS VAGINA GAME" headlines. As far as I'm aware, no one at Microsoft even looked at it. An Xbox contact played it, said it was ace, but the rules won't bend and it was a mite too saucy. That was all.

It's not actually very offensive. There's a couple of icky bits - what I wasn't prepared for was most of the ire came from people ewwwwing over the inclusion of pubic hairs. I now realise that was probably from teenagers who haven't seen a vagina outside of RedTube.

Then again, how did you (and the brilliant Privates team of course) manage to make a game that can actually warn about venereal disease in such downright enjoyable way?

Ha, no idea. The gameplay's pretty simple, because despite all the 'it's rude' protestations it's actually designed for kids. I don't know if you've seen a 13 year old play a game - it's tempting to think they're all Call of Duty whizzkids, but the reality is they're exactly as rotten as we all were when we were that age. It's a nice, pretty, stylish game with some funny bits and some great voice acting, I think that's what really got older people enjoying it. It's an easy romp, nothing too stressful.

You seem to be mainly developing for Windows. Any particular reasons?

Yeah, PC development is great. No barriers to entry, no one breathing down my neck. If I had any talent, I could make a game in a weekend and be selling it online first thing on Monday morning with no forms to fill in whatsoever - that's a huge draw.

There's something really satisfying about seeing your game running on a console, but from a boring business point of view Windows makes a lot of sense.

I'd love to support Linux and Mac, but the adventure games are made with AGS - as soon as that supports Linux and Mac I'll look into doing ports. Privates and The Swindle are made with XNA, so for the time being they're locked to Windows too...

Would you like to have more, relatively at least, open platforms like iOS, Android and Windows available to you? Any plans of bringing your games on mobile platforms?

If AGS had an iOS port, I'd look into making BTDT and TGP for it, but it's not a straight port; they'd have to be re-jigged for the control method. I can see them also being quite fiddly on the tiny screen, so it'd be more work than you might imagine. I'd consider it, but if AGS suddenly worked with iOS I'd probably be more interested in making a smaller, voiced, made-for-the-device Dan and Ben game than struggling to make the existing ones fit.

You are currently working on The Swindle. How would you describe it?

I originally described it as being like Sonic the Hedgehog meets Deus Ex, and I think that's still pretty much spot on - it feels like a platform game, but with multiple path sneaking, shooting, hacking and upgrading, that sort of thing. It's a cartoonish Steampunk game about thieving money, upgrading your kit and going back to thieve more.

Judging by your Twitter comments you have already made quite some progress. Happy with the development so far?

Yeah, it's taking longer than I'd imagined to get the basics set up, but it's finally all coming together. The AI's finally up and about, wandering the halls and chasing after you if you're doing something naughty, so it's finally starting to feel like a game. I'm just toying with various different bits and pieces right now, seeing what works and what doesn't. I'm having a blast, my job is amazing.

The art style seems lovely too.

The big headache at the moment is the art - I'm on the verge of scrapping the current graphics and starting afresh with something a bit bolder... we'll see.

Any other comments kind sir?

None, I'm afraid. I think I've used up all the words I know. My Twitter is @danthat, go there please.

[This very interview has also been (cross-)posted over at the lovely IndieGames.com]

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

Gnomes sighted at the Indie Games Blog

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:36:00 +0000

I know you don't always follow my twitter feed, oh not-so-faithful reader, for you would have otherwise noticed I've also started blogging over at the venerable (and most excellent) IndieGames.com. No, really. I've already written about Twine, The Sea Will Claim Everything and Delaware St. John 4, see? And I do hope to follow this up with more than a few interviews, previews, reviews and news bits. Oh, and a semi-regular thing about game creation tools, so, uhm, have a look will you? Who knows? I might even attempt something more retro-focused too...

Traitor and the ethics of treason

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:20:00 +0000

Traitor sounds like such a dirty word, I know, but the dialectics of treason are, quite simply, not that simple. Take the most obvious of examples: would a person who betrayed the Nazis have to live with the stigma of the turn-cloak or be considered a hero? And is treason against a brutal regime an act of courage or cowardice? Are people entitled to ever changing their minds? Should believing in the rights of one's nation ever justify genocide?

Interesting questions indeed, and what better way to start answering them than with the help of a freeware shoot-'em-up that can be enjoyed in the comfort of your browser? No, really, I'm being serious here. Play Traitor, the shmup that Jonas Kyratzes released a few days ago, and get thinking. Oh, and, just in case you were wondering, it's another brilliant offering and a testament to the good dev's ability to make fantastic games regardless of genre; thus a great shmup.

Now, should I actually go on and mention the open structure of the gameworld, the multitude of available upgrades, the lovably glowing graphics, the sheer size of the game offer and the brilliant plot, or let you find out for yourself reader? Guess you're old enough. Find out for yourself.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

A Resonance Preview

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:50:00 +0000

Having thrown a humbly point-and-clickable party after finding out about the imminent release of Resonance, I couldn't help but restlessly wait for the first bits and bytes of playable code. Vince Twelve, the game's designer, had after all advised me against revisiting the old demo, as it apparently had been surpassed on every conceivable level. Judging by the simple fact that said demo was quite an impressive offering the bar was raised quite a bit. And then, after much restless walking up and down, the new press-demo for Resonance was released.

Was it good? Did it live up to my expectations? Was Vince correct? All I can say is that you simply can't imagine how good this game actually is. Resonance blew me away, and if the rest of the game fulfills the preview code's promises, I'm confident it will soon be considered as one of the great adventure games and a worthy addition to Wadjet Eye Games' line-up of such gems as Gemini Rue and the Blackwell series.

Let's start off with the basics though. Resonance is an indie point-and-click adventure, with full voice-over, pixel-art graphics and a plot that goes a bit like this (and I quote the xii games site):

A particle physicist’s mysterious and spectacular death sparks a race to find his hidden vault and claim his terrifying new discovery. The player will take control of four characters whose lives become entangled in the search for the scientist’s vault. They will have to learn to trust each other and work together to overcome the obstacles in their way and to keep this new and powerful technology out of the hands of a dangerous organization.

An interesting plot indeed, but do trust me when I say that things feel way more involved and sinister when you actually play through the game. The characters are excellently written and realistically motivated, the story isn't afraid to cinematically travel back and forth in time and the game world feels both ominous and incredibly detailed.

What's more, this is one of those rare games that aren't afraid to tax the player and help with the development of them latent lateral thinking skills. Three inventories (a proper one, a short term memory one and another one for long term memories), four playable characters and some tough yet fair and excellently designed puzzles make for some truly rewarding aha! moments and for some innovative adventuring with classic elements.

The brilliant interface and the wise difficulty curve, along with some of the very best and richly animated pixel-art graphics, a wonderful soundtrack, a subtly disturbing atmosphere and impressive ammounts of polish, make Resonance one of the most promising adventures in years. Oh, and this is bound to be a pretty huge offering too. Finishing the supposedly short demo took me more than three hours...

Watch this space for the, surely glowing, review. It's bound to appear pretty soon.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

The Sea Will Claim Everything

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:18:00 +0000

Game designer and writer Jonas Kyratzes, artist Verena Kyratzes and musician Chris Christodoulou had apparently been working on The Sea Will Claim Everything for quite some time, and, though their spectacular looking game hasn't been released yet, it has most definitely been announced. Consequently, I am more than excited. This will after all be the most ambitious Lands of Dream game ever released; also, the first commercial game by Jonas.

Expect further details and maybe even a preview relatively soon, but know that there's a ton of info and some stunningly beautiful screenshots already available over here. Ah, yes, the not so traditional feature list:

Explore the Isle of the Sun, the Isle of the Moon and the Isle of the Stars!
Travel the seas!
Wander through more than one hundred beautifully-drawn locations!
Find thousands of tiny details!
Listen to a beautiful, original score!
Meet the many strange inhabitants of the Fortunate Isles, from the pirate octopus to the philosopher-lizard!
Experience the pleasure of having a mouse in your inventory!
Collect ingredients and create many strange potions!
Help a living house heal itself!
Oppose the machinations of Lord Urizen!
Click on things!
Find ancient treasures!
Learn how to use druidic biotechnology!
Read!
Yes, read!
Walls of text await you!

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:04:00 +0000

It was either 1991 or 1992 when I got my first CD-ROM. It came bundled in one of those Multimedia PC (anyone else remember the MPC standard?) kits Creative Labs used to put together, and was accompanied by a Soundblaster Pro and some CDs. Needless to say, I was blown away. Never thought a humble 286 PC could pull off such amazing feats. Besides, ignoring the dull edutainment and encyclopedic software on offer, the thing came with a pretty impressive game: Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective.

It was a game designed and developed by adventure maestros and brave innovators Icom; the same team responsible for some of the earliest and definitely more ground-breaking attempts at a point-and-click interface. But where Deja Vu and Shadowgate innovated by evolving text-adventures, Sherlock Holmes was both a technological marvel and an altogether new way at enjoying narrative heavy gaming. It also was the very first FMV offering I had ever played and it simply amazed me. It even fooled my young self in believing that games with video in them were the future.

Then again and to my defense, Sherlock Holmes, despite its 256-colours limitations and ancient compression technology, sported real actors, solid writing and proper-looking sets. Come to think of it, it was probably among those select five FMV games mankind doesn't have to be ashamed of. What's more, it played excellently and quite a bit like a board game. It even featured three unique cases to solve; all of them fondly remembered.

Now, to the news. The good news! Well the good news is that zojoi, a team headed by Dave Marsh of Icom fame, is attempting to actually bring back the entire Sherlock Holmes series (all nine episodes of it) complete with remastered videos, new interfaces and -if things go really well- even new footage. It will be bringing them back to the PC and Mac, but also on mobile platforms, provided of course we all help out a bit with its Sherlockian Kickstarter. Here's the pitch video to get you all excited and sleuth-y:

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

Wing Commander Saga Released

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:18:00 +0000

The time for all stary-eyed space heroes has arrived! Wing Commander Saga, the excellent fan remake I raved about a few posts ago and the space-sim that Rock Paper Shotgun brilliantly reviewed only yesterday, has finally been released. Head over to WCSaga.com immediately and grab the best simulation of battling space cats in, err, space of the decade. It's absolutely freeware, massive and downright impressive. Oh, and if you, like me, can secure some sort of joystick you'll spend the next 20 or so hours in gaming heaven.

Waveform Review

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:13:00 +0000

Waveform, the soothing indie game I previewed some time ago, is an elegant and incredibly simple to play offering that has just been released for the PC (with a little help from Steam), though I'm pretty sure it would make a killing over at them touch-based mobile devices. Now, don't take this wrong reader; I don't consider Waveform simplistic or shallow - far from it. I'm just pretty confident its unique game mechanics would greatly benefit from touch controls.

Anyway. On to the game proper. Waveform has you using the mouse to control the wavelength and amplitude of a light wave that looks and behaves suspiciously close to a sine wave. Moving your mouse cursor right or left will modify the former and up or down the latter, thus hopefully plotting a route that will help your circular avatar thingy avoid obstacles and grab a ton of points. It's this simple really or, as some would wisely point out, a triumph of minimalist design.

Happily, said simplicity doesn't mean that the game is boring. It means instead that this is one traditionally easy to learn yet hard to master offering. Also one that actually affords gradually building up its complexity with a steady introduction of new gameplay elements, new mechanics, new enemies and new ways to treating them, meaning that you will definitely have something fresh to look forward to every few levels. And there's over 100 well designed of them.

Not all is perfect though. Especially as things get more hectic the controls can feel a tad unresponsive. Oh, and despite the variety on offer and even them hidden levels, said things can actually get repetitive, especially when you are frantically trying to play through the game for a review... Then again, and in what can only be considered a showcase of spontaneous dialects, it remains both fun and addictive; a bit like Tetris actually. What's more, Waveform is indeed something one has to definitely try in order to experience an oddly relaxing yet essentially arcade game.

As for the game's graphics, well, they are all spacey and slightly psychedelic and nice, and help that overall feel of a properly polished game. As, of course, does Waveform's amazing soundtrack. And the ton of little touches, black hole levels, achievements and extras that the devs have kindly packed in this rather lovely and bravely original game.

Verdict: A refreshing and actually successful attempt at a spectacularly innovative arcade game. Definitely worth a try, if only to experience how something truly new feels like.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

The Journey Down interview

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:12:00 +0000

SkyGoblin is much more than a brilliant name; it's a brilliantly named indie adventure-loving ensemble that has already given us one stunning freeware game, is frantically working on The Journey Down (HD) and is apparently more than capable of coming up (and -importantly- masterfully realizing) unique ideas. Here's the interview with multi-tasking artist, developer and producer Theodor Waern:

Let's start with the basics, shall we? Who are the people responsible for SkyGoblin? And why SkyGoblin?

We are two artists (me and Henrik), and two programmers, Mathias and Markus. We've been making games together as a group for over six years now. Me and Mathias have been fooling around with games together pretty much our entire life though. As a group we've built a bunch of different things. Our major project the past three years or so though has been our free-to-play mmo "nordgame". But we've also worked on a bunch of smaller advergames etc. to stay afloat commercially.

In the beginning of our time together as a group we were actually, for a short period, focused on making mobile games. Among them, we made (but never finished) an awesome little game called Baron's Gold. The premise was that a bunch of nasty sky-living Goblins had stolen the flying baron's loot, and you had to get it all back. This is from where the name SKYGOBLIN stems.

I take it you are adventure lovers that will be focused on adventures. Am I correct? Are there any non-adventuring projects waiting to be hatched?

We love games, but we also love stories. I think this is why we have a bias toward working on adventure games. They are simply a great mix of everything we love to work with. As for future projects though, I see no reason why we couldn't venture into all sorts of genres. We love gameplay design and have a lot of strange ideas we'd love to try out if we were given the opportunity.

The already brilliant visuals of the freeware version.

On to The Journey Down then; the original, freeware release. How would you describe it?

I'd describe it as a good flowing adventure that leaves a warm feeling of friendlyness and a thick feeling of there being something bigger and more sinister going on under the surface.

What were you aiming for?

Well, I aimed on making a game that featured all of the good things from the "golden era of point 'n' click" and none of the bad. People often have rose tinted memories of their old favorite games from back in the day. Fact is, they weren't perfect. They had tons of flaws. To be frank, the genre was still not really thought-through. Unintuitive interactions and illogical solutions were everywhere to be found. I like to think I pretty much succeeded in weeding out those issues and instead focused on those core things that truly make the genre fun.

Also, one of my primary goals in making the game was making a game that I would love to produce. And boy did I love to produce TJD.

Did you expect its overwhelming critical success and all those awards?

After having done quite a lot of testing on a rather large bunch of people, I knew I had something good going that worked on people in general and seemed to strike the right chords. I had certainly hoped to win some of those awards, but hadn't deared wish for that many.

Why did you decide to go with an African aesthetic?

I was raised in a home full of African masks and musical instruments, it has been with me all my life and it is something I've always wanted to explore. Besides it looks cool and has for some reason not really been featured that much in games.

The 2D beauty of the HD remake.

What are you the happiest with? Is it the lovely graphics? The plot? The music? The dialog? The puzzles?

To me the greatest experience a game can give you is its ambiance -the vibe you get from playing a game. I am very happy with the vibe of TJD. Needless to say, the vibe is a result of everything combined. As an artist I was never really happy seeing my art mashed-up and go low-res the way it did in the original. Also, me making nice art was not news to me, me making good puzzles and story, this was something new. Also me actually producing the whole thing is something I'm very happy with. I will never again under-estimate the title "producer". It's easy to think of this as the role of someone who doesn't do any of the real work. But fact is, the producer is the one who makes sure it actually gets done. Needless to say, that's pretty important.

And why did you decide to go with a commercial remake?

Lots of reasons. My primary reason though was that I realized I desperately needed to turn TJD into my day job if I was ever going to find the time to actually keep on working on it. In becoming a father, my free time for working on hobby projects has now dwindled down to a steady zero hours per day. Making chapter two commercial was a no-go, there's way too little following. I figured the only way to make this work was to revamp chapter one on a bigger scale. Make it more accessible and raise the appeal further. More platforms, speech and more puzzles all add up to a better game, reaching a bigger audience. Hopefully we can make chapter one work commercially, so I can continue doing chapter two as my day job. If not, I'm just going to have to keep it tiny, and work on it on my own, which clearly works, but will wind up being crummier, and take five more years instead of the rough half-year I expect it to take if being produced here, at SKYGOBLIN.

What's new in the, uhm, new The Journey Down?

Most importantly, speech. It adds a TON of ambiance and depth to the characters. I'm not against reading, but theres's no way text can portray emotion the way a real voice actor can. It makes a huge differece in bonding with the characters. Secondly I'd say story. We've added quite a lot of backstory and new characters, puzzles and locations to make the game a longer, fuller experience that really does make the game worth playing even if you've already played the original. On third place I'd say the HD art. I personally -having painted it all- love finally seeing my background art the way I intended it to be. Sure, the original 320 resolution is cute and retro-y and all, but it still doesn't really do the artwork justice. Finally you can see all the detail and effort that has actually gone into creating this world. On top of that we have re-animated all characters 100% which also makes a huge difference. The original animations were desperate at best and I never really felt they were on par with the rest of the production. Now they are.

When should we expect it?

Depending on when our different distribution channels get a move on, my current guess is mid April, for the PC and Mac release. iOS and Android will follow some time during summer.

It's still episodic isn't it? How many chapters should we expect?

Yeah, this is still only the first chapter of four. It starts and ends where the original does, but we've squeezed lots o' new stuff in between.

Impressively and besides the PC, you are (as mentioned) also releasing it for Mac, iOS and Android. A wise choice indeed, but how difficult is actually porting the game over?

Fortunately we made the decision quite early in the process to make an effort to get the game out on as many platforms as possible. Having this in mind, we built our engine, Gobby, around this very premise. This has (so far) made the effort relatively pain-free. Getting it running on Mac was pretty much a piece of cake. Our Mac build is currently as up to date as our PC build and frankly also seems a bit more stable, for some reason.

Our main challenges on handheld so far have actually rather been interaction-wise. Some handsets are TINY, which has forced us to re-design quite a lot of hotspots and puzzles, to ensure that the player will actually be able to perform the desired interactions. I don't doubt for a second though that we will hit all sorts of technical obstacles before we actually have the iOS and Android builds up and running 100%, but all in all it is looking very promising. One potentially scary thing is performance though. One would think that a 2d point 'n' click title would be relatively non-demanding but with TJD this isn't really the case. We have tons of frames, lots and lots and lots of frames of animation that all need to be loaded into memory, fast. Getting that flow smoothly on all devices will no doubts be a challenge.

Do you feel that mobile platforms are well-suited to adventures?

Certainly. But the games need to be built for it to suit the format. Honestly, with a well designed UI, I have a hard time imagining any format working better for point 'n' clicks than tablets.

And what about the general state of adventure gaming? There's a renaissance going on, isn't there?

It certainly seems like it. With the sudden boom of affordable tablets and other handheld gaming devices, point 'n' clicks and similar puzzlers are bound to start flourishing again. Also, Android Market and the App Store are ideal places for small studios to launch experimental, high-risk games without having to bother with publishers, which at least in theory should allow for more interesting and quirky titles to reach the masses. If they'll (we'll) manage to get anything sold though, is a different matter entirely.

Also, Double Fine certainly put pnc's back in the spotlight again with their Kickstarter campaign, proving that there are indeed tons of people out there who are craving these kind of games. How us noname developers tap into that market though is anyone's guess. Being seen is incredibly difficult.

Finally and to let you work on actually crafting games, what does the future hold for SkyGoblin?

Hopefully our near future holds a successfull launch of chapter one of TJD, followed by us immediately getting down and dirty with the actual implementation of chapter two. We actually have quite a lot of chapter two worked out, it just hasn't been... produced. Frankly I hope to pretty much be able to focus on TJD until we finally wrap the whole thing up, but odds are we will have to break off a little now and then and work on other projects to keep us afloat. Financially solely living off of TJD seems pretty unlikely. Don't get me wrong, I expect people who play the game to love it. That however doesn't mean we will be able to reach out and make enough sales to live off of it during the entire production. Such is the tough world of self publishing. So likely we will be doing all sorts of haphazard contract jobs in between, somehow patching our economy together, as we have the past five years or so. We are used to it by now. Zero security, but it allows us to work with what we love.

After TJD, who knows? We have a million ideas and would love to see them all realized. Which one we end up playing with is too early to speculate about at this stage. It's pretty safe to say though that it wont directly involve mask-clad rasta people.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

Wing Commander Saga - Preview & Interview

noreply@blogger.com (gnome) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:03:00 +0000

My Wing Commander memories mainly involve scheming. Well, scheming and fighting exciting space-battles while daydreaming the way only a space-opera can force (male) teenagers to daydream, but mainly scheming. Getting the original game, installing a Soundblaster Pro, accessing the Secret Mission packs, being given a copy of Wing Commander II and eventually even upgrading to a 386SX wasn't that easy. Not for a kid my age. Not without scheming. And begging, and pleading too of course, but mainly scheming. I even considered believing in Santa Claus for a moment, but, no, it was scheming that allowed me to experience Wing Commander in its almost full glory.

But, I do believe that's enough on my early teen years, as the future of the mostly ignored space fighter sim genre is actually looking much brighter. The indie, freeware project that's been going on for the past decade and will most definitely revive the Wing Commander universe, Wing Commander Saga, will very soon be made available. How soon? Watch this impressive trailer and you'll know:

Pretty fantastic, innit? And you should know by now that it's only a few days away. Then again you should (but, frankly, couldn't) also know that I've been playing with the almost final version of the game for the past few days and am more than enthralled by it. I do believe my jaw actually dropped a couple of times too.

Wing Commander Saga, you see, is so much more than a simple fan remake. It is a polished, feature-heavy, brilliantly designed behemoth of a game, that could have easily been a commercial release. The game does after all sport over 50 missions, 2 campaigns, 60 voice actors, dozens of Terran and Kilrathi spaceships and roughly 70 cutscenes. And some massive battles involving proper fleets.

What's more and despite using the smart but relatively ageing Freespace 2 engine, the game looks absolutely stunning and should run smoothly on any PC. The high-res models, the beautiful star-fields, those glorious nebulae and an inspired art direction make Wing Commander Saga's space battles the most spectacular of the series. Happily they play excellently too, even if you (like me) eschew the more traditional joystick in favour of keyboard controls. Everything you knew and loved is there in its evolved and refined version: travelling from nav-point to nav-point, on the fly changing of weapons configurations, deploying decoys, giving orders to your wingmen; the lot. You'll even be able to transfer power between shields, weapons and engines à la X-Wing.

As for the missions themselves they cover everything from patrolling and escorting to attacking and defending, and are masterfully scripted, story driven and, for lack of a better word, incredibly fun. Fun enough to keep me playing for a disturbing number of hours. To my defense, destroying Kilrathi hasn't felt this good in ages, and as the game is set some time* before the events of Wing Commander 3 you'll be getting a lot of that, all wrapped-up in a lovely plot and supported by an equally lovely soundtrack. (* Update: The prologue takes place roughly 6 months before the events in Wing Commander 3 while the main campaign begins right before Wing Commander 3 and concludes with the ending of the Terran-Kilrathi War.)

Enough with what I thought about Wing Commander Saga though. It's pretty obvious I loved it and so will you the moment it gets released (most probably here). For now let creator and founder of the project Anton (a.k.a. Tolwyn) further enlighten you via this handy interview:

What is Wing Commander Saga?

Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn is a space flight simulator game, which recreates the vast universe of the famed Wing Commander series. Just like the original games, WC Saga offers a compelling mixture of sci-fi and World War II history, all told through the perspective of a skilled pilot that the player can relate to. We created a highly immersive plot line grounded in the Wing Commander universe which offers compelling characters in thought provoking situations - the very thing that Chris Roberts and his team did so successfully with Wing Commander.

How long did you spend on creating this shining behemoth of a space battles sim?

It is kind of odd to think that it took us exactly 10 years (to the day) to complete the project. It has been a wild and bumpy ride. The project had been pushed back several times over the years because we kept adding new features to the product or refining existing assets. Right now, I am looking back and am amazed at how far we have come - it is a great feeling to see this thing I have been envisioning all these years finally take form.

Weren't you afraid of such a herculean task?

We quickly learned that the process of creating a computer game is much more difficult than we initially thought. The project kept growing because we wanted gamers to experience a wide variety of missions while staying true to the feeling of Wing Commander. There was an intense desire to keep adding new elements, assets & features, which was very seductive. Many of the features we added (like the autopilot) were really great ideas too, so we did not want to let those go. The end result should be highly enjoyable for the players, and that's the audience we need to please.

Click for a more detailed look at the game's HUD.

Care to introduce us to the team?

The team behind Wing Commander Saga was small from the start, but what we lacked in numbers we made up for in dedication and talent. These guys really stretched their creative muscles and put in ridiculous hours to make sure that this project stayed true to the Wing Commander canon and spirit (although we may have taken some artistic license here or there) and made it out of my dreams and into reality. I've worked with some people who were easy to get along with, some others who were more difficult. We've been through hard times, through tough times, but we've all kept together--because we love Wing Commander and have produced WC Saga as a celebration of a great series.

What would you say is the most impressive feature of Wing Commander Saga?

Features don't make games great. What makes them great is the love poured into them, great game dynamics, and solid storytelling--and we've done our best to make sure Wing Commander Saga has all of that. We, as designers, wanted to ensure that the entire experience is exciting: the game makes you feel that you are not just watching the action but actually stepping into the role and experiencing what it is like to be Sandman.

How well does it tie in with the original Wing Commander series?

It should tie in very well storywise. It has several references to the old series, to novels, to other stuff about the Wing Commander universe. Our approach to game design draws mostly upon elements from Wing Commander, but we also analyzed other great titles like Freespace and the X-Wing series. We have tried to learn from all of these sources about what makes for action packed and diversified mission design and I can see that it's really making a difference. I feel that the final product will be great. For example, sizeable fleet battles are things that WC fans have largely only been able to read about, or have inferred in the games... until Wing Commander Saga. The largest fleet action-type battles you have actually been able to play until now were in Wing Commander: Prophecy, and the fan project Wing Commander: Standoff deserves props for taking Prophecy’s engine and putting together some good fleet action.

What does the future hold? Any future projects we should be looking out for?

It's been a fantastic experience to create something in homage of a great series. A big thank you has to go to our fans for their extreme patience over the long development period, as well as to Chris Roberts, Origin, and EA for their generosity in allowing Saga and other Wing Commander fan projects to be released and distributed.

Pulling off something like this is a lifetime achievement. We couldn't easily repeat it, nor would we want to. But who knows, maybe we will start developing a new indie game very soon.

Related @ Gnome's Lair: