Interviews

Scheduled for release in November, The Town With No Name is the second installment of the Delaware St. John series. Big Time Games developer Bryan Wiegele took a few moments to answer questions about his upcoming game.

Can you give me a quick synopsis of the story line for Town With No Name?

Bryan: A month after the events at Midnight Manor, Delaware has a strange vision that leads him into the middle of the woods where he finds an entire town abandoned. With Kelly backing him up as researcher and clue giver, it's up to Delaware to figure out the events that led up to the town's demise.

Where did you get the idea for this story line, and for the name?

A few years ago I had written a general outline to a game series that would be comprised of ten individual games. What the outline amounted to was a series of chapter titles and a general description of the story that took place. Many of the original titles have changed in the past few months but The Town with No Name was a name that remained unchanged since I first wrote it down. I liked the title since it makes you ask questions, it causes intrigue.

What differences, if any, can players expect to see in Volume 2 as opposed to Volume 1?

TTWNN features "Interviews" where the player will pick questions to ask characters they encounter. With the addition of interviews I think the player will feel more involved in how the game progresses. There's also been a lot of new functionality added to support the players that wanted to use VIC to take pictures of ghosts.

What do you think is the most important thing you learned from the completion, launch, and follow-through with Volume 1 that you'll be applying to Volume 2?

I'd say the one thing that we took to heart when creating TTWNN is the tremendous feedback received directly from our audience. Suffice to say TTWNN will be maze-free, I'm sure that will be appreciated by a good many Players. Also, TTWNN is compatible with Windows 98/ME/XP/2000 out of box, something we had to rectify with a patch for TCOMM.

Will players who haven't played Volume 1 be able to jump into Volume 2, or will they miss important details?

My primary goal with the series is to create easily accessible games. Player's who've completed TCOMM will appreciate the continued quest of the main characters and the expansion to the story while newcomers will be able to jump right in and enjoy the second story without feeling like they're missing something.

Which games, movies, or television shows would you say most inspired you, and how does this show in your game development?

I really can't say I've been influenced by any specific movie or television show. I'm a huge horror fan and I love comedy so in general I'd say it's art, movies, music and television combined with my own personality that influences the way I design games. With Delaware I wanted to create a series that would provide some great scares without gratuitous violence or language.

When designing a game, what do you most hope players will come away with after playing it?

I think when all's set and done you hope the player had a great experience and is left wanting more. Games should be as entertaining and memorable as any good movie and that's what I aim to achieve.

Fans of The Curse of Midnight Manor can pre-order Town With No Name by visiting www.delawarestjohn.com.