Interviews

Benoit Sokal Speaks to Just Adventure About the Lost Paradise Game, Comic Strip and Film Project

January 26, 2005

On the occasion of the new year, Benoît Sokal – best known for the best-selling Syberia series - agreed to answer some questions about his upcoming projects with White Birds Productions:

Benoit, what projects are planned for 2005?

• For 2005, White Birds Productions will concentrate on some fundamental projects: - for example, our first game, Lost Paradise. We are in full production on the title, for which a publishing agreement was just made. This agreement relates to the whole of the rights for Europe - we are still speaking to various publishers for the US rights
• A collection of comic strips, based on the universes created by White Birds has been in production for several months. The first series of strips focuses on the Lost Paradise universe. It is exciting for us to work simultaneously on the game and the comic.
• Finally, we will be working on another game – which we will announce soon – and a film project.

In all these fields, we will concentrate above all on quality! We are convinced that working on related games, comic strips and film is the only solution to continue to advance and progress in this industry.

All are these projects within the framework of White Birds Productions?

Absolutely. Except for Canardo, the series of comic strips that I continue on a purely personal basis, all my other work is conceived and completed for White Birds Productions

Who will be the publisher for Lost Paradise?

We’ve announced a couple of days ago that Micro Application will be our publisher in Europe. We were charmed meeting this editor, with who we felt a true dynamism; there is a true synergy between us and I think that that will make it possible to improve the diffusion of our titles in the future. Micro Application is really building a very interesting line-up in the adventure genre.

Concerning the USA, I think that we will make the official announcement at the GDC (Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco).

Do you also have a publisher for the collection of comic strips?

Yes – we worked this past summer with one of the largest French editors. I think that announcement will also be made soon. And you will perhaps even see the first pages of the Lost Paradise comic strip then! The Lost Paradise comics will be published into 3 or 4 volumes – the first one appearing at the same time as the game, and the other ones a couple of months later.

Will there be artists other than yourself involved with White Birds?

Of course. It is one of our main objectives. I can say that the film project – which will also of course be a game - is the fruit of a collaboration between me and my friend François Schuiten - the author of the Obscure Cities. And, in addition, we look forward to, either in the world of the video games or for other types of creation, to work with and collaborate with other authors in creating their own universes via White Birds. Michel Bams, Olivier Fontenay and myself are rather excited to regard White Birds as a production company that provides authors with the means to create interesting, new worlds.

Will you be working primarily with cartoonists?

No. Of course, there is already – as I said - François Schuiten – but there will soon be others. We seek talent from all venues. For instance, we would like to encourage game developers to create comic strips and cartoonist to create games. But, we will speak about this with you in more detail soon.

Thank you for your time, Benoit. It is always a pleasure.