I
was fortunate enough to be allowed to preview a demo of the follow
up to Nacah,
Derek (pronounced De-rek, with the stress on the second syllable).
The game’s designer and creator, Cheyenne Wolford, emphasized in his
letter that the game is still in development and many changes are
anticipated. The version I was given is an alpha demo and uses an
earlier form of AdventureMaker than will be in the final product.

If
you’ve viewed the screenshots, you will realize that this is far superior
graphically to Nacah, and promises to be better still when using the
newest AdventureMaker. The game uses the same engine, although as
new AdventureMaker engines have become available, the game has incorporated
new developments. It may be cliché, but the first thought I
had on viewing this demo was RIVEN. What makes this so fascinating,
though, is that this game looks like Riven but was designed
by one person.

The
game is played from a first person perspective and is mouse driven.
Inventory items are easier to recognize than those in Nacah
are. The game incorporates static backgrounds, both with and without
QuickTime overlays and uses QuickTime cutscenes. The game has some
characters, with which there is interaction.

Another
Christian adventure game, the storyline is far more developed this
time. Instead of aimless wandering, beating puzzles to get to a surreal
conclusion, the game has a clear story. In the islands of Derek,
the Matteh are a people living without God. They had their Bible taken
from them by the Dalaq, a dominating force. But there is another people,
the Qadas, who hold a copy of the Bible in the Matteh language. Your
goal is to recover the guidance of the Bible to a people who have
been without their faith for some generations.

All
the puzzles are once again solved through clues that can be gained
from reading indicated Scripture passages. There is a greater maturity
to the puzzles than in Nacah, such that trial and error is
not enough to solve them and they are integrated into the story.

The
sound effects are more in evidence than in Nacah, with ambient
noises, water, and footsteps adding to the experience. The music has
a less one acoustic instrument “folk” sound giving some
deeper sound textures.

The game will hopefully
be completed later in the year.

The game’s official website
is: www.virtuegames.com.