JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, SHERLOCK HOLMES & THE CASE OF SHERRINGFORD HALL, AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS Preview – Welcome to Just Adventure +

No one can accuse Frogwares of resting on their laurels. Flush from the success of Sherlock Holmes & The Mystery of the Mummy, this French company has not one, not two, but three games currently in development! Two are based on Jules Verne novels – Journey to the Center of the Earth & Around the World in Eighty Days – and the other on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective Sherlock Holmes.

We recently spoke with Wael Amir – Frogwares CEO – at the E3 and he was understandably excited about his talented company’s new projects and enthusiastic to provide Just Adventure with exclusive information.
Journey to the Center of the Earth differs somewhat from Jules Verne’s original as the main character is Ariane, a young female photographer who works for a travel magazine. While on assignment in Iceland, the helicopter she is in crashes into a volcano and Ariane plunges into a crack that leads to the center of the earth where two lost civilizations are striving to survive.

Journey to the Center of the Earth is scheduled for a September, 2003 release. Wael states that the game has “around 35 locations and 30 Characters. All of them are well animated, and the voices are good too, with the help of JA Forum we found some excellent voice actors.

We are currently at a difficult stage of development which is the gathering of the game, when we gather all elements and begin the testing of the game; everyday the game changes for the better. It promises to be very good; Ariane is a very interesting character, and the characters that she has to meet are all out of the ordinary.
There are 200 inventory items, 300 different camera angles, 30 cut-scenes and 6 levels, so the game is big and we expect to have 30-40 hours of gameplay.”

Sounds like this will be one interesting journey for adventure gamers.

Sherlock Holmes & The Case of Sherringford Hall is still in the early stages of development, but we can share these wonderful character sketches:

The case is afoot as Sherlock and Dr. Watson witness the murder of construction tycoon Sir Melvyn Bromsby during a reception for his daughter at his mansion, Sherringford Hall. No one is exempt from suspicion including Sir Bromsby’s daughter Lavinia, nor world famed operatic singer Gallia. Holmes must now act quickly as every moment lost brings the killer closer to freedom.
According to Wael, Sherlock “uses the same technology as Journey to the Center of The Earth and the development team completely changed the game-play compared to The Mystery of the Mummy.

Sherlock will have more than 30 Characters and the plot is tricky as can be expected from an ACD novel. The game has five levels and a lot of outside and inside scenes. The gamer will play as both Watson and Holmes, alternatively, and will be able to use the actual deductive methods of the consulting detective. Witnesses will have to testify, chemical experiences will take place in Baker Street and so on to make the game as realistic as possible.”

Finally, Wael provided Just Adventure with some inside information on Frogwares other Jules Verne project, “Around the World in Eighty Days is done in real-time 3D and is based on an immersive, original, and funny game design. The game is really promising as it our first experience in full RT3D and we intend to deliver to the public some preproduction and work in progress elements by the end of the summer. It includes seven big levels, cities and transportation means, in which the hero will have to run, work, sing, pay, seduce, fight, hide, and even walk to complete the turn around the world.”

Phineas Fog, Sherlock Holmes, the center of the earth – Frogwares’ dedication to bringing classic literature to the adventure genre is to be commended and I’m hereby submitting my request for interactive versions of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera – how cool would that be!