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!