Jack the Ripper

During the recent E3, we visited The Adventure Company booth and spoke with Philippe Gaudé, producer of one of the most eagerly anticipated adventure games of the year – Jack the Ripper. Philippe is a quiet individual, until one broaches the subject of the Ripper, for then his eyes sparkle and his hands become animated, almost as if he is wielding an invisible knife…

Can you tell us more about the Ripper plot?

In his game, you play as a young reporter, James Palmer, in charge of
writing a chronicle about a series ofhorriblemurder in the Low Side District of New York. He begins to search witnesses, discovers the everyday life of this poor district where he’s not specially welcomed. While his search for witnesses leadshim to investigate suspects, he will begin to foster friendship with a young singer – Abigaïl the “Irish Nightingale” – and with her help integrate slowly in the social environment. But his daily chronicles will soon trigger the interest of the killer, who will begin to play cat and mouse with him. The killer calls himself “Jack the Ripper”, and it seems that this is not a joke
as his investigation tends to prove this true..

How do we know the murderer is the same Ripper from London?

For those who know the historical facts, there will soon be no doubt. Anyway, during the game, the player will have access to documentation about the London events, and will be able to compare the New York murders to the London sequence and make his own mind about that. The player will have support from the most advanced private investigation agency of the time to analyze evidence and help him draw his own conclusions.

Why did you set the game in turn of the century New York instead of London where the killings actually occurred?

This was originally the idea of Wanadoo and it has proven to be a very powerful shift. If you ever make a game – or a movie, or even a book – about the real Ripper event, you have to stick to the historic facts word-by-word. Here, while staying faithful to the spirit of Jack the Ripper, we are free to create a new sequence of events and a new story. Our goal was not to to say “here is our vision of the real events”, but to lead the player into a compelling
“what if” story while being true to both the myth of “Jack the Ripper” and
the historical facts.

Are there any guns or shooting in the game?

Ripper is definitely not an action game, and is in no way based upon any kind of shooting or rapidity skills. But that doesn’t mean you never ever see a gun in this game. The poor districts of New York in the turn of the century are not exactly a quiet place… Though, your brain will be your best arm.

Will there be alternative endings?

No. Alternative endings means alternative stories (even if the main part is
common), and the timeframe of the games realization do not allow us to craft and polish several interlaced stories at the required quality level. Though, we strived to let the player have the maximum possible freedom in his journey through the game. But the focus is on the player experience: every scene of the game must provoke an emotion, whether it’s fear, thrill, surprise, amazement… Our challenge is that every player, when they have finished the game, remember the adventure they lived, so that they want to play again. Not to discover new stories, but merely to have a different look at some things he could have missed at first sight and to live his experience again: the same way we often watch good movies several times.

Do you personally have any theories as to the true identity of the Ripper?

Though we’ve done wide research about the historic facts, we are far from specialists about Jack the Ripper. It would be a life’s job… We don’t have one theory, but merely two or three suspects and possible explanations that stand out the crowd. But we are not able to find one rock-solid enough to say : Jack the Ripper is for sure… Anyway, this is a complex and absolutely amazing mystery.

What graphics engine has been used for Ripper?

We work with the Virtools engine as a basis, on which we’ve added some powerful in-house technologies. While the environments are still 360° pre-rendered (allowing extremely rich and detailed graphics even on relatively small computers), we can have now real-time characters, animations and eyes-candy. The player experience is vastly improved as he can now act in living environments and interact with characters.

Finally, we asked the burning question on everyone’s mind – will the identity of the computer version of the Ripper be revealed during the game? Well, we know, but if we told you then we’d have to cut out yer kidney and have it fer breakfast.