Interviews

1. Tell us about 1C developer
and publishers.

1C Company specializes
in distribution, support, publishing and development of business software
and games. Founded in 1991, 1C has become the leading the leading
software company in Russia. 1C Company entered the games publishing
business in 1996 and has a strong line of successful titles, developed
in Russia and licensed from international publishers. 1C Company is
also widely acknowledged as a game developer and has 2 internal studios
that created “Konung Legend of the North” (1999) and “IL-2
Sturmovik” (developed by 1C/Maddox Games and published worldwide
by Ubi Soft). 1C works as a publisher and producer with all leading
native independent studios, such as: Nival Interactive, Snowball Interactive,
SoftLab-Nsk, K-D Lab, Akella, Creat Studio, Saturn Plus and Gamos.

The developer of “Jazz
and Faust” is a Russian company named Saturn Plus and is located
in the heart of the country in the old and beautiful city of Voronezh.
Saturn Plus has been in adventure game development business since
1997. Jazz and Faust is their fifth project and the first to be published
outside Russia.

2. How have the changes
in the Russian government, political ideology and the current Russian
economic situation influenced your game development philosophy?

Well, it’s hard
to say…. All Russian developers did exist before the changes
in the Russian government, and they continue their work. The quality
of Russian games has increased considerably during the past few years
and more and more Russian games are being published outside Russia.
I guess that this far the most well-known Russian games are “IL-2
Sturmovik”, “Hard Truck 2”, “Sea Dogs”, “Evil
Islands” and “Etherlords”. We do not think it has much
to do with the government. Though today the government pays more attention
to the development of IT industry. We would say that the government
is not much of help, but at the same time it does not stand in the
way. At present we observe some positive tendencies in the government’s
work, like, say, fighting against computer piracy, which has already
brought some palpable results. And game development philosophy is
still the same – we are trying to make games that are FUN.

3. Do the Russian people
in general like computer games? What about accessibility to home PC’s
in your country.

Oh, yes, the Russians
are really hard core gamers! All of us! The number of those who have
PC’s at home has increased as well. There are around 10,000,000
PC’s in the country.

4. What is the favorite
game genre in your country? Favorite platform?

PC games are very popular
in Russia. Most popular genres are RPG, action and RTS. Adventures
are quite popular as well. Consoles are almost nonexistent. There
are some old generation consoles though.

5. Are new gaming platforms
available in Russia in a timely manner? Such as XBox, PS2.

All platforms are available,
but they are not widely accepted by the public.

6. It is my impression
that you have been keeping Jazz and Faust information “quiet”
until recently. Am I correct? Was there a reason for that?

Well, we prefer to concentrate
on development and not on PR. Our target is to please gamers and not
just boast with screenshots. I suppose that Jazz and Faust will speak
for itself. The best possible marketing tool for the game will be
happy fans that advertise the game to their friends.

7. What can you tell us
about the storyline now?

The storyline focuses
on a mysterious murder in a seaport. Then both characters are suddenly
involved in a mysterious treasure hunt, wild adventures and romance.
I don’t want to give out too many details.

8. Tell the JA readers
about the names of your main characters. Jazz? Faust? Where did the
names come from? Tell us about their personalities and about their
roles in the game.

Everyone’s curious
about the names…Even the scriptwriter does not remember where
the idea came from. He said something about Borhes, but actually we
do not see any connection between the names of the characters and
Borhes… The script to the game was written in 1998 and developers
planned to make a cartoon first. Later they worked it into a game
script and added some new characters. But the main characters –
Jazz and Faust – and their role in the game remained unchanged.
Jazz is a covetous smuggler. He is in constant search for adventure.
Faust is an enchanting sea captain. We decided to keep the name –
it sounds uncommon and a bit funny.

9. Do the characters play
in partnership or do they play through different storylines?

The game features two
variant paths, depending on which character was selected, each offering
its own unique storyline, but progressing to equally rich endings.

10. Is the game linear
or nonlinear? 3D? 360? What are the PC requirements?

The game is linear.
Technologically it is a combination of 2D and 3D, i.e., 3D characters
move on prerendered 2D backgrounds. This allows us to combine very
detailed backgrounds with modern tendencies. System requirements are
PII 400 with any graphic accelerator. A P 200 with no graphic accelerator
will do as well though some special effects won’t be available then.

11. Is the world of Jazz
and Faust realistic or is it a fantasy land? Why the Ancient East?

The world of “Jazz
and Faust” somehow resembles that of the Ancient East but it’s
not just the Ancient East. The game is divided into 3 main zones,
one being a medieval city, another one – an oriental town and
the third part is a colonial type outpost. The game has nothing to
do with the existing countries or cities. It is sort of a fantasy
world but without goblins.

12. How many other characters
are available for the player to interact with? How many plots and
sub plots? How many environments?

It’s hard to say
what the exact number of quests is… Depends what to count. All
in all, there are about 30 major quests in each character path. The
total number of characters is about 50, not including the animals
of course. There are 86 locations in the game.

13. Is the game primarily
adventure or does it have action components? How much action by percentage?
Combat?

This is a classical
adventure game. It contains no arcade elements, but has some puzzles.

Though it is not pure
pixel hunting – the game is heavily dependent on interaction.
You will have to talk to all those characters in order to advance.

14. Tell us about the graphics.

Take a look at screenshots!
They will explain everything better than me.

15. What about music? Is
there an original score for the game?

Our staff writer wrote
the soundtrack. There are 10 original tracks in the game.

16. What do you think is
the strongest feature of the game?

The strongest features
of the game are the graphics components: colourful backgrounds and

3D effects like real
time shadows and 2 variants of walkthrough.

17. Are you using a game
engine developed by 1C or have you decided to use one that is already
a proven commodity?

The engine was fully
developed by Saturn Plus.

18. How many countries
and languages will Jazz and Faust be tailored for? Do you have an
anticipated release date for each country?

Thus far, “Jazz
and Faust” will be released in the US, Russia, the Czech Republic,
Poland and Hungary near the end of April, 2002. There is strong interest
in other countries but the release dates are not set yet.

19. Will Jazz and Faust
be the name of the game on release?

Yes. It used to be a
working title but everyone got used to it and after long debates we
decided to leave it as it is.

20. Is there anything else
that you would like the JA readers to know about your game or your
company?

If “Jazz and Faust”
is a success we will definitely create a sequel. We could make a trilogy,
for example.

21. What about other games
do you have in development? What can we expect from 1C in the future?

Next year a new project
of Saturn Plus called “Borderzone” (working title) will
see the light. It is a 3D action RPG. 1C will also produce a sequel
to “IL-2 Sturmovik”, “Perimeter” and “Smash
Cars”. Other titles are not yet confirmed for 2002.

22. If you could stretch
your developmental capabilities to the maximum, what kind of game
would you want to create? What would your dream game be like?

It will be something
very innovative. Maybe “Tetris #2”. 😉

23. What is your personal
favorite game? Least favorite game?

I like RPG’s mostly.
Bad games? I’m not playing bad games.

Regards and all the
best to your web-site and readers,

Nikolay Baryshnikov,

International Marketing
Manager