Interviews

White Birds is considered
by many – myself included – to be the premiere French
developer of adventure games.

Formed in 2003 by Benoît
Sokal, Olivier Fontenay, Jean-Philippe Messian and Michel Bams –
who had previously developed Amerzone and
the classic Syberia games, considered by
many to be the best adventure game series of all-time – White
Birds’ first release in 2005 was the Paradise
game and graphic novels, followed by Sinking Island
and the soon-to-be-released Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals.

• It’s been a long
  time – over 10 years – since I was floored at the E3
  by a video of an old man riding a bicycle (Amerzone)
  – how have you, Olivier, Jean-Philippe and Benoît managed
  to continue working together and succeed in such a volatile industry?

Well,
when Olivier and I first saw “Amerzone”, and subsequently
first met with Benoît, we were astonished. At that time, we
did everything to convince Microïds to sign the title. Then,
we worked all together (Jean-Philippe was CFO at Microïds) on
“Syberia”, Olivier managing the Montreal studio of Microïds
and myself being in charge of the marketing. Besides the work, we
appreciated each other. Then, when Microïds began having troubles,
we decided to create our own company.

Our wish was to develop
new games and also to “follow the image” where it was
going: Internet, movies, graphic novels… Well, that was 5 years
ago, and we’re still there.

• Nikopol
  is based on a graphic novel trilogy by Enki Bilal. Why are graphic
  novels held in such high esteem by the French, but have yet to find
  widespread popularity in North America?

I don’t know, frankly.
It remains a kind of mystery to me, namely for creators such as Enki
Bilal who develop Sci-Fi and Fantasy universes that are very much
“universal.” But it is a fact that “French”
cartoons or graphic novels never sold well in the USA.

• White Birds has a history
  of developing games based on graphic novels; other than the Nikopol
  sequels, are there any other graphic novels you would like to turn
  into computer entertainment?

There
are certainly a lot, but not because they’re famous. It is more
a question of universes, and how they can be adapted. Not all stories,
whether they are a graphic novel, a novel or a movie, will do a good
video game. Still, our main job remains to create our own universes.
Yet, we’re working on new projects with Benoît and namely
his first “3D real time action/adventure for the PS3”,
under the codename “Krao.” We’re trying to move
forward and not stay in a kind of perpetual re-making of the same
recipe. For example, Benoît has been asked a million times why
he would not make a “Syberia 3”. For him, it is a little
bit like in this Stephen King novel, and a great movie as well, “Misery”
in which an insane fans want a writer to tell the same story, again
and again…

• Can you give us an
  overview of Nikopol’s plot and main
  character?

Nikopol
is quite a complex story, but if you take the leap on some of the
initial fantasy facts (Egyptian Gods are immortal aliens, the hero
is as old as his father and looks like him…), it is very logical
.
This is all the talent of Enki Bilal, the author – to make you
believe in something unbelievable.

In a few words, the main
character, Nikopol, is a mere mortal living in the City of Paris in
a near future. The City became a fascist state, ruled by a dictator.
Egyptian Gods, in their flying pyramid, are stuck on Earth and need
oil to continue their trip. One of the Gods, Horus, wants to take
the power on Earth and will use Nikopol as a tool…

• Do you consider the
  game to be an extension of the graphic novel or is a faithful adaptation
  of the book?

For
us, the game has to be good on its own. Many of the players will not
know about the original graphic nove or the movie that Bilal directed
on based on the story. So the game needs to be, first and foremost,
a good game. It may sound obvious, but it is not always the case when
a game is adapted from a pre-existing universe.

That being said, we think
– and this is also Bilal’s feeling – that the game
is an extension / rewriting of the graphic novel. We decided, together
with Bilal, to change key scenario elements to fit to the game design.

• Did Enki Bilal have
  final approval over everything in the game?

Yes, he supervised and
approved everything. For him, the game is not a “license,”
but an original creation based on his universe.

• How do you think he
  enjoyed the experience of helping to bring his novel to life on
  the computer screen?

He
is very frank by telling us that “Nikopol” was going to
be one of the only games he would play. But in the end, he said that
it was very interesting for him to see this universe and his character
becoming the hero of a new media. If we work on the sequel, and we
hope to do so, he will certainly be happy to continue this adventure
with us.

• Is Nikopol
  more of a political thriller or a character study between a father
  and son?

Both. The plot mixes up
pure “political” aspects, the city being a dictatorship
and the hero having to struggle for his life. But it is also a son’s
quest for his father.

• From the screenshots
  it appears that Nikopol is in first-person
  perspective; is the story driven by dialogue or by solving puzzles?

We are trying to keep the
story central in our games. We want the player to ask him/her self
“what’s coming next?”, “how is this story
going to end?”. Then, the puzzles are always story-related and
not there “for free,” just to make the game longer. As
usual in adventure, there are dialogs of course, and you learn a lot
about the story via those dialogs.

• We’ve heard rumors
  of time-driven sequences, can you elaborate on this some more and
  is it something that adventure gamers need to worry about?

Not
at all. We think we’ve known adventure games long enough to
avoid “basic” mistakes. I’m sure that some players
might not like those sequences, but I’m pretty confident that
most of the Nikopol gamers will like the challenge these sequences
represent. They are part of the story, and not there to make the game
longer… So I guess and hope they will please.

• White Birds is also
  currently busy adapting Paradise as Last
  King of Africa for the Nintendo DS. In what areas
  have you been able to improve the game on the DS and in what areas
  do you think the game suffers compared to the computer version?

Development is finished
and the game will be on the shelves this Xmas. We were lucky to have
the original graphical assets of “Paradise” at our disposal,
allowing us to make a game that would have been impossible to produce
from scratch for the NDS. We re-wrote all the gameplay, adapting it
to the platform. What was weak in the PC game has been abandoned (the
3D sequences with the leopard for example), and we have simplified
the dialogs. Every time possible, we build specific DS / touch screen
with stylus gameplays and interactions. In the end, it is almost a
brand new game. We’re quite happy with the result, and the DS
is definitely a platform on which we want to make other games.

• After the success of
  White Birds, has it become easier to find a distributor for your
  adventure games in North America or is it still the same old struggle?

For
“Nikopol,” we are working with Got Game Entertainment.
It is a company specializing in adventure and having a very good knowledge
of this market. For the moment, we have the feeling that “majors”
are not seeing adventure as “mainstream” enough for them.
But it’s nice to work with smaller but highly motivated publishers.

• Thanks for your time
  and we’ll look forward to exploring the world of Nikopol
  soon!

Note: Official game site
for the Got Game release is www.nikopolgame.com