‘Who’re You Gonna Call?’
is the first in a series of articles that will spotlight various adventure
game developers who will discuss how they broke into the industry
and maybe even offer some advice for aspiring game designers.

This month we pay a
visit to Pascal Luban; General Manager of the Game Design Studio in
France:

WHO’RE YOU GONNA CALL?

By Randy Sluganski

Have you ever wondered
how an adventure game is birthed? Let’s say you have this really nifty
idea for a game, but you don’t know what direction to go next. Do
you call a game company? Heck no, unless you are one of their employees
they won’t even entertain the thought of listening to your idea regardless
of how wonderful it may be – lawsuits and all that you know.

Should you contact someone
who has actually developed or written an adventure game? That would
surely be a step in the right direction. Find someone who has actual
experience in releasing a game to retail; someone who has successfully
obtained funding and then pick apart his brain. The odds against your
success are still enormous though and many talented people have fallen
to the wayside. One man though decided that his desire to make adventure
games outweighed the risks involved and in a bold move formed his
own design company.

I
first had the pleasure of meeting Pascal Luban, General Manager of
The Game
Design Studio while doing some research for USS Antartica
(previously known as 1906) an upcoming console adventure game.
As is my usual state of my mind, I was also slightly confused as my
notes identified the same individual as one of the designers of the
sublimely horrific Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare – the
continuation of Hubert Chardot’s ground-breaking action/adventure
series. In my usual
subtle manner, I emailed The Game Design Studio about six hundred
times until they finally capitulated and provided Just Adventure with
an exclusive article on how and why they came to be. So now, in the
words of Pascal himself:

It all began in the
early 1990’s. At that time, I held a marketing position at Panasonic
France. It was not dull but I wanted to create things. The advent
of the CD-I made me realize that future game platforms would allow
designers to write and realize high quality games. I decided to
work on a game project for those new platforms. My vision was to
realize an action/adventure game entirely done in video. The reason
behind this choice was that I expected the new media (CD-I, CD-ROM,
etc.) to appeal to new gamers, especially older ones. For adults
to play games, it appears important to me to bring them a high quality
product, as good as what they are accustomed to: movies.
I
convinced a young and talented French realisator, Benoît Guerville,
to team with me and we started to work on our project. It was a
time of great endeavor. We had to invent new mechanisms that would
allow us to offer a good degree of interactivity in spite of the
fact we would be using video. We wrote an exciting script taking
place in a cyberpunk universe (that was about 8 years before Matrix
!).

We worked two years on our project. Our early contacts with publishers
were encouraging. We witnessed the explosion of the industry thanks
to, not the CD-I, but the CD-ROM. It was confirming our beliefs
and pushed us to work even harder to come up with a truly great
project.

At that time, I was still working for Panasonic France. An exciting
opportunity came up in 1995. The launch of the 3DO console. Panasonic
was one of the main supporters of this platform. Knowing that I
was a big fan of games, our CEO asked me to prepare the launch of
the console in France. It was an exciting time.

Unfortunately, I realized that the console would never be launched
in France. I decided to fully live my passion for creation. I took
the gamble of leaving my cushy job to try to break through in the
newly born game industry. I gave all my energy to our project but
very soon we came to a dead end. Our project was too expensive (and
a bit naive too!). My partner was so disappointed that he dropped
out of the project. But I did not give up. I worked on another game
project. That one was designed for the new full 3D platforms like
the Playstation or the Saturn.

I worked round the clock to present a good project. I presented
it to many publishers and studios. At times, I had doubt about my
chances, but I kept going. I felt like Cortez, the Spaniard that
conquered with a handful
of men, the mighty Aztec empire. The legend says that Cortez burnt
his ships once he and his men had reached the shores so there would
be no temptation to turn back.

And one day, all my
efforts paid off ..

Indeed they have for Pascal
is now so busy that he has stopped work on the USS Antartica
in order to develop a few yet-to-be-announced projects for his own
business. Fear not though for the USS Antartica is still in
production and we have been promised some exclusive screenshots that
you will not want to miss. As for Pascal: adventure gamers will want
to keep a close eye on the Game Design Studio as this innovative and
daring developer has some real treats in store for the genre.

Stay tuned for in upcoming
months we will spotlight other well-known or soon-to-be well-known
game designers in the adventure game industry.