It was early in the morning on June 30, 1908 when the natives saw
the light tearing across the sky. The bright light soared as if to
challenge the sun. Only a moment later, the object at the center
of the light exploded in an incredible flash. A shockwave of extraordinary
magnitude hit the Tunguska area. The entire land was devastated in
a matter of seconds. Estimated to be larger than ten megatons, the
blast’s impact was felt thousands of kilometers away from the source.

There are many hypotheses as to what caused the Tunguska incident.
The popular theories range from a meteor explosion to a visit from
aliens. Some argue the explosion was caused by anti-matter and matter
coming into contact while others propose that it was caused by a
black hole. After several expeditions to the site of the event, a
definitive explanation still eludes scientists. What truly happened
in Tunguska almost a century ago still remains a mystery.

It is this curious mystery
that inspired Secret Files: Tunguska. Secret
Files is a traditional
point-and-click adventure game that
is currently being developed by Deep Silver. Secret Files is
the story of the young attractive mechanic Nina Kalenkov. On a
quest
to find her missing father, Nina will travel all over the world
and uncover a great conspiracy. Why is Nina’s father so important?
How is he related to the Tunguska incident? What was really behind
the catastrophic explosion? You can unlock the mystery and discover
the truth in Secret Files: Tunguska.

While we wait for the game, the team behind Secret
Files has kindly
agreed to provide us some in depth information about their project.
If you want to find out more about the story, characters, or gameplay
elements, hear it straight from the development team:

Can you tell us a little more about the story? Perhaps some more
information about Nina and how her adventure will begin?

Secret
Files: Tunguska Team: Nina is torn from her day-to-day routine
when she finds out her father has disappeared without a trace.
As the police cannot
help her (or will not?), Nina sets off to look for clues as to her father’s
whereabouts. She thereby meets Max Gruber, a young colleague of her father
who spontaneously offers to help the attractive young lady. Both quickly
find
out that Nina’s father had something to do with an expedition to Siberia
which was carried out to research into the causes of the mysterious
Tunguska catastrophe
of 1908. At that time a mighty explosion triggered an inferno and the
causes remain a mystery until today.

Nina and Max soon realise
that the events back then must have something to
do with her father’s disappearance. The search for answers leads Nina
and Max to the most remote corners of the world (Berlin,
Moscow, Cuba,
China, the Antarctic
etc.). It soon thereby becomes clear that powerful adversaries are
also interested in Nina’s father’s secret. In the end it becomes
clear that there is much
more at stake than just the disappearance of an old man.

(The
developers of Animation Arts and Fusionshere Systems) “We
have set ourselves the goal of telling an exciting and varied story
which keeps the player guessing right up to the end.”

What kind of puzzles can we expect? A lot of inventory-based challenges?

SFT Team: Lead
Designer Jörg Beilschmidt has concentrated almost entirely
on the classic puzzle theme in “Secret Files: Tunguska” i.e.
one must solve tasks by using and/or combining objects. Especially in
the beginning
NPCs give helpful hints which are contained in conversations. Towards
the end of the game there are less and less tips. We want to finally
create an adventure
that starts easy with an increasing level of difficulty as the game progresses.

On top of this there
just a small number of machine puzzles which also feature a help
function which can be used to simplify the solving of the puzzle
if
desired.

Sometimes Max and Nina
even solve puzzles as a team. This means that the player steps
into the role of the characters of Max and Nina alternately
in order
to solve the puzzles.

We have mainly concentrated
on inventory puzzles but we are also try to ensure a varied puzzle
design.

Will the game feature a lot of character interaction?

SFT Team: The
game offers a variety of interaction possibilities. Depending on the
type of
puzzle, the player has the possibility of speaking with various
additional characters, exchanging objects or simply using the NPCs
in various ways for his own purposes. Nina can thus listen in on a
telephone conversation
with the help of a cat … how does she do that? That will not
be revealed here as it is part of a puzzle.

Because we have so
many NPCs, it was especially important for us that they were
perfectly integrated within the game world. We didn’t just want
to make
them pure information and task carriers but have given each of the
over 40 individual characters a complex background. The player
thus always has the
feeling that he is walking through a living world in which other people
do not just exist to make his life easier or more difficult.

What sort of locations can the players expect to explore?

SFT Team: Nina and Max
travel across virtually the whole world in search of Nina’s father.
They both must survive dangerous adventures in Germany (Berlin),
Moscow (Military Station, Trans-Siberian Railway, Tunguska region), Cuba
(near Havana), China (the Himalayas, Tibetan border region) and the Antarctic.
Animation Arts has ensured boredom and lengthiness is avoided during the
game by making sure that each location has its own special atmosphere and
feeling. This will not only be represented graphically but also in the
form
of completely different NPCs. A completely different set of people will
(normally) be found sitting in an Irish pub than in a Cuban asylum.

Will the game have any action element or will it be a pure adventure?

SFT Team: “Secret Files: Tunguska” will
concentrate on the strengths of the classic examples of its genre,
i.e. it is a classic adventure game without
action sequences. Both main characters Nina and Max also do not die and
there are no time-limited puzzles. The player can of course save the
game at any
point.

The
strengths of “Secret Files: Tunguska” are the exciting,
varied and atmospheric story combined with tricky puzzles and
detailed graphics.

Are there any other details about the game you would like to provide
for our readers?

SFT Team: The so-called
hotspot-display can be used in Tunguska in order to avoid annoying
screen searches. Important locations and objects are highlighted
by small icons via a mouse-click.

A diary quickly brings
players who haven’t played for some days back up to date. (Don’t
worry, the diary does not consist of pages of entries but just
concentrates on the main events).

In addition the developers
have decided to employ a complete 3D-engine, but are using 2D
backgrounds which are common to the genre. This has
the simple
reason that they are clearer, more detailed and can be atmospherically
displayed. The 3D-engine is used to generate various effects such
as animated clouds,
rakes, smoke, fog, as well as certain animals such as birds or butterflies
to prevent the 2D-background from seeming cold and sterile. This
thus means the best of both worlds (2D and 3D) has been used.

The characters have
been cast completely with Motion Capturing for the entire game
(not just for the intermediate sequences) in order
to make the 3D-figures
appear as realistic as possible.

Laboriously
recorded and atmospheric background noises, an accentuated
soundtrack
and professional voice output round off “Secret Files: Tunguska”.

Many thanks to the Secret
Files team for providing us detailed information
about their upcoming game.

Secret Files:
Tunguska is currently scheduled for a 2006 second
quarter release. To find out more information about the game you
can visit the official site at www.Tunguska-Game.com.