Interviews

Pendulo Studios is known primarily in North America for Runaway:
A Road Adventure, a sleeper game that quickly became a favorite in
the adventure community.

They are currently putting the finishing touches on the sequel Runaway
2: The Dream of the Turtle.

After reading the interview, make sure to visit the Runaway2:
The Dream of the Turtle website for much more info on the game.

Is Runaway
2 a natural
extension of the first game featuring the same characters?
Will there be any new characters this time around?

Although the story of
Runaway 2 has nothing to do with the one in the first Runaway,
it does share the same main character, Brian, and some of the other
characters
from the first part, like Gina and Sushi. In any case, there will be a nice
set of new characters that players will find very enjoyable, like
the cutthroat,
ambitious mercenary Tarantula, and Ben Wazowski, an environmentalist who specializes
in studying bears.

What is the significance of the subtitle, The
Dream of the Turtle?

Well, I’m afraid I can’t reveal the meaning without ruining a good
part of the plot, so I can only suggest that it would be better to play Runaway
2 and discover what the dream of the turtle might be for yourself.

Has the game engine been upgraded for Runaway
2?

Yes, though they are
improvements that have not changed the style of the first Runaway.
Instead, they enhance that style in many ways.

Gina has become sort of a pin-up girl for the adventure community.
Will her wardrobe for Runaway 2 consist more of wool pajamas and
slippers or halter tops and bikinis?

I hate to tell you that
the biggest role played by Gina in Runaway 2 has little to do with
her wardrobe. However, many players will
be delighted to discover
a new female character, Lokelani, a Hawaiian bartender who shares Gina’s
measurements, and maybe even more.

Why
is Pendulo successful developing games with “cartoony” graphics,
when so many other developers have abandoned them as old-fashioned?

To us it is not a question
of fashions. We believe that in order to develop a product well,
you have to put passion into it, and the cartoon-like style
in our games is what we love. That does not mean our games will always be
this way, but for the time being that is the style we are into.

Would
you be kind enough to provide us with a history of Pendulo Studios – how
was the company formed, how many people does it employ and what
are
some of the games they worked on previously?

Pendulo Studios was
created in Madrid about 12 years ago by a team of four friends
who decided
to make an adventure game. We believed
that, despite being
amateurs, we could approach the quality of the adventure games that were
being published at the time. At the present time, there are
12 of us on the team,
plus a few outside collaborators. We have been responsible for making
several games: Igor: Objective Uikokahonia, Hollywood
Monsters,
Runaway, and now Runaway 2.

Is there any chance we may still see the excellent Hollywood
Monsters localized into English if not for the pc, then maybe for
the Nintendo DS?

Maybe. I would like that,
but there is nothing official on it yet.

What
is the creative process like at Pendulo? Can you take us through
a game’s
development from conception to finish?

Well, it is difficult
to summarize, but basically you begin with an idea about the story
and the main characters. Then, you gradually develop the rest of
the characters, as well as the different facets of the story, while looking
to define the visual style that best fits in with the game. In the end, once
that style is clear, you begin production of all the features, graphics,
programming,
sound, and so on.

Were
you happy with the marketing and sales figures for Runaway in North
America?

The marketing of Runaway in the United States was fine. However, we must not forget that
the American market is very hard to crack, and it is only becoming
more difficult to achieve decent distribution for a PC game that does not
involve
the licensing of a Hollywood movie. In this sense, it seems quite sad to
me that it is so difficult to reach users in the U.S., because
in the end that
means consumers have fewer options when they go out to buy a game.

How do you make a game like Runaway
2 accessible to players with
varying levels of adventure gaming experience?

That is a very complicated
matter, because if you base everything on making a game exclusively
difficult or easy, that means you are turning your back
on a portion of the potential players. My point of view is that it is better
for the story to begin more easily, keeping players from having to deal with
too much information or too many possibilities in their heads, but then,
as the story moves forward, to have the situation grow gradually
more complex,
which keeps players from losing interest in the game.

Now that the E3 as we knew it no longer exists, what can companies
like Pendulo do to make themselves known to North American publishers
and media?

Though the press-related
work is indisputably very important, and the Internet now plays
a decisive role for small companies like Pendulo,
we have always
believed that the best method for becoming popular is word of mouth, because
nothing can beat player satisfaction. Sooner or later, that player satisfaction
is translated into sales, as well as personal satisfaction for the game’s
creators, of course. I remember how, after the war in Iraq began, we received
a wonderful e-mail message from an American Marine stationed there who had
just finished playing Runaway, and he thankfully mentioned how the game had
helped him find some fun distraction from the complicated situation he was
living through. For us, that is the greatest reward we can receive.