Interviews

*** Interview originally
appeared in September 2006 issue of Adventure
Lantern

If you play independent freeware adventure games on a regular basis,
you will have more than likely come across Other Worlds, a title
developed by Alkis Polyrakis. Released in late 2004, Other
Worlds perhaps did not score points for groundbreaking graphics, but it
did impress quite a few gamers with its interesting story, colorful
characters, and entertaining challenges. And now, Alkis Polyrakis
is back to design his second game. But things will be a little different
this time around.

Early in April 2006, Alkis and his teammates officially launched
an independent adventure game development company called Atropos
Studios. The company seeks to deliver quality adventure games with
an emphasis on story, interesting characters, and inventory-based
puzzles. The development team is already hard at work on their first
project, called Diamonds in the Rough.

The adventure game will tell the story of Jason Hart. A young man
with exceptional gifts, Jason is approached by the mysterious Diamonds
in the Rough organization. The organization is actively recruiting
individuals with powers like telekinesis or telepathy. Even though
he does not fully understand the nature of the work he will be doing,
Jason accepts the job offer and moves to a town in the Midwest. But
what exactly is Jason supposed to do for Diamonds in the Rough? Who
are the people operating the organization? What is their true agenda?
It will be up to Jason to unlock the mystery.

As Atropos Studios continues
the development efforts on Diamonds in the Rough, we conducted
an extensive interview with Alkis to find
more about his new company and his current project. Alkis kindly
provided us with a great deal of information while telling us a little
about his prior experiences with adventure games as well. Here’s
the interview:

Can you tell us about
how you got interested in adventure gaming in the first place?
What was the first one you
played? What was it that
you like about the genre?

Unfortunately,
I can’t recall the first
adventure game I ever played. It was a text adventure 20 years ago
(I was 11) on a Spectrum ZX+. I remember starring at a black screen
with white letters for a long time, before I realized the game was
waiting for me to type something. I noticed something about some
keys on the ground, so I typed very carefully “take the keys”.
The response “Taken” (or something of the sort) gave
me the goosebumps, and from that moment I was hooked with adventure
games and never looked back.

The first one I completed
was The Hobbit by Beam Software. At first I was intrigued by being
able to “communicate” with the
computer so to speak, as for the first time I was able to type in
English instead of programming. Later on, it was the challenge of
solving puzzles that made me love the genre.

How
did you feel about the transition from text adventures to graphical
ones?

Most of us who were around
at the time will tell you that it felt like we were witnessing
technology at its very peak! But
to me the most important transition was when the first games in which
you didn’t have to type at all came out, the first icon-driven adventures
by ICOM and Lucasfilms. I admit I still miss the parser sometimes,
and I wonder why we never saw more games that tried to include both
an icon-driven system AND a text parser, like Leisure Suit Larry
VII.

What
made you get into game development? Can you tell us a little about
the experience of making Other Worlds?

Ever since I’ve
started playing adventure games, I wondered what it would be like
to create one. I decided to make Other Worlds
as a gift to my girlfriend (at the time). The project started as
a text adventure for the Amiga in 1997; I was using the fantastic
ADMS script language at the time. However, I abandoned it after a
few months because I realized it wasn’t going to be played by enough
people to justify the hard work I was putting into it. A few years
later, I learned about the Adventure Game Studio engine by Chris
Jones. I decided to try it and I was very pleased to find out that
it was by far the best engine ever created for the purpose.

The experience was very
stressing but also very rewarding. I didn’t
expect to ever make another game, so I wanted it to be as good and
lasting as possible; that is why it ended up being so huge. It took
me 3.5 years to finish it, and it was worth every second.

Did
you have anyone else help you with the development efforts or was
this entirely a one-man show?

I did everything myself,
but I took the background graphics, music and sound effects from
wherever I could find them on the internet
(after asking for permission when possible).

Do
you remember how you felt after finally completing the game and
the first few people started downloading it? What was the
initial feedback like?

First I was amazed by
the numbers… more than two thousand people downloaded it within
the first three weeks. The initial feedback
was very enthusiastic, which of course felt good but I thought people
were just trying to be nice. What really made me feel good about
myself was the positive feedback I got from the first people who
*completed* Other Worlds. I know it’s a very long game so I doubt
anyone would complete it if they didn’t like it. In fact, I have
yet to receive negative feedback from anyone who played the game
to the end; most of those who didn’t like it had abandoned it after
a few minutes, due to the outdated graphics, which is understandable.
But those who decided to tolerate them and not let go of the game
until the final credits were more than satisfied.

Some
time after releasing Other Worlds, you took a break from your development
efforts. What was the cause of this? What made you
come back?

I wasn’t thinking of it as a break at the time. I never
intended to create another game. But after some point, I couldn’t
continue ignoring how well Other Worlds had been received. All those
positive reviews and literally thousands of e-mails from people who
enjoyed it (and still do) made me reconsider. I received feedback
from players from all over the world; the youngest of them was 12
years old and the oldest one 81. They all said pretty much the same
thing: that they enjoyed what I had given them for free much more
than some titles they had had to pay for. A simple question rose
to my mind then: If an amateur game with horrible graphics appealed
to so many people, what would happen if I decided to create a professional
title? That was when I decided to found my own adventure game developing
company.

Can
you describe the transition from developing an independent freeware
product to commercial adventure games?

The main difference lies in the way I work. The former was a hobby
I was doing alone during my leisure time. The latter is a work project,
with a budget, a team of colleagues and deadlines. What does not
change is how much I am enjoying the developing process, and how
I am not prepared to betray my beliefs in what makes a good game
just to sell more copies.

And
what would you say it is that makes a good adventure game?

A good, original story
that ventures to be controversial and different instead of going
for the usual Atlantis-Egypt-Murder-Curse
etc. popular, yet overused ideas. Challenging, mostly inventory based
puzzles. Plenty of character and environment interaction; respect
the player and give him more than just an arrow and 1-2 hotspots
per screen. Adventure game players are not idiots, so you should
not insult their intelligence by giving them puzzles a 12-year old
can solve. You must be able to challenge and surprise them. Meaningful
dialogue, plot twists and last but not least, NO ACTION SEQUENCES.

Can
you tell us about your new company, Atropos Studios? What kind
of a team is behind the games you will be developing? How has
the experience been so far? What were some of the challenges?

The biggest challenge
of all was finding the right associates, in order to compose a
team of experienced and enthusiastic members
who could fit in our budget, which as I’m sure you understand
is not unlimited for that first game of ours. At this point I would
like to express my sincere gratitude to my good friend Agustin Cordes
from Nucleosys, who offered me some valuable advice, not to mention
a list of contacts.

The team currently consists of a product manager, a project manager,
a marketing consultant, two graphics artists, a music composer, a
sound engineer, a scientific committee, several voice actors and
myself (story and programming). The scientific committee consists
of specialists of different backgrounds (engineering, medicine, history
etc.) who make sure that everything in the script is correct from
a scientific point of view. Last but not least, we have a number
of beta testers of varying gaming experience.

The experience so far has been flawless and I consider myself lucky
to be working with such a capable and friendly crew.

What
is your goal with Atropos Studios? What do you see as the focus
of your projects?

Our goal is to create
quality adventure games, keeping in mind the values that made the
genre popular during its golden era
(late 80s – early 90s). We do not believe that the genre has
to change in order to evolve; we believe in the modernization rather
than in the degeneration of adventure games.

Can
you give me an example of the kind of modernization you are trying
to achieve? Does it mostly have to do with the technologies
involved rather than the style of the games?

Mostly yes, but not exclusively.
The Thoughts Panel for instance, which I will explain in detail
later, is an innovation that will
instantly feel familiar to the player. It’s new, it’s modern, but
it’s not different than what you are used to. These are the sort
of ideas the genre needs, all in my humble opinion of course.

Could
you provide an overview of your first project, Diamonds in the
Rough? What can you tell us about the story?

Diamonds in the
Rough will be a 3rd person, point & click
adventure game. The story is about a group of young people who are
hired by an ambiguous organization thanks to their paranormal skills.
You will assume the role of Jason Hart, who will eventually try to
unveil what the intentions of his employers are. I’m not willing
to reveal much more on the storyline at this point, but I can say
that it will be a fantasy game that focuses on the dark side of the
human soul.

What
was the inspiration behind the storyline? Are there any works of
literature or other adventure games that influenced the
plot?

Not really. The
Thoughts Panel was inspired by the ‘Notepad’ feature
in Discworld Noir, although it’s used in a very different way.
But I can’t say the story was consciously inspired by anything
I’ve ever read or played.

What
can you tell us about the main character Jason Hart?

Jason begins the
game as an average 20 year old, who hadn’t
given his future much thought before he was approached by Diamonds
in the Rough. Until then, he used to live in a small town with his
mother. He’s a loner by nature and he doesn’t make friends
easily. He has a kind of raw intelligence of which, much like his ‘special
skills’, he’s not even aware. Overall, Jason starts off
as a simple, innocent young man, but expect him to change dramatically
before you see the end of the game.

Who
are some of the other characters that will be part of the game?

I’ll describe
two of them for you:

William is a middle age
guy who works for DITR and he is the first to approach Jason. He’s enigmatic by nature and it’s
always hard to figure out his true feelings about anything. As Jason’s
parents divorced when he was still a child, William will soon become
his father figure. He seems to be a very wise man and most DITR employees
look up to him.

Sydelle is a shy, sweet
25 year old girl. She likes Jason more than anyone else who lives
in the town that serves as the company’s
premises. She has been working for DITR for a year, and she doesn’t
like talking about her past. In some ways, she’s as much a
mystery as William.

What
can you tell us about the mysterious organization Diamonds in the
Rough?

DITR was founded by a
woman called Corinne Feller in 1989. Feller passed away a few years
later, but others decided to continue
her work. Their official purpose is to locate people with paranormal
abilities, recruit them, confine them in a secure environment and
study them out of scientific interest. Whether that is all they do
or not is a question that torments our hero.

What
kind of missions would Jason be undertaking for this organization?

All they ask him to do
is to concentrate on a list of numbers and choose one of them.

How
will Diamonds in the Rough play? What kind of an adventure gaming
experience does the game seek to provide?

Diamonds in the
Rough will play like the early 90s 3rd person point & click
adventure games, which means that you should not expect an all-purpose
cursor, empty landscapes and reduced difficulty.
Instead, the game will feature multiple cursors, plenty of character
interaction, descriptions for every item on the screen and a great
number of challenging, mostly inventory-based puzzles. Puzzles are
very important to us, and our goal will be to implement a successful
ratio of easy, medium and hard tasks that will reward the experienced
players without discouraging the new ones.

Can
you tell me a little bit about how you try and gauge the difficulty
of the various challenges?

A puzzle’s difficulty
is judged by a number of factors: the number of items required
for you to solve it, the number of characters
you need to contact, the hints provided that will point you to the
right direction and *when* they were provided (should you remember
something vital in a conversation early in the game?). Easy puzzles
are only there to make the player feel good and move on with the
story without much trouble. For example, an easy puzzle is when you
are in need of an item a character has, and that character clearly
hints what you have to give him to take it. Medium difficulty puzzles
require combinational thinking, as the answer is not directly in
front of your eyes. Hard puzzles will make you proud of solving them;
you will only do that if you carefully follow the story and understand
the characters and their relations. The beta testers, who vary from
newbies to hard core adventures, are responsible for determining
whether a puzzle if too unfair or illogical and needs to be better
hinted at, or removed completely.

What
are some of the things that will set Diamonds in the Rough apart
from other adventure games?

First of all, the story,
which will be deeper and more complex than the ones we usually
witness in adventure games. We will be dealing
with some controversial issues that, as far as I know, have not been
discussed in any other computer games. I also believe the Thoughts
Panel will be an innovation that will enhance the gaming experience
greatly.

The
official Web site tells us we will have access to Jason’s thoughts.
Can you describe how this is going to work?

The Thoughts Panel is
easy to learn, but complicated to explain in detail; I will do
my best.

Think of it as a second inventory. As you progress in the game,
new thoughts are added and old thoughts disappear. A simple thought
is a character’s name, for instance. A more complex one can be a
situation, like a meeting Jason just had or something he saw.

Thoughts can be:
– Examined (example: click on a name and Jason will tell you what he thinks
about that person at the time)
– Combined (example: use a name on a situation and Jason will think if there’s
a connection between them)
– Used anywhere else in the game, just like inventory items (example: use a
situation on a person and the person may tell you something about it)

Successful use of any
of the above may open a new location (“I’d
better go ask X what he thinks of that”), trigger something
somewhere else in the game, or even make Jason think of something
new (a new thought will be added).

I like to think that the Thoughts panel will make Jason seem more
real, instead of a marionette that obeys to the player’s wishes.
Plus, it should create some original puzzles.

What
kind of challenges can the players expect to encounter?

The players should
not expect to solve the game by brute force (trying everything
on everything). Due to the increased number of
items, hotspots and thoughts, that would be impossible. Instead,
they will need to *become* Jason, start thinking what they’d
do had they been in his shoes in order to progress. I’d say
the game’s difficulty will higher than the one of most recent
titles, but none of the puzzles will be impossible to solve by logic.

How
far is the Atropos Studios team in the development process? Do
you have a release date you can share with us?

We’re still
fairly early in the development process. The game is expected to
be released by fall 2007.

Is
there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

Dear AL readers,
some of you may have noticed that more and more independent developers
have decided to take matters in their
own hands and create quality adventure games. I humbly ask you to
have faith in them and support them. Companies like Nucleosys, Himalaya
Studios, Pan Metron Ariston, and Track7 Games to name a few daily
prove that you don’t need a million dollars to make something
good.

I would also like to thank you, Ugur, for a very interesting interview
and wish you every success in the future.

Thank you Alkis
for providing us detailed information about Atropos Studios and
the company’s first adventure game.

It looks like adventure
gamers can expect a solid storyline from Diamonds in the
Rough.
It should be interesting to discover the true
nature of the mysterious organization and see how Jason’s objectives
will change as a result of his findings. Gamers should also expect
a solid challenge from Diamonds in the Rough. Atropos Studios seems
to be bent on making sure we’ll be spending quite a few hours
overcoming the game’s puzzles. Atropos Studios seems to have
the potential to deliver quite an entertaining adventure game. While
it is still too early to pass judgment on the project, Diamonds
in the Rough may still be worth putting on the radar.

If you want to find out
more about Atropos Studios or Diamonds in the Rough, check out
the company’s official site at http://www.atropos-studios.com.