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| 2008-07-19 00:35:50 |
Andrzej "Klecha" Klimczuk (Gry.o2.pl): Welcome and thanks for agree to give us some answers. Could you please tell our readers who you are and other projects you have previously worked on?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): We are Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn. We have been working together since 1999. First on websites and internet art (see entropy8zuper.org) and as of 2003 on games (tale-of-tales.com).
Our first project was a game called 8 about a young girl who got lost in the palace of Sleeping Beauty. It was never finished but we intend to get back to this project soon. Our second big project is The Endless Forest, a free multiplayer screensaver in which everyone plays a magical deer. We have been running this game for two years now and it continues to evolve. Currently, out main focus is on The Path, a short horror game inspired by Little Red Ridinghood.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): How did you get the idea for of The Path?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): The basic idea of making games set in the world of a fairy tale comes from 8. The Path is somewhat of a spiritual successor to 8. It also features the mysterious Girl in White character. There's also no words in the game. And the story is discovered through exploration and not linear story-telling.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): What can you tell us about the storyline in The Path?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): Six sisters live in an apartment in a modern city. One of them is chosen to bring bread and wine to their sick grandmother. Grandmother lives on the other side of the forest. A path leads straight towards it and the girl is ordered to follow this path and not venture into the woods. Of course the girl disobeys her mothers and she does leave the path to discover interesting things in the dark forest. And finally she meets the wolf. This meeting will ultimately lead to the death of her grandmother and to her own death.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): Give us a history lesson on the main character.
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): There are six main characters. They each represent Little Red Ridinghood at a different age. There's a young playful child, a wild Tom boy who likes to climb trees. There's a goth girl who is very silent and a bit melancholic. And there's a stern old sisters. Each of them has a matching wolf character. Some of these wolves are just men, others are more supernatural creatures like a werewolf or a ghostlike character.
All of these characters are archetypes, not individuals. We expect the player to inhabit them and make up their stories.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): What are the team's main goals in creating The Path?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): In general, we want to create a game that is all about being immersed in a story in an environment with nothing to distract you from the emotional experience.
In particular, The Path is a horror game that is more about psychological confusion than it is about violence and gore. It's not a simple story about good versus evil. It is about the attraction of darkness, the seduction of sadness, etcetera.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): What locations and missions there will be in the game?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): There is only a single mission in the game: go the grandmother's house. All the other activities in the game (interacting with characters and objects, collecting things) are optional.
There's three main locations: the apartment of the girls in the city, the forest and grandmother's house. In the forest there will be several special areas, like a playground and a cemetery, where interactions take place. Grandmother's House is a surreal collection of rooms whose appearance is influenced by your activity in the forest.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): So what sorts of mini-puzzles will the player have to solve in The Path?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): There are no puzzles in The Path. We feel that puzzle solving would distract your from the story. There are other forms of interaction, forms that help you experience the story. Some of these may be a bit puzzle-like. But there will be nothing like a puzzle that needs to be solved.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): Give us a few example puzzles, and tell us how you'd rate most of the puzzles in terms of difficulty.
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): If there's any puzzle-like activities, they will all be extremely easy. The Path will not allow you to escape its story by playing with words and numbers (or shooting at monsters for that matter). It's not a "fun game".
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): What sort of skills will main character have?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): Each girl will have her own ways of interacting with the environment. These may surprise you sometimes, charm you, or frighten you. But the game is not demanding in a sports-like manner. It's a psychological and emotional ride.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): What other unique gameplay aspects will be in the game?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): The way you make your avatar interact with something is to let go of the controls. You won't always know what she will choose to do. Artificial Intelligence is connecting all the characters and objects together. You steer the avatar through this web.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): Approximately how many hours of play will the single player take? What about replayability?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): Replayability is part of the design in the sense that we expect the player to play The Path six times, each time with different avatar. We estimate that it will take between 6 to 8 hours to do that in a satisfying way.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): Graphically, what can gamers expect from The Path?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): As artists, we embrace the opportunities that real-time 3D technology offers us. But we are not interested in a photographically realistic depiction. We have a more painterly approach. Objects and lighting can be very stylized sometimes. The purpose is to create something that feels real, but not necessarily looks real. We like making the picture dirty and playing with symbols and other graphical elements. We like messing with the saturation and the sharpness of an image. We've even played with the frame rate as an aesthetic device, for example. I guess we're looking for a more punk-style aesthetic that plays with the graphic image on the screen as such (as opposed to seeing that image as a representation of reality).
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): What sort of interface have you guys prepared for the game?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): We try to make the interface as transparent as possible. It is very very simple to play The Path. Because this is not a sports or action game. The quality of your experience will depend on the player's ability to associate and imagine, and not on how fast they can press a certain button sequence.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): Let's talk about the sound and music portion of The Path. What were the goals for those areas of the game?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): The Path contains no sound effects. The entire soundscape is made of music. This music is composed by American performer Jarboe, broken apart and then remixed in the game by the player's activity. The music is continuous and changes continuously as you interact with the game. By omitting sound effects, we hope to capture some of the eeriness of silent films.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): What are the system requirements likely to be?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): You're going to need a decent gaming machine to run The Path properly. A fast processor and a good 3D video card will be required.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): Currently what is the status of the game's progress and when do you think it will be released to stores?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): We have created one of the six chapters of the game now. This means that the engine is done and all we need to do now is add content. We are aiming for a release date of early 2009.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): What advice would you give to beginning independent game developers?
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales): Don't make games because you love games. Make games because you feel you can contribute something, make something new, make something that no one but you would think of doing.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): Thanks for your time.
The Path – wywiad
gra jest niesamowita jest jak
piękny obraz chcę jeszcze
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