Alone in the Dark - Producer Q&A
I had the chance recently to interrogate Eden Games on their upcoming release Alone in the Dark. Ok, it wasn’t really an interrogation. The community gathered and came up with some awesome questions that one of the producers of Alone in the Dark was able to answer. Big thanks to Stephanie and Nour for an awesome interview.
This game continues to register a 10 on my OMG meter so take a seat and enjoy the Q&A. There are a lot of juicy details inside. (also check out the latest screenshots)
Alone in the Dark is scheduled for a June 20th release in Europe, a June 24th release in the US and finally scheduled to make its way to the Aussies on July 3rd.
Alone in the Dark
Developer: Eden Games
Publisher: Atari
The Players
Nour Polloni, Producer, Eden Games
The Interview
The story in Alone in the Dark is obviously a huge part of the game. How difficult was it to find the right story to use and what can fans expect in terms of being engaged from beginning to end?
One of the starting points for the story was Edward Carnby. In homage to the first ever Alone in the Dark, we decided early on that we wanted to keep the original Carnby from that game as the hero in ours, but bring him into the present day without ageing. This gave us our first major plot point to start building the story around. Then when we were in the early stages of the design process, we were all going home at night and watching the new crop of big US TV shows like Lost and 24, totally engrossed in the stories, discussing each show around the coffee machine the next day, and desperate for the next episode.
It hit us that we wanted the same kind of engagement with our game, so we studied these shows to work out what made them so addictive and applied it to the game, which is how we ended up structuring it in episodes. We think this style of episodic storytelling with a powerful narrative punctuated by action plot twists and cliff hangers is much better suited to a 10-15 hour game than say a film narrative structure. Once we had these starting points we locked the team in a room for 6 months to come up with a season of episodes, each with its own strong narrative and paced dynamic. In the end we’ve got something we think tells a story in a new way for games, and that doesn’t let up at all.
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June 3rd, 2008 at 11:54 am
Good interview Deacon! Glad to see you got my question in there.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Excellent interview Deaconblade, this interview has really changed my mind about the game.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Me love this game lon time. *ahem* I mean this game looks sweet!
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:28 pm
This game is a must buy for me!
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:34 pm
ok chalk this up as a BUY for sure after reading this! thx Deacon for taking yet another chunk out of my pocket lol
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:38 pm
kudos to the producer. he gave some very well thought and informative responses. ditto on excellent interview Deac!
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
well i’l hopefully be in Central Park right with you guys. the game sounds very intriguing.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
@Halo Fan,
Yes, *she* did give some good responses
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
yep “she” is definitely a “she” Halo Fan.
http://games.kikizo.com/media/aloneinthedark_nov07/01d.jpg
^
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:52 pm
wow thx kalniel and Deac. i didn’t know that. lol no big deal *she* gave some awesome information. interviews should be like this all the time with info instead of one sentence you have to figure out what they mean.
so yeah, my kudos still stand
even moreso cause she’s a cutie haha
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
thx for paging it up Deacon. looks cool paged
and wow so she really is a she. that’s cool! you don’t see that much in the gaming industry. double kudos Nour. pass it on to her Deacon that she did great with this.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:58 pm
no sweat Carbon. i’ll be sure to pass the word along to her
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:06 pm
can’t wait for this. very nice QA! (bookmarked site)
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:22 pm
gracias Mikey
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Nice interview, Deacon. I’m not totally convinced into buying it yet, but I will be checking out that demo when they do release it.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Oh, baby! I really looking forward to this. Thanks for the post, Deacon.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I just saw the new gameplay trailer, how can a game not be scary when the walls and Floor can attack you. XD
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34779.html
That and this awesome interview = -65 bucks from my pocket and 1 month of no Cell Phone service…..
Hey wait a minute….. O_O
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
@USB, i’m prepared for a fright or two that’s for sure
as long as it’s NOTHING like the Christian Slater movie, i think we’re good lol
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:59 pm
It’s like MacGyver the game!
June 7th, 2008 at 3:26 am
What did she say about the US release of the Special edition AITD? Is it coming out here?