Interviews

Interview with the Lead Programmer and Co-Founder of Atlantis Interactive Entertainment
by Bob Freese

Thanks very much for this opportunity of an interview - we know you guys are super busy now! ATLANTIS EVOLUTION will be on the shelves soon, and we’re pumped. I’ve seen the E3 trailer and am really looking forward to this release!

First of all, how the heck did you guys get the ocean water so perfect? WOW!

Thank you very much for the compliment. We worked hard to perfect the water effects in the game. We pre-rendered a shader in a 3D rendering software that we enhanced with a homemade plug-in.

Who is this “third person” hero we’ll see and could you please give us a brief synopsis of his exploits in AE?

Our hero is Curtis Hewitt. He’s a 25 year old journalist and photographer from New York City on his way back home after a trip to Patagonia. Curtis is an intriguing character. He is charismatic and has an ironic and somewhat sarcastic sense of humor that is sometimes not appreciated by all. Essentially, Curtis has an innocence about him and has a curious nature. He’s also a philanthropist at heart. He is a free spirit who’s been searching for “something” his entire life… but doesn’t know what. This is where his passion for adventure, exploration, and discovery is rooted. Physically he is a tall, strong, and brawny fellow with a rough beard at the beginning of the game.

As Curtis, players will encounter many challenges. His main mission is not only to return home, but to liberate the people of Atlantis who live under the domination of a family of ruthless gods.

Does this upcoming 3D series continue where the very successful Atlantis trilogy left off?

Not at all. Atlantis Evolution is the first installment in a brand new series. The characters, story, and even the graphical style we used to create the Atlantian people and environments are completely different from the original trilogy.

In Atlantis Evolution, Curtis Hewitt gets caught in a vortex in the middle of the ocean which takes him down into “Inner Earth” to the city of Atlantis.” He wakes up completely disoriented, yet intrigued instead of frightened, and finds himself a stranger in a land of high-tech technology and archaic faith. He encounters the descendants of Atlantis as well as their unpitying gods.

Could you please comment on how you created the great graphics? Also, how much “cut scene” time will your first release include?

Our goal is to take the player on a “dream-like” experience, hence the new cartoon style character renderings instead of photorealistic. We also wanted to bring each view, scene, environment, etc. to life and combined pre-rendered graphics with hundreds of animations (i.e. strange animals, objects, characters, etc.). There are over 25 minutes of cut scenes in the game which helps enhance the gameplay and immerse the Player into the fantasy world we’ve created. In my opinion, we have one of the best graphics teams out there. Many of them have over 10 years experience and have worked on the original Atlantis trilogy. Some of them are graduates of the famous 3D animation school L’Ecole des Gobelins which is based in Paris.

I have read that there will be five distinct “universes” to explore. Could you please give us a brief description of each?

Actually, there are more like seven, but all of them are based in Atlantis.

1) On an old steam ship going from Patagonia to New York in 1904
2) A space ship which is where Curtis first encounters advanced Atlantian technologies
3) The village where Curtis meets the Atlantian people
4) Deep in the Atlantian forest where the villagers don’t dare go
5) A exotic cave system
6) The floating palace where the Atlantian gods live and don’t ever leave
7) Travel 8,000 years back in time to discover the lost city of Atlantis (Curtis is actually in “New Atlantis” during his quest)

Can you please give us an insight into the sequels’ story lines?

It’s currently sitting in a vault under lock and key. I can tell you that it takes place in the future… in space… and the characters are different from Atlantis Evolution.

Does The Adventure Company plan releases of the AE series on platforms other than the PC?

At this time only a PC version is planned.

Can you tell us a little bit about your team? What games have they worked on previously and what are their backgrounds?

A.I.E. (Atlantis Interactive Entertainment) was formed about a year ago. I’m one of the co-founders and also lead programmer. Many members of the team came from the now defunct development studio of Cryo Interactive. As I mentioned before, some of our team worked on the original Atlantis series. As a company, we share a passion for adventure games and have a lot of experience creating video games in general. Personally, I learned to write code on my own using a ZX computer back in the early 1980s. Some of the other programmers are engineers who come from some of the top universities in France.

Why do you think the lost city of Atlantis has been such a popular subject in adventure games?

Atlantis is a commonly known subject globally. It’s a mysterious and mythological topic that evokes people to wonder and use their imagination. There are so many controversial theories which date back thousands of years to Plato’s writings and even today you see Atlantis in the news headlines. What’s really compelling is that even after thousands of years, no one knows if it’s true or false… Did Atlantis really exist?

What type(s) of literary research did you conduct for background material for AE?

Our game designer is Johan Robson. He freely adapted the story based on Plato’s writings, that being… Atlantis is known as a mysterious underwater city whose civilization had highly advanced technologies. The rest was all his imagination. We didn’t want Atlantis Evolution to be a game that recounted historical facts. This is a game after all and we want Players to enjoy it and take them on a dream-like journey.

Thanks very much for this opportunity! I know our JA readers will be looking forward to this adventure release. Very best wishes with your Atlantis Evolution series!

Thank you as well. We hope you’ll all enjoy the game when it’s done. We certainly had a blast creating it.