Interviews

White Birds is considered by many – myself included – to be the premiere French developer of adventure games.

Formed in 2003 by Benoît Sokal, Olivier Fontenay, Jean-Philippe Messian and Michel Bams – who had previously developed Amerzone and the classic Syberia games, considered by many to be the best adventure game series of all-time – White Birds' first release in 2005 was the Paradise game and graphic novels, followed by Sinking Island and the soon-to-be-released Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals.

• It’s been a long time – over 10 years – since I was floored at the E3 by a video of an old man riding a bicycle (Amerzone) – how have you, Olivier, Jean-Philippe and Benoît managed to continue working together and succeed in such a volatile industry?

Well, when Olivier and I first saw “Amerzone”, and subsequently first met with Benoît, we were astonished. At that time, we did everything to convince Microïds to sign the title. Then, we worked all together (Jean-Philippe was CFO at Microïds) on “Syberia”, Olivier managing the Montreal studio of Microïds and myself being in charge of the marketing. Besides the work, we appreciated each other. Then, when Microïds began having troubles, we decided to create our own company.

Our wish was to develop new games and also to “follow the image” where it was going: Internet, movies, graphic novels… Well, that was 5 years ago, and we’re still there.

• Nikopol is based on a graphic novel trilogy by Enki Bilal. Why are graphic novels held in such high esteem by the French, but have yet to find widespread popularity in North America?

I don’t know, frankly. It remains a kind of mystery to me, namely for creators such as Enki Bilal who develop Sci-Fi and Fantasy universes that are very much “universal.” But it is a fact that “French” cartoons or graphic novels never sold well in the USA.

• White Birds has a history of developing games based on graphic novels; other than the Nikopol sequels, are there any other graphic novels you would like to turn into computer entertainment?

There are certainly a lot, but not because they’re famous. It is more a question of universes, and how they can be adapted. Not all stories, whether they are a graphic novel, a novel or a movie, will do a good video game. Still, our main job remains to create our own universes. Yet, we’re working on new projects with Benoît and namely his first “3D real time action/adventure for the PS3”, under the codename “Krao.” We’re trying to move forward and not stay in a kind of perpetual re-making of the same recipe. For example, Benoît has been asked a million times why he would not make a “Syberia 3”. For him, it is a little bit like in this Stephen King novel, and a great movie as well, “Misery” in which an insane fans want a writer to tell the same story, again and again…

• Can you give us an overview of Nikopol’s plot and main character?

Nikopol is quite a complex story, but if you take the leap on some of the initial fantasy facts (Egyptian Gods are immortal aliens, the hero is as old as his father and looks like him…), it is very logical . This is all the talent of Enki Bilal, the author – to make you believe in something unbelievable.

In a few words, the main character, Nikopol, is a mere mortal living in the City of Paris in a near future. The City became a fascist state, ruled by a dictator. Egyptian Gods, in their flying pyramid, are stuck on Earth and need oil to continue their trip. One of the Gods, Horus, wants to take the power on Earth and will use Nikopol as a tool…

• Do you consider the game to be an extension of the graphic novel or is a faithful adaptation of the book?

For us, the game has to be good on its own. Many of the players will not know about the original graphic nove or the movie that Bilal directed on based on the story. So the game needs to be, first and foremost, a good game. It may sound obvious, but it is not always the case when a game is adapted from a pre-existing universe.

That being said, we think – and this is also Bilal’s feeling – that the game is an extension / rewriting of the graphic novel. We decided, together with Bilal, to change key scenario elements to fit to the game design.

• Did Enki Bilal have final approval over everything in the game?

Yes, he supervised and approved everything. For him, the game is not a “license,” but an original creation based on his universe.

• How do you think he enjoyed the experience of helping to bring his novel to life on the computer screen?

He is very frank by telling us that “Nikopol” was going to be one of the only games he would play. But in the end, he said that it was very interesting for him to see this universe and his character becoming the hero of a new media. If we work on the sequel, and we hope to do so, he will certainly be happy to continue this adventure with us.

• Is Nikopol more of a political thriller or a character study between a father and son?

Both. The plot mixes up pure “political” aspects, the city being a dictatorship and the hero having to struggle for his life. But it is also a son’s quest for his father.

• From the screenshots it appears that Nikopol is in first-person perspective; is the story driven by dialogue or by solving puzzles?

We are trying to keep the story central in our games. We want the player to ask him/her self “what’s coming next?”, “how is this story going to end?”. Then, the puzzles are always story-related and not there “for free,” just to make the game longer. As usual in adventure, there are dialogs of course, and you learn a lot about the story via those dialogs.

• We’ve heard rumors of time-driven sequences, can you elaborate on this some more and is it something that adventure gamers need to worry about?

Not at all. We think we’ve known adventure games long enough to avoid “basic” mistakes. I’m sure that some players might not like those sequences, but I’m pretty confident that most of the Nikopol gamers will like the challenge these sequences represent. They are part of the story, and not there to make the game longer… So I guess and hope they will please.

• White Birds is also currently busy adapting Paradise as Last King of Africa for the Nintendo DS. In what areas have you been able to improve the game on the DS and in what areas do you think the game suffers compared to the computer version?

Development is finished and the game will be on the shelves this Xmas. We were lucky to have the original graphical assets of “Paradise” at our disposal, allowing us to make a game that would have been impossible to produce from scratch for the NDS. We re-wrote all the gameplay, adapting it to the platform. What was weak in the PC game has been abandoned (the 3D sequences with the leopard for example), and we have simplified the dialogs. Every time possible, we build specific DS / touch screen with stylus gameplays and interactions. In the end, it is almost a brand new game. We’re quite happy with the result, and the DS is definitely a platform on which we want to make other games.

• After the success of White Birds, has it become easier to find a distributor for your adventure games in North America or is it still the same old struggle?

For “Nikopol,” we are working with Got Game Entertainment. It is a company specializing in adventure and having a very good knowledge of this market. For the moment, we have the feeling that “majors” are not seeing adventure as “mainstream” enough for them. But it’s nice to work with smaller but highly motivated publishers.

• Thanks for your time and we'll look forward to exploring the world of Nikopol soon!

Note: Official game site for the Got Game release is www.nikopolgame.com