Interviews

Just Adventure+ Speaks To Pieter Simoons of Solar Crescent

Conducted by Harriet Gurganus

I am especially fond of independent game developers. They pour so much heart and soul into what they do with few, if any, of the advantages of the mammoth companies. JA’s long time support of the indies is important to the game industry as a whole and to the adventure genre specifically. Therefore, it has been my pleasure to work with Pieter Simoons of Solar Crescent on an article about the upcoming independent game, A Tale of Two Kingdoms. Pieter is the story and script developer for this game that is currently evolving through use of tools from the Adventure Game Studio. He has been kind enough to send me a wide variety of material about ATOTK. As I read it, I was reminded of something from the world of Arthur and his knights, The Lord of the Rings, or blood curdling tales of historic valor from the Middle Ages. Most of the following are Pieter’s thoughts and words. I am just along to organize, edit, and enjoy the ride.

In my opinion, A Tale of Two Kingdoms is a classic tale of drama and conflict. What can you tell us about the plot, Pieter?

Pieter: In the year 849 (old reckoning) a group of Qualinic raiders accosted King Culann as he traveled through his realm of Theylinn. Not wishing to yield his riches to mere thugs, the king ordered his escort to attack but his knights were overmatched, and in the ensuing battle, King Culann was slain. His only son, Vortigern, was crowned the new king, and started his reign with a thirst for revenge. Gathering his mighty armies, he marched forth unto Qualinem, and unto victory. It should have ended there. But the victory only instilled in Vortigern a lust for further conquest. City after city fell to his forces and all the free lands trembled at the approach of Vortigern the Bloody.

As Vortigern marched on the duchy of Gronthal, he was met with fierce resistance. The locals rallied behind one Maeldun Whiteblade, who managed to drive back the invaders. Soon, Maeldun became a local legend. Rumor had it that he was a sorcerer’s son and possessed a magic girdle that made him invisible in combat. Maeldun’s band joined forces with Lady Branwyn, a Qualinic mercenary captain. With their numbers growing almost daily, they made a slow march for Theylinn, liberating many cities on their way. Vortigern’s forces were overextended and failed to mount a sufficient defense, thus the Southern Empire met its end at the hands of Maeldun and Branwyn. His dreams shattered, Vortigern was left to rule Theylinn as a bitter husk of a man.

In the mean time, Rashakk Skullcrusher, king of the goblins, is lacking in food to keep his rapidly growing population from starving. Rather than take up farming or other honest trade, he has decided to assault Theylinn and simply take what he wants.

Eventually, Vortigern and his crippled armies of Theylinn are all that stand between the prosperous Southern Realms and an invasion of the goblins. Swallowing his pride, King Vortigern, formerly the self-proclaimed Emperor, decides that he needs all the help he can get and calls upon his bitter enemies, Maeldun and Lady Branwyn, with their troop of mercenaries. But during the first night of the conflict, Vortigern is found murdered, and the bloody weapon bears Maeldun’s mark. Enraged, heir-princess (of Vortigern), Rhiannon, has Maeldun locked away for a speedy execution.

This is where the real game begins. First Maeldun must escape from the castle and return to his army camp. After the escape, Maeldun finds the forces of the goblins, the Theylann knights, and the mercenaries locked in a temporary battle stalemate. It’s up to him to defuse the situation and prevent the death of many innocent country-folk and, in the meantime, clear his name from the foul assassination for which he is blamed. At the same time, an unknown sorcerer watches Maeldun’s every move and sends his minions after him.

Within the kingdom of Theylinn lies a second kingdom, Thierna Na Oge, a realm of faeries. Most city people no longer believe in its existence but to the countrymen it is real, yet its location is unknown. In order to drive the goblins out of the occupied area, Maeldun will have to breach the hidden borders of Thierna Na Oge and learn the wisdom of its strange and exotic inhabitants. Aided by faerie magic, Maeldun confronts the goblin king in ritual combat. At his victory, he is nominally the new goblin leader, and orders their swift withdrawal.

But before a final truth is revealed the real assassin attempts one last chance for Maeldun’s defeat. At first glance, it seems that all the honorable and honest persons are the antagonists, and that all the good guys are at least mildly deceitful. As a result, there will be some ethical dilemmas to tackle in the game. A Tale of Two Kingdoms can have several endings. If the player has been paying attention to this point, he will know who the true assassin is. If the player has been paying less attention, Maeldun’s innocence will be revealed but the true assassin will go free.

How long has the game been in development?

Pieter: The initial steps for the game were laid early in 2004, about February or March, when the original five-man team was formed. However, progress was relatively slow until August when we recruited two new and enthusiastic members. From that point on, a lot of work has been done in a relatively short time.

Will the game be dialogue driven or puzzle driven?

Pieter: Mostly puzzle driven but character interaction is an important part of certain puzzles and of finding out what exactly happened during the night of the murder of Vortigern. We have tried our best to make the story and the puzzles an integrated whole so that there won’t be any person or object that is just there for a puzzle and otherwise makes little sense.

How many locations will be included in the game?

Pieter: The game has about 60 physical rooms (not counting intro screens, closes ups, and such). The main locations are the capital city of Theylinn, the countryside, and the Second Kingdom, Thierna Na Oge, where the faeries dwell. The latter is not particularly easy to find, but it is an important part of the game. The first and last scene of the game are played in the castle.

Is the game linear or nonlinear?

Pieter: The first part of the game is linear as it exposes the main story and shows the characters. Once you escape to the countryside you get to the main part of the game which has a number of events and actions that can be done in any order. This part is very nonlinear. The end part of the game, where you confront the main antagonist, is once again linear.

Another nonlinear element is the fact that several puzzles have multiple possible solutions. For instance, there is a fairly difficult logical puzzle about midway through the game, but this puzzle can be avoided by convincing a certain character to help you. I’m sorry if this is intentionally vague but I wouldn’t want to spoil it.

Depending on your actions during the game there are several ways the plot can end. The most important difference is whether you manage to unmask the assassin or not. Other variations depend on whether you befriend or rescue certain characters. The endgame can vary between a sober vigil in a dank castle and a grand coronation ceremony.

Tell me about the game’s interface.

Pieter: We’re using a variation on the well-known Sierra interface (walk/look/touch/speak, plus inventory window). The interface has a unique way of dealing with non-player characters, but I’m afraid that’s not very easy to explain on paper so you’ll have to see it in practice.

The ability to save is a big interest to adventure game players. How have you designed your save-game feature?

Pieter: As with most adventure games, you can save your game almost anywhere. Timed auto-saving will be supported for convenience. We are considering to temporarily disable saving within certain tension scenes but it we do so the game will be auto-saved at the beginning of the scene. However, this is not one of those games where your character can die three different ways in each room, so it’s not necessary to save every minute.

Most of the adventure game enthusiasts that I communicate with are not overly fond of mazes. Are these muddles something they will have to suffer through?

Pieter: There are no mazes in the game and the layout of the countryside if fairly straightforward. Also, no pixel hunts. There is even an option that lists all of the hotspots and objects in a room.

What has influenced your decisions about music and sound effects? From my perspective they are very important to a good game.

Pieter: We have a professional composer on our team who has created some very atmospheric music for A Tale of Two Kingdoms. Nearly all of the in-game background music has been finished; several themes for action scenes, or music related to important characters, are still in the works. The background music works great in creating contrast between the tranquil countryside and the busy city. There are a number of sound effects, most of them ambient (e.g. sea waves or hooting owls). Some of these have even been worked into the music.

Will the game be played in the first person or the third person? What about 2D/3D? Pre-rendered backgrounds?

Pieter: The game will be played in the third person. You can move Maeldun around the screen and control his actions.

All backgrounds are hand-drawn from a sketch on paper, then refined, textured and colored using Photoshop or similar tools. The effect has been said by several people to rank with the best screens from, for instance, KQV1.

The characters are also hand-drawn from pixels. This style of backgrounds and animations is the most authentically similar to that used in the Sierra and LucasArts adventure games, and we believe that this classic style will appeal to fans of the genre.

Was the development of this game influenced by another game that you’ve played? Is it an original concept (or as original as anything can be these days)? What about the storyline?

Pieter: The game draws inspiration from several classical myths and fairy tales, such as, the fairy tale books by the Grimm Brothers’ and the Wizard of Oz. As the storywriter, I’ve read several hundreds of fantasy novels and classic mythology books over the past years, so it’s probably fair to say that these have subconsciously influenced the game design.

Most names in the game are taken from Celtic mythology. While the characters in the game aren’t the same as those in the myths, we have taken care to ensure the names fit the same type of character. For instance, Maeldun, the main character in A Tale of Two Kingdoms, is a legendary traveler from Irish myth (a bit like Odysseus) and that seemed appropriate.

One reason why ATOTK is original is that it draws elements from a number of groups of games and combines them in a unique fashion. The medieval/fantasy countryside with elements from fairy tales is reminiscent of Kings Quest. However, we didn’t feel happy with the simple way in which almost all Sierra games use dialogue (i.e. either topic-based or do ‘talk man’ until he starts repeating himself) so we’re using far more elaborate conversations like in the Monkey Island series. Finally, the idea of a murderer that has to be found and identified feels more like Delphine’s Cruise For A Corpse.

The story has gone through a number of drafts already. It started with a number of elements and characters and these were basically woven together into the plot. For example, once it was decided that faeries should be part of the game we did some reading in the Encyclopedia Mythica for references and atmosphere. and decided what the faeries should look like, what kinds of problems they could pose for the player, and how exactly one should find them since not everyone believes they exist.

The main story consists of two entwined plotlines, one in dealing with the goblin invasion and the other in finding the assassin. There are a number of subplots from other characters that you may get involved with.

Do you have your eye on a release date?

Pieter: I’ve wanted to dub 2005 as the year of the indie adventure game since I believe that several very good game titles are coming out this year. However, most ID groups (including ourselves) do not wish to post strict release dates, so that year may turn out to be 2006.

What can you tell us about your creative team?

Pieter: As seems common in the Internet age, the team members hail from all over the world and haven’t actually met in real life. We would like to do a team meeting some time this year but that may prove hard to arrange.

The background art team consists of John-Paul, Emily (brother and sister from the United States), and Elissa (from Australia). Joshua, the guy who does a lot of our graphical editing and designed our GUI’s, lives in Peru. Our leading musician and composer, Kole, is from Canada. Then there is me. I’m a freelance programmer and live in the Netherlands. There are over a dozen other people involved but the six above are the core members and the most active.

Is there anything else that you would like to tell us?

Pieter: Let’s see… We originally wanted to be the first indie game that could match Sierra’s level of quality and that was not a remake of anything. However, we have since come across a small number of other games that fit the description and that are released earlier than ATOTK. Still, it is an ambitious goal.

Pieter, Thank you for your time. I appreciate this opportunity to talk with you about A Tale of the Two Kingdoms. I hope that your game is a huge success. Please keep in touch with Just Adventure, Randy or me so that we can keep the JA readers posted on your progress. I would also suggest that you visit the JA Forum to chat with its members. They enjoy dialogue with game developers and I am sure that you will receive a warm reception.