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After taking a closer look, your face is familiar... if you are who I think you are, thank you very much for such engrossing experiences.
Thank you, Throdax! I'm glad to meet you, because now I remember that I've also heard about you before from The LxR.
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Here are a couple of questions as promissed:
- IPL destinguised themselves by playing with our emotions in Pathologic and The Void in that is called "Russian dessolation and desperation". I think that gave IPL the fame it got. Although we still don't know how depressive Knock-Knock will be, did you ever consider playing once again to IPL strong points? Cargo was a shift in the opposite direction.
You are right. Nevertheless "Cargo!" was also an experiment. We were trying to design a comedy, but it turned out that fun is not our strongest point.
Actually I can talk just for myself. "Cargo!" was not my original idea. It came to Ayrat's head - but Ayrat was mostly carried away with its construction and physical capabilities, leaving the world and atory to me. You know, too many cooks spoil the broth. As for me, I could not work as a pure "proffesional". I could not make a deep game out of some predefined setting. So it was just... a try to prove myself worthy in a comic genre. Anyway, I don't think that Cargo! is a fail.
Moreover - I was very glad that another man from our studio comes with his idea and his own understanding of "the deep game". We are a guild, not a princedom. As for me - my next projects will continue the same way. But still I'm proud of dissimilarity of all our projects. We're not only a guild, but also a creative laboratory, and we must keep experimenting with different forms and genres!
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[*]Out of curiosity, which game sold better, in the Russian market and European market; Pathologic, The Void/Tension/Turgor or Cargo?
It were publishers who were selling them. I don't want to say that I don't beleive their reports... but we don't have the exhaustive information. I can say that The Void is the only game which
still brings us some humble royalties. And what is the real reason to call "Cargo!" an epic fail is the marketing strategy (the absence of it) of bitComposer. Thanks to them.
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[*]What gives inspiration to the desperate visages we see in Pathologic and The Void?
As I said to Aneuron - I don't know. Anyway each visage is the result of my cooperation with the lead artist who creates the final image. I'm doing my best to explain its sense and meaning, to discover it as a symbol in the texture of the plot and game idea. I'm yelling, waving my hands, bringing the references, singing songs or starting music, sometimes I even try to make some drafts myself. Artist patiently waits untill I finish, and then makes it the way he wants. ) That's the technology.
I don't think that we use some outer things for inspiration. If Meethos wouldn't be such a hermit, I would summon him to this post. But he usually keeps away from communications.
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[*]The million ruble question: If KK is a success on Kickstart (and everything indicates that it will at least reach its goal), ever considered doing a Kickstarter for Pathologic retranslation? I think that would go really well with the IPL fan community after 2 or 3 (Lost count to be honest) retranslation attenpts? Sub question: Pathologic in Turgor Engine?
Actually we're thinking of using the Kickstarter for Pathologic total rremake. Yes, it must be retranslated. But if we start changing the game (to prepare it for uploading at
http://www.gog.com, for example) we won't be able to stop. We'll start fixing the bugs, then tuning the awful fighting system, then rebalancing the economics, and in the meantime we'll start updating the models... that's we way it will be.
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[*]Given that previous games were driven by a selected beveredges, what is fueling KK? Or have you gone into hard vodka and absint mixtures?
This is a myth. Yes, we were drinking really hard when only starting our studio with Pathologic (young, naive and enthusiastic students, you know). Some of us were keen of absinth drinking culture (as a token of the epoch we were inspired by) in the middle of Pathologic development. But we never declared any special beverage while developing Tension (Turgor) or The Void. So for the KK let it be tea or coffee... to keep vigil till dawn!
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[*]Did I mention we need more games that instill the dread of desperation and soliture in the game market?
You should talk to Mushroomer (our sound producer) about it. He has an interesting theory of "discomfort needs" in the modern world-2.0
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[*]Is there any classic game that you draw inspiration? To me, The Path and Planescape Torment come to mind in rich vivid (and morbid) stories.[/list]
It's hard to beleive, but we were never inspired by PS:T. I respect it greatly, but I started playing it only in 2006-2007 (because
everyone was telling me that I'm influenced by it). The main game I was inspired by when deciding on my career is
Thief - The Dark Project. It made a great impression on me when I first saw it.