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Journey to the Centre of the Earth - First Impressions Preview
Derek dela Fuente
15/01/2004
Adventure games are far and few between these days, so we take a look and chat to the guys behind an adaptation of a Jules Verne classic...
Inspired by the classic Jules Verne novel with the same name, this adventure game - with equally compelling storyline - should entice gamers into a world of intrigue and fulfilment.
Itās 2005: somewhere in the skies above Iceland. Ariane, a young reporter, is out covering a story for a leading discovery magazine. No sooner has her helicopter landed on a ledge of the Sneffels volcano than it is destroyed in a violent rockslide. Ariane is thrown clear, but the pilot is lost. She sets off to try to find help when suddenly the earth opens up under her feet... Several hundred meters below she finds herself alone on a subterranean beach. Ariane discovers the strangest of landscapes and a host of unusual objects. What is this weird world? Who are these people? Where do they come from? Join Ariane as she explores an unknown world of fascinating and fantastical civilizations hidden beneath the surface of the Earth. For a professional journalist it's the chance of a lifetime, with the promise of a scoop to really make her career take off. But once the first rush of excitement at the discovery is past, grim reality rushes in: the future of this world is in jeopardy. Almost against her better judgment, Ariane dives right into the thick of the action. What choices will she make? Will she be able to find her way back to the surface? Will she get her scoop of a lifetime?
Will she reveal the existence of this world at the risk of redoubling the threat to its continued existence? We spoke with Wael Amr, the CEO, and Geraschenko Serge, the Project Coordinator, at Frogwares, to unlock some of the secrets into the making of this game, which was developed in the Ukraine with a specialised team of 30.
"The story from Jules Verne has been our main inspiration for the game, an excellent base to make an adventure game, for there are many elements which open our minds for creativity and it allowed us to create an underground world quite freely. Many elements are taken from the book: the prehistoric creatures, the specific flora, the climate, sky, the apparently primitive giants, all of these were discovered by Arne Saknussem and then by Axel and Hardwigg in the 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' novel. Adventure games are also a synonym of discovery, and today there is nothing left to discover except other planets. To think that there is still an unknown world just beneath your feet is appealing and we are just sliding in a parallel of this reality, it means that the identification with Ariane, the heroine, a simple journalist, works in an easier way.
As we all know adventure games are about the player making their own decisions and building a story as they progress but basically the central figure in the game, Ariane, discovers a world where there are two distinct peoples, the Humans and the Giants, who are opposed in everything. The humans are keen on technology and scientific development and the giants are close to nature and for neutral stability. The two civilizations are not in conflict, quite the opposite, they are just different. Giants were the first inhabitants, and the humans came by the end of 19th century, they were a community of scientists dreaming about an utopian world were science would be above everything, and they created their city: Askiam. This international community of scientists created their own technology, means of transport, communication, knowledge. Their evolution is parallel to the one of the surface. The giants are more secret. A war on the surface threatens this fragile balance. Ariane, the journalist, is shared between going back on the surface, making a fantastic report about this underground world or helping these communities to solve a major problem threatening their world. Ariane meets many suspicions from both communities. Ariane will have to gain their trust and to solve everything, making choices between her career and the respect of this unknown world.
"Ariane, a journalist for a travel magazine, is quite young and inexperienced. She is working as a freelance. She is not well known and asks herself many things about what she has to do or not. She could be anybody in fact, with the same fear, courage, naivety, thoughts.
Adventure games over the last few years have been on a downward spiral although of late there appears to be more interest so it seems a strange decision for a large company to focus all its resources on this genre of games. An honest and straightforward reply was forthcoming from the team.
"This adventure game is traditional with a solid user base and is growing. The name and even brand of a Journey to the Centre of the Earth would be very familiar to adventure games players and easy for casual gamers to pick up and play. The players for these games are looking for an intuitive interface, and a compelling plot. Innovations are limited as the standard user machine is still 2-3 years old for such games, and the number of effects, animations, texture size and so on is limited by not-so-new standard machines. The game presents an interesting innovation via the use of Arianeās laptop as she gathers all the info in it: mail, documents (over 70), encyclopaedia to research some data, photos. Here the technology helps the player, and instead of a telephone and a notebook, the laptop combines everything. It contains around 150 elements to help Ariane to solve enigmas and get some information about the world around here."
There are 4 worlds to play in. All beautifully decorated with excellent and functional graphics. Each new location has a new set of graphics, which gives an added incentive to go on and to discover more. Ariane is fascinated by this world, takes photos of the most picturesque places.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth does has a list of features which include with characters in real-time 3D, pre-calculated 3D decor, over 300 different views, 200 plus objects, more than 100 puzzles to solve, and 30 characters to interact with.
There are several logic puzzles, all of them are very challenging and interesting, serving to illustrate better the story of the game.
"Some locations could be explored in different ways but the game has its central story and the player needs to progress through the game in line with it. The most interesting fact is possibly that Journey has two endings. At the end of the fourth level Ariane has to decide either she head to the surface for success and glory, leaving 'subterranean' to suffer, or she can decide to help them and turn back. In this case the player will have two more levels of gameplay."
"We believe that adventure games could definitely make a big comeback. As long as among people playing video games there will be players preferring quality graphics to dynamics, solving puzzles to killing monsters, adventure games will exist!!!"
