GameParty mocht haar vragen stellen aan Eden Games' Nour Polloni. Uiteraard ging het voornamelijk over een aankomend toppertje die de naam Alone in the Dark met zich meedraagt.

Onlangs kregen wij de exclusieve mogelijkheid om onze vragen te stellen aan Nour Polloni van Eden Games. Waar je haar van moet kennen? How about Alone in the Dark? Nour Polloni is de producer van de aankomende Alone in the Dark game die in mei uitkomt voor de PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Wii en PC. Eefje en Marco stelden hun vragen en kregen een stel interessante antwoorden terug. Lees het snel hieronder!

GameParty: Alone in the Dark is clearly a very ambitious game. Does the fact that Eden has more experience with racing games than something like Alone in the Dark, increase the pressure on you to prove you can do more than 'just' that?
Nour Polloni: The pressure doesn't come from that at all. So many of the team are massive fans of the very first Alone in the Dark and also have experience on a lot of different game genres, not just racing games, as well from the action adventure game Kya: Dark Lineage we developed before starting this game. Alone in the Dark was a dream project for us, and it's something we initiated with Atari so it's a real labour of love. The pressure comes from living up to the legacy of the first Alone in the Dark in terms of innovation, but we hope we're doing a pretty good job of that so far.

GP: The freedom in gameplay is a focal point in this game. We see this in the ways you can combine items or resolve problems in your own way. Isn't this going a bit against the latest fashion of simplifying gameplay in general? Or will there be an ingame tutorial, taking us step by step through various elements of the gameplay?
NP: We think it is simple in the sense that it's intuitive based on the rules that everyone instinctively know, that's to say the real world rules we based the game mechanics on. There will of course be instructions in the game that take the player step by step through how it all works. Like anything, with a little bit of practice it'll come easily. Then we've added systems to make the gameplay more fluid and quicker such as a quick withdraw button for the last item and a quick select system which lets the player assign favorite combinations of items to a single button push. For the problem solving in the game, it's true that some of it is quite thoughtful - you can't blast your way through every situation - but then there's always more than one way to solve any given situation. If the player does get stuck we've done something really unique with Alone which is the skip menu in a DVD style interface. This lets you navigate through the game like you would a DVD, so you can skip a sequence or a whole episode if you get stuck and want to move on. It comes at a cost though - you can get almost to the end of the story, but you won't see the final ending unless you've completed a certain amount of the game. You can also go back and re-do parts where you had trouble before.

GP: Is there the intention to breathe new life into the old franchise? Or are we looking at the first release in an all new and improved franchise, one that basically stands on its own compared to the old one regardless of the name?
NP: The intention was to make a worthy successor to the first game that we all love at Eden, and we hope that this opus will stand on its own as a rebirth of the series. There are links with the very first game with Carnby and some other references scattered here and there in the game, and the overall aim is to stay true to the spirit of innovation of the first Alone in the Dark.

GP: We are very impressed with the fire effects generated by the new engine, it's practically like porn to pyromaniacs... But what are you most proud of when it comes down to the engine?
NP: The fire was a big thing for us and took a year to get right, but when it comes down to it the thing that we're most excited about is the huge level of interaction in an open environment that our engine allows, while at the same time running a great rendering engine with multiple dynamic lights. Our goal was for everything you see to behave and respond exactly as it would in the real world, which is a massive leap forward in terms of gameplay. The ability to combine objects to create new weapons and to find new ways out of situations leads to emergent gameplay, that's to say the player could well think of things to do that even we haven't thought of. All this in an fully explorable streaming open environment, which looks great at all times, whether it's interiors or exteriors. That's technically very complicated to achieve, and we're pretty happy with the results.

GP: The game has been set up as a number of episodes. Are there any plans to release new episodic content through distribution channels like Xbox Live or PSN?
NP: We don't have any specific plans at the moment, but the game lends itself very much to this and it's something we're looking at closely for after launch.

GP: How much effort did it take to accurately recreate Central Park for this game?
NP: The park was mapped using GPS satellite data to an accuracy of 50cm, using the same remapping system used in Test Drive Unlimited. Then we visited New York and took thousands of photos of everything from the buildings to the lamp-posts which our artists used to recreate the park in exacting detail, but adding an unsettling Alone in the Dark ambience to everything. With the buildings, we don't have the rights to use them all exactly as they are, so with interiors for example we've taken a few liberties. The museum for one is a combination of museum and church interiors which gave us the ambience we wanted.

GP: What influenced and inspired you when you where creating this game?
NP: There were several influences, both from different media, and from the everyday events of life itself. The first Alone in the Dark game was of course a major influence and drove the passion behind the project in the first place. The one film that was the biggest influence is the original Die Hard as it is probably the ultimate story of one man's fight to survive and win the day in the face of almost impossible odds. John McClane also has to make good use of his environment to create weapons and to get through situations, which is another parallel with the game. For the structure we were heavily influenced by the American TV shows like 24, Lost and Prison Break which are really the new benchmark in addictive entertainment. We were all crazy addicts while we were putting the design of Alone together, and we realized we wanted to bring that same effect to our game so we designed the game in episodes, each with a well-paced dynamic of action, plot twists, character development and cliff-hangers to keep the player on the edge of the seat.

GP: Are you planning any new projects after Alone in the Dark? Because we've got a female editor who's prepared to do 'crazy things' (her own words mind you) to see a sequel to Kya: Dark Lineage...
NP: That's good to hear! We're really proud of that game, but it's up to Atari to decide. If Alone in the Dark is a success it would be great to continue along Carnby's path for a while. You'll have to stay tuned for the next episode to find out...

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