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You
made it to the interview! The interview is split up into 5 categories:
The Game:
RSC:
First of all, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule
to do this Q&A, we really appreciate it. I’ll start off by asking
about the team working on Simon 3D. Is it composed of the same people
who delivered Simon the Sorcerer 1 + 2? Those games where developed
by Adventure Soft, so where does Headfirst Productions fit into
all this?
Andrew Brazier: The Headfirst team comprise a number of the
key people who developed Simon 1 and 2 - they are Simon Woodroffe
(designer), Alan Bridgman (programmer) and Mike Woodroffe (director).
Headfirst are the development side of Adventure Soft, who don't
do any development of their own nowadays, they just publish the
back catalogue games.
RSC: What’s the story in the game?
In Simon the Sorcerer 2, the ending was kind of a cliffhanger, so
what happens?
Andrew Brazier: Well, I can't give too much of the story
away, but at the start Simon manages to get his body reunited with
his soul - along with the help of Calypso his wizardly friend. So
you don't play the game as Sordid!
RSC: Will the game take place
in the same magical land the previous two titles operated in, and
more importantly, will we get to see our favourite characters again?
The Swampling, the Roleplayers, the evil Sordid, the twin demons
etc. really defined the Simon games and helped make them great.
Andrew Brazier: Yes, all of the characters you mentioned
make a return in this game, plus a whole load more (there are over
50 characters in the game). The world is very similar to that in
Simon 1 and 2, with strange locations and even stranger people.
The Graphics
and the Environment:
RSC: Why 3D? Was it a corporate
decision, and aren’t you afraid that fans of the other Simon games
will be disappointed with 3D? Many old-school fans of the adventure-genre
feel that 3D is the disease causing the recent stagnation in the
genre.
Andrew Brazier: We have had a lot of mail from fans who
fear the change to 3D, but I can be honest and say that really I
don't think it matters what viewpoint an adventure is played in,
if it is true to the adventure genre then it will be enjoyable.
We originally started to develop Simon 3 as a 2D point n click adventure,
but we could not find a publisher willing to finance the project,
so we scrapped that and started it in 3D. I think it was the right
decision, as there are very few 2D games on the market nowadays.
RSC: Will the world be one huge
scrolling area, or several areas linked together by an overall map?
Andrew Brazier: There are a number of large, separate areas.
One big area would be nice, but it is difficult to do technically,
and it also gets boring going from one place to another, so there
is a map feature to avoid lots of running about. Also, the locations
that Simon visits are so diverse that it would have been very difficult
to link them all together into one big world.
RSC: Puzzles are the core of any
adventure-game, and seeing that you promise to go back to the adventuring
roots, so to speak, with Simon 3D, will we be seeing the same complex,
innovative and engaging puzzles that where found in the previous
games?
Andrew Brazier: Yes, puzzles are a key area of gameplay
and there are a lot of them in Simon 3D. They take a similar form
to the ones in the previous games - so they are a little bit weird
and bizarre, but hopefully always logical. The last puzzle in the
game is a real stinker though!
RSC: Is Simon 3 going to be a
very linear game? Recent adventure games like Gabriel Knight 3 and
The Longest Journey have had fixed chapters where you could only
do certain things and visit certain places within each chapter.
How much freedom to explore will the player have, and how freely
can puzzles be completed?
RSC: Following up on the previous
question: Will the puzzles be connected, so you have to do certain
things in quest 1 in order to accomplish quest 3, which gives you
access to complete quest 2 and 4? Or is each puzzle designet to
be solved seperately?
Andrew Brazier: I'll answer those two questions together
- Games with multiple paths and loads of different ways of solving
puzzles are very difficult to design, as you never know which order
the player will do things and it can make very confusing gameplay.
Therefore the player is limited to a degree, but there is still
a lot of freedom. Basically the puzzles tend to take a form of -
In each area, Simon must accomplish large goal A, but to do that,
he has to accomplish smaller goals B, C, D and E. And each of those
goals might have two or three further puzzles required to solve
them, which makes a lot of puzzling ! There is quite a high degree
of flexibility as to what order you do things in, which give a lot
of freedom to the player.
Gameplay
Questions:
 RSC: On your website, you claim to have
gameplay features like underage drinking, environmental terrorism
and squashing ninjas. What we want to know, is if you will take
caution to not insult anyone either religiously or ethnically (maybe
to appease the American market), or if the game will be truly politically
incorect, in the footsteps of Monty Python and other Brittish daredevils.
Andrew Brazier: Well, Simon has always been a bit sarcastic
and insulting, and he carries this on in Simon 3, although we have
been asked to tone him down a bit on occasion. The features mentioned
are only done in a humorous way, and the game never takes itself
seriously, so hopefully it won't offend anyone!
RSC: How many commands will the
player have available? Will there be several commands, or only one
for “interact”. Could you give us an example of the interface, and
how different commands work if applicable.
Andrew Brazier: Simon has two main actions, USE and USE
WITH. 'Use' affects anything in the environment that he can interact
with - i.e. pull a lever, pick up an object, talk to a person. 'Use
with' combines whatever he currently has 'in-hand' with whatever
he is currently looking at. He has a number of other abilites, such
as crawl, run, jog and 'thru the eyes mode', but on the whole it
is a very simple interface and easy to get to grips with.
RSC: Simon 1 and 2 featured a
lot of innovative ideas, especially Simon 2, where the ability to
“scan” an area for important information (the F10 feature) really
helped newcomers to the adventure-genre. Do you have any never-before-seen
features included in Simon 3D which will be worth mentioning here,
or are you sticking to the tried and tested formla for success with
a good ol’-fashioned adventure game, just like your grandfather
knew them?
Andrew Brazier: There are a couple of new features which
can help out, such as the 'Banter Button' which turns off all needless
conversation and just gives the player 'the facts', for those people
who don't like to listen to long conversations. Simon also has a
fairy godmother who appears to give information if something new
is happening which the player needs further information for (such
as a subgame, or when Simon picks up something cool like his yoyo).
RSC: How will the view work now
that it’s a 3d-game. Will the player be able to switch camera-views
like in Gabriel Knight 3, or have you implemented fixed camera positions
that automatically change when the player moves? Tell, tell tell..
Andrew Brazier: We use three different types of camera.
These are FIXED (a camera which doesn't move, like in games such
as Resident Evil), FIXED DYNAMIC (a fixed camera which pans and
rotates to stay focussed on Simon) and SHOULDER (which is a 'chase'
camera following behind Simon). You can also switch to 'Simon's
Eye View', but you can't move around in first person perspective,
unless you're crawling. It's quite a good system which means you
aren't stuck looking at Simon's back the whole time.
RSC: What is going to place Simon
3D above the rest of the crop of adventure-games? What makes it
special, and why should the public buy it?
Andrew Brazier: We think that it is true to the adventure
principles of old, and has a bit of humour and weirdness thrown
in aswell. Plus it looks a lot different to most other PC games
around at the moment, which has got to be worth something!
Tidbits:
RSC: I heard a rumour that the
game won’t have mouse-support… Can this be true?
Andrew Brazier: At the moment, the game only supports keyboard
control. This is mainly because of the difficulties with using a
mouse in a 3D world with that many different viewpoints. The control
system is very intuitive and keyboard control is probably the best
way to do it.
RSC: Could you give us some technical
explanation as to why Simon 3D will kick butt? Something with uninterperable
terminologies and words only software developers would understand…
It’s for our hardcore fanbase…
Andrew Brazier: Aww.. do I have to ? I always hate
spouting all that techno-babble about new technoligical advances
which people somehow seem to think will automatically make a game
good....so because of that, Simon will feature:
- Realtime air synthesis
- Tri-Linear monkey rubbing
- Support for up to 2 million
Dodecahedrons - a brand new technology which your current card
won't support which means you have to go out and spend even
more money so that you can play this game but in six months
time your new hardware will be obsolete anyway
- Featuring unique Key™Bordd™
control!
- Support for force-feedback monitors
- Ear bashing Adlib music! (remember
those ?)
RSC: Will you be making a hint
guide, kind of like the one flourishing on the Longest Journey website?
I would presume many of the people who buy the game are unfamiliar
with adventure games, and would like some help getting started.
Andrew Brazier: We didn't have any plans to, as we hope
that Simon has a learning curve which introduces new players to
the principles of adventuring. There is an 'Official Strategy Guide'
book coming out though, which will probably be released simultaneously
with the game.
RSC: Is it true that you are going
to postpone the eventual development of Simon 4 in order to complete
the Call of Cthulhu game you are also working on? (shame on you!)
Andrew Brazier: That's not strictly true - at the moment,
we only develop one game at a time, but in the future we are hoping
to expand up to two or maybe three games simultaneously. If this
happens, it means we can work on Call of Cthulhu AND Simon 4 !
RSC: Can we get a transcript of
some in-game dialogue, clearly depicting the great humour we have
come to expect from the Simon games? (maybe you can throw in some
screenshots of the episode!).
Andrew Brazier: Oooh...dunno about that...can't give too
much of the game away !
RSC: When is the demo due? We
heard late summer, and we can hardly wait any longer.
Andrew Brazier: At the moment we are more concerned with
finishing the game than working on a demo. However, I would expect
it'll be out in a month or two.
RSC: Estimated release date?
Andrew Brazier: Haven't got anything official, but I'd probably
guess at sometime in November.
The
Bothersome and Unimportant:
RSC: Has Simon learned from his
previous mistakes, or has he learned nothing from his past experiences.
Andrew Brazier: Nope - he hasn't really learned anything
(else he'd know better than to mess with Sordid again !). He still
thinks that he's irresistable to the ladies, and that he's some
sort of powerful sorcerer (although in this episode, he actually
learns some magic!).
RSC: What do you think of France
becoming European Champions as well as being World Champions? Doesn’t
it bother you Brits?
Andrew Brazier: No, they are a good team so they deserve
it. England were such a shambles in Euro 2000 that I was quite glad
in the end that they went out - the only good thing was that we
managed to beat Germany for the first time in 35 years !
RSC: How many pre-release press
copies of Simon 3D are we going to receive at RSC?
Andrew Brazier: Er....ask Hasbro !
RSC: What three games have you
been playing the most in the offices in the summer?
Andrew Brazier: Well, apart from Simon 3D, because we have
to.......at the moment we are totally in to Counter-Strike, and
before that we played a lot of Half Life and Opposing Force. There
has also been a lot of Gameboy gaming going on, games such as the
dreaded Pokémon and the excellent Tomb Raider.
RSC: Which pizza-topping is the
most popular at Headfirst? I’m guessing Red Herrings?
Andrew Brazier: Ho ho....no, we usually go for one Seafood
Special and one which we call 'The Butcher's Floor' - lots of indistinguishable
meat!
RSC: Once more, thanks for your
time and dedication, we really appreciate it. I can't wait to see
the game in motion!
Andrew Brazier: No problem.
The interview was
conducted by Søren Kristensen,
for RollespilCentralen.
Released August 16th 2000.
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