LM: What was done in the design process with the game locales to create a sense of freedom and visual variety in the house and around the island?

SN: How much do we want to give away?

LS: Just a few more interesting spots.

SN: There is an aviary, a goat pen, and other areas on the island. Basically the way the game works is there are times when you are restricted in your movement and there are other times when it just kind of balloons out. Then you are able to explore the island and pretty much do whatever you want for awhile. Then another segment of time might pass, where you get sort of railroaded back into the house. The weather is a large mitigating factor on whether you go outside or not. This also served as a device for us. If we needed the player to be inside the house, we'll step up the weather to become a fierce thunderstorm. There are definitely sections where you can go wherever you want. When you unlock all the areas, you will be totally free to wander wherever and whenever you want, as long as the weather isn't too bad.

LM: I did notice it seems to be raining a great deal.

[laughter]

SN: Pretty much, the sun never shines.

LM: I saw the game at E3 and it looked good. Then I noticed a few recent shots seemed blurry. Does the onscreen falling rain make getting clear looking screenshots of outside areas difficult?

SN: That would have some effect. Rain is an animation and it doesn't capture well in screenshots. There are night and day cycles. But even during the day, there is never anything like a bright cloudless day. It is more of overcast, could be dusk, look.

LM: Are there many cinematics or other in-game animations used, and if so, how?

LS: There are a lot of cinematics. The nature of the property sort of encourages this. If we had a ton more money and a few more years in development, we could have done away with most of them. Because I think that almost anything you can do in a cinematic, you can end up doing in gameplay, assuming you are clever enough. But in this case, to be true to the Christie book, there are quite a few cinematics.

LM: What other optional interactive elements are in the game?

SN: Depending on how you choose to play the game, there are large sections of gameplay that are purely optional. Obviously with the time factor, a room might be barren and featureless in one act, but could suddenly change in some significant way. So you could find something there that you couldn't have found previously. Maybe someone left something there or planted there for you to find. Basically it is difficult to view a scene as a static energy, especially in the house. Because when you are there matters so much to what you might find in that room.

LS: There will be some things that will remain constant, but there is always a chance that something may change in a locale as the story unfolds.

LM: There seems to be a never-ending debate at many adventure gaming forums over puzzles vs. story. How did you balance the demand for a detailed, riveting story with some gamers' preference for quality puzzling?

LS: That's really not how I approach puzzle design. I approach puzzles as dramatic obstacles as much as anything else. All of them should be there to do something other than to slow the player down. They are part of the story. There are character-driven puzzles, trying to figure what's up with these people, to try and track down the killer. Then some mechanical puzzles are there, but not ones that come in from left field. Everything makes sense. You are trapped on an island, so there are puzzles related to trying to get off the island. I don't think there are any gratuitous puzzles.

On the other hand, because we are very much aware there is a crossover audience here, I doubt this is going to be the most difficult adventure game that people have played. Not to say there isn't a lot of challenge. There is, and a lot of brain work that needs to get done. But we also recognize there are people who might be new to adventure games and we think this is a good thing. We want to encourage that. So hopefully we achieved a balance between the mission critical puzzles, which have some real thought to them, and other puzzles that are more interesting to do, but not that hard to figure out.

SN: The one thing that struck me the first time I read through Lee's game design, there were no gratuitous puzzles. With all the puzzles in this game, I don't think you could pick out one that doesn't fit, or that was thrown in there just to be a puzzle or to take up the player's time. All of them are contextually correct and lead towards a goal. There's no creeping, jumping, or 'clicking things at the right time' puzzles. There's nothing like that. Basically, everything is framed within the story, the puzzles included.

LM: There are also character or dialogue challenges in this game?

SN: Are you referring to the suspicion meter puzzles, where you have to do things for characters? If so, those are some pretty complicated puzzles. They involve multiple inventory items and talks with people, combining things. Then there is figuring out what you need to get, or have another character do, to influence a particular person.

LS: You obviously have a limited number of things on this island to work with. You can't go down to the store and get whatever you need. So you have to improvise with what you have to duplicate something you need that may not be available.

LM: This game has a lot of people and stuff going on, which can create information overload. Is there a notebook or journal that records information?

SN: There is an in-game journal that records everything needed for the game plot. Any points where you have a conversation that you might forget that is plot essential will be written into the journal for you. You won't need to write anything down.

LM: That's good to hear. Scott, what can you tell us about the game engine and the interface the players will use?

SN: It's a 2.5D engine, where the backgrounds are pre-rendered and the characters are 3D modeled. The inventory system is fairly basic, with the ability to combine up to four items. You can also examine individual inventory items. All that information is accessible via a button on top of the screen. The same goes for the journal. It sort of separates itself by categories, depending on what the information is about. You have a characters page, which lists them all by name and lists details about them. Then you also have separate pages for items, documents and books. As you get that stuff, you can always go back and reference any of it. It's fairly straightforward. The cursor is context-sensitive. When you pass over an interactive area, the cursor automatically changes to whatever interaction is appropriate for that hotspot or that character. You don't have to cycle through various interactions. That is a nod to people who are new to adventure games, who start playing because of the Agatha Christie license.

LM: I know you are in the big crunch right now to get the beta done within the next few weeks. How are things looking for a November release date?

SN: I don't think the release date is going to move much, so I believe we are still looking at early November.



LM: How does the future of adventure gaming look to you?

SN: You take this one, Lee. I'm leaving now.

[laughter]

LS: I think there is a place for adventure games as a major type of game. I do think that adventure game developers got very lazy for a long time. They just churned out very similar looking stuff. Which is fine if you happen to be the flavor of the month. But if you are already a niche, to continue "niche-like" is probably not a very good idea. I am glad to see there is some innovation happening. Hopefully it will continue. Every design, I try to do something different. Something that hasn't been done; that will make people say "Oh!" I also think that we have to be aware of who's playing the games and try to give them what they want, without turning our back on the people who are die-hard adventure fans. Then add stuff that will also attract a larger audience again. I think it is all possible. I think adventure games will come back, but it will take a pile of interesting products to do it.

SN: I agree completely with whatever Lee said! Seriously, though. It will work, but it has to be the right kind of innovation. I haven't actually played Indigo Prophecy yet. But when I read the reviews, although they've been glowing, when they mention something like a "Simon Says" puzzle, where you have to tap-tap the keyboard, that scares me. Though I am definitely going to play the game.

LM: Lee, are you going to do your traditional thing and hang out at the forums and talk with people who are playing your game, after the game releases?

LS: I am going to try. I already hang out at the forums and reply when I see something that is appropriate to respond to. I have been watching your forums. I like to do that. If people want to ask for hints and things like that. I have to be a little more careful, as I am just a hired gun here. I have to go along with whatever DreamCatcher has in mind and I will honor that. But yes, I love doing that. The only thing that would prevent me from doing this would be if I were deeply involved in something else at the same time.

LM: What are you most proud of about this project?

SN: I think what we were talking about earlier. That the story and the puzzles aren't at odds with one another. They work well together. The whole time issue came out very well and even better than we expected. In most adventure games, once you've been someplace and checked everything out, you never go back. I like the fact that you can't really play this game with that kind of mindset. You have to always keep in mind that everything may have changed in that location. You have to always have your feelers out. Even if you are running through a room several times to get to another room, you won't want to just click through. You'll want to make sure nothing has changed or that you haven't missed something introduced by another character or even the killer. I actually enjoy the dialogues because they are really interesting, and then there's the story too. It's just entertaining on so many levels.

LS: Thanks, Scott!

[laughter]

I am very pleased because I think we have succeeded with being true to Christie's vision, even though we have messed with it. That is what I am most proud of. Novels are not easy to adapt to games. We haven't seen as many of those as comic books and other things that are shorter, that allow us to elaborate in games. So novels provide their own set of challenges, especially one that is this carefully structured. You can't just pull a thread out here and one over there, because the whole thing can unravel. So I am very pleased that we are capturing the vision of Agatha Christie in a new medium. And hopefully introducing her to new people.

LM: I really want to thank you two for taking this time to talk about And Then There Were None. Any final thoughts for our readers?

SN: The first thing is I really need to get some sleep!

LS: I have really enjoyed doing an adventure game again. It's been a while. I have never lost my interest in them. Some of the challenges in solo games aren't quite there for me anymore, which is why I have been working in massively multiplayer games. But adventure games are games for the mind and that has always been an attraction for me. So I was happy to be given a chance to come back and do another one. Thanks!