You have a lot of crazy characters in your game. Aside from Assil, you have Thara, the daughter of the Arabian ambassador, and a belly dancer guard named Boulboul, to name only a couple. How many speaking characters are there in Ankh? And could you describe a few of these characters?

There are more than 40 different characters in the game. Most of them have very special features. For example, Olga is the manager of the fish burger hut, whose hatred for her customers is topped only by her feelings against cats. Then there's Osiris, god of the underworld, who is more of a bureaucrat and has absolutely no sense of humor whatsoever. We also have a half-blind tailor who mistakes Assil for a girl... and I shouldn't forget the crocodile, which Assil meets more than once. I have to say those two really don't become friends.

What about Pharaoh Iphenep and Assil's romantic interest, Thara?

Thara has a real problem with the Pharaoh. I don't want to reveal too much here, because this is an important part of the plot, but he's imprisoned her because she doesn't accept his authority. There's also the so-called group of "banana throwers" who seem to attack the Pharaoh with, well, banana peels.

Banana throwers?

Indeed. But there's more behind that than there might seem! Apart from the message "Don't take yourself too seriously", the game also carries some messages about liberty and personal identity in a hostile environment.

Any personal favorites among the many characters, and are they based on any real life personalities or role models?

Although we intended to include a special character for all our team members, this was unfortunately not possible due to time limits. I especially like the palace guards; they are inspired by John Cleese from Monty Python, similar to his role in The Life of Brian. Some other characters like Fatima, a friend of Assil's, are based on current sitcoms, and the mysterious Thara may remind people of Leela from Futurama.

The dialogues and characters we saw at E3 were very funny. Humor is very hard to do well in games and there haven't been many comedic games in a long while. How did you manage humorous lines, characters, and situations with global appeal?

First, we had the advantage that our original Ankh game was well received in the UK. Although the market for the game was limited back then, we received very positive feedback regarding the humor. And we know that the British are hard to please about humor! Further, we simply love to think about jokes and funny situations, to watch sitcoms like Friends and King of Queens, and above all, we like humor that's not so much in-your-face but a bit more subtle. And finally, Telltale Games, the company of former LucasArts employees who is going to produce the new Sam & Max titles, gave us a lot of support. So I'm sure that the humor has that global appeal and still keeps its own special style. Other "big names" like Ron Gilbert, creator of Monkey Island, and Bob Bates also told us that they really like the approach of Ankh.

What was Telltale's role in the development?

Telltale helped us regarding the concept itself, as well as checking our work-in-progress versions and commenting on what was working well and where they saw possibilities for improvement. With their help, we ironed out some bumpy parts of the story and within the dialogues.

Switching over to your game engine, why 3D, and how did you balance the many positives of 3D game construction with a desire for detailed graphics people normally associate with 2D pre-rendered backgrounds?

I think the modern lower-end PCs have just reached a point where it is once again possible to create rich and beautiful scenery as we know it from 2D game, but this time using 3D graphics.

3D has many advantages and it's still possible to preserve the feeling of the classic games. Ankh works with almost still images at many places, giving the player the possibility to slowly explore the screen. But then the camera moves and shows that you're within a 3D world. This is especially nice regarding the many small cutscenes that can now take place right in the middle of the game instead of being some sort of extra. And finally, you can do beautiful close-ups of characters during conversations, making them feel much more "alive". This results in a much more cinematic feeling.

Speaking of cutscenes, how are these handled in the game?

There are more than 100 cutscenes within the game, ranging from mini-sequences with only a few special moves and camera angles to full-blown action sequences. All of them are directly tied to the player's actions so that the player never leaves the game world in order to watch a special scene. They are all rendered using the in-game engine. So there's no cut between the game and the films.



Often in games, camera views can be a source of frustration. For example, in many 3D games you can lose the character behind some obstacle or another. How did you avoid these sorts of problems?

First, we spent lots of time finding the right camera angles for the corresponding scenes. Also, we're using a "classic" screen display, despite the 3D technology, which is similar to the 2D display. The camera is sometimes still, and at other places it just moves sideways, but it doesn't do wicked turns and stuff in places where the player needs an overview. And finally, when there's an inevitable obstacle between the player and the camera, the obstacle is faded to transparency so you can see behind it.

About the controls, the game is mouse driven, correct? What else can you tell us about the interface in the game? For example, how is the inventory managed?

We tried to use an interface that's as easy as possible. Yes, it is mouse driven, and the inventory is simply displayed on screen, so you have direct access to the items. It's really minimalist but it works absolutely fine. The mouse cursor is interactive and reacts to the item that you move over. If you move the mouse over a door, for example, the cursor switches to "enter" mode.

Are scene exits marked?

They aren't specially marked, unless you move the mouse over them. But, they're easy to find, as well as most of the items the player needs. We tried to avoid any pixel hunting.

How is the dialogue handled in the game — is it player-directed or all automatic?

The dialogues are multiple choice and there are lots of them in the game. In most of the dialogues, the player can either get straight to the point, or he can "play" with the character and tease him or her, or be rude, or extra smart. The player has full control over Assil's reactions.

Do these choices affect the game at all?

Yes, they do. In many dialogues, the player receives new quests or items, but only if he chooses the correct answers. However, in Ankh it's not possible to mess things up completely, so he can't annoy another character so much that he wouldn't help Assil further.

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