Maybe you can tell us a bit more about the game itself.

Jan Müller-Michaelis: We have opted for a fairly traditional approach: our game features 2D hand-drawn and animated characters in front of very detailed, hand-drawn backgrounds. We have opted for a fairly realistic comic style comparable to a high-quality animated movie. We like to describe it as "Broken Sword — if it were made today".

In our opinion, 3D just doesn't work for adventure games — again and again, the characters come out too lifeless, the backgrounds are too sterile and the technical hurdles too high. Hand-drawn characters can display a much wider range of convincing emotions — it's ultimately one of the main reasons that people still prefer the adventure games of days gone by.

The game is set — mostly — in the present and features realistic settings. You will see a lot of archetypal locations in the game that everyone in the world will recognize, in a similar fashion as in movies like The Day After Tomorrow — although we decided to leave New York be this time and focus our destructive energy elsewhere.

During the course of the game you will take on the roles of two protagonists — one male, one female — most of the time, you'll be able to switch between the two.

As far as puzzle design goes, our philosophy is that the puzzles need to serve the story and not the other way around. The puzzles need to feel like logical and integral parts of the game, natural obstacles that make sense to the player. Oh — no timed sequences and no action bits; nobody likes those.

Why an adventure game? Many believe that the adventure market is shrinking faster than the polar ice caps.

Carsten Fichtelmann: Well, it depends on which market you're looking at. In Germany, the market for adventure games has grown considerably in the last few years. Last year, we were deluged with quality titles, though none of them could really separate themselves from the pack. The genre is also very strong in other European markets like France and Spain.

We know adventure games and we know adventure gamers: by adhering to what you know about your target audience, you can make a very successful game — even if it's on a different scale than in the blockbuster genres.

Carsten, you previously held the Marketing & Product Director position at dtp entertainment, which has become one of the most influential adventure game publishers in the world, so you're clearly no stranger to the genre. The fact that you're now making your own shows you clearly believe there's a viable market out there. What do you see in adventures that others apparently don't? (Besides us, of course.)

CF: At dtp I was involved with many projects, I brought Runaway, The Longest Journey, Dreamfall, Black Mirror, Sherlock Holmes and Gray Matter to Germany. I've been playing adventure games myself for more than 20 years. Sure, I like to play shooters and logic games as well, but I've chosen to focus on what I know best. And I'm confident that we have a team here that is capable of developing a brilliant adventure game.

At Daedalic, we still see a lot of untapped potential for adventure games as the quality of stories and gameplay has generally stagnated in recent years. As an exceptional narrative medium, adventure games can do so much more to engage the player, yet this potential is so seldomly utilized. We believe that we have a very keen eye for the market and its demands and we intend to deliver what adventure gamers clamor for.

What can you tell us about the rest of your team?

JMM: Our team, based in Hamburg, Germany, is currently comprised of nine people, with myself coordinating all aspects of the development process and handling story writing, game design, storyboarding and about a million other things. Before founding Daedalic together with Carsten, I've been a writer and director on several short films, as well as a lifelong fan of adventure games. For my diploma thesis, I independently designed and co-programmed a complete adventure game that includes 30 characters, complete voice-overs, 120 screens and 30-plus hours of playtime. It will probably see release in the not too distant future... Through that project I met Carsten and we immediately connected over our shared vision of the potential for adventure games.

We're also handling all the coding and scripting for the game internally, while all the artwork and sound assets are done externally. We have contracted a large team of artists and animators, many of them with years of experience in traditional animation film. Our sound team is also based here in Hamburg; they will be handling the game's orchestral soundtrack and the roughly seven hours of voice-overs.

The game will be a fairly conventional point-and-click adventure, which will please many genre fans. Other than the subject matter, what features would you say make the project unique?

JMM: One thing that definitely sets us apart from many recent titles is the size of the game: with around 130 screens, 30 great, compelling characters, 20 minutes of animated cutscenes and around 20 hours of gameplay, we will deliver a hefty gaming experience. We're also very much focused on bringing back a sense of fun and experimentation as you explore the environments. One way to do this is by writing and recording voice-overs for nearly every single possible action-hotspot, action-item, item-hotspot and item-item combination. No more "That doesn't work."!

We're also implementing a number of technical innovations, both on the graphics side with multi-layer characters and complex backgrounds, as well as in the sound department with a uniquely dynamic soundtrack and unusual voice-over recording process.

Will the game be independently financed and released by Daedalic, or will you be seeking out publishing partners to finish production and/or distribute the game?

CF: We're financing the game with the help of a partner and will publish it in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Internationally, we are looking for publishing/distribution partners. Fortunately, we are very well connected with the relevant companies and there is already a lot of interest, since the game has such a general appeal.

Are you planning a localized English version of the game?

CF: Yes, we are of course developing the game with the international market in mind. At the Games Convention in Leipzig, we will be showing an English version to trade visitors and the international press. We will also be at GC Asia in Singapore this September.

If all goes well, when might we be seeing the game appearing on store shelves?

CF: We have set ourselves a very ambitious schedule, with release planned for the second half of next year. The game is being developed for PC, as well as Nintendo DS and Wii.

Even better! We're always encouraged to see more developers branch out across platorms, so that's good news, indeed. I'm also personally pleased to see environmental concerns being embraced, so I applaud your choice, and I look forward to seeing the results. Thanks very much for sharing more about your game with us.

CF: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to tell you about our game's vision. So far, we have enjoyed a lot of positive response everywhere we have presented our project, with an unprecedented amount of attention in the German media, so I know we're on the right track.

JMM: Thank you!