Chat session Broken Sword 2.5
skizzo

17 Dec 2005 | 4 Comments

On December 6 th, the mindFactory team gave an interview in the form of a chat session. Here follows the translation of the questions and the answers that were asked and given.

Will Duane and Pearl be in the game again?
Yup, Duane and Pearl will be in it again. Fatter and crazier than ever. Of that you can be certain!

Have you found a magazine or something like that which is going to publish your game?
We’re cooperating with the magazine PC Games. With that magazine you’ll get the free full version of the game.

Will Revolution take the story of Broken Sword 2.5 into account when making Broken Sword 4?
Revolution develop their game independently from us. Just like we did, when the story for Broken Sword 3 was written.

What about saving the game? Will you be able to save your game at any moment?
That question I cannot answer yet with full certainty. We’re planning to do it similar to Broken Sword 1: you’ll be able to save at (almost) any moment. Except for the death scenes, where the player must act quickly.

Will there be eastereggs in the game?
We had a pretty cool one in the Parc Rouge scene (the one with the ice cream cart) with two familiar characters from another adventure game, but we had to delete that one due to the fact that the original firm didn’t want it.

Where will people be able to buy the game?
At every major store. No, just kidding. You cannot ‘buy’ the game. You’ll be able to download it free off the internet, or get it with a computer magazine, or get it directly from us. Possibly it will also be available as a free game with another adventure game that you’ll buy in the store. Negotiations with a larger publisher are taking place at the moment.

Why isn’t Nico mentioned with the voices? Doesn’t she have a voice yet?
At the time that the intro was developed, Nico didn’t have a voice yet, that’s because she’s not in the credits. She does have one now.

How much time of gameplay will there be?
We’re hoping that it will be about as long as the first official part. We’re speculating between 10 and 15 hours. Give or take…

Will the player be able to leave a scene quickly by double clicking on the exit in order to prevent the player from having to walk all across the screen?
We will consider that option. Of course, if we would leave that option out, we could win some more gameplay time, but I don’t think it would be in the best interest of the player.

Will Broken Sword 2.5 have extreme unrealistic fantasy elements in it like in Broken Sword 3 (like the dragon at the end)?
I’ve given such things much thought being the story writer. There won’t be too much fantasy elements in it (like a dragon). But we will include mythical and scientific elements. The factor ‘time’ will be playing a major role!!!

Will George be wearing the same outfit throughout the entire game?
George will definitely be wearing only one outfit throughout the game.

How violent will the game be? Will there be blood and death like in Broken Sword 1, or will you be more well-behaved?
We will be more well-behaved towards the violence element. The imaginative power of the player will be playing a bigger role with us. Often, violence that isn’t shown directly can work far more powerful than violence that is shown directly.

Does your game have to be rated?
Our game has to, just like any other game for the public, be rated. That already was the case when we put our trailer on the CD of PC Games. There have been long ‘negotiations’ about that. It won’t be different with the official release of the game. The problem is that those things generally cost a lot of money.

Will people be able to support you financially in any way?
Yes, they will. We have an account on which you can deposit a small amount of money. If you want to send me all sorts of candy for support, you can send it to the following address. But please pay attention to the expiration date and don’t paste anything over it ;-)

The account at the moment is inactive and I will add it later.

Will the game be as linear as Broken Sword 2, or will you have more freedom to move around like in Broken Sword 1 (like in Paris)?
Our game will be as linear as the original games. I think that this is quite good, because it is easier to tell the story this way than otherwise. Especially for an adventure!

What comes after Broken Sword 2.5? A dream career as a developer? Pension? Broken Sword 4.5?
We probably won’t be developing another Broken Sword game. That will likely be up to Revolution again. If we will be making another game, is unknown yet. Here in Karlsruhe houses publisher CDV. Maybe I’ll pay them a visit ;-)

Will there be puzzles again like the one in the pyramid in Broken Sword 2 with the two giant discs? And will there be sneaking like in Broken Sword 3?
There definitely won’t be any puzzles like in the pyramid in Broken Sword 2. Of course there will be numerous crate puzzles, because those were so popular in Broken Sword 3.

Would there be a way of navigating through certain chapters after finishing the game to redo particular quests?
I was just told by my webmaster that I should make clear that the crate puzzle thing was irony ;-)

No, absolutely not. There is no way to rerun different chapters.

How large will be the number of different comments, when you do something which is impossible? (Or will you just have the standard comments like “I can’t do that”?)
We will of course try to avoid the standard comments. But of course there will be some standard comments. It will be impossible to avoid them all.

How did the team find each other? Who started with it?
We started out as a small team consisting of four to five people, who all had a vision. Then came a webmaster, and a graphics artist. Most of the people came to us out of themselves, some we had to abduct…. Eeehm, right ;-) The official German Broken Sword fanpage of Marius Gosch (our vision) was also part of the founding of Broken Sword 2.5.

How did you manage to get the original scenes from Broken Sword 1 to use for your game? Did Revolution give them to you for this?
We had to redesign all those scenes ourselves. A very time consuming job, which however gave us much artistic freedom.

And one more question which we would all like to see answered: Does the project leader prefer cornflakes or muesli for his breakfast? :D
I’m woken up every morning in my residence with champagne and caviar.


And that concluded the chat session. Hopefully many of your questions have been answered and as soon as there is more to report about the game, we will inform you.