wizarbox
wizarbox is a french video game developer which specializes in providing services to other developers .
focus home interactive, r. a. w. - realms of ancient war, wizarbox ,
indeed, breaking into video game development is difficult, and wizarbox should know best. as a middleware company, wizarbox has had to bail out many a small developer. there was one case in which a studio went bankrupt in the middle of a game and called wizarbox to finish and release it .
focus home interactive, r. a. w. - realms of ancient war, wizarbox, .
paris studio wizarbox filed for the french equivalent of chapter 11 bankruptcy in december, new reports have confirmed .
so blonde is an adventure game developed by wizarbox and written by steve ince, a former game designer for the broken sword series .
i must admit that i’d never even heard of wizarbox prior to that first e - mail. it’s funny how the world works at times .
arpg, focus home interactive, r. a. w. - realms of ancient war, realm of ancient war, trailer, wizarbox, .
wizarbox was founded about four years ago and specializes, as i said, in conversions, ports, outsourcing, and the like. the wizarbox portfolio includes the pc to xbox ports of arx fatalis and the panzer dragoon franchise. wizarbox has also worked very closely with paris - based ubisoft, handling numerous ports (most recently, scrabble and dark messiah of might and magic) and sending a team of developers to sweden to work on tom clancy' s ghost recon advanced warfighter 2 .
i met ceo fabien bihour at the electronic sports world cup in paris, and he invited me to take a tour of wizarbox studios. so a week later, i made the fifteen - minute walk to his studio in sèvres, france, just outside of paris to talk about wizarbox about its up - coming adventure title, so blonde .
chances are, you' ve unwittingly played a wizarbox game before, even if you' ve never heard of them. actually, i should clarify - - you' ve probably played a game that wizarbox has worked on, and you' ve never heard of them. you see, wizarbox are the unsung heroes of video game development, a cloak - and - dagger studio whose primary function lies in ports, localizations, conversions, research and development, and other ninja - esque, behind - the - scenes ventures .
however, wizarbox is now in the process of finishing their first in - house game, an old school point - and - click adventure game that hearkens back to the monkey island era of yore .
the company you are trying to view is not available on indie db. only publishers and developers which have games, mods and other content released on indie db are listed. view wizarbox on mod db .
jeu serai aims to develop a tool to facilitate career guidance for adults and students. the project groups together the cnam, wizarbox, seaside agency, the arcnam poitou charentes and the université paris ouest la défense .
a video game development company which offers its skills to help productions. after 10 years of experience in video game industry, wizarbox has decided to bring their customers the very high quality service expected by the market .
adventure gamers recently went behind the scenes with both steve ince and so blonde' s lead designer at wizarbox, jerome britneff - bondy, to ask about their collaboration on the new comic adventure and the paths that brought the two together .
develop reports that wizarbox was working on captain morgane and the golden turtle for multiple formats when it filed for what urltoken has revealed as a “en redressement judiciaire” – or ‘in receivership’ – the french version of america’s chapter 11 bankruptcy, which thq filed for last month .
other interesting projects that wizarbox is up to: talks with atari, and a collaborative project called play all. play all is essentially a government - sponsored research and design project intended to push the french gaming industry by pooling the collective resources of wizarbox, kylotonn, darkhorse, load inc. , and white birds productions. if the project works as planned, the result will be a wealth of r & d that could lead to a new class of better - trained, better - equipped, and more - experienced developers .
the character was partly created when i got involved in the project, with sketches and some description. but i was surprised at how easily i was able to get into the head of a 17 year old. must be all the pampering i receive when i visit the wizarbox offices .
starting out as a middleware company, wizarbox has had a chance to make a wide variety of games, from arx fatalis to scrabble to winnie the pooh. bihour sees the
wide range of games
as one of his company' s selling points :
we' re very lucky here at wizarbox - - we' re not pigeonholed. video games... they' re the first worldwide pass time. we have an opportunity to touch everyone, and we' re very open. what' s important is that people enjoy themselves without being boxed in [ to one genre ] .
develop adds that studio head fabien bihou – who formed the company in 2003 – went on record in 2010 to discuss wizarbox’s difficulty in finding new contracts, and stated that the industry’s economic state proved to be uncompromising for small studios. bihou added that moving to the lucrative mobile arena – at the time – would have been too risky .
it might turn out to be utterly brilliant but wizarbox’s background in handheld pap and conversions doesn’t thrill. they did make an original pc adventure game called so blonde but i haven’t played it, despite the promise of “more than 50 references to find (tv, cinema, reality shows, video games) and a lot of humor guaranty” .
mirof with tokkun studio worked on a lot innovating projects for reputable clients around the world. partners: warner, gameloft, ubisoft, pixar, total immersion, virtuos game, masa, game source, e - tf1, punchers impact, devalley, white laser games, fishing cactus, wizarbox, white birds production, dk games, ...
when wizarbox contacted me and said they wanted a writer they already had a couple of backgrounds created for the beach and the pier and had a number of character sketches. they knew they wanted a story based on the idea of a spoiled blonde becoming stranded on a mysterious tropical island. so i had the great pleasure of taking it from there .
besides so blonde, wizarbox are developing a handful of titles for the ds, as well as an unnamed pc to xbox 360 port. i asked if it happened to be the new dark messiah, but which bihour replied ,
no, i wish. i tried really hard to get that one, but ubisoft is handling that one themselves .
the high - level vision must be created first because itís this which drives the project forward and unites everyone into seeing the same goal that weíre all working towards. because there are a lot of talented individuals working on the game (wizarbox have a great team), a common vision allows them to maximise their talents in ways that enrich the vision .
[ wizarbox ceo ] fabien [ bihour ] sent me an e - mail and asked me if i was interested in working on the game. i went over to paris, took one look at the sketches of some characters and it was love at first sight. considering that i speak no french, it was surprising how quickly we all started seeing the same vision for the game .
people at wizarbox brought the starting idea, which was to confront a young, pampered and modern blonde teen used to luxury and modern comfort with rude and bloodthirsty pirates. we thought this was an uncommon - so interesting - environment for an adventure game. when we needed to develop the story and push the concept forward, we contacted steve who loved the idea and collaborated with us to make our dream come true .
fewer people know much about wizarbox, a french studio that' s been around for several years and yet exploded onto the adventure scene only recently with the release of so blonde. get used to hearing about them plenty more in future, though, as the company has taken over development of jane jensen' s gray matter, even as they continue work on an
alternate reality
version of so blonde for the nintendo ds and wii .
with that in mind, so blonde was developed in about 10 months .
right from the start, we made the product we wanted. we wanted to reduce the risks ,
says bihour .
this was our calling card, a demonstration, showing people what we could do. so many companies fail after one game ...
by avoiding the pitfalls of big - budget developing, wizarbox hopes to make some headway with so blonde before moving on the bigger projects .
gray matter was originally announced in 2003 as project jane - j and slated for release in fourth quarter of 2004. the game was put on hold in 2004 and later revived by a german publisher anaconda in 2006, for a release in fourth quarter of 2007. the game was delayed further in early 2007 for a q1 2008 date. in early 2008 development studio was changed from hungarian tonuzaba to french wizarbox delaying the game to 2009. the game is currently slated for february 25, 2011 .
wizarbox had been porting video games by other companies to consoles since 2002' s arx fatalis. in 2007, they released their first in - house developed video game, so blonde, written and designed by industry veteran steve ince. the success of so blonde led to the development of so blonde: back to the island, an alternate reality scenario set during the events of the original game, and the spin - off captain morgane and the golden turtle. after the troubled development of gray matter by jane jensen, they took over development of the title and released it in 2010 .
this universalist approach is exactly what led wizarbox to make their first original game, so blonde, anadventure game .
people want to hear a story, to follow a scenario ,
says bihour .
we think that there' s still a large public for [ adventure games ] .
he goes on to say that he' s been hearing people ring the death knell on adventure games for 15 years, but responds that there is a still a large adventure fan base .
we' ve managed to captivate a fairly large audience. these are games that have a crazy community that are very loyal .
is a role - playing game with action combat. it is set in a fantasy world where dwarves, elves and humans are at war - and now another, dark power sends demons into this world. a powerful ghost makes the player character his avatar in order to defeat this power. unfortunately no one knows this and so the player has to kill everyone met except the occasional quest giver .
this is a typical hack & slash game. the player chooses one of three classes (warrior, rogue or wizard) and mows down thousands of enemies in linear levels. this rewards experience points and after earning enough, the character levels up; although only once per stage. this rewards a point which is in turn invested into upgrading skills. those skills are class specific with the exception of the incarnation ability which allows to take control over an enemy for a short time. attributes only improve when finding and equipping better weapons and armor .
- style clicking) with mouse and keyboard. a second player can join in at any time and automatically starts with the appropriate level - progress is only saved for the first player. when one character dies, it respawns after a few seconds with full health if the other player survives that long .
jane “gabriel knight” jensen’s new point’n’click adventure, gray matter, is now available from german digital download site gamesplanet after 7 years in development under two different dev studios and two different publishers. the german version has english voiceovers, so apparently it’s playable. you can buy it here for €39. 99, which i think is more money than i’ve ever had at any one time. thanks to rps reader wendy for the heads up, and thanks to qt3 poster triggercut from informing wendy via this thread .
edit: anyone interested in the boxed version can hit up the german amazon, too .
gray matter is still scheduled for a february 2011 release for america and the uk .
if you click our links to online stores and make a purchase we may receive a few pennies. find more information here .
i can scarcely believe it actually came out. i think i’ll wait for it to get on steam though .
yay a new adventure by the gabriel knight creator! for €39. 99? no, thanks…
€39. 99 isn’t ∞, is it? it’s not that much for a new game, actually. what’s the big deal, because i don’t get it ?
it seems a lot for a download - only copy of something that’s listed as £25 or less for a physical one when it’s released here. €35. 99 for physical (amazon. de) is better, but i can stand to wait for now .
i must say that it is more than i have ever spent on a game in my life .
quinns, you’re inventing numbers now. am i supposed to take your word for it that this “39 '99” number is real? as if. and you call yourself a journalist. for shame !
hopefully the uk version will be cheaper. a lot cheaper. if there’s a boxed version then the price should go right down in no time on sites like play, amazon etc .
that is a lot of money for a point and click adventure, considering we get the mi remake bundle for nearly a third of that price. but it’s jane jensen, and it’s been a long time in development. will we see a wot i think on it ?
to put the pricing of that particular shop in perspective: codblops is €59. 95 tropico 3 gold is €29. 95 (discounted atm from €39. 95 )
i remember when most of the discussion when a game came out was how it played and how good it was, but all people worry about now is the cost. games aren’t getting cheaper to make, so forcing prices lower means lower budget, less polished games, or games that are dumbed down to appeal to as many people as possible .
to be fair that’s probably only the case here because special attention was drawn to the apparently very mysterious currency that people will have to tangle with if they want the game right now .
people debate if xxxxx is worth $ $ $ $ $ all the time. games arent special in that regard .
i don’t know if making games is, or isn’t, getting cheaper, so i can’t comment. however, a market is based on the price people will accept for what they’re getting. it’s expected that enough schmucks will be willing to pay £50 for cod or moh on the release day, so they price it accordingly. for something a little more niche, the price has to come down to encourage sales. it’s up to the developer to keep their costs lower without impacting on the eventual produce, as that too will effect sales. they also tend to be happier with sales over a long period, rather than only being interested in day - one, headline making, sales .
the exception to this is games like victoria or the even more grand strategies, which are certainly not mainstream and aren’t actually expected to sell many units. they have to be priced up, in order to make a profit. in any case, the people who buy grand strategies tend pay whatever asked .
@ cliffski i remember when reviews were buying guides and so often linked the price of the game to the discussion of its merits. as for production costs, while gta4 cost $ 100m, canabalt was made in 5 days, so i doubt that cost much to make… certainly in some cases production costs have dropped dramatically over the past five years. as for dumbing down or being less polished; there’s a lot of aaa big budget productions which suffer from those faults. that said, i can understand that it might be annoying for a developer to hear a journalist with a big audience implying that the price of a game is too damn high .
it might be annoying on a personal level, but only a totally pigheaded developer would ignore it. you have to listen to your customers, or you won’t have them much longer .
i know lower price doesnt mean lower profit. its not like i just got off the boat. but if you want lower price and higher profit, that means you need much higher sales, meaning your game has to be less niche .
that was exactly the point i was making. as to ‘listening to your customers’, i kind of do that too, but customers seem to be under the impeession that if they demand free games, or games costing $ 0. 01, they will get them, with everythign else remaining the same .
they will either get very very mass market games or very crap games. there isn’t any other way to manage it .
it’s like demanding cheap chicken. you can have cheap chicken. fuck knows what they feed em, or how it’s produced, but if the customer * only * cares about price, then the customer gets battery chickens injected with water .
all i’m saying is i’m prepared to pay more, for better quality, polished games .
amazon germany also seems to have the boxed version in stock: link to urltoken. and the description also mentions english voiceovers. it would not cost any less once shipping costs are added though .
@ rps: do you know if you’re getting a review copy? i used to work for the developer so if the publisher’s not doing its job maybe i can arrange for you to get a copy. i mean, €∞ is a lot of money these days .
you know, i post comments on rps, so technically, my words are published on rps, therefore, i write for rps .
i just read brumisator’s comment, therefore i’m a proofreader for rps, and thus his secretary, here at rps .
all review copies should be sent to my desk so i can forward them to him .
games in germany are a lot more expensive than in uk. gray matter is 35, 99€ on urltoken and that is a very good price for a new pc game .
it’s a pretty good game. my first immediate impression is that they’ve put a lot more thought into animation than other point and clickers. characters (main ones, at least) don’t just stand utterly motionless, there’s plenty of idle wandering about, twitching, adjusting weight, etc etc, and the lead character sam tends to not look that robotic, especially how she does the grim fandango trick of looking about at items of importance (though you can highlight them all easily enough with space) .
i’m not too sure the depiction of england and oxford is that accurate though…it seems to the us england is nothing but country roads and wooden road signs (in the intro there’s a sign that just says ‘oxford – london” as if those are the only two places in existence. also one of the english characters going ‘oxford to london? about two hours by train’ didn’t seem quite right. but maybe they were using virgin rail .
maybe they’re just going by the assumption that you’ll likely end up having to take the replacement bus service .
just a shade over one hour according to thetrainline, but yeah, rail replacement busses into london would be horrific .
my take on this one is that the story seems to be very appealing (i’m halfway through chapter 2) and graphics are definitely very good, especially for a point & click adventure game. the only thing that makes me cry in pain is the user interface, that is, at least as far as i’m concerned, not that ‘smooth’ to use, the inventory above everything else .
as far as the currency debate, €39. 95 is an average price for a videogame. sure, there are cheaper ones, and sure, i for one prefer to buy from the us because it’s cheaper, at least for me because i benefit from currency conversion rates, but €39. 95 is like 8 beers. how long does it take for you to drink those? : )
here in sheffield 8 beers in a pub * would only cost you £20 - ish. that’s about €24. yeah, yeah, regional pricing. but still .
criminy. i like jane jensen, but i don’t think i’m dropping $ 55usd on her game without reading some reviews and maybe playing a demo first. point - and - click adventures haven’t been my favorite thing for awhile now, and while i freely admit that may just be because there haven’t been that many lately (and even fewer good ones), i still find myself hesitant to pay top price for one off the bat .
gray matter is a very, very flawed game with a very, very good and well written story. play it only if you like jane jensen and her stories, you wont be disapointed. if you’re expecting a technical wonder, forget it .
well it has low production values. the animations are pretty bad, the graphics are not too bad, but the art style is so boring. the game follows the “one - click - does - everything” wich is a pitty because makes the game too easy. the voice acting (the english one) is not on par with gabriel knight. , however steven pacey that voices david styles is incredible .
overall it lacks polish (it doesn’t have any major bugs though) it’s pretty obvious they didn’t have the budget to do more .
however, jane’s story saves the day, but i’ll let you discover that by yourself. it all depends on how you value the narrative in a video game, if you don’t care, gray matter will be pretty… meh…
yep. he’s fantastic, . it helps that his character, david styles, is very well written and developed .
i’m still in chapter 1 but i enjoyed the animated style of the intro a lot. the heroine seems like an interesting character .
the art style is very classical so far. big mansion, paintings, … it’s true that the game doesn’t look like it had an unlimited budget. but it’s the story i’m looking forward to .
the only downside of buying the game this way is that it only comes with a german pdf manual. this means i’m missing out on jane jensen’s intro to the story and chars and on the explanations on… your character’s hobby (trying not to spoil it). the tutorial hasdone a good job so far of filling the gaps though. so might not be an issue .
39. 99 is 10€ less than most new games cost on steam, and 5 - 10€ less than games cost on the high street here in germany .
it’s 3 euro more expensive than fallout new vegas, so it must be pretty good… apart from trolling i don’t think it’s a lot of money for an indie game, nevertheless i’m not interested .
no need. the story is where it’s at and, so far (i’m at the end of chapter 2), it’s very intriguing. it’s definitely got the jane jensen touch .
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easylist, avast, and other blockers break disqus. tweak your extensions, brosef .
but, we' ll talk about so blonde tomorrow. for now, check out what bihour and his team have to say about what it is they do, the adventure genre, and what it takes to break into the big - budget world of videogame development .
install base aside, bihour says that he wanted to make a game that
developed the imagination ,
he says .
technologically, games have evolved a lot, but at the bottom, they' re exactly the same. to make a good product, to present a project, to create a beautiful story... it' s a lot harder to make your mark in a market that' s saturated with first - person shooters ,
he continues .
the visit ends with a condemnation of the mindset bihour and his company are trying to change :
people congratulate themselves for making a clone of last year' s games. people need to not be afraid of new ideas and new stories .
joseph leray is a long - time features contributor, reviewer, and (self - styled) editor - at - large for destructoid. he lives in nashville with a menagerie of pets and a final fantasy ix obsession. more + disclosures
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the services this developer can provide include consulting, managing out - sourcing and in - sourcing needs as well as conversion, also known as' porting'. the developer also offers these services in a number of other industries including architecture, defense, physics, and medical imaging .
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in this spin - off from so blonde, morgane castillo chases the trail left by ‘famous adventurer’ buckleberry tanner to find the clues that will lead to the hidden treasure of turtle island. in her journey from playful girl to the caribbean' s first fearsom female pirate captain, she much al
ever since losing his wife in a terrible car accident many years ago, neuro - biologist dr. david styles has become a recluse, leaving his english mansion dread hill house only on rare occasions. one day student and street artist samantha everett shows up on his door step unexpectedly, at a time styl ...
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realms of ancient war! it’s a title that should be shouted, i believe. it’s also a title that needs some tidying up, since we’re apparently supposed to call it “ r. a. w. – realms of ancient war “. no. no i absolutely won’t do that. your title doesn’t get to be an acronym and the expansion of that acronym. that’s not how titles work. and you certainly don’t get all those full stops and then a hyphen. goodness me, no. your game is now called realms of ancient war, and it’s to be shouted. it is decided. please redesign your website / game materials. thank you. oh, and also your game looks super - pretty .
due for release next year, the aggressively titled r. a. w. – realms of ancient war looks a little diabloesque in the four new screenshots below. however, a trailer almost as ancient as the very realms in which it takes place reveals it to have more in common with baldur’s gate: dark alliance. there are three exciting classes to choose from – warrior, sorcerer and rogue. i bet one of them is stealthy and has a penchant for ranged weaponry. there’s also a storyline about the ruined kingdoms of dwarves, elves and man, but guess what? a new and unknown threat is now rising! let’s take a look and then guess what this fresh evil might be .
gray matter, the new point’n’click extravaganza from jane “gabriel knight” “she designed gabriel knight” jensen, has slipped from sometime in 2010 to a february 2011 release date. boo! i don’t know much about gray matter, so in the course of my cursory research this morning i hiked over to the wikipedia page. lord, has this game had a bad time of it .
click through for a look at the gamescom 2010 trailer. probably for the best if you leave any high expectations at the door. read the rest of this entry »
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raising the productivity and competitiveness of european businesses through technology. boosting national economies on the international market, and strengthening the basis for sustainable prosperity and employment .
owners: estimated number of people owning this game. the number might be way too small for new releases and sometimes way too big for games that had free weekend event recently. read more on about page .
playtime: average hours played in total per person that have actually launched this game since march 2009. this time is calculated for the whole lifetime, not for the particular year .
average score: average users and metacritic score for all games with this score assigned .
average playtime: average lifetime playtime for all games where this data is available .
games by this company: self - explaining - number of games released by this company on steam. both developed and published. only inculdes games with sales data available .
total copies owned: refers to total copies of games developed or published by this company acquired by users for the lifetime. includes copies sold, downloaded for free and given out .
this number might be too small for recently released games or too big for games that had a free weekend in the last couple of months .
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still, it’s being released on xbla and psn as well so probably won’t cost the earth and i’m not averse to a spot of co - op hacking and slashing. click the screens to make large versions loom across your screen .
looks right up my street. loved the dark allience and champions of norrath games on the ps2 .
on a slightly related note, has anyone tried snowblind’s new game? the lotr’s one released last week? any good, worth £30 or worth waiting for the sales .
it’s really well worth it…if it weren’t for the game breaking bugs, such as save game corruption and loss of progress in coop. but when it works, it’s fantastic and truly addicting
thanks for the response. will hang on for the first patch, or the steam sale. whichever omes first at any rate .
well, it was on cyber monday sale on urltoken for 18€ just a few hours ago and our games are usually way more expensive. so, i’d say sth is fishy here and i’d rather wait, if i was you .
i somehow can’t see the embedded video. adblock is off. anyone got a direct link ?
hang about – i can fix that, methinks. if not, expect a second and humiliated reply momentarily .
so blonde was written by steve ince if i remember right. the game itself was not received too well though .
has nothing i haven’t seen before. here’s hoping they have gameplay innovations a plenty then !
looks to me like it’s about three pixels off of gauntlet legends for my original xbox .
that was my exact thought as well. it’s got gauntlet written all over it .
i love the ultra zoomed out view. thing that always bugged me was i couldn’t zoom out further on torchlight .
looks good. i loved bg: dark alliance. and a twin stick version of diablo would b e awesome .
someone actually made a game out of the whole “this is what diablo3 should look like” - debate? awesome! this i might be able to play .
looks like another arpg is on the horizon... this one is xbox live / psn / pc .
anyways he' s an article from rps on it... looks decent to me definitely interested on how it shapes up... though i agree with the article the developer' s track record does little to instill any confidence heh .
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hm... i' ve just read it is going to be on pc as well. . gameplay video
they did make an original pc adventure game called so blonde but i haven’t played it, despite the promise of “more than 50 references to find (tv, cinema, reality shows, video games) and a lot of humor guaranty” .
i own so blonde on pc. its one of my favorite point and click adventure games. the game is very rough around the edges and was obviously designed within the limitations of the wii but the pc version still had fantastic areas, great dialogue and brilliant characters. odd... this is the second time i have mentioned so blonde today .
after void (null) left there was basically no point anymore ...
damn this does look nice, i think 2012 will be awsome for arpg. . d3, grm dawn (hopefully) raw. . lineage etc me likey
yes, this looks very nice. i like the graphical look, as it is colorful without being too colorful (torchlight, dungeon siege 3, etc), yet retains a realistic graphical style. looks promising. would prefer to get it for the pc. thanks for the heads up .
btw i' ve quickly become bored with path of exile... anyone else have this happen to them? the pacing of poe is just way off kilter. it is just mobs of enemies throughout, which becomes tediously boring. this looks like it has mobs of enemies too, but it is off - set by exploration with few or no enemies, therefore the pacing seems much more to my liking. i hope its as good as it looks... and that it comes out on dvd .
so blonde was nominated for
best video game script
at the 2008 writers' guild of great britain awards .
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urltoken
art director / senior artist freelance with proven artistic, creative and leadership skills and experience & president at tokkun studio. mirof participated to the production of about 30 video games, movies, advertising, ... across different art departments (concept art 2d, 3d, ui, animations, cover, packaging, management). working with the entertainment industry since 2006 .
in addition to his work freelance, mirof founded the company tokkun studio & tokkun academy since six years ago with only one goal: offer outsourcing high quality services to our clients. he is very proud of this adventure wich allows him to meet incredible artists and and partners over the years. tokkun studio, video game studio and service provider for multimedia and cinema, is based in annecy in france and ajaccio in corsica. the studio is built on an experienced and motivated team from all branches of the entertainment industry. in may 2006, mirof launch a french professional magazine
game development magazine
.
. management: team management, scheduling, pipeline organization, staffing, career development .
. painting & modeling: 3ds max, maya, zbrush, sketchup, udk, unity, paint tool sai .
. adobe suite: photoshop, after effects, flash, illustrator, dreamweaver, indesign .
crasher artbook (print / design made by mirof with illustrations, w. i. p and explain by mirof about crasher )
in addition to this game, the following people are listed as working on other games. no more than 25 people are listed here, even if there are more than 25 people who have also worked on other games .
adventure was always in her blood. from being a pirate captain' s daughter to becoming the caribbean' s first female pirate captain herself; morgane castillo was never going to lead a boring life! join morgane as she grows up from an innocent 8 year old island girl to becoming the most famous pirate of the caribbean! travel with morgane as she seeks out the mysterious treasure of the golden turtle and help her solve the mysteries, puzzles, clues and outwit her enemies along the way. help her recruit her crew, explore over 50 locations on 5 beautiful and exotic islands in the caribbean sea but above all, try to keep her out of trouble... she is a pirate after all !
os: windows xp / windows vista / windows 7 / windows 8 cpu: 1. 6 ghz ram: 512 mb hard disk free space: 3 gb video card: 64 mb directx compatibile audio card: directx® 9. 0 compatibile extra: il gioco richiede un attivazione con drm proprietario - potrà essere attivato su un massimo di 5 computer
dichiarazione di copyright zodiac© 2011 copyright tutti i diritti di testi e immagini contenuti nel presente sito sono riservati secondo le normative sul diritto d‘autore. in accordo con queste, è possibile utilizzare il contenuto di questo sito solo ad uso personale e non commerciale, avendo cura che il testo e / o le fotografie non siano modificati in alcun modo. non ne è consentito alcun uso a scopi commerciali se non previo accordo con adventure‘s planet srl .
adventure' s planet s. r. l. | p. iva 01787380680 design antonio pesacane
in a world fascinated by paris hilton types, itís probably about time we got to play one. so blonde gives us sunny blonde - 17, pretty, rich andöblonde. what starts as a cruise around bermuda ends up with sunny all at sea on an island with no shopping mall, no mobile phone reception and lots of pirates .
written and designed by steve ince, whose most notable projects to date include the broken sword games, but who has contributed to games as varied as in cold blood and the witcher, so blonde looks likely to appeal to everyone with an eye and an ear for some good - natured fun .
no, because itís not about poking fun at a specific group of people. what weíve done is to take that stereotype, have a little fun with it in that form and then take it beyond the stereotype. if sunny didnít have something deeper within herself she would never get off the first game location .
very much so. having my work recognised in such a manner suggests to me that i must be doing something right (or iím good at fooling people). what pleases me as much as my personal recognition is that itís a real shot in the arm for the adventure genre as a whole. to all those who claim that the genre is dead, we can refer to this nomination and say that perhaps they might like to reconsider that view .
the artists have had a lot of fun with background detail and weíve taken that on board so that, yes, there are always things to interact with, even if they donít always move the story forward. we have a lot of fun with this kind of thing .
i went to great lengths to ensure that all the characters were a vibrant part of life on the island. they all have a role to play in the unfolding story and there are many times when re - visiting characters through the game gives new information and helps with both the story and gameplay .
iíd like to think that the way weíve entwined the story and gameplay together will make it a fun experience throughout. players will quickly become engaged in the islandís mystery and sunnyís role in uncovering and hopefully solving that mystery .
getting the dialogue balance right can be tricky ė too much and some players get bored, too little and exposition is jeopardised. how did you handle that here ?
with it being a comedy game, itís easy to have a lot of fun with the dialogue at the same time as being informative where appropriate. iíve tried to be quite succinct in any exposition and not overdone it at any one time .
i did the broad, top - level design, which included a lot of puzzle design, but i worked very closely with jerome britneff - bondy, who did a lot of the design detailing, created a lot of the specific puzzles, created the mini - games and generally helped make my puzzles better .
i donít have a particular favourite, but i love the way we have the puzzles and general gameplay overlapping and building on each other .
i read there are some mild action type sequences (catching raindrops for instance). should players be concerned they will get stuck on these puzzles ?
no. these puzzles are what we term mini - games and each of them has an option to cheat if players really feel itís not for them. however, they are just meant to add a bit of fun to the variety and i hope that players will enjoy .
itís worth noting that completion of some mini - games will help towards triggering one of the multiple endings .
she lands on the island without a change of clothing and as soon as she reaches the town she spots a beautiful dress sheíd love to have. unfortunately, she has no money to pay for it ...
apart from the mini - games, itís a traditional point - and - click interface which even i can manage to use .
nico in the earlier broken sword games was a strong and resourceful persona. is sunny the complete opposite or are there some inner strengths ?
sunny is certainly a very different character to nico, but she surprises herself with some of her resourcefulness, which grows throughout the game. if sunny ended the game as the same person she started it, i think the game would have become boring very quickly and players would probably have been irritated with her character .
most of the adventure games you have been involved with can be described as having an animated comic book graphic style. what draws you to that as a design platform ?
the art design decisions are mostly out of my hands, so the fact that many of the games have this kind of luck is a happy coincidence. i must admit that i prefer stylised graphics to photo - realism, particularly when player characters have to be carrying the contents of a small shop around with them .
thatís an interesting question. do we know if sunny escapes or not? with multiple endings, do we know what the outcome might be? does she settle down with a herd of geese and a cow, or is there something else that fate has in store for her ?
the name steve ince is widely known in adventure circles. in the past, that recognition has come largely from his work on the acclaimed broken sword series with revolution. now a freelance writer and designer, however, ince is beginning to make a name all for himself. receiving a nomination for “best videogame script” at the writers’ guild of great britain 2008 awards (winner still to be determined) for his latest adventure, so blonde, certainly won' t hurt the cause.
wizarbox is a video game developer based in france . they are notable for their graphic adventure games developed by industry veterans , such as the so blonde series by steve ince ( lead designer of broken sword : the sleeping dragon ) and gray matter by jane jensen ( lead designer of the gabriel knight series ) . the company declared bankruptcy in december 2012 and was placed in receivership by a french court . interaction-games later acquired wizarbox . 
wizarbox is a video game developer based in france. they are notable for their graphic adventure games developed by industry veterans, such as the so blonde series by steve ince (lead designer of broken sword: the sleeping dragon) and gray matter by jane jensen (lead designer of the gabriel knight series). the company declared bankruptcy in december 2012 and was placed in receivership by a french court. interaction-games later acquired wizarbox.
wizarbox is a video game developer based in france. they are notable for their graphic adventure games developed by industry veterans, such as the so blonde series by steve ince (lead designer of broken sword: the sleeping dragon) and gray matter by jane jensen (lead designer of the gabriel knight series). the company declared bankruptcy in december 2012 and was placed in receivership by a french court. interaction-games later acquired wizarbox.