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Interviews

Benjamin Anseaume (Englisch)
Gesprächspartner: Michael Stein
Sprache:
Vom: 17.02.2015
Adventure-Treff.de: „Hello and thank you very much that you took the time to answer our questions during this hectic and exciting time of your Kickstarter campaign. Can you please introduce your game and yourselves to our audience?

Benjamin: „Our team is a two-headed creature: on one hand, Sushee, a french game studio and all its workers. On the other hand, Moeity, a digital artist and photographer. With Goetia, we wanted to find balance between the traditional point & click mechanics (find a closed door - find a way to open it - grab and combine objects - open the door - see the rest of the game) and the feeling of freedom you could have being a ghost: flying, floating through walls, and such. So, in a few words: Goetia is kind of an open-world point & click game. Exploration is the heart of experience, and players will choose which way they want to go to start the adventure.

We wanted a fresh story as well. We didn't want our main protagonist - Abigail - to investigate her death, but rather know how she died, and try to find out why she came back from the dead. To answer all the questions, you'll have to explore Abigail's childhood home - Blackwood Manor - but also a dark forest, an abandoned village, caves and ruins... more than 90 rooms to discover.“

Adventure-Treff.de: „If we look at the latest productions, we see a lot of games that use the horror genre as a playground. Why did you choose your story to take this step?“

Benjamin: „We worked with Moeity, who is very fond of horror and occult-related stories, so the background of the game we wanted to create came up naturally. Moeity already worked on platform-inspired 2D graphics made out of photographic material (like Muireall Manor or Ith, so we already had a basis to work on.“

Adventure-Treff.de: „You won an award at the EIGD 2014, how important was winning this award for the project itself?“

Benjamin: „It made us confident in our art direction and our choices! Before that we already had feedback from a few beta testers, but for the first time, our game got recognition in the video game community, from video game actors. After winning this award, it became clear we were on the right track, though it required a lot more work; so we kept on working on Goetia with a renewn motivation!“

Adventure-Treff.de: „With the Kickstarter campaign going for 30 000 Dollar it is a rather small goal. How do you manage to make it with such a low budget? Do you only eat Pizza during the development ;)?“

Benjamin: „It is a small amount for this kind of game indeed. But we also got some funds from the CNC, a french organization dedicated to the promotion of movies and video games, among others. It helped us a lot to build the foundations of the game, such as the physics engine, particle effects, etc. Now we need a little more to go through with our original concept, with a lot of rooms and places to explore, more visual effects, more protagonists, and more puzzles to solve. Sushee is making games for companies too, like advergames and serious games, it allows us to be very independent and to have a great talented team at the same time. And by the way: we prefer japanese noodles =)“

Adventure-Treff.de: „How will exploration look like in the final game?“

Benjamin: „You will start near the manor, and quickly explore the first two floors. Then within an hour, and after a short introduction to the mysteries of Goetia, you'll be able to leave it and wander in whatever place is your liking. Every other zone in the game, such as the forest or the village, starts from Blackwood Manor, and we wanted the whole explorable area to be kind of an open world. Goetia will not hold your hand; you will choose where you want to start, and which puzzle you want to solve first!“

Adventure-Treff.de: „As a french studio: What is your opinion on the current state of the adventure market out there? Do you think Germany is a pradadise for adventure games?“

Benjamin: „I can't say that we knew the german market as well as the french and US market, but as soon as we launched the crowdfunding campaign we had a lot of feedback from german media, then we started working with Deck13 and we discovered that it's a very interesting market. We will definitely make a german localization (wich was not planned before the KS campaign), and we're listening very carefully the feedback from our german players.“

Adventure-Treff.de: „Which of Abigail's skills do you like the most?“

Benjamin: „The fact that Abigail can go through walls; ironically, it's also the one feature that caused us the more headaches: how could we make a point & click game and set up an interesting experience, if our heroine could see the whole place from the start ? It's our biggest challenge, and also - I think - what makes Goetia such a unique experience.“

Adventure-Treff.de: „Did you play "Black Sails" made by Deck13?“

Benjamin: „We didn't, but the thought of exploring a ghost ship makes us all eager to discover it! We saw some videos after visiting Deck13 in Frankfurt, and the baseline "don't trust your mind" is intrigiung, and gives me the same feeling we want to provide with our game.“

Adventure-Treff.de: „Again, thanks for the interview and good luck with the game.“