Mata Hari

[Noone]

Hello Hal, Noah.

What part of Mata Hari's life will we see in the game? Will the game end long before her capture by french intelligence service or we should play till her final hour?

[Noah_Falstein]

The game covers her era of fame, from her arrival and debut as a dancer in Paris until her final "Fate" - but what you think you know from history is only part of the story.

Noah

[Noah_Falstein]

Well, since we're not getting a lot of questions, I guess I should elaborate a bit on that.

DTP presented us with the idea of a game about Mata Hari, so we did some research, read a few biographies. She had a very colorful life, but in truth it was fairly sad, even tragic in a modern light. So we decided that if we stayed close to the official facts it would be a fairly depressing game. But with Indiana Jones we were already familiar with the process of weaving fact and fiction together, and so we came up with an interesting view of Mata's life that suggests that the history books only published what she wanted the public to know. Like many entertainers today she enjoyed having a public persona that was more glamorous than her actual life, and if you assume that she was a good spy and merely wanted the world to think that she was a dancer, or at most, a bad spy to cover her espionage work, everything starts to fall into place.

Noah

[Noone]

So the story will have more "adventure" feeling then a "historical"?

[Noah_Falstein]

Absolutely! We think the historical detail is part of the fun, and Mata meets a number of real people in her travels, but the core gameplay is very much classic Adventure, from the perspective of a woman who used her wits, her sex appeal, and her fame to her advantage, in a time when that was very unusual.

[tenochtitlan]

Could you please explain the way you use dialogue options, thoughts or items as "symbols"? I saw your system at the GC 07 press conference and it looked very nice. Why did you choose that system instead of a classic inventory?

[Agustin]

Hello there! Mata Hari's role as a spy doesn't seem to be have been fully confirmed - in reality, it looks like she was more of a scapegoat. For the game purpose, are you assuming she was an actual spy?

[Noone]

Mata was a dancer. Will there be any dancing mini-games in the game? (just remembered dancing mini-games in Sid Meier's Pirates!) Or any flirt mini-games?

[Hal_Barwood]

Hello from rainy Oregon:

We are using a pretty conventional inventory system, but dialog topics are integrated into that system.

first of all, we want to evolve adventure gaming, and dialog systems that exist seem pretty old and creaky to us. Our ideas don't necessarily solve all problems, but we think they're an improvement in the gaming experience.

More specifically, our system gets rid of the "see-dialog, then hear it" sort of double-hit thing that occurs when the player must make choices from a list of dialog lines. In our system, the player hears talk that conforms to expectations,
but contains novel expressions. It's a way of enlarging the entertainment factor in the game.

It also does away with dialog mazes (for the most part), converting dialog puzzles into lock-and-key puzzles, with the acquisition of topics the equivalent of acquiring items.

-- Hal

[Noah_Falstein]

Regarding her scapegoat status - that does seem to be the case. But of course if she were a very good spy then a cover story might be how bad she was at it, so people would let their guard down - and that would make for a much more interesting story.

And yes, there is a dancing mini-game. It's funny you mention Sid's Pirates game, I stole his swordfighting mini-game from the original Pirates for use as a boxing game in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The dancing mini-game is one of several we have included, primarily puzzle-style casual games to fit in with the Adventure Game feeling, although the dancing game does require a little timing and coordination just like real dancing.

[Noone]

The dialogue topics in the inventory (as I understand it) could be seen in recent Belief & Betrayal game. But there they had a separate inventory for thoughts (notepad). As any inventory item is usually small in invenotry menu, wouldn't it be hard to remeber what thought inventory item means what topic?

[Noah_Falstein]

We do have "tool tips" to help the player, and are adjusting things so the number of dialog items in inventory is never too large. But it will take some experimenting to adjust it.

[Hal_Barwood]

The biographies all agree that Mata was -- briefly -- a spy. Some sources report that she was actually trained in spycraft at a school in Belgium, but that is not confirmed.

In the game, the player gets to improve dramatically on her historically reported failures.

Hal

[Noone]

Will there be any mechanical puzzles? Will there be any decrypting of messages, finding right safe combinations? Or maybe using some spy equipment?

[Hal_Barwood]

The game engine automatically adjusts dialog topics during a conversation so as to eliminate irrelevant material. --Hal

[Hal_Barwood]

Yes, it's a spy game, so there will be some actual spying. Mata was a social creature, however, not a technician, so a fair amount of her work involves charming people into giving away information they'd rather not reveal. --Hal

[Noone]

The game engine automatically adjusts dialog topics during a conversation so as to eliminate irrelevant material.

Thats good to hear.

Will there be a chance to "die" (or to be caught by intelligence service) if the main heroine will do something wrong?

[Noah_Falstein]

Yes, it's a spy game, so there will be some actual spying. Mata was a social creature, however, not a technician, so a fair amount of her work involves charming people into giving away information they'd rather not reveal. --Hal

That reminds me of a statement for the press I was working on when Hal and I were at GCDC:

Unlike James Bond, Mata Hari doesn't need to uncover secrets using a bunch of high-tech gadgets concealed in her clothes. In fact, she often uncovers more WITHOUT her clothes.

[Noone]

How much of her "WITHOUT her clothes" will we see? Will there be a special rating for the game (i.e. not "Everyone")?

[Becky]

I'm trying to picture the dancing puzzle. (There was a dancing puzzle in Nancy Drew: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon -- interestingly, I didn't see a single positive comment about it from the men who played the game, though the female gamers liked it.)

Will Mata Hari have a partner as she dances?