A New Beginning

[daedalic_claas]

Jan Mueller-Michaelis, creator and project lead of A New Beginning, awaits your questions concerning our ambitious 2D adventure game in this thread!

A New Beginning is a cinematic, interactive eco-thriller. In the classic point & click adventure game an impending global climate cataclysm threatens the world, in a story ripped from today’s headlines, dealing with the defining issue of our time. At locations all around the globe, players will have to try and stem the tide – with the whole world hanging in the balance.

In A New Beginning, players take control of two protagonists and explore the detailed, hand-painted backgrounds. The more than 30 characters are rendered in a realistic 2D style and are painstakingly animated by hand in feature film quality. Many challenging puzzles and adventurous situations have to be overcome to prevent the impending climate chaos. The ambitious adventure game project is in development for PC, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii.

http://www.earth-game.com/

Der kreative Kopf von Daedalic und Sch�pfer von A New Beginning erwartet eure Fragen rund um unser ambitioniertes 2D-Adventure in diesem Thread!

A New Beginning ist ein filmreifer, interaktiver �ko-Thriller. In dem klassischen Point & Click-Abenteuerspiel muss sich die Menschheit der Bedrohung durch den Klimawandel stellen. Im Rahmen einer packenden Geschichte �ber Idealismus und Verrat behandelt A New Beginning die wichtigste Frage unserer Zeit: Ist die Welt noch zu retten?

An Schaupl�tzen rund um den Globus �bernimmt der Spieler die Kontrolle �ber zwei Protagonisten und erkundet die detaillierten, handgezeichneten Hintergr�nde. Die mehr als 30 Charaktere sind in einem realistischen Stil umgesetzt und werden mit gro�em Aufwand in Zeichentrickfilm-Qualit�t per Hand animiert. Zahlreiche knifflige R�tsel und abenteuerliche Situationen sind zu �berstehen, um das drohende Klimachaos abzuwenden. Das ehrgeizige Adventure-Projekt wird derzeit f�r die Plattformen PC, Nintendo DS und Nintendo Wii entwickelt.

http://www.earth-game.com/

[pokinsson]

Hi.
My name is Jan and I'm the Creative Director at Daedalic, responsible for things like designing A New Beginning and heading up our studio.

ANB may not be the first Daedalic production to reach stores (that honor will probably befall Marcos "The Whispered World" - be sure to visit his thread), but it's the project that marked the beginnings of our company.

If you have already caught some info about the game (if not, read up in the top post!), you will know that we have tackled a project with great scope. Accordingly, the opportunities to take me aside for a couple questions are few and far between. So be sure to take the chance! There's lots to talk about...



Hi.
Ich bin Jan und als Creative Director bei Daedalic unter Anderem mit dem Game Design von A New Beginning und mit der Leitung unseres Studios betraut.

ANB wird vielleicht nicht die erste Daedalic-Eigenproduktion, die den Laden erreicht (das Rennen wird wohl Marcos "The Whispered World" machen - besucht ihn doch mal im anderen Thread), aber es ist das Projekt, das f�r unser Debut als Spieleentwickler steht.

Wenn ihr euch bereits �ber das Spiel informieren konntet (sp�testens im obigen Text), dann wisst ihr auch, dass wir uns viel vorgenommen haben. Um so seltener ist die Gelegenheit, mich mal f�r ein Gespr�ch zur Seite nehmen zu k�nnen. Nutzt die Gelegenheit! Fragt mich alles, was Euch einf�llt! Es gibt viel zu erz�hlen...

[AllisonSkerl]

Hi. Just wondering what ideas you have about designing adventure gmes for the Wii, and if there will be major differences between the pc and Wii versions of the game.

[Noone]

and DS one.

[Dimitris Manos]

The graphics look awesome. Well done Deadalic, I hope you'll get this game released soon. Have you been in touch with a publisher yet?

[pokinsson]

Of course there will be differences. We want to use the special interface possibilities of the consoles. To port the game to DS will surely have strong consequences. But these differences will take place in the interface and general gameplay. Our goal is to tell the whole story and not a "light version".

[PolloDiablo]

I am really looking forward to seeing/reading more of this game. It sounds fascinating.

[Disco]

Hello Jan,

The abnormal antagonist of this game is rather intriguing, assuming that the enemy is a weakened atmosphere rather than a person. I am curious as to what type of "impending global climate cataclysms" are planned for the game, if they are a number of potential disasters like meteors or anomalous weather, or just something like global warming?

[Noone]

Can you give any examples of such differences?

[pokinsson]

@Dimitris: Thx!
I am glad that our assumption that there is still a broad fanbase for 2D-graphics seems to prove right.
Concerning the publishing: Daedalic is in fact a publisher by itself. For example we are co-publishing the third part of "Ankh" and B.Sokals "Sinking Island" in Germany together with bhv. Being new in the business we do of course need partners to publish. And: Yes. We have been in touch with lots. There is much interest in ANB. I cannot get any more specific but it looks really good.

[pokinsson]

@disco
The biggest antagonist of the game is in fact the fact, that we tend to refer to such long-shot-catastrophies like global warming unsing the term "just", while directly impending ones like meteor impacts seem to worry us much more. Sounds elusive? Play the game!

[Disco]

Well I meant "just" as an exclusion of any other scenario not that it was not immediately serious. I suppose I will find out during the game

[daedalic_claas]

Hello Jan,

The abnormal antagonist of this game is rather intriguing, assuming that the enemy is a weakened atmosphere rather than a person. I am curious as to what type of "impending global climate cataclysms" are planned for the game, if they are a number of potential disasters like meteors or anomalous weather, or just something like global warming?

The climate change will be manifested in a number of catastrophic events in the game, like big cities that have been flooded or are ravaged by forest fires, once populated areas that have turned into deserts or are now caged in ice and snow... altogether symptoms of the greater problem of climate change.

[pokinsson]

Oooooooh. I fear the end is near ... at least for this conference.
But I am glad to see that there are many adventure gamers out there to help that this will not become a fact for the rest of the planet. In this context I'd like to present a new character from ANB. I call this piece of art "When Adventure Gamers ruled the world".

[PolloDiablo]

Thanks, looks great!

[pokinsson]

thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx

wow. I really enjoyed this evening. ADOC-Day should come more often. We could invent a special holiday. Feel free to address me in this thread, even if the official time has run out. I'll drop by every now and then, collect the comments and pay a ghostwriter to write a fitting answer.

Remember: Only you can save adventure!

thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx

[axelkothe]

hi guys!

I really love the style of the graphics and I'm happy that there is a company that believes in hand drawn graphics for adventure games. The screens I've seen look amazing. Pity we will have to wait another year for this to be released.

Keep up the good work!