So Blond & El Dorado

[Noone]

Hi Steve. You've worked on Gold and Glory: The Road to El Dorado. Did you just want to apply the mood of that game in So Blond? Some screenshots of So Blond looks like they were just taken from El Dorado, a bit redrawn and inserted into a new game.

[Steve Ince]

An interesting thought, but not at all.

The characters, situation and story are all so different that I never thought of El Dorado once while developing So Blonde.

Also, the art direction is down to the talented people at Wizarbox, who have done a marvelous job and I have great admiration for.

Besides, the graphics in El Dorado were pre-rendered 3D and So Blonde uses hand-drawn backgrounds throughout.

[Noone]

I'll try to believe you. :-)

Was "So Blond" somehow influenced by the "Lost" TV Series?

[Steve Ince]

There may be some subconscious influence, but it's such a different style that we set out with any conscious desire to use that as an influence.

[Noone]

Will the cinematics in the game have the same comics-like format as shown in gc teaser?

[Steve Ince]

Yes. Though I know that a lot of polishing is going on to make the game look even better.

[Noone]

Heh, about polishing.

What was the real reason of the engine change? The devteam was more accustomed to ogre3d? How much of the game was to be redone (mostly recoded, I suppose?) casue of the engine change?

[Steve Ince]

The game design, characters, puzzles, locations, voices, etc. are all exactly the same. The change is purely to the engine running it all. The plan was always for Wizarbox to build their own engine.

[Noone]

Can you tell about mini-games? I've seen Sunny were playing drums. How many of such mini-games will be there? Will there be any mechanical puzzles or Sunny is too blond to die solve them? :-)

[Steve Ince]

There are about 16 mini-games, which vary quite a bit. There will be a specific feature about the mini-games released in a few weeks, so I don't want to say too much just at the moment. However, I will say that for those adventure players who dislike reaction-style gameplay, the game will incorprate a feature that allows those player to get through the mini-games more easily where appropriate.

[Noone]

Lets suppose that the game playtime will be about 20 hours. And 16 mini-games. It means... nearly 1 mini-game per hour. Isn't it too much?

[Steve Ince]

We think that the balance is good. Many of them are very brief and so the proportion of actual traditional adventure gameplay is about 90-95%.

[Noone]

Sorry to remind, but you haven't answered about mechanical puzzles. Such as sliders, multi-pin locks that are operated by 5-7 buttons etc. You never know what can be found in those mayan(?) pyramides...

[Steve Ince]

As I said, I don't want to go into too much detail at the moment, but yes, there are mechanical puzzles.