When it came to designing them, I approached them in a lot of different ways. Having a lot of dedicated play-testers certainly helped with that! It was a lot of work to design, test, and balance them all along the difficulty curve. It certainly wasn’t easy, but I wanted the game to feel like there was a new puzzle around every corner, so that as soon as you finish one puzzle you immediately have new set of challenges. How on earth did you create so many puzzles?! Puzzles increase in difficulty as you progress through each level. So it seems to me that there is a lot of opportunity to play around in this genre and experiment with new and different ideas. Games have come a long way in the past twenty years or so since the forerunners of the genre, and in that time point-and-click and Adventure-puzzle games have become a niche. I was able to make a game in which the environment was the central character, where the gameplay is all about exploring and manipulating the environment, and the story is told through exploration of the environment.Īt the same time, I wanted to incorporate some new ideas into the genre and put my own spin on it. So an Adventure-Puzzle of this sort seemed like the perfect fit. That’s my speciality and it’s what I like building, but I didn’t just want to make a walking simulator, I wanted something with a lot of gameplay depth as well. I wanted to make a game about environments. There seems to be a revival of point and click games happening, what led you to use this style as a platform for the story? Even so, the whole production process took about three years and about half of that was creating the art, so it was no small task but I’m really happy with the result. My background is in 3D environment art, something I have been doing for nearly 13 years now, so I have a lot of experience in that area, and when it came to building The Eyes of Ara I knew I wanted to make a game in which I could do what I like doing most and make it look as pretty as possible. We briefly chatted at PAX about how the game was developed, can you tell us a little more about how you accomplished it? The first thing I noticed when I sat down to play The Eyes of Ara was how gorgeous the environment was.
I was curious to get to know this one-man show better, and understand how on earth he managed to make such a gorgeous game on his own. I managed to catch up with Ben after PAX and he graciously accepted my request for an interview to talk about the game. Intriguing right?! From the moment I put the headphones on I was so excited to play this game all the way through, completely driven by the great story line and visuals.
Something inside the castle has awoken, and someone needs to venture inside to uncover the truth…. Recently a mysterious radio signal has begun broadcasting from somewhere within the ancient walls. For years it has remained quiet and undisturbed, and yet still the townspeople recall old stories of restless dreams, violent storms, and the eerie glow of ghostly lights dancing in the mist.
It was in this attempt to focus that I fortunately stumbled across what would end up being one of my favourite games of the entire convention – The Eyes of Ara, designed by indie game developer Ben Droste of 100 Stones Interactive.Īlone on a remote island stands an ancient weathered castle, steeped in legend, shrouded in mystery. There is so much going on and so many flashing lights that it requires a skilled individual to be able to use laser-like focus in their quest to play more games. When you enter the exhibitor hall at PAX Australia it can be pretty overwhelming knowing where to start.
0 kommentar(er)
