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ddatum codezilla.at
Donnerstag, der 11.03.2010
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Interview Egypt III: THE EGYPTIAN PROPHECY - The Fate of Ramses am 23.03.2004
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Language: English (Englisch) Interview mit Valentine Deltombe [VD] , Benoît HOZJAN [BH]
Interview auf French (Französisch) Interview auf German (Deutsch)
Entwickler: Kheops Studio ERSTEINDRUCK: Sehr gut |
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1. Can you tell me more about the story in Egypt 3 and which tasks does the player expect?
[VD] :
CONTEXT:
1422 Before Christ.
Ramses II is 60 years old: he feels death approaching, yet does not want to renounce his kingdom. The god Amun-Re promises to extend his reign if Pharaoh enhances his Temple and erects the biggest obelisk ever built by man.
THE PLAYER'S GOAL:
Suspicious accidents have been occurring on the worksite of the Temple of Amun-Re in Pi-Ramses. As Maya, a woman skilled as a magician and beloved of the gods, the player is sent by Pharaoh to investigate and to ensure that the work is successfully completed. Maya's mission is connected to the fate of Egypt: a success will enable Ramses to live longer; failure will lead to Pharaoh's death and the country's ruin.
SYNOPSIS:
By inspecting the temple, Maya finds a strange amulet in the Temple foundations. She has an apocalyptic vision: a mysterious entity is creating an incredible typhoon of red sand that falls on Egypt; the temple and obelisk are destroyed. Maya has to meet Paser, the Great Architect of the Temple: he is mysteriously ill and exhausted so he asks Maya to bring the quarrying documents to Ouni, the second architect.
On the quarry of Aswan, the extraction has stopped because the extraction tools break on granite. However Touy, Ouni's wife, who is a medicine woman, promises Maya that she will find a cure for Paser. In Ouni's scientific documents, Maya finds out that Ptah, The God of the forges and craftsmen, can help to replace the defective extraction tool. Maya must join the Temple of Ptah at Memphis and take part in the ritual incantations of Khâemouaset, the High Priest of Ptah.
Through the curl of the incense's sacred smoke, Maya discovers Ptah's Forge like in a dream. In the underground forge, Maya must find her way out of the maze and get Ptah's tools. When she eventually finds the performant tools, Ptah sends them to the quarry as an award.
In Aswan, Touy gives the remedy that will cure Paser. However, the obelisk cannot travel on the ship because of the drought. Khâemouaset is nowhere to be found in Memphis. Nevertheless, a young child near the sacred lake leads Maya to Isis fantastic world: the Goddess reveals she is fighting the same enemy as Maya and guides the young magician to the World of the Dead.
By getting through the doors of the Book of the Dead, Maya meets Osiris. Only The God Osiris can recognize who is destroying Pharaoh's works and help Maia to twart the baneful plans of the guilty party…
2. Will something change in the gameaction?
[VD] :
The Game requires various types of actions:
- Exploration
- Collection and combination of objects
- Use of objects
- Dialogues
- Limited-time interactions
- Examination of simple mechanisms (recreating a visual model, finding a combination) and complex mechanisms (Real-time 3D puzzle)
- Sound puzzle : recreating a series of sounds by interacting with the environment
- Deduction (riddles)
- Maze
- Double maze (make 2 characters get through 2 different mazes, at the same time)
- Tactics (tactical spell fight against a character programmed as an Artificial Intelligence)
- Spell fights (based on quick-reaction and memory)
3. Will Egypt 3 use a 3D-Rendergraphics?
[BH] :
Yes. We use our Panoramic engine "ACube". The resolution of the panoramic picture for the background is more than 2 times higher than previous Egypt games. Therefore, the player enjoys a higher resolution.
We also support software rendering for 3DCard-less platforme.
4. In the second part of the Egypt-Series the game world was reproduced by means of historians. Will be this also the case in Egypt 3?
[VD] :
Yes, we worked with a specialist, Jean-Claude GOLVIN, Director of Archaeology and Director of Research at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research).
Jean-Claude GOLVIN took part in the choice of themes and in the construction of the story. He validated every aspect of the production:
- designs of the characters, sceneries and objects
- historical reconstructions and sceneries inspired from Egyptian mythology
- game sequences and dialogues
- conception and notes in the encyclopaedia
Jean-Claude GOLVIN also designed several illustrations in the Encyclopaedia.
5. The story from Egypt 2 and Egypt 3 is rather different. Are there nevertheless connections?
[VD] :
There is no link between EGYPT 2 and EGYPT 3 stories.
6. Were certain parts of the story from the real history of Egypt built into the game?
[VD] :
Several aspects of EGYPT 3 adventure are inspired by true History:
During the Ancient Empire (around 2500 Before Christ), a gigantic obelisk (42 meters) was extracted from the granite quarry in Aswan. Unfortunately, the obelisk broke in the quarry, before the end of the extraction. Many Egyptians interpreted this event as a curse.
Khâemouaset, High Priest of Ptah and son of Ramses 2, really existed. The historic character also is a famous archaeologist and magician. As a magician and High Priest of Ptah, Khâemouaset appears as Maya's mentor: he teaches her some rituals and spells and helps her reach the God Ptah thanks to the power of incantations.
Ramses 2 really lived until the age of 90. In the story of the game, we decided that Ramses would be 60 years old and would ask Amon-Rê to grant him with additional years of life and kingdom. This request is not historic. However Ramses really was a great builder as he had a long life and as he was ambitious.
The Temple of Pi-Ramses dedicated to Amon-Re existed; Ramses had decided that Pi-Ramses would be the new capital of Egypt. In EGYPT 3, the player will achieve the game when the obelisk dedicated to Amon-Re is erected in Pi-Ramses.
EGYPT 3 reconstructions and accessories are faithful to real History such as measurement tools and mock-ups in the house of the Great Architect Paser, Touy's kitchen in the outdoor courtyard, the nilometer in Memphis Temple, etc. To that extent, we undertook very precise documentation research.
We had more freedom in modelling fantastic worlds as they are inspired by the myths. We stuck to some elements specific to Isis, Osiris and Ptah. For example, myths show that Ptah's world is a forge, a cavernous environment, and that Ptaht's servants are dwarfs.
Many puzzles refer to Egyptian myths and rituals, such as the ritual of four balls (puzzle with the four clay balls in Ptah's Forge), the three active principles of Ba, Ka, and Akh (double maze in the Book of the Dead), the creation of the world by Shu, Geb and Nut (puzzle in Isis world), Horus and Set's jealousy (last puzzle in Isis world), etc.
7. Which features does Egypt 3 offer still?
[VD] :
Specific game play and story features of Egypt 3 are:
- Fantastic worlds (1- Ptah's Forge, 2-Isis aquatic world, 3- the Book of the Dead and Osiris on his throne)
- The use of magic, inspired from real magic in Ancient Egypt : the player collects spells in a specific inventory and must use them to progress in the adventure
- A more dreamlike story in which the player travels between three realistic places along the Nile and from realistic worlds to fantastic worlds, thanks to dreams and trances created with perfumes, potions, and incantations.
Specific technical features are:
- Higher resolution of sceneries (compared to Salammbo for instance): 768*768 instead of 512*512
- Graphic display 3D card compatible: fluidity, anti-aliasing
- 3D sounds: changes according to the player's position. This increases the player's immersion.
8. The first two parts contained few puzzle. How will the puzzle be built into Egypt 3?
[VD] :
Puzzle:
All puzzles are well integrated in the story of the game, which means that the goals of all puzzles are logically connected with the story.
As the buyers are junior and senior casual gamers, we had to build various types of puzzles requiring various skills: thought, deduction, tactics, examination, memory, etc.
Most of the puzzles are played in the scenery itself, but some puzzle systems are so specific that we had to create a specific background outside the sceneries (real-time 3D, specific boards, etc.). Original game design was easier in fantastic sceneries than in realisitic sites.
Mystery:
Several mysterious obstacles appear and the player does not know, from the beginning, what will be the signs of the curse. In fact, the curse becomes wider as the player succeeds and moves forward in the adventure. As the player moves forward, he discovers that he is living a trial of strength against strong divine powers.
The biggest mystery appears only in the end of the game when the player discovers the betrayal and has to fight against it…
9. Is the game built linear?
[VD] :
EGYPT 3 story is linear.
However, some dialogues are not compulsory: in several situations, the player can either talk to other characters or move forward immediately. By talking with the other characters, he will gather more information on what is happening and on what people know around him. Nevertheless, these conversations are not compulsory to progress in the game.
10. Will there be one big or several small levels in the game?
[VD] :
The adventure is built on 9 levels, each of them containing several game sequences (5 to 10 sequences)
11. Do you plan a continuation of Egypt 3?
[BH] :
Why not ! It depends on the success of Egypt 3.
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Here I would like to thank the Kheops Studio:
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| Developer |
Kheops Studio |
Publisher |
The Adventure Company |
| Genre |
Adventure |
Release |
March 2004 |
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[VD]: »
Valentine Deltombe [VD] was the Project Manager for Egypt 3.
Here is her profile :
Valentine Deltombe has been working in the video game industry for 4 years as a Project Manager. After assisting Ubi Soft Production Director, Michel Guillemot, in 2000, she managed the conception and production of Ubi Soft first games for mobile phones. In 2001, she joined Cryo-Networks and managed the production of several Real-time 3D multi-users applications on the Internet, mixing the game experience with high network technical challenges. From 2001, she started managing the production of several off-line Cryo games such as the “The Secret of the Nautilus”and “Egypt 3” more recently for Kheops Studio.
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[BH]: »Benoît HOZJAN obtains a Master’s Degree in Artificial Vision and Robotics in 1994, he worked as Software Engineer in the R&D dept of Cryo Interactive for 7 years and was in charge of the Technical Direction for DreamCatcher Europe. He is the CEO and co-founder of Kheops Studio.
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