(The mythological city of Atlantis is one of the most common themes in adventure games. In fact, it's been used so often that many gamers now scoff at the mere mention of it. But have any previous games really tapped into the huge potential of the sunken city? A new development team certainly thinks we haven't yet seen the best Atlantis has to offer, and are prepared to prove it with their debut, Atlantis Evolution. Having been very intrigued by what we saw at E3 2004, we are pleased that a key member from the team took the time to share his thoughts with us.)

Please introduce yourself and tell us your role in the development of Atlantis Evolution.

Hello. My name is Eric Safar and I am co-founder and Lead Programmer at A.I.E. (Atlantis Interactive Entertainment).

Tell us how Atlantis Interactive Entertainment was founded, and how the idea for Atlantis Evolution was born.

A.I.E. was formed about a year ago. Many members of the team came from the development studio at Cryo Interactive, which no longer exists. Some of us worked on the original Atlantis series, and therefore are very close to the theme. As a company, we share a passion for adventure games and have a lot of experience creating video games in general.

We wanted to create a whole new series based on Atlantis but out of our own imaginations rather than historical data. Also, in Atlantis Evolution, we spend our time in Atlantis instead of traveling to different places. We decided to do this based on feedback from fans of the original Atlantis series.

What adventure games did you take inspiration from in the development of Atlantis Evolution?

There aren’t any specific games that inspired us to create Atlantis Evolution. However, as a team, we enjoy historic adventures and games with beautiful graphics.

Does Atlantis Evolution have any relation to the three previous Cryo-developed Atlantis adventures?

Atlantis Evolution is the first episode in a brand new Atlantis series. The characters, story, and even the graphical style we used to create the Atlantian people and environments are completely different from the original trilogy.

We were very impressed by the art direction of the game at E3, especially the lead character. Tell us what your goal has been in designing the game's art.

Thank you. We heard that some people at E3 said our hero Curtis Hewitt resembles Tom Cruise. I can assure you this wasn’t done intentionally.

Since Atlantis Evolution is based on our imagination, we wanted to depict a dream-like world. Instead of being photorealistic like the original series, we wanted to make this game more fantasy-based. Therefore, we exaggerated the character features to make them cartoon-like… kind of like in the animated films that are so popular today. Also, most of the adventure games out there are photorealistic. We thought this new style would give players something new to look at.

First-person adventures have developed a reputation of being primarily puzzle-driven (games such as Aura and Myst). Do you consider Atlantis Evolution to be more of a story-driven game than those games, or will puzzles be the primary focus?

Atlantis Evolution is definitely more story-driven. There are many puzzles in the game that the player will have to solve; however, the majority of the puzzles are common sense and fit with the story. The use of puzzles and cut-scenes are used to enhance the story and immerse the player deeper into the game.

Give us an overview of the story of Atlantis Evolution, and tell us how the titular mythical city plays a role in the game.

It’s the year 1904 and Curtis Hewitt, a 25-year-old journalist and photographer from New York City, is on his way back home after a trip to Patagonia. The ship he is on begins to sink as it's damaged in a storm, and Curtis finds himself caught in a vortex that brings him to the heart of the city of Atlantis. His main mission is not only to return home, but to liberate the people of Atlantis who live under the domination of a family of ruthless gods.

As Curtis, the player will encounter Atlantian people, their gods, Atlantian customs and beliefs, as well as Atlantian technology. As you can see, you spend your entire adventure discovering Atlantis which is very different from the original series; hence the title… Atlantis Evolution.

You're using the word "Evolution" in the title; do you believe that the game is a true evolution for the adventure genre?

We’re not trying to “evolutionize” the adventure genre but rather the theme Atlantis in adventure games.



Tell us about the engine that AE uses. Is it node-based? What led to your decision to use the engine that you're using?

We are using a proprietary engine based on point & click navigation and warping. We also made enhancements such as the water effects. We pre-rendered a shader in a 3D rendering software that we improved with a homemade plug-in. We decided to use this engine for Atlantis Evolution because most adventure gamers are familiar with this type of navigation and don’t need to first learn the game functions. They can just dive into the story.

How much character interaction should we expect in AE? What sort of dialogue engine is used?

There are over 30 characters in the game. Some minor and some principal. To converse with characters a topic menu is used. The cursor changes indicating that you can speak with a character and then a topic menu pops up beside them with small icons representing each topic. The player can choose the topics, and they may change if you come back and speak with the character again.

What has been the biggest challenge in the development of Atlantis Evolution?

Our biggest challenge was managing the heavy graphical data in the game. Each “universe” is very different from one another and sewing them together was a lot of work.

The length of games is a big topic these days; did you feel pressure in developing AE to make it "long enough"?

We didn’t have a set goal for the number of hours of gameplay. In fact, it was the story that determined the length of the game. We also wanted to make the game easy enough for a casual gamer to play, but at the same time give more advanced adventure gamers a challenge.

What element of AE are you the most proud of?

Definitely the graphical difference between the universes, which include: the steam ship, space ship, Atlantian village, the forest, cave system, floating palace where the Atlantian gods live, and Atlantis 8,000 years back in time. Since the entire adventure takes place in Atlantis, it was very important that we offer different environments for the player to discover and explore.

Now that AE is nearing completion, do you have firm plans for your next project?

We do have plans, but I can’t talk openly about them yet. What I can tell you is that it takes place in the future in space, and has to do with Atlantis. However, the characters will be different from Atlantis Evolution.

Anything else you'd like to tell our readers?

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk about Atlantis Evolution, and we all hope that you enjoy it once it’s out there. We really appreciate feedback from the people who play our games and visit message boards regularly. This is where some of our inspiration comes from… creating games that players will enjoy.