Shortly before the game was publicly unveiled at the Games Convention, Adventure-Treff visited the Reeperbahn [well-known center of Hamburg nightlife as well as red light district], not to gain inspiration for our next staff Christmas party, but rather to visit publisher HMH, who recently announced the game adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. Part of the Langenscheidt publishing group, HMH previously published only games by other companies but has now started to develop and produce games of its own. The game department is led by Egbert Latza, who was a producer for dtp entertainment until early 2007.

We were the first to be allowed to preview an early version of Treasure Island, and to ask questions of Thomas Möhring from Radon Labs, the studio responsible for the game's development. We also got to see various pieces of concept art, some of which we can show here.

The game is intended to be a faithful recreation of Stevenson's well-known adventure story. But since an adventure story by itself is not yet an adventure game, the developer has had to add various puzzles and content, cut out unsuitable locations, and make some changes to the story. This also includes adding new characters: one such character is the pert Antoinette Trelawney, whose resemblance to Elizabeth Swann from Pirates of the Caribbean is surely no accident. We will inevitably see some lively interaction between Antoinette and main character Jim Hawkins. Some other characters also look like they could have come right out of the popular Hollywood pirate trilogy. Of course, this is largely due to the fact that those movies draw heavily on Stevenson's work as well.

Despite these new elements, the basic storyline follows the original closely. 17-year old Jim Hawkins stumbles on a mysterious treasure map. With his friends' help he manages to put together an improvised crew and sets out on a treasure hunt. But not all of his crewmembers are honest, loyal sailors — one of them would rather keep all the riches himself. Thus, the race for the legendary treasure of Captain Flint begins...

The developer has hired Falko Löffler to help with the writing. Falko Löffler has previously done writing for the Deck13 Interactive games and has written his first fantasy novel, Drachenwächter.

The game has the player control Jim Hawkins, who has some downright androgynous traits in the concept art. The face is modelled after young Indiana Jones-actor River Phoenix. Jim seems to get his stubbornness there as well, at least in the concept art we've seen. The current screenshots show only a placeholder model, and we couldn't yet see the final version that will be in the game.




It is immediately obvious that Treasure Island looks nothing like Radon Labs' only other adventure game, Verliebt in Berlin [In love in Berlin]. And indeed, Thomas Möhring confirmed that the Treasure Island team doesn't contain anyone who worked on that game. The new game is presented in full real-time 3D and uses the Nebula engine, which the developer has perfected over the last ten years.

Treasure Island uses a realistic rather than a cartoony style. The backgrounds are richly detailed and we weren't able to find any sloppy textures or overly angular curves. The real-time rendered locations Radon Labs treated us to look better than many prerendered mid-class adventures. Delightfully realistic lighting, impressive particle effects and various other features take care of the rest. Of course, people without a sufficiently up-to-date computer will have to go without a lot of this eye-candy.

The 3D engine makes adding movement easy. Thus the environments are richly animated, with plant life gently moving with the wind and birds flying through the sky. The chapter on board the Hispaniola is especially interesting in this regard. The entire ship continually sways this way and that, and this is noticeable from the inside as well as on deck. The camera takes on some of this motion so that you never forget you're on a ship. The game controls don't seem to suffer from this.

But the scene that really takes the cake is a short scene where the ship gets caught in a storm. With strong waves rocking the Hispaniola, large amounts of water crashing down over the railing and heavy rain pouring down on the deck, Jim Hawkins has to make his way through the storm to reach the prow. Here the game pulls out all the stops in a true display of special effects. While there's little to do here game-wise, the way the scene is presented looked spectacular even in the incomplete video we got to see.










Adding to the visual effect is the music, and though we only heard a small sample of it, the powerful orchestral intro music gave us a very good first impression.

What we haven't been able to judge yet are the characters. While there are plenty of nice-looking concept sketches, the playable version we saw had only placeholder models like the one for Jim Hawkins in the screenshots. The developer apparently isn't planning to use closeups for interactive dialog. While a variety of facial expressions can of course be implemented, we will have to wait and see whether they'll be detailed enough to convey emotion convincingly.

They did, however, have a London studio supply footage of real actors to do whole-body animations. The first of these motion-capture animations look very convincing. An NPC Behaviour System lends further credibility. This system ensures that other characters don't stay in one spot all the time but rather are encountered at different places on different occasions. Still, if you need to speak with a specific character, he will always be where you expect him to be. We weren't able to see the behaviour system in action, though.


Antoinette Trelawney is the daughter of nobleman Squire Trelawney. You can tell that she's been spoiled from her upbringing in a good house, but she can pull her own weight when needed. The 17-year old discovers her adventurous side on the way to the treasure island.





The Blind Pew is an old pirate leading the Bristol pirate gang. With their help, he wants to obtain the legendary treasure map Jim Hawkins possesses. Despite his unhealthy appearance, he is very intimidating. The book describes him as follows: "I never saw in my life a more dreadful looking figure... and I never heard a voice so cruel, and cold, and ugly as that blind man's."




The King of Gamblers, like Antoinette, is a newly introduced character. He can be found at the gambling table in Silvers Pub, where Jim has to recruit him for his treasure hunt. But can he trust the sleazebag?




Radon Labs goes for a classic point-and-click interface, with the specific setup being the same one used in Ankh. An alternative setup where Jim Hawkins keeps walking towards the pointer if you hold down the left mouse button is still being considered [and subsequent word from the Games Convention is that this feature will likely be in the game.] Puzzles will be of the usual inventory-based variety with a few logic puzzles tossed in. Since Thomas Möhring doesn't consider pixel hunting a puzzle type, there will be a built-in hotspot revealer. Inventory items can be rotated and zoomed in on in 3D, so that you might, for example, find important new information on an object's back side.

The current plan is for Treasure Island to be completed before Christmas 2007. However, Egbert Latza stresses that this date is not set in stone. If it isn't ready for release by the end of the year, it will be delayed until next year.

With its six chapters of various sizes, Treasure Island probably won't be a particularly long game, but the plan is to fill that play time with a very thick atmosphere. The outstanding graphics should be especially helpful there. If Radon Labs really wants to hit the market by Christmas, though, they've got their work cut out for them. The version we saw was incomplete in a number of ways, so hopefully they'll take the time for some much-needed polish.


This article was originally published on the German website Adventure-Treff. It has been translated and reprinted here with permission. Translation provided by Harald Bastiaanse.