September 11, 2009

Things are Getting Murderous With Dead Mountaineer's Hotel's Sergey Kiselev
By Louis Bedigian

“We tried to stay close to the original story. But to make it more interesting and playable, we’ve made several endings for the game.”

Murder mysteries are only as good as the mystery at hand. That's good news for Dead Mountaineer's Hotel, a game with source material that goes a bit deeper than the average programmer's gobbledygook. "Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is one of the most impressive novels, written by the Strugatsky brothers in their early period of work," said Producer Sergey Kiselev. "The story is told by the detective officer Glebsky, who came to the hotel to spend his vacation. He was occasionally involved into investigation of a mysterious crime connected with the aliens.

"The thing is that this story is very intricate. It could probably remind you of the greatest detective stories like 'And then there were none' by Agatha Christie, when the heroes can’t leave the main area of the actions, and it makes the situation very strained. It could also be compared to the old school Isaac Asimov’s sci-fi stories, where we just started to touch the undiscovered worlds. The Strugatsky brothers are very popular in Russia, and basing on my last communications with European journalists – in Europe too. They have original, unique style, and you’ll never [figure out the story] till the very end.

"We’ve decided that this style would perfectly work for video games, especially for the adventure genre."

Novels aren't used as source material for games nearly as often as movies. Why do you think that is? Does it have anything to do with the process of acquiring the rights to do so?

Sergey Kiselev: Akella, our publisher, didn’t experience difficulties to get the rights for production. It’s always good for both sides: the release of the game provokes the interest to the book and other works of the writers. On the other hand, the game is interesting not only to the gamers but of course to the fans of the book. So, it is a cooperation that works both ends.

About the question of books versus movies. To be honest, there already exists the movie of the same name, based on this novel. It was shown in Russia and former USSR countries several years ago. But still, we based on the original source, the book.

I think that the movies are probably closer to video games industry because their audience is very close to the games market. It’s good when you already had a great PR, when you offer to the player one more interactive blockbuster. But it’s another kind of sport. We were looking for the perfect scenario, for the great puzzle, which will be interesting for all true fans of the adventure games. Puzzle... BTW, you can find this novel in the international libraries and book shops named as “Inspector Glebsky’s Puzzle.”

Once you had picked the story, acquired the rights and were good to go, how did you begin the development process? Was it a matter of taking the story apart and figuring out which parts would work and which parts wouldn't?

SK: Most of the Strugatsky’s books could be [readily made into] scripts for creating video games of different genres, or movies. So, there was no reason to throw away any details or episodes, there was only necessary adaptation.

To make this plot interactive was a very interesting challenge for us. We really respect the works of the genuine brothers. So the mention of Boris Strugatsky was very important for us. We’ve paid high attention to all the sides of our work, communicated with Strugatsys’ fans on forums, tried to recreate the atmosphere of the novel accurately. Even the site of the game is made with many flash adventure puzzles.

How many creative liberties have you taken with the story?

SK: We tried to stay close to the original story. But to make it more interesting and playable, we’ve made several endings for the game.

On the other hand – you have to understand, that when you read the book, you are always being driven by the author. You follow the hero but do not control him. Some of the moments are flavored with puzzles and mini-games. You can also find some nice secrets that were hidden in the game by developers.. you call them Eastern eggs, right?

Based on the game's brief synopsis, it sounds like the hotel involves a bit of a murder mystery. How do the players fit into this? Are we tasked with trying to identify the murderer?

SK: Oh, yes, that’s a classical detective-plot, that takes place in a limited space, with a limited number of persons, and most of them are suspected to be the murderers – nearly each character hypothetically has reasons of committing the crime. You play for inspector Glebsky and your investigation is mostly based on analysis and deduction, and the mystic side of the story only makes the process more catching to play.

Inspector Glebsky comes to the hotel for having vacations, and from the very beginning you’ll start to think about other strange events there. So the murder will be unexpected for everybody…

Which of the different characters will we get to play as? How important is each character's individual story to the overall story?

SK: We have the only character to play for. It has a very interesting personality – police inspector Glebsky is a clever guy with great sense of humor that is one of things that makes the game fun to play. Inspector will have to spend quite a long time in the hotel. At first – there is a crime to be investigated, moreover, an avalanche occurred, blocking the entrance to the valley and cutting the heroes from the outside world, so you will have enough time to get familiar with the hero.

But all the detective stories are based on the communication with many characters, especially if almost all of them are under suspicion. All of the guests, and surely the owner of the hotel have their own stories – which will sometimes lead us to very interesting conclusions during the investigation.

The game is said to test our ideas of right and wrong. Does this mean we'll have choices in the game – ex: to help or hurt someone?

SK: Well, decisions taken by gamers influence the game ending, but it would be a spoiler if we tell our gamers what they have to do or uncover some of the plot details. It’s hard to explain this thesis without a reference to the scenario.

Will there be more than one ending to correspond with the different choices you make?

SK: Yes, there will be several endings in the game, each of them will depend on the choice that the gamer will make at certain points while he would proceed through the scenario.

Dead Mountaineer's Hotel uses pre-rendered backgrounds, which haven't been seen in too many games since Resident Evil 3. What made the pre-rendered format appealing for this game?

SK: The use of pre-rendered backgrounds in adventure games is not uncommon. It’s not an action or simulator, where it’s nearly impossible to use them. Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel is the classical quest, so we use the traditional technologies.

Anyway, the game backgrounds look very authentic. We felt the atmosphere of the book and were inspired so much. We put a lot of effort to recreate it in the game, using as these high detailed backgrounds, as many features of the time period when the actions take place. You know, the hotel by itself is not that small, we had to show very different locations, totally more than 120. During the game you can move around here without any restrictions. You’ll walk through hallways, lounges, guest rooms, library, and even storage areas like the basement, pantry, wine cellar, and others.

At first glance, the game looks like it could be survival/horror. It sounds like a mystery. And it's being promoted as somewhat of an adventure game. Specifically, how would you classify Dead Mountaineer's Hotel? Does it feature elements of all three genres?

SK: I would say that Dead Mountaineer is [more] adventure than anything else. Survival elements and mystery [are] all around it [and] bring an intrigue that keeps you in tension all the time while you’re playing and [will] make you curious how the investigation that you’re making ends. We hope that our customers will enjoy playing Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel and might want to read the book, who knows.

We didn’t implement some strong elements of other genres trying to keep the charm of the original adventure. You’ll probably have some time to take a breath playing the mini-games, and some of them are quite far from the mysterious thematic… For example – the skiing in mountains. But the essence of DMH is adventure.

Finally, Dead Mountaineer's Hotel will offer "AI simulation for all inhabitants of the game world to track their movements at all times." Could you explain what this means?

SK: It’s not the AI in a traditional meaning. We call it “life simulation.” At first, I have to note, that we’ve recreated all the original characters of the novel in the game. The resort is populated by guests: the eccentric wealthy with young beautiful wife, an illusionist accompanied by his niece, a physicist and so on. There is also the owner of the hotel and other personnel, and even the nice Saint-Bernard dog (which you can also interact with).

All the game personalities do not stand as if they are stuck to their location. They move, walk, do something – for example, the dog can walk, or lay down, wherever and whenever it wants to, or come up to the bowl and eat. It makes a well-done illusion of a real life. And human characters are also living their lives, communicating with each other, having dinners, reading in the library etc.

Thank you for your time

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