CaptainD Interviews Auriond of Team Effigy Feb 12 '11    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in PlayStation 2 Games Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 : PlayStation 2 for PlayStation 2 From $15 Shaun White Snowboarding - PlayStation 2 for PlayStation 2 From $4 The Bottom Line The Marionette was one of the best freeware adventure games of 2009 (or any year, really) - I interviewed its creator, "Auriond", of Team Effigy. What, you mean you haven't played (or at least heard of) The Marionette yet? Shame on you! See my review for more details on one of the best freeware adventure games of 2009. Otherwise, read on... Auriond and Team Effigy put together The Marionette, and since I liked the game so much, I thought I'd do an interview. 1/ What was the inspiration behind the storyline for The Marionette? That's an interesting question. I can't quite remember myself how exactly I came up with the storyline. But I can tell you that Martin was an existing character of mine, and the Marionette concept that later made an appearance in the conclusion of the game was an integral part of him. Later I took that character and concept and came up with a storyline leading up to that climax. 2/ Did you always intend to achieve the graphical style that the game has, or did it develop into that style during development? Character-wise, that's the only way I know how to draw people! I've tried various other ways but it always seems to come back to this. The backgrounds were developed along the way. I started out painting over photographs, and then tried to draw rooms from scratch. I discovered that I'm hopeless with perspective and vanishing points. Then someone introduced me to the miracle called Google Sketchup, and suddenly I could design rooms effortlessly! I still painted over the bare Sketchup skeletons by hand though. [http://sketchup.google.com/will take you to Google SketchUp - there's a free version and a "professional" edition which has more features but will, of course, cost you money...] 3/ Who (or what software houses) would you describe as having the greatest influence in the way you develop games? For this game, Sierra's old Gabriel Knight games and Jane Jensen were the biggest influences. Konami's Silent Hill (at least the Team Silent installments of the game - see where I got Team Effigy from?) also made itself felt in more than one way, I think. 4/ How long did The Marionette take to develop, from initial concept to finished product? Four years. I know, it's ridiculous for such a short game! But it was all made during our free time, and in between I got married and moved into my own place and everything. Other members of Team Effigy also had significant life-changing events happening to them. So actually I'm amazed we even finished it at all. 5/ The game has a cracking music score - was every piece composed for the game, or did some just happen to fit the mood of the game? Every piece was composed for the game by my brother Kieran. I have to say that his music determined the direction of the game. He would write music and I would listen to it and draw a scene to fit it. For example, I would tell him: "Okay, so the protagonist has just woken up in front of a strange house he doesn't recognise. I need some music for that." And a few days later he'd pass me this mp3, and I'd draw the house while listening to it. It was even more involved in the cutscenes - I would time the scene changes to the music. Or sometimes I would even change a whole scene to fit the music. 6/ Which puzzle in the game are you most proud of (without giving away the solution to people who haven't played it yet, obviously!) The drawing mannequin puzzle in the first area of the game! Everything else was pretty weak compared to that one. I get a lot of compliments on it. Oh, and the one puzzle at the end which required some serious artificial intelligence (you'll know it when you see it). But I can't take credit for that one because it was Cristina and Gabriel (the scriptors) who came up with it. I wouldn't have even thought of making a puzzle like that with AGS, though I should know better - AGS is an incredible piece of software. Chris Jones is a genius. 7/ Have you started planning your next game already, or are you taking a well-deserved break first? Both. I'm taking a break from The Marionette and catching up with real life, but there is already another game in the works and Taunia (co-game designer) is doing most of the planning work at the moment. 8/ If you had to pick just one, what adventure game do you rate as being the best ever made? Seriously? Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within. I am such a sucker for interactive stories. 9/ What games written in AGS have particularly impressed you? There's always the ever-brilliant Trilby series by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw, and more recently Downfall by Remigiusz Michalski (Grim Reaper). I also enjoy Marina Su-Chong's games (like the delightful A Cure for the Common Cold) for their sheer cuteness and eye-candy. I have not bought Dave Gilbert's Blackwell series yet, but I remain impressed by what I have seen of that. 10/ What advice would you give to anyone thinking of creating their own games for the freeware or indie sectors? I'm in a position to give advice? Erm, just go ahead with it. Thinking too much just slows you down. Even if it's a flawed product (like The Marionette), get it out there with your name attached to it. In the AGS community the biggest disappointment is often some brilliant-looking game whose authors lose interest or become too busy and abandon the project. So if you manage to finish a game, I'm thinking it's already a plus point. 11/ Sorry, gotta ask - any plans for a sequel to The Marionette someday? To be honest, I don't see where I could do a sequel to The Marionette, story-wise.  So, no, I'm afraid. But I have a habit of revisiting old characters and worlds, so this may not be the last you see of these characters! Thanks to Auriond for agreeing to the interview, and thanks also to Team Effigy for creating such a good game (and for not charging us for it!) Note - since this interview took place, Team Effigy have been working on a new game called "Out of Time".  The plot synopsis is: "Out of Time follows Travis Walker, a young man trying to pick up the pieces after a traumatic accident.  He tries to ease back into normal society, but finds that a strange new ability he seems to have picked up somewhere along the way is preventing him from going back to his old life. And to make things worse, people seem to be committing suicide all around him. What’s a guy to do?" Check out their website for more info: http://www.teameffigy.com/ More interviews with game designers: - Interview with Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software - Interview with Laurens DeFebre of DodgySoft - Interview with James Spanos (H2G2 Remake and other adventure games) - Interview with Amanda Finch of Amaranth Games - Interview with Deidra Kiai of Deidra Kiai Productions

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