Nikita Mikhalkov, before he was completely tired in the sun and turned into a director himself, made excellent films. His painting “Urga – Territory of Love” spoke about the contradictions between the patriarchal Mongol life and the signs of modern civilization like condoms, a bicycle and a fervently swearing Russian driver performed by Vladimir Gostyukhin. It was this film that inspired the former employee of the Ukrainian studio GSC Game World, art director of the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat "Ilya Tolmachev when working on his new project. This is by no means a post -apocalyptic shooter in the Mongol steppes, but a quest in the spirit of myst. True, not quite ordinary ..
Our interlocutor
Ilya Tolmachev
Job title : Cradle development head.
Previous place of work : GSC Game World.
About GSC : “There is no connection between the disbandment of the studio and the work on our game. We left the GSC long before its decay ".
Stalker in the field
Two years ago, immediately after the end of work on the “Pripyat” and long before the collapse of the GSC Game World, Ilya Tolmachev and several of his colleagues went to free bread and founded their own studio Flying Cafe for Semianimals ("Flying Cafe for Poluvodnaya"). They are going to add up to feed the audience with conceptual projects that combine the depth of the indie game with accessibility and a gloss of a mass product.
The first delicacy that ambitious Ukrainians will treat us will be the quest Cradle , The stylistics and atmosphere of which are inspired by the mentioned film "Urga", and the plot is by the books of Albert Camus, Vladimir Sorokin, Andrei Platonov and the Strugatsky brothers.
[[Bullet]] developers specially studied the Mongolian steppe life in order to transmit it as authenticly in the game.
The main character of the game discovers himself in a lonely yurt in the middle of the endless Mongol steppe. Yurt and its surroundings reproduce in sufficient detail the patriarchal life of the Mongols. Next to all this are signs of a completely different time and other culture, for example, a futuristic entertainment park. And our hero soon finds a broken mechanical girl, who will become his companion.
What does all this mean, how we are here, who is such a main character at all … We must find answers to these questions ourselves. “In a global sense, the main mystery is a background, that is, those circumstances and events that led to the current situation,” Ilya says.
You will have to collect information on two locations. All action is spinning around the yurt, its environs and entertainment park: here the game begins, develops, and ends here. However, the player is given freedom of movement – there are no fences, so you can safely go to the steppe. She, according to the developers, plays the role of non -interactive surroundings, which is needed in order to strengthen the feeling of freedom. This is a purely aesthetic solution, and nevertheless, Ilya promises that those who decide to get to the very edge of the location are waiting for surprises.
Ida and passions
The main source of information for the player will be the mechanical girl Ida. As the authors explain, in the course of the game we have to restore the lost functions of the mechanical body of his companion. Do not think thin. Cradle is not a game about the heavy fate of a lonely Mongolian man who bought a poor-quality doll in the only sex shop for the whole country. “A mechanical girl is the element of the game that revives her, and one of the few characters with which you can communicate. As you repair, she begins to navigate better and gives more and more information. After all, at first Ida does not even see you, as well as the surrounding world. When you restore her vision, she recalls the first details you need, ”the authors say.
[[Bullet]], as the plot chapters pass, the weather will change, and with it the music.
Ida created using futuristic technologies. A synchronizer, an artificial intelligence chip and a container for collecting a passion are built into it. “Passions are a substance with unusual properties. It is produced as a by -product during the appearance of the consciousness of a living person in the body of the robot. This is a necessary feature of the technology that largely determined the flavor of the fictional universe of Cradle, ”says Ilya. If someone suddenly had associations with " Turgor "And other products Ice Pick Lodge , then we hasten to inform: you do not need to collect passions, it accumulates in a special capsule in the chest automatically. The authors do not disclose other details.
The whole game will be built on an alternation, relatively speaking, patriarchal and high -tech. For example, one of the tasks is to find a jar of salt among other bottles. The corresponding inscription on it is applied by the old Mongolian language. “You can determine this jar only if you know how the“ salt ”is written in Mongolian,” Ilya explains.
[Bullet]] no one limits the freedom of moving the player.
In another episode you will have to go to the game Internet. Given that the hero is in the steppe, you will have to use everything that lies at hand: the old TV, batteries scattered in location, solar battery and other items will go into business. The player's task is to find, compose these elements and come up with how to turn on all this.
The game of contrasts
It is interesting that the game will alternate such classic puzzles and elements of other genres. “Cradle's roots go to Myst, but there are a number of innovations that are designed to refresh Jokabet Casino this genre,” our interlocutor said.
Yes, there will be an unobvious "Mistovo" puzzles and good old pixelhanting. Moreover, placing important information on small and insignificant items is one of the conceptual solutions of the game. For example, collecting fragments of an important cipher, we will have to look for an old scrap of a newspaper, once put in a box of a kitchen cabinet under a spoon. Or rummage the cursor in search of a store check, which contains the necessary data.
At the same time, in order to find some elements of the body of Ida, you will need to get to a certain attraction. But this path will not always be safe, and the player will have to fight. “Periodically, something that plays the role of opponents will meet on your way,” Ilya intrigues. – I can't say that exactly. You can fight back from enemies by any objects that you will find on Earth. ".
Having finally reached the entertainment park, you will have to go through one of the game pavilions. And there you are waiting for arcade puzzles and mini-games. Game pavilions are closed rooms filled with large physical objects. To solve the puzzles, you need to interact with these objects – combine them and convert the space in which you are. Here, of course, there are immediately analogies with Portal or Q.U.B.E. , But it’s hard to say that the developers are actually preparing.
[[Bullet]] There will be many nonlinear dialogues in Cradle, most important information is transmitted through them.
The pavilions themselves are conceived as an emotional counterweight to yurt. Despite its "silent" look, it stores the information much more than you might think by looking at it from the side. The pavilions are spacious, but unpretentious. “This is an environment in which you can get emotional discharge. Everything here is bright, dynamic and does not require analytical efforts, ”the project leader explains.
In general, the whole game is built in contrasts. It inherits the contemplation and coziness of Myst, but its content is conceived as something as opposite to the peaceful form: according to the authors, the fundamental elements of Cradle are anxiety and absurdity. As wild and contrasting as the swearing GOSTYUKHIN in the Mongolian steppe, the interjunction experiment undertaken by Ukrainians also looks like. The authors of the Stalker are trying to revive the dying quest, mixing the "Mistovo" mechanical puzzles and fights, the harsh pixelhanting and arcade mini-games, Mongol hieroglyphs and the Internet. I would like to believe that Tolmachev and his team know what they are doing, and after Cradle, they will not find themselves on the sidelines of history, in a lonely yurt in the middle of the wild steppe of the game industry.
We will wait?
Experimental Ukrainian quest in the Mongol steppes – with arcade elements, enchanting style, futuristic mechanisms and a broken robot girl.
Percent of readiness: 80%