My name is Chris Tolworthy. I designed the game and put everything together. I'm grateful to a huge number of people for letting me use their original music and adapt their photos, and they will all be credited in the game. Without them the game would be a lot smaller. And of course special thanks to Hungry Software for the SLUDGE engine, and to Victor Hugo for Les Miserables.
What other games have you made?
I used to make multimedia CD-ROMs for a living. They were interactive guides for the safety, heritage and inward investment industries. I learned to work very quickly and meet deadlines, but I didn't like having to start a new product every two months. I dreamed of spending years on just one product, and filling it with just the coolest ideas. I wanted to go the next step and make a full sized game, and that is what I'm doing!
I've added some small screenshots from my old multiomedia work at the side of this page.
Why am I making this?
Three reasons.
First, ever since a child I have had an urge to create worlds. I must have the megalomaniac gene or something.
Second, nobody makes the kind of game I want to buy, so I decided to make my own.
The third reason is, like most people I am interested in money and relationships and the world's problems, but nobody wants to read a huge book or be lectured to. A game is much more fun. And the adventure game format is the perfect medium for sharing ideas. It is more flexible than a book or a movie, more human than a web site, and easier to make than any other kind of virtual world. In short, I think the adventure game format is completely underestimated.
I don't know if I'll succeed in everything I want to do, but nobody else is doing this, so at least I have no competition!
When did this all start?
I've been planning something like this for a long time, but didn't start writing anything down until 1997, and didn't do any actual programming until 2000. My first plan was to make a game that generated its own stories and scenes. In 2000 I started coding it in C++. The original plan was to have VERY simple graphics, but every element of the game would be generated by the computer as the user moved around, so the game universe could be bigger than the real universe!
By 2003 the game engine was progressing well, but it was clear that it would take another fifty years to complete. So I decided to make a game universe that was not self-generated, but at least it would be quick and easy for a human (me) to add new games by hand. I chose SLUDGE as the most flexible game engine for my needs, and planned to have the game universe and first six stories ready by the year 2012. By 2005 I was getting impatient, and I figured that I was putting quantity before quality. So the plan was revised: make just one story in the first release, Les Miserables. Then release another story every six months or so. The end result is the same: at least six stories by 2012, and an ever expanding game universe thereafter.
"So this is your first real game - what if it's a turkey?"
I don't pretend to be the greatest writer in the world, but I know someone who is pretty close - Victor Hugo. The main story and the puzzles in my game are based on Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, and I try to stick close to the classic book. But will it work? Will it be fun? I'm taking no chances. I have set aside several months for other people to test the game and tell me where it needs improving. I won't release it until other people tell me it is worth buying.
Who's making this game? (About me)
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