Zoetrope Interactive – Darkness Within 2
Adventure Gamers: Here we are about to see the series completed, but for a while early on it looked like the project would never get off the ground. Originally it was Loath Nolder: Labores Solis, under the direction of Aedon Games, then it was canceled, then it wasn’t, just continuing under new management, and so on. What can you tell us about that turbulent transition?
Onur Samli: Yes, we went through a lot of things. 🙂 With Aedon Games, we had a bigger team but soon we saw that not everyone was so enthusiastic about developing games. Then Oral [Samli] and I parted from Aedon Games and teamed up with Galip [Kartoglu] and thus Zoetrope Interactive was born. Now we’re working enthusiastically as a team with a plan. With no planning and order, you’re like a leaf on a river. It seems we managed to find the right team spirit and working environment.
AG: What inspired your team to create an adventure game in the first place?
Onur: Firstly we are all adventure game fans. And we were all aware that adventure games have an elite community and game market which is not dominated by big developers. So we thought this was an opportunity and good starting point to get into the industry. We could make great games and not get buried by being compared with AAA titles.
AG: How popular have adventure games been in Turkey over the years, and how would you describe the state of the genre there today?
Onur: Of course there are a lot of adventure game fans, but the Turkish market is mostly dominated by consoles and big PC titles. But I can’t say I’m 100% sure till I see our Turkish localized titles hit the market. We’re thinking about this one.
AG: Has your success with DW earned you any kind of recognition in your country? Not widespread celebrity, necessarily, but I expect there’s a certain amount of nationalistic pride in seeing the local talent do well.
Onur: We didn’t earn any significant recognition but attended some game developer seminars and did a couple of interviews. And also we took part in a book called “Digital Gaming” prepared by a University.
AG: So you’re a small Turkish development studio working with a Dutch publisher with the plan of releasing an English adventure game. Tell us about the challenges of dealing with so many countries and languages.
Onur: We didn’t see this as a challenge before, but I can say using the “Correct English” sometimes becomes an issue. You need the right comments for teasers, trailers, press releases, interviews… Your publisher also needs to ask for “corrections” for the materials since English is not their mother tongue either. So I can say the real problem is being able to output everything in English.
AG: Darkness Within was first conceived as a trilogy, yet this is going to be the final installment in the series, correct? Why cut out a full game entirely?
Onur: Three games means a lot of development time. We wanted to focus on new projects and ideas to improve ourselves. We already took a step by converting the game into full 3D. Also we realized that two games would be enough to convey the story of Howard Loreid. But of course we didn’t cut anything from the overall story. The Dark Lineage will tell everything we wanted to.
AG: If this is the end of DW, what’s next for Zoetrope Interactive after this? Any new adventures on the horizon?
Onur: After finishing the necessary materials left for promotion and localization of DW2, we need to gather and discuss to plan what to do next. At this point it’s too early to say anything. But we always had a vague idea of making another adventure taking place in the universe of Darkness Within. So time will tell.
AG: I know time is at a premium with the game coming down the home stretch, so thanks for taking a moment to answer our questions.
Onur: Thank you for this opportunity and being our voice to the adventure gamers.
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