Drawn: Dark Flight — Casual Gaming Meets Hardcore Fantasy » 30ninjas

Drawn: Dark Flight — Casual Gaming Meets Hardcore Fantasy

Share on Facebook posted 08-25-10 by Max Tedaldi

Pricing: $19.95 Collector’s Edition ($13.99 Game Club Members) $9.99 Standard version, available mid-September ($6.99 Game Club Members)
Availability: Wal-Mart and www.bigfishgames.com
Website: www.drawngame.com
Specifications:
WINDOWS: 7/XP/VISTA CPU: 1.0 GHZ RAM: 1GB DirectX: 9.0 HD: 900MB
MAC: OSX 10.4/10.5/10.6 CPU: Intel 1.0 GHz RAM: 1GB Open GL: 2.1 HD: 900MB

At 30ninas we spend a lot of time trying to bring you the latest and greatest news on the forefront of the gaming horizon. This means that we spend a majority of our time focusing on the big three companies and huge game developers like THQ and Blizzard. But great, and often innovative ideas, come from companies with strict financial and manpower restraints too. It would be remiss of us to neglect the small fish in the big pond, or in this case the small Big Fish.

I got a chance this past week to talk to Brian Thompson and Chris Campbell, Art Director and Senior Producer at Big Fish Games respectively, about their latest game Drawn: Dark Flight, the sequel to the 2009 Drawn: The Painted Tower.

For those of you who didn’t get a chance to download the title this past fall here is what you missed [SPOILER ALERT!]: In a world replete with sadness, a young girl named Iris is the last bastion of hope. Iris is no ordinary girl however, and anything she draws comes to life. Compelled to draw mythical beasts and medieval scenes, Iris must escape the capture of those who would use her gifts for personal gain. Iris’ parents send her into exile so that she might avoid capture, but an evil king discovers her location and is hell-bent upon her capture.

By navigating the puzzle-filled painted tower, players were charged with the task of finding and saving Iris, and thus, the day! Players who were expecting a traditional point ‘n click adventure got something much more. With what can only be described as an abrupt ending, Drawn: The Painted Tower concluded leaving many expecting an end to the series. But, Hark! What do we have here?! A sequel!

Drawn: Dark Flight picks up right where The Painted Tower left off, and you’ll be given ample time to explore a world that isn’t just limited to the tower of the previous incarnation. Like the original, this game features gorgeous hand-drawn backgrounds, creative cut-scenes – that actually slow the action down and give the game a story-book feel – and environmental interactivity that makes you feel completely immersed in the game. You’ll still be drawing to change your surroundings but that’s not all.

So how will this sequel differ from the original version of the game. Well, one of the issues that a lot a players had with the original game was a lack-luster hint system that seemed to be a little lopsided. Some hints gave things away and others left you struggling to find the next piece of the puzzle. I asked Chris about the updated hint system and here’s what he had to say:

The system for Drawn 1 was semi-intelligent and when I say semi-intelligent, I mean I created a spreadsheet with all of the major tasks in the game and I listed the steps involved in trying to beat those, and I made assumptions. I thought, “people are probably going to get stuck here here and here” so a lot of people loved it but then others were like “well I already picked up the potion . . . soo.” In this game we tied each objctive to a hint, so we have about 500 objectives and each one is tied to an intelligent system where we know exactly what is in your inventory, and an adequeate hint is given. For the hard-core user we have a completely different hint given for each objective, so where it might say “find a rope” in casual mode, in hard-core mode it will say “light from above”.

Next, I asked him what the biggest differences are between the sequel and the original, and this is what I got:

It’s much more expansive and we’ve added a few more hours of gameplay from the original. We picked up the learning curve a little, and the game’s mechanic hint system is much more helpful when you want it to be. Whereas we had sketches and paintings in the first game that you went in and out of, in the sequel we have pop-up books and sheet music and puppet theaters, so we really wanted to push that evolution.

We won’t get a chance to get our hands . . . er . . . hard drives on Drawn: Dark Flight until next week, but from what I saw of the game you can expect a visual smorgasbord of fantasy and nostalgia. In watching Brian Thompson and Chris Campbell navigate through the various aspects of the game, the one thing that really stood out for me was its distinct visual style that made me wax poetic about the animation of my childhood. But to call the visuals of Drawn disney-like would not only be a gross understatement, it would also be misleading. Sure, the game evokes a level of nostalgia that makes you feel as though you were watching Sleeping Beauty and encountering Maleficent for the first time, but more than that, it transports you to a new place altogether. The childish looking games – which are deceptively difficult – combine with the oddly nostalgic visuals to make you feel as though you were playing a point ‘n click puzzle game adventure version of Where the Wild Things Are.

Good luck trying to pin down exactly what genres and inspirations this game draws upon. For me it feels like a mash-up of Myst, Corpse Bride, and Sleeping Beauty. We’ll bring you more on Drawn: Dark Flight when we get a chance to sit down and play it next week.