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Live chat with Frédérick Raynal - 12/March/06

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Frederick Raynal, creator of Alone In The Dark 1, Little Big adventure, Little Big Adventure 2, FlashBack, Fade To Black and other famous games, speaks with his fans.

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Dimitri Manos: Welcome everybody. You can discuss with Frederick Raynal about his past games, his future projects and anything else you could think of! I would like to thank first of all Frederick for coming by the Adventure Europe forum, Ahmad Ghourab for all his help to make this week possible and all the LBA fans for the support they've shown during this week.

david-wilson: Who own the copyright to Little Big Adventure at the moment and will that be a problem with making LBA3?

Frederick Raynal: Hi everybody,
Adeline Software still have some parts of rights, that is not a problem at all.

david-wilson: Do you get annoyed at illegal abandonware sites that allow people to download your games for free?

Frederick Raynal: Abandonware is not a problem as long as players buy next games

Thomas S Wrobel: As a major figure in the adventure genre, I am curious where you see the genre going in the future.
For that mater, what do you think games will be like a few years from now?

Frederick Raynal: What an easy question ! i think gaming will radicaly change in a few years...

Jasiek: What are your feelings towards fan-made LBA games ? Are you aware of them, or have you played some of them. Do you think that they are a good thing ? Or do you dislike them ?

Frederick Raynal: I downloaded almost all tools fans made around LBA, but I don't remember games, I need to know more about that.

Jasiek: Is there a chance for a lot of fans to somehow get involved in the acutal production of LBA3?

Frederick Raynal: Yes I defintely want to involve fans at some point in the dev.

JesseGorter: What you think of the idea to maybe once rework the old lba with current graphics?

Frederick Raynal: Yes I would like to have LBA1 and 2 remastered with the LBA3 engine, but as you say it might be not a priority, let's say after LBA3 will be a huge success

Atresica: Would it be possible for us (The MBN) to publish the ISO'd copies of the game?

Frederick Raynal: About iso's for MBN, i would say yes, but this is a decision i can't make alone. Contact me later about that.

Bot13: I remember you once said that there are some unseen LBA3 sketches.
Is there any chance you can get hold of those for us?

Frederick Raynal: other LBA3 sketches may tell too much, but that can happen

alexfont: What you think about all the work fans did by making programs to modificate the game in every aspect?

Frederick Raynal: I love modifier tools

alexfont: What you think about fans making a new LBA using the previous LBA1/2 engine?

Frederick Raynal: Fans can make their own LBA, if there are good ideas (like important story facts), we may try to stick with it if it is not too far from what will be anyway the official story in LBA3.

alexfont: Did you already did the LBA3 engine? It will be based in the previous engines?

Frederick Raynal: No LBA3 engine done yet

ChaosFish: I would like to know if you read the Little Big Adventure Contest thread, and what do you think about posts posted there?

Frederick Raynal: Yes i give a first read to all the entries, I will try to give a global answer on this thread. Some points are so closed !

Streg: do you think it's going to be eaesier to make LBA3, now that you are Knighted?

Frederick Raynal: I hope my knight sword (oups medal) will help a lot my projects

Twinsen: Fred , PLEASE , first of all , give us an e-mail adress , so people can contact you .

Frederick Raynal: Yes, I'll give you an email later today

alexfont: It is a chance to release tools like Visu3D or only parts of then the way we could done our own LBA games? Or only help fans (giving ideias/code helps) to improving the tools they have?

Frederick Raynal: Visu3D was done to work in a dedicate environment, like network paths and disks and DOS4GW...

Thomas S Wrobel: On regards to tools being released, I am curious if the ones used to make Alone in the Dark are still around?
It would be interesting to have them available for 'historic' purposes, seeing as it was a major step in 3D gaming.

Frederick Raynal: Alone in the dark tools belongs to Infogrames.

elmuerte: Are there any plans to make LBA3 mod friendly?
And with that I mean the ability to add new areas and be able to add new (sub)story-lines and tasks. Bascially extending the game world.

Frederick Raynal: User Areas in an LBA world is something that exists as an option in some possible versions...

Streg: why did you choose the name "Relentless" for LBA1? And why "Twinsen"?

Frederick Raynal: Relentless was a name choosen by Electronic arts because they thought LBA was too cute to atract real gamers
Twinsen is like names like Andersen which means the son of Ander, Twinsen Family is the son of Twinsun

Dan2552: What size universe should we expect for LBA3 - Will there just be Twinsun and Zeelich or have you planned additional planets?

Frederick Raynal: Twinsun should be complete

Dan2552: How long is the story of LBA3? About the same as LBA1 or LBA2, longer, or shorter?

Frederick Raynal: Too soon to know the lenght of LBA3, several (often compatible) stories exist

Lightwing: whose idea was it to include black Quetches at the Construction Site in Relentless?

Frederick Raynal: lightwing: Funfrock is a real bad guy

Atresica: I'm curious, what are the "Important Story Facts" to you?

Frederick Raynal: Important facts: for instance, I was very touched with the Dinofly story, this ancient island full of them which was destroy by Funfrock, how could it be different than that now.

Axx: As you may know, i called Didier Chanfray. He makes it clear that he has no plans in the forseeable future to work on any PC or Console game, yet many of the core developers at Adeline are now working as part of Little World studio.

Frederick Raynal: Yes some core people like Didier Chanfray or Sebastien Viannay work with LWS, as nothing exists yet about LBA3 it's a good thing (they are not very far we live in the same town). There is many ways to make us work together, when time comes we will see...

Assassin: I was also wondering what you think of the Relentless Movie Project (the LBA movie).

Frederick Raynal: I saw LBA movies some ... years (?) ago, I don't know its state now

elmuerte: What games, made by other companies, did you enjoy? Or rather, what were your favorite games from the past couple of years?

Frederick Raynal: I have special feelings for BGE

Twinsen: Did you ever played LBA 1 & 2 from scratch and then finish them ? If you did , how does it feel to play the game that YOU gave birth to ?

Frederick Raynal: I played LBA1&2, I can't have the same fresh feelings then players, i usually only see what i would have done better.

ChaosFish: Do you intend to make LBA3 a more easy games that an average audience would like? Or maybe a more difficult game that other audience will like better?

Frederick Raynal: LBA3 easy or challenging is still a big question. I would say both, is it possible ?

Assassin: a couple of years ago there were plans of porting LBA1 (and 2?) to the GBA. Have you been thinking about maybe porting them to one of the new systems?

Frederick Raynal: Didier did a good work on LBA GBA, it's a shame it's never released. I would love to see ports on portable consoles, if LBA3 starts there are good chances...

Axx: How was your skiing vacation last week?

Frederick Raynal: Yes Axx good ski, but i won a (kind of) broken finger (slow at typing)

alexfont: What you think about the TwinEngine (twin-e) project by Yaz0r (Vincent Hamm) and about the release of the code?

Frederick Raynal: I hope Vincent Hamm could finish the TwinEngine. (LBA3 will not use it)

Atresica: Would you(r team) consider another cheat like Rosa (thought we forgot that one, eh?) when there was so much controversy over the Hot Coffee mod? Witnessing LBA getting a mature certificate would be a very confusing thing indeed.

Frederick Raynal: Rosa ?

CrazyBee: Would there bit the slightest possiblity, that it would run under other operating systems that Microsoft Windows? Mac OS X? *nix? And what about other platforms in general, like gaming consoles?

Frederick Raynal: LBA3 must exist first on PC

Assassin: I remember a lot of fans (including me) once discussing how it would be great to just be able to walk around the islands after finishing LBA2 (at the party, etc.) Have you ever thought about doing something like this in LBA3, so when you have completed the game you are still able to walk around, etc. ?

Frederick Raynal: It's difficult to have a free roaming world after the end of the game, i would not do this if all the backgrounds don't fit the story and NPCs don't speak accuratly, which means much work, but i like the idea.

Assassin: will the catamaran return in LBA3?

Frederick Raynal: Catamaran: Yes it should be back and usefull

ChaosFish: Will you make an official forum as the LBA3 development will be in progress, so fans will be able to give the team direct feedback?


Frederick Raynal: of course LBA3 will have a forum, i want fans involved

Thomas S Wrobel: Would it be possible for Philippe Vachey to still do the music?

Frederick Raynal: Obviously, I want Phillipe Vachey for the music, the game and I need him.

Streg: with Rosa She meant Rose-Marie, the cow.

Frederick Raynal: Rose-Marie the cow , was Rosa its english name ? (I don't remember other languages names well, sorry) I want more hidden thing like this (i don't mean all of them sexual), A lot of details, like the monster in the aquarium from the picture, came from internal private jokes, I remember some of them which can't be tell.

Atresica: will we get to know more information about Twinsun? For example, a bit of the history (we know there were pirates, yaaargh!) or the rise of Funfrock?

Frederick Raynal: LBA3 should tell more about the past of Funfrocks and some other quickly mentionned past stories

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I already sent this answer twice ?

insane_cobra: will there be sections where players will take control of other characters, apart from Twinsen?

Frederick Raynal: Be able to control Twinsen, Zoe and Arthur and may be others characters can be good isn't it ?

Twinsen: will you make LBA 3 more "realistic" ?

Frederick Raynal: LBA3 will be more realistic, yes it will but don't panic it's just a question of the meaning of realistic, LBA will keep its style.

Atresica: will we get to know more information about Twinsun? For example, a bit of the history (we know there were pirates, yaaargh!) or the rise of Funfrock?



Frederick Raynal: You mean what happened to the Funfrock's clone you killed in the first one ?

Thomas S Wrobel: As a developer, I am curious about what you think of online distribution for games.

Frederick Raynal: Online distribution is a real good alternative for developpers. but stores exposure still is the best promotion for a new game.

I have to leave, I'll post here an email adress and may be more answers.

Thank you very much to everybody, special thanks to Dimitris, Ahmad, MBN, and contributors to the contest who will ear from me

Bye,
Frederick.