The Moment of Silence - Official Website

The Moment of Silence is a classic point-and-click 3rd person adventure game set in New York City in 2044. Players step into the role of Peter Wright, an advertising executive currently heading up the Government's 'Freedom of Speech' campaign. When a heavily armed SWAT team storms his neighbor’s apartment, Peter must uncover the truth behind his mysterious disappearance as he becomes drawn into the deceptive worlds of corruption and power.

Moment of Silence marries fully-rendered, animated backdrops with a traditional and intuitive adventure interface, resulting in one of the best-looking examples of adventure gaming in today’s market. The game mixes real-world locations with fictitious environments to create immersive and incredibly varied worlds.

The Moment of Silence offers more than eight hours of professional voice talent for heart-pounding drama that sounds as good as it looks. Traditional adventure puzzles are fused with dialogue choices and moments of high drama, putting the game on par with some of cinema's greatest thrillers, where action sequences are integrated to create a constantly challenging adventure.

Features:

  • Absolutely unique, highly immersive espionage thriller story
  • Pre-rendered backgrounds with spectacular scenes and actions
  • Reminiscent of The Longest Journey
  • Multiple choice dialogues
  • 35+ true-to-life 3D characters with strong biographical background to interact with
  • Fascinating, well researched visions of the near future
  • 75 locations, designed by award-winning CG artists and more than 500 interactive screens
  • 30 minutes of full screen video
  • Lip synchronization using phonetic voice analysis
  • Motion captured animation with real-time facial expressions
Game Chronicles takes a look at this bold new adventure game with an exclusive GCM interview.

GCM: Thank you for your time! Please get us started by introducing yourself and telling us about the team behind The Moment of Silence.
Martin Ganteföhr: Hi! I’m Martin Ganteföhr, co-owner of House of Tales (HOT). I was the writer and director on Moment of Silence. My partner Tobias Schachte; HOT’s technical director, developed the game’s engine and did most of the integration. We coordinated a team of five contractors, LightWorks, Virgin Lands, Dynamedion, Mimetic Lights and metricminds, to get this huge game done in long, and desperate nights. They all did an outstanding job and if you’re reading me right now, guys, thank you all, we love, love you.

GCM: Can you give our readers a brief synopsis of the story in The Moment of Silence and how it influences the gameplay?
Martin Ganteföhr: Sure. The game is about Peter Wright, a communications designer in 2044s New York. He’s currently working on the government's 'Freedom of Speech' campaign. When his neighbour's apartment is stormed by a SWAT team, and never to be seen again. Peter is drawn into a world of corruption, power and global domination.

The story unfolds through conversations, gadget use and puzzle-solving, pretty much known from other classic adventure games. We have paid close attention to the integration of the puzzles into the plot, step-by-step, and day-by-day (of narrated time), Peter slowly uncovers a giant conspiracy.


GCM: The Moment of Silence promises some impressive voice work. What were some of the challenges in matching the actors to the characters?
Martin Ganteföhr: The localization agency, Translocacell from Düsseldorf, had already done the outstanding voice work for the original (German) version of the game. We had worked closely together with them, and I had directed the entire German recordings. That way, we were pretty quick coming up with the actors for the English version as well. We knew which style and mood we were looking for, and I think the attention we put into it really pays off.

GCM: The lip-synching technology is impressive. Is this the first title to use this technology and will it allow for alternate language dubs without reanimating the faces?
Martin Ganteföhr: Yeah, that’s the key benefit to it. The engine can be fed any voice data and will adjust the lip-moves accordingly. It’s a technology that still allows for some improvement, but we’re quite happy with it already. You will definitely see a v2.0 of that in our next game.

GCM: Does the multiple choice dialogue structure mean we can expect branching plotlines and possible alternate endings?
Martin Ganteföhr: Well, the plot branches into some subplots, but not into entirely different story paths. There are some situations that we don’t force players to play, so maybe some of you will find little surprises when replaying. Other than that, the game is fairly linear, however, it does have two endings, and both are very spectacular. :-)

GCM: What single element of The Moment of Silence differentiates this game from any other adventure game that has come before it?
Martin Ganteföhr: Its attitude, I think. MOS has a political perspective and offers a thriller concept that merges fiction and reality. It’s far from the worn-out settings of Egypt mystery and time travel. I hope that it is a refreshing addition to genre in terms of style and meaning. :-)

GCM: Many adventure games seem to feature the same puzzles with only minor variations. What have the designers done this time to create some truly unique “brain teasers?”
Martin Ganteföhr: I won’t tell you, I’d spoil the heck out of all of you.... :-)

What I can say is that brain teasing wasn’t the only goal of the puzzle design in MOS. I was looking for “natural” puzzles, puzzles that would integrate into the story and seem like reasonable, and believable things to do in the context of the game world. Absurdity is a main problem of many adventure game puzzles, and we’ve tried to not create puzzles for the sake of puzzling. Context appropriateness is very important.


GCM: From what we’ve seen so far the visuals are quite stunning with a mix of classic and modern architecture. Did the designers rely on any existing features of New York City to inspire their futuristic vision?
Martin Ganteföhr: We used satellite pictures and maps to plan the structure of the game's locations. The intersection where Peter lives is a real Brooklyn intersection. Also, the two subway stations exist in reality, and so does JFK, of course. I wrote scene descriptions for these "real" scenes, and described the mood and "future" vision I had planned for them. I compiled hundreds of photographs and articles to get across to the artists how I thought Peter's NY looked like. Then the job was completely up to them. They took my ideas and material, and created their vision of that NY. It was really exciting for me to see the results.

GCM: The Moment of Silence promises a captivating story. About how long do you expect the adventure to last for the average gamer?
Martin Ganteföhr: 25 hours. The game is really huge, and although I wouldn’t say it’s very hard, it’s not easy either. It finds a nice middle ground, and the game world is vast. It’ll keep you busy. :-)

GCM: The Moment of Silence boasts a huge cast of characters and hundreds of screens. Is it possibly to see it all in one pass, or will there be incentives for replaying the game?
Martin Ganteföhr: Like I said above, there are some scenes that you can miss on. I don’t how much replay value that actually makes. Those who really love the game (and I hope many of you will) will sure get back to and find some new stuff. Overall, however, it of course remains one story. A huge one, but one.

GCM: Thank you again for your time. Do you have any final words for our readers regarding The Moment of Silence?
Martin Ganteföhr: Thanks to you all! We hope you have just as much fun palying MOS as we had developing it! If you like the game, it won’t be the last - stay tuned for our next project. :-)