SENTINEL: Descendants in Time - Official Website
The Tastan civilization succumbed to extinction many years ago; their only legacy being the mysterious Tastan Caverns. Some believe the caverns hold an invaluable treasure, while others say great wealth is attained through the knowledge and technology left behind by this advanced race.
Take on the role of Beni and•search for the truth as you enter the Caverns on a dangerous quest for riches.
As you begin your strange and perilous journey, a female sentinel, a holographic image with advanced A.I., positioned there by the ancient Tastans to guard their sacred caverns, awakens.She appears throughout your quest with a sometimes benign purpose, but other times with calculated intentions. You will soon realize that behind the mask of illusions, the sentinel is much more than she appears to be - her dark purpose will threaten•your very existence.
Features:
- From the developers of the best-selling adventure games: Mysterious Journey and Mysterious Journey II
- Over 20 mind-bending puzzles
- Various degrees of difficulty: Easy, Medium and Difficult Puzzles
- 8 brilliantly inspired, diverse worlds
- Includes a built-in hint system
- Non-linear style of game play
- Beautifully created, colorfully rich 3D environments - from snow-capped mountains to a land of hot active volcanoes
| GCM: | Thank you for your time. Please start off by introducing yourself and telling us a bit about the people behind Sentinel: Descendents of Time. |
| Maciej Miasik: | My name is Maciej Miasik and I am Detalion’s co-owner and Sentinel’s producer, co-designer and sound designer. Detalion is a young Polish development company formed by seasoned game industry professionals. We specialize in adventure games but occasionally we develop games for other genres. |
| GCM: | Secondly, would you please introduce us to Sentinel’s main character, Beni? |
| Maciej Miasik: |
Beni is a young man named who finds himself in the terrifying situation of being forced to enter the most dangerous tomb of a nearby tomb-field left behind by the long-gone Tastan civilization. During his adolescence, Beni was brave and reckless enough to risk entering a few of the less dangerous Tastan tombs. He found he had a knack for getting in and out unharmed, and, like many kids his age, for a while even dreamed of becoming a great tomb-robber like the famous Ramirez. |
| GCM: | Please give us a sense of Sentinel’s plot. |
| Maciej Miasik: |
There are 85 tombs in the Tastan tomb-field close to the village where Beni lives. Now Doba, a ruthless black-marketeer from a nearby town, has kidnapped Beni’s younger sister Carrie, and promises to release her unharmed only if Beni brings back something valuable from the most dangerous Tastan tomb of all: the terrifying Tomb 35. Sentinel begins with Beni outside this tomb desperately trying to persuade Doba to change his mind. He reminds the overbearing and stubborn crime lord that the Tastan tombs have little by way of treasure in the conventional sense and few easily removable artifacts. The amazing technology of the ancient Tastans is simply beyond the best minds of Beni’s day, completely inaccessible to modern scientists and souvenir hunters. He also reminds the insensitive Doba that even the great Ramirez was barely able to make it out of Tomb 35 with his life. Doba, however, is determined that Beni enter the tomb and return with something. He simply points at his bodyguard who holds Carrie captive. Beni has no choice. With Doba’s not altogether convincing reassurance that Carrie will be released unharmed once he has gone inside, Beni enters the access chamber of Tomb 35. It isn’t long before he meets the holographic avatar of the Tastan woman whose tomb it is. The mysterious people who created these amazing hi-tech tombs were able to upload the personality of the tomb’s occupant into its defense system. Are these the occupants themselves, coded into the structures as actual entities, or just simulations? No-one can be sure. The avatar of Tomb 35 - what is known as an ‘intercept’ - appears as a beautiful woman named Tamara. She has become something of a legend among Beni’s people as the “Dormeuse,” or “Sleeping Woman.” Having teased Beni a little, even offering to let him go free if he turns back immediately, they introduce themselves to each other, though Beni knows that any such gentle and kindly behavior is also part of a careful defense strategy. Like all Tastan tombs, Tomb 35 is a series of chambers connected by conventional doors and teleportation portals, and usually featuring ‘samplings’ of the special domains the owner cherished in life. Located within each arrangement of chambers will be a central chamber where the occupant’s actual remains are said to be housed. Because in life these sampled domains were inevitably different from owner to owner, no Tastan tomb is identical to another. It is because of the nature of the samplings in this particular tomb, and the legendary ruthlessness of the Sleeping Woman defense program itself, that Tomb 35 is so feared. |
| GCM: | Will there be other characters to interact with other than the Sentinel? |
| Maciej Miasik: | No. In the tomb Tamara is the only character Beni occasionally meets. |
| GCM: | How will the story be told (In-game cut scenes, CGI, etc.) and how much dialogue would you say Sentinel contain in total? |
| Maciej Miasik: | The story is told via about 20 cut scenes, shown from Beni’s point of view. The player will also gather more background information about Tamara and her domains by collecting special items containing Tamara’s voice recordings. |
| GCM: | Sentinel: Descendents of Time, will be using real-time, 3D graphics. Why was it decided to take this route and how will the player navigate the in-game world? |
| Maciej Miasik: |
Actually we decided to switch to real-time 3D with our previous game - Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon. We wanted to move the genre technologically forward, to keep it up to the date with other genres. Adventure games have pretty long life spans, but usually the technology behind them ages much faster then the games, and with real-time 3D we should be able to keep them attractive a bit longer. It also simplifies the development - game design and puzzles are more tweakable in the later stages. We also didn’t like treating adventures like some older, inferior games, not on par with modern standards. Because our audience expects easy navigation, the game can be entirely controlled with the mouse - the mouse movements control the view, one button moves the leading character - this is the first person view game, other button uses items and objects. Of course we are supporting the keyboard controls as well for those who play other first person perspective games such as first person shooters. That interface proved to be very effective and intuitive to many adventure gamers. |
| GCM: | Please describe for us the settings you have created for Sentinel: Descendants of Time. How large would you say that the in-game world is? |
| Maciej Miasik: | The player will explore eight completely different locations, starting from large underground tomb located in the cave, through air floating structures, ice covered mountain peaks, and underwater pavilions. Each location contains 2 or 3 structural, environmentally integrated puzzles. The locations itself are not that large because we had to maintain acceptable polygon counts and offer enough of details, but they should satisfy genre lovers. |
| GCM: | What lessons from the development of the Schizm series have gone into the creation of Sentinel? |
| Maciej Miasik: | We decided that it’s time to modify and tweak the licensed engine a bit to get some new effects. We also know how utilize the engine capabilities more effectively to get even more impressive visual and sonic results. |
| GCM: | Please give us a feel for the type of puzzles that players will be running into. |
| Maciej Miasik: | Most of the time you will operate various machines, learn how they work and overcome any obstacles in you journey through the tomb. Sometimes the action required will be simple, just pressing a few buttons in correct order, but sometimes you will have to collect many clues, visual or sonic, and use them to open a passage. These are the puzzles expected in the game developed by Detalion. |
| GCM: | What do you see as separating Sentinel apart from other adventure games currently on the market? |
| Maciej Miasik: | Well, there are not much of those, are there? Sentinel is a solid puzzle-oriented adventure, based on a great science-fiction story written by Australian master of that genre - Terry Dowling. The game offers over 20 puzzles, mostly object and machine based, integrated with impressive environments. It should offer satisfying mental challenges combined with interesting areas to explore. Simply saying - a lot of fun for adventure aficionados. |
| GCM: | Please tell us about the audio portion of Sentinel in terms of atmospheric sounds, musical score, and voice acting. |
| Maciej Miasik: | Actually the audio part of the Jupiter engine has been replaced by much better code, allowing for high level audio scripting. Thanks to that, we will be able to create extremely rich sonic soundscapes, consisting with many looped ambient sounds and randomly triggered 3D sounds. Our musician, the same guy who did the music for MJ 1 & 2, is working on extremely subtle ambient music tracks which would enhance the already rich audio. |
| GCM: | Thank you again for your time! Would you care the end this Q&A with any last impressions or thoughts for our readers? |
| Maciej Miasik: | I believe that modern adventure games, like Sentinel, using up-to-date technologies only prove that the genre still has a potential, is alive and kicking, and is a good alternative for many players who are not fond of killing various creatures and waging wars. |
