Game Chronicles Magazine

In this not so distant past, the far side of the moon conjured up the most fascinating theories. Even some of the world’s greatest scientific minds believed that our natural satellite had an atmosphere that could, and did, support various life forms. Based on the premise of Verne's novel, VOYAGE follows as a group of scientists create a space capsule with the intent of landing on the moon’s surface. Where as in the novel, their mission fails, leaving them floating high above the lunar surface, in this fascinating adventure, they succeed!

As scientist Michel Ardan, players are able to wander the surface of the moon and witness the explosion of plant life at dawn. Soon they will encounter the Selenite City, the home of an ancient but highly intelligent race, the Selenites. With each step of the journey, questions arise as to the fate of the Selenite people: Did they deteriorate, like so many of the statues they left behind? Did they leave the surface to seek refuge in the center of the moon? Once players answer these questions, they may find their way to back to earth with news of their fantastic discoveries.

Features:

Explore various fantastic locations including: the space capsule, lunar surface, the ancient temple, mysterious ruins, the subterranean civilization inside the moon, and the Selenite City
Journey through a beautifully created world and solve an array of ingenious puzzles
Discover the built-in Intelligence Management system – each relevant action and each puzzle solved increases your score; the higher your score, the greater respect shown to you by the Selenite people
Interact with a cast of characters from the mysterious Selenite race

Game Chronicles takes a look at this innovative 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 Voyage.
Benoīt Hozjan: I'm Benoīt Hozjan, Managing Director and co-founder of Kheops Studio, Voyage has been developed by the same team as “Return to Mysterious Island” (RtMI), even if it is not a sequel, you will find the same spirit.

GCM: For our readers who are unfamiliar with the Jules Verne novel, can you briefly explain the premise behind this adventure game?
Benoīt Hozjan: After the War of the Rebellion had come to an end, Jules Verne tells us, the ensuing peace drove a club of inactive artillerymen to launch a projectile up to the moon. Three heroes took their place inside the projectile for what was supposed to be a one-way trip to the moon, but a chance encounter with an asteroid modified their trajectory. Instead of reaching the moon, Verne's heroes orbited the moon once before falling back to earth. They spent most of their journey peering out of the windows, looking at the close yet out-of-reach surface of the moon, coming up with several fascinating theories, but which they could not actually go and check under real conditions. The novel's characters were denied the chance of landing on the moon, but not so for the player.
Our game is based on the same premise as Verne's novel, the one exception being that our projectile lands on the moon. The player, who is onboard the craft, will therefore be able to check out the theories of the novel's characters. Wandering the surface of a moon with an unstable but breathable atmosphere, players witness the explosion in plant life at dawn. Then they discover the presence of animals, followed by the ruins of a temple built by some high-intelligence race. But what happened to the beings that built it? Did they degenerate, as suggested by looking at some of the sculptures? Did they leave the surface to seek refuge in the center of the moon? It is down to the player to find the answer to these questions and then come up with a way of getting back to earth with news of the fantastic discoveries.

GCM: Obviously this is a “what if” scenario that follows an alternate path from the book. Once you departed from the original story, where did the design team get its inspiration for the plot and the gameplay?
Benoīt Hozjan: We were effectively influenced by different sources about Aliens and the Moon, including Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, Wells' “The First Men in the Moon”, Melies' B&W movie and also Tim Burton's Mars Attack for the warped side. We were interested in letting the player discover the Moon like Jules Verne dreams it. That's why it is very different from what we know about the Moon in 2005. The idea was also to keep the same interface and gameplay as RtMI.

GCM: Does Voyage try to scientifically explain phenomena like a “breathable atmosphere” on the moon, or is this purely a fantasy adventure?
Benoīt Hozjan: This is a phenomenon explained just after the chaotic landing. And don't forget that this possibility was invoked inside Verne's novels. See http://jv.gilead.org.il/pg/moon/20.html

Evidence of the existence of an atmosphere on the moon are well known ! As Michel Ardan states (From Earth to Moon - Ch XX) "In 1715 the astronomers Louville and Halley, watching the eclipse of the 3rd of May, remarked some very extraordinary scintillations. These jets of light, rapid in nature, and of frequent recurrence, they attributed to thunderstorms generated in the lunar atmosphere.”
"A skillful French astronomer, M. Laussedat, in watching the eclipse of July 18, 1860, probed that the horns of the lunar crescent were rounded and truncated. Now, this appearance could only have been produced by a deviation of the solar rays in traversing the atmosphere of the moon. There is no other possible explanation of the facts.”
So, we conclude with Michel that there is indeed an atmospher on the moon "That atmosphere is, probably, of extreme rarity; nevertheless at the present day science generally admits that it exists.”
“No! but at the bottom of the valleys, and not exceeding a few hundred feet in height.”
We only know one side of the moon’s disc; and if there is but little air on the face presented to us, it is possible that there is plenty on the one turned away from us.”
“And for what reason?”
“Because the moon, under the action of the earth’s attraction, has assumed the form of an egg, which we look at from the smaller end. Hence it follows, by Hausen’s calculations, that its center of gravity is situated in the other hemisphere. Hence it results that the great mass of air and water must have been drawn away to the other face of our satellite during the first days of its creation.”
This is a good example to see how we kept the spirit of the novel with a different story.

GCM: What steps are being taken to keep the gameplay fresh and not just another “point-n-click adventure game”?
Benoīt Hozjan: The idea was to keep the spirit of RtMI, so we were confident when we have started to read reviews and all the good feedback we have received. So you will discover that once again, it is possible to change the order of what you have to do. You will also have a scoring system and almost the same inventory interface where you can combine items. To go farther, the player will have to learn the lunar language to be able to communicate. You will also discover a strong background around the lunars, including social and cultural elements.

GCM: Michel Ardan is the lead character, but will we get to play as anyone else or work together as a team of scientist to solve puzzles?
Benoīt Hozjan: Michel is, in our game, the only human alive. During the first part of the game, the player will have to solve an investigation to find why Barbicane and Nicoll are dead.

GCM: Can you give us one or two examples of some puzzles we might find in Voyage and how they integrate into the gameplay? Will there be any type of built-in hint system?
Benoīt Hozjan: Some of them are based on gravity, and some are logical puzzles to learn how to use the lunar numerical system. Some puzzles are more difficult than RtMI's but the solution can be seen on the screen or explained during dialog.

GCM: Can you explain a bit about the intelligence management system and how it works?
Benoīt Hozjan: The scoring system in RtMI was great and we wanted to keep this funny feature, which is very important from a replayability point of view. In RtMI the more things you do or you discover, the more points you win. For Voyage, you have the universe famous “lunar IQ”. For instance, during a quiz, players who answer randomly should have fewer points. Players will be not restricted, but it will take them more time to progress.
Like in RtMI the player will have different ways to enter in a new room, sometimes clues are very subtle but almost each time there is 2 or 3 clues to solve a challenge and a higher IQ may help you. We hope that like RtMI, players will try to increase their score and certainly share their experience through forums. We thanks active RtMI players for their participation in adventure forums, it was very interesting to follow their progression. We will also give some clues if some parts are considered too difficult.

GCM: From what we’ve seen so far the visuals are quite stunning. What can you tell us about the musical score, composer, etc. and how will sound complement the experience?
Benoīt Hozjan: You will have to use music to communicate. The main theme is evocating and fits the strange atmosphere of this game.

GCM: Voyage promises a captivating story and a large cast of characters to interact with. About how long do you expect the adventure to last for the average gamer?
Benoīt Hozjan: This time, the lifespan should be more than 20 hours for an expert, and certainly 30 to 35 hours for an average gamer. The game is bigger than expected and we had to work very hard to test as much as possible. We hope that players will play the game twice or more, because they will see more and more details each time and they will understand how rich the background is.

GCM: Thank you again for your time. Do you have any final words for our readers regarding Voyage?
Benoīt Hozjan: We will really appreciate it if everyone keeps the final surprise at the very end of the game a secret.