Interview with Victor from Croquetasesina Studios
Hello! Thank you for agreeing to the interview! Before we talk about your game please introduce yourself and let us know your favourite adventure games.
My name is Victor Parejo, project manager for The Adventures of The Black Hawk. I’m a composer by profession and a true lover of graphic adventures since I was a child. I started playing my first graphic adventure when I was still a kid in the early '90s. The first graphic adventure that fell into my hands was The Secret of Monkey Island. I had always been passionate about adventure stories and putting myself in the shoes of a pirate turned out to be something exciting. I enjoyed that adventure so much that I began to interact with some friends who were also passionate about these kinds of games.
It was a surprise when I discovered that in addition, my favorite movie, Indiana Jones, had a game of the same style as Monkey Island. I spent weekends near my computer breaking my head until I passed the adventures that fell into my hands. I remember with special affection Maniac Mansion (in this case I played it on the NES) and Broken Sword and the Shadow of the Templars (for PSone). But if I really must say which stood out the most among them all for me, I will finally decide with Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
When did you decide you wanted to make adventure games and how did you first get involved?
It was around 2004 that I decided to try to create my first graphic adventure. Back then I had little experience in art projects and I just tried to do something amateur, using for my own adventure graphics from other Lucasarts video games, of which I was truly in love and with no greater intention than to enjoy only the creative process. It was exciting for me to bring to life the characters I had so much enjoyed playing with and create a new story for them. Adventure’s World was the name of that adventure. I mixed different backgrounds and characters from Lucasarts and Sierra and tried to save the world from the classic graphic adventures, which was gradually being forgotten.
It was really fun having that first contact with video game development.
Have you worked on other games before you started working on this game?
Until now I have produced several audiovisual productions such as documentaries, short films or advertising spots and I have never produced my own video game in its entirety. However I had already worked as a musical composer for other classic style graphic adventures as well as ours.
When did you start working on this game?
I started writing the project script in mid-2019. Meanwhile I tried to contact people who would like to join the project in all areas: graphic designers, animators, composers, scripters and marketing people. At first it was a bit difficult to find people who really understood the style of the game. Many of the people I met were too young to have played the adventures of Lucasarts and, despite being great pixelart artists, could not find the exact style I was asking for. During the first few months there was a great selection process in the artistic section, both for graphics and music.
What is your role in the team?
I do more than I would like, hahaha. I am mainly the general manager of the project and the screenwriter. I supervise and coordinate the different sections of the video game and help with basic programming. In addition, I am currently running social networks.
Please tell us the name and story of the game.
The Adventures of The Black Hawk
France, 1789. Beginning of the French Revolution. Revolution is in the air in the Burgundy region. The nobility abuse the peasant class and consumes its resources, abusing the power they have. The atmosphere of hostility and decadence among the population of Dijon is increasing. Meanwhile, the figure of The Black Hawk appears, a masked man who threatens the rich, stealing their excessive belongings and returning to the people what is theirs. Surprisingly, the Black Hawk turns out to be Jean-Pierre de Saint Cove, a nobleman in a relevant social position who uses his status to know the weaknesses of the nobility and thus be able to carry out his own reckoning. Jean-Pierre, as the Black Hawk, lives in a house in the middle of the forest, leading a life in the forest, following the principles of Rousseau or Voltaire.
In this situation, our protagonist must try to overthrow the regime of injustice by carrying out a social revolution.
From this moment begins our exciting adventure full of humor, to try to help our protagonist solve the mysteries of the village, to discover the secrets of the Court and definitely return to the people what belongs to them.
What were your inspirations for the game?
The artistic style is clearly influenced by the graphic adventures of Lucasarts, our clear graphic reference. We have tried to mix various artistic concepts from three games: The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Touché: The Fifth Musketeer, which we believe had a style very similar to Lucasarts' game.
The music has had as reference to John Williams, bridging the distances, of course, with his leitmotivs associated with scenes or characters and Michael Land as to the sonority of his first adventures.
As for the script, our main references were clearly two. The book by Alexander Dumas called The Black Tulip and the film of the same name, about a masked French character trying to do justice at the time of the Revolution.
However these are only ambient references, because our story is full of humour, irony and a lot of comic disgrace.
Who are the main characters and what are their objectives in the game?
Our protagonist is a young hero with a dual personality. On the one hand he is a character who is part of the nobility, an aristocrat with power and good social standing who joins the rulers who abuse the lower society. On the other hand, he is a humble peasant who, from the background, fights for the social rights of equality, freedom and fraternity in order to restore justice to the people.
Can you tell us anything about other characters we may meet?
In our opinion, you will adore more than one character for their personality. Each of them has a totally different very marked character. In addition, we think it will be interesting to be able to control more than one character at certain times if we want the revolution to succeed.
What type of puzzles and what level of difficulty can we expect in the game?
We don’t want the difficulty to be too simple, but we don’t want to complicate things so much that we lose our minds trying to solve a puzzle and that makes us forget the plot of the game. We assure you that you will have fun looking for different alternatives to overcome a puzzle, that not everything will be easy and obvious and that sometimes, the most unlikely situation will be the solution. We will try to amuse the most demanding audience that has already played so many other graphic adventures.
The graphics look beautiful! Please tell us what kind of graphics are in the game and why you chose this particular style?
As lovers of the adventures of Lucasarts we decided it was time to create another graphic adventure with a completely original script, with the same gameplay and fun as those of yesteryear, but also with some graphics that for years had almost hypnotized us. We understand that this type of graphics has a very special and concrete audience and that not everyone will understand that in 2020 video games with pixel art drawn, but we want to be faithful to the style of the first graphic adventures because we consider that much of the charm. Besides the script, it was precisely this graphic style.
What kind of music will the game use?
As a musician and composer, I was clear about the kind of music I wanted for this game. I needed a clear leitmovif associated with our protagonist that developed with different motives throughout the adventure. In addition, I needed different styles associated with each scene that could provide a personality of their own at every moment and place. Having this clear, as a base, we look for retro sounds, typical of the games of the 90’s. It’s the basis of our sound. In addition, the sound effects are fully integrated with the type of music we have developed, being fully appropriate and recognizable by most of our future players.
Can you tell us which languages the game will be released in?
The game will initially be in three languages: English, Spanish and French. As our development team is spread around the world, we saw the need for translation into at least those three languages. We don’t rule out the Italian translation, although at the moment it’s something we have parked while we finish developing the video game.
Do you have any release date for the game yet?
The expected release date, if we get the kickstarter campaign going in a few weeks is March 2021. It’s the time we need to finish the backgrounds, because, luckily, both the music and the characters are finished and the scripting is very advanced thanks to the work on sketches.
Where can people find out more about the game and your studio?
Soon we will publish the website, coinciding with the launch date of the kickstarter campaign, meanwhile you can find some advances in our social networks:
https://twitter.com/blackhawkadvent
https://www.facebook.com/theblackhawkadventures
https://www.instagram.com/halconnegroaventura/
Edit: The new website is now up and can be found below!