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Note: This is Day 1 of “The Whispered World Week” at The Slowdown.
Cover Art
This week, after a brief stretch of inactivity, The Slowdown prepares to turn its knobs to full blast with five days solely dedicated to the German-made, apocalyptic fantasy point and click adventure, The Whispered World!
I consider this week, from the 19th to the 23rd, just as much a return to my gaming roots - the adventure game genre - as it is a gesture towards the game’s only true leading man, lead artist and designer Marco Hüllen, who has in my mind received far too little attention in the English-language press for his imperative contributions to the game’s development. His omission from the game’s marketing discourse, in a way, is an example of the disconnection in-between different subsections of gamers as demarcated by language.
Therefore, the week starts with full force tomorrow, Tuesday the 20th, with a detailed timeline of the astonishing six-year development history of the game, detailing many of the turning points and pivotal moments of a process that in many ways culminated back in the August of 2009. For comparative purposes, the article also contains rare screenshots from the original demo version way back from 2005!
Sadwick and Spot
On Wednesday, we will be posting a translation of our one-on-one interview with the game’s lead artist and original designer, Marco Hüllen. Among the topics discussed were the scholastic origins of the game, Hüllen’s past and present influences, the role that the infamous Bad Brain Entertainment played in the game’s development, and the formative origins of the protagonist, Sadwick the clown. Finally, we’ll at once discover the true nature of Sadwick’s sidekick, Spot!
For Thursday, I have prepared a thickly descriptive interpretation - a review, if you will - of the very generously paced demo of The Whispered World that is currently available for download from Deep Silver.
And to seal the deal, Friday the 23rd (the game’s EU release date) comes with a tiny surprise!
Note: This post will be updated with links to the respective articles to reflect the state of the upcoming coverage, so stay tuned for more! I hope you will all enjoy these articles as much as I have enjoyed working with Mr. Hüllen for the past few weeks!
[…] was Whispered World week at the Slowdown, with lots of stuff about this adventure game’s six (Count ‘em!) year development. If you […]