''A Second Face'' is an independently produced adventure game that was created by German developer Jospin Le Woltaire in 2008 and released as

freeware Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the free ...

. It contains elements of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

but also

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

, however it also unifies them with elements of classic

Cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...

and overtones of Enlightenment Thought.

Plot

The story is set on a tide locked planet. The sun-facing side is inhabited by the Strefis, the illuminated ones, while the dark side is populated by the Ugeltz, the people of night. No Ugeltz has ever seen a Strefis however each civilisation remembers the other, in legends. Ugk, the sovereign of the dark realm, has summoned his two sons Rabokk and Torg to send them on a quest that solves the energy problem of the dark side. The dark society depends on a substance called Margin, that is the only energy source and also the main currency of the realm. This substance is running out, because it can't be harvested any longer. Ugk hopes to find a solution for this problem by looking for the legendary realm of light, which could be a new energy source. He offers his position to the son who will succeed in finding the Realm of Light.

History

''A Second Face'' was scripted in

Adventure Game Studio Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is an open source development tool primarily used to create graphic adventure games. It is aimed at intermediate-level game designers, and combines an integrated development environment (IDE) with a scripting language ...

, with puzzles invented during the scripting process. Le Woltaire improvised much of this, starting with some backgrounds and characters until he got ideas for the plot and puzzles. Then the main cut-scenes were written to model the basic plot structure, and then the game was developed non-linearly. "Drawing, CAD-modelling, dramaturgy and scripting were mixed together which was a good way for me to make things grow together." Character design began with a charcoal sketch, then coloured with watercolours. These were scanned and reduced in size to make the characters more detailed. Locations were also sketched, then used as a background reference for 3D-CAD models. These were then digitally edited to match the tone and style of the characters. Characters and locations were hand animated with photo editing software, and limited to six frames to make a compromise between economy and fluid motion. Le Woltaire was influenced by a

city map A city map is a large-scale thematic map of a city (or part of a city) created to enable the fastest possible orientation in an urban space. The graphic representation of objects on a city map is therefore usually greatly simplified, and reduce ...

of ancient

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

for the design for City of Ugeltz.

Gameplay

The plot develops with cinematic cutscenes and gameplay, controlled with a verb coin interface and an inventory-based action system that follows the tradition of classic

point and click games An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

. A characteristic

text box A text box also called an input box, text field or text entry box, is a control element of a graphical user interface, that should enable the user to input text information to be used by a program. Human Interface Guidelines recommend a single ...

makes open dialogues with other game figures possible when a single word is entered.

Awards

''A Second Face'' received 15 nominations for the 2008

AGS Awards Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is an open source development tool primarily used to create graphic adventure games. It is aimed at intermediate-level game designers, and combines an integrated development environment (IDE) with a scripting language ...

. It won a total of three, namely "Best Game Created with AGS", "Best Original Story" and "Best Backgrounds".Adventure Gamers news article about the 2008 AGS awards

References

External links