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GOG’s presentation at CDP Days brought [url=http://www.gog.com/en/news/heres_a_video_recap_of_gogs_presentation]a lot of exciting news. So much, in fact, that some of it might slip your notice, except this one: the original Alone in the Dark trilogy is again available to every PC gaming fan. To celebrate the arrival of those great titles, Cook decided to write up a retrospective article on how the first part in this cult series was created with a short interview with Frederick Raynal - the person who stood behind the creation process of the first part.
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MichaelPalin: So, does it mean that Alon in the Dark 2 is just a cheap cash-in of the first one?
It is actually a quite good game but different. I thought the third one was ok at best (never finished it while I love the first one).

Also, thank you GoG for this interview, it is very interesting.
Post edited April 16, 2011 by sebarnolds
Nice review and games were awesome too they haven't aged very elegantly, but if you can see past the clunky controls great fun (the double tap running never seemed to work for me i saw it as feature it was kind of scary when you couldn't run and everything was out to get you :D ).
I would have liked to have seen what the game designers had to say about the justly infamous movie version.
Next time you guys talk to him, ask him about all the extra stuff you didn't get.
Like the newspapers and playing cards that were included with the games.
And of course keep the interviews and such coming, always interesting.
Cook, it appears you have not played Amnesia.
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chautemoc: Cook, it appears you have not played Amnesia.
True, I haven't played it, YET ;)
Talked to Resil, the biggest fan of adventure-horror games in the company, about Amnesia and he sincerely recommends it as well, so I have no excuse not to play it.
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Cook: True, I haven't played it, YET ;)
Talked to Resil, the biggest fan of adventure-horror games in the company, about Amnesia and he sincerely recommends it as well, so I have no excuse not to play it.
I can't recommend it enough. It actually beats the pants off Silent Hill 2+3 for sheer terror and that's saying something, I think. Hopefully we see it on GOG one day.

PS: great feature. Very interesting to see the business side behind this stuff. It's a shame when publishers don't respect creators and just see them as money generating machines. Yuck.
Post edited April 16, 2011 by chautemoc
Wow, Infogrames was really a shitty place to work in... Bruno Bonnell managed to screw up both Christophe de Dinechin and Frederick Raynal...

"After that, Frederick and most of the team left Infogrames to found Adeline Software and create another hugely successful franchise: Relentless (also known as Little Big Adventure)."

And now PLEASE, give us Little Big Adventure 1 and 2 GOG!!!
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Eclipse: Wow, Infogrames was really a shitty place to work in... Bruno Bonnell managed to screw up both Christophe de Dinechin and Frederick Raynal...

"After that, Frederick and most of the team left Infogrames to found Adeline Software and create another hugely successful franchise: Relentless (also known as Little Big Adventure)."

And now PLEASE, give us Little Big Adventure 1 and 2 GOG!!!
Well, that was 1992. Games was still crawling and horror theme game was quite unique and niche. Company probably thought that popularity of that genre was temporary and just used it to produce other games. That was wrong decision , but that business has a lot of them. On the other hand we we wouldn't have LBA.
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v1989: Well, that was 1992. Games was still crawling and horror theme game was quite unique and niche. Company probably thought that popularity of that genre was temporary and just used it to produce other games. That was wrong decision , but that business has a lot of them. On the other hand we we wouldn't have LBA.
I wasn't referring to the engine thing, but to the fact that they refused to give proper recognition to their staff. If you read about Alpha Waves in Christophe de Dinechin blog post about it ( http://grenouille-bouillie.blogspot.com/2007/10/dawn-of-3d-games.html ) you can read how Infogrames was actually quite shady at the time, delaying the payments or refusing to pay him altogether...

Anyway I agree with you, even if I love the first Alone in the Dark, I'm glad Raynal left, Little Big Planet 2 is one of my favourite games ever, side by side with Another World and Outcast
Great interview, thanks!
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chautemoc: Cook, it appears you have not played Amnesia.
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Cook: True, I haven't played it, YET ;)
Talked to Resil, the biggest fan of adventure-horror games in the company, about Amnesia and he sincerely recommends it as well, so I have no excuse not to play it.
Go play Amnesia, it's fantastic.
But Bruno Bonnel came and told me what’s the company’s direction: “don’t change anything, just modify a little bit the story and it will sell, because it’s a sequel.”

And people complain about dumbing down. It's always been going on people.
This isn't exactly GOG's area, but speaking of Fredrick Raynal, I sure hope for a Little Big Adventure 3 one day.
Nice article. I try not to get into the PC vs. console flame wars, but I hate how the mainstream gaming media thinks that Resident Evil started the survival-horror genre. I remember when Resident Evil came out, and I recognized it then for what it was - an inferior copy of Alone in the Dark. Of course, that series got much better over time, but AitD and its designers deserve credit for their originality.