The Journey Down
| The Journey Down | |
|---|---|
| Studio | Skygoblin |
| Publisher | Skygoblin |
| Senior Developer | Theodor Waern |
| composer | Simon D'Souza |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
May 18, 2012 |
| platform | iOS , Linux , Mac OS , PlayStation 4 , Windows , Xbox One |
| Game engine | Gobby |
| genre | Point-and-click adventure |
| control | Keyboard & mouse, touchscreen |
| medium | Download |
| language | English |
The Journey Down is a point-and-click adventure from the Swedish development studio Skygoblin. It's divided into three episodes, the first of which was released in 2012 for Windows , Mac OS , Linux, and iOS .
action
Chapter 1: Over the Edge
Bwana and Kito run a loss-making charter airline. The two were abandoned in their youth by their adoptive father Kaonandodo, who suddenly disappeared without a trace. One day the two of them are visited by a young lady named Lina, who, guided by the archeology professor Moorhead, is looking for a lost book with which one can find the mysterious Underland. Bwana can help Lina find the book. With Kito's help, he repairs the company's aircraft. Just as two gangsters show up, who are also after the book and have followed Lina's trail to Bwana and Kito, the plane can be started and the two brothers flee together with Lina towards Underland.
Chapter 2: Into the Mist
The plane with Bwana, Kito and Lina on board crashes near the port city of Port Artue due to a lack of fuel. All three survive the crash and are rescued by a fishing cutter. In Port Artue, Bwana and Kito are arrested by the local police chief and thrown in prison. The aim of the game is to escape from prison, get the mysterious book, free Lina, get back the plane and reach the Underland. During the game, the player learns more and more about the connection Bwana's father had with his opponents and what he knew about the mysterious Underland.
Chapter 3
In the Underland, Bwana and Lina discover remnants of an ancient culture. It also turns out that the Armando Power Company wants to tap into a mystical source of energy in the Underland and approve of the destruction of the Underland. While Bwana and Kito search for the kidnapped Professor Moorhead in Port Artue and join a rebel group, Lina locates Bwana and Kito's missing foster father, Kaonandodo, in the Underland and goes to Port Artue with him. Just in time, the protagonists can prevent the destruction of the Underland and destroy the arch villain, the chairman of the Armando Power Company.
Game principle and technology
The Journey Down combines pre-rendered 3D figure animations with hand-drawn, partially animated 2D backdrops. With the mouse, the player can move Bwana through the premises and use the mouse buttons to initiate actions that allow the game character to interact with his environment. Bwana can find objects, apply them to the environment or other objects and communicate with NPCs . As the story progresses, more locations will be unlocked.
Production notes
Chapter 1 of the game was originally released as a freeware game in August 2010 . The freeware version appeared in low resolution and was created with the adventure editor AGS . Due to the popularity of the game, including the AGS Award 2010, a self-programmed engine called Gobby was used to create a completely new version of the game, which, in addition to additional content, also contained high-resolution graphics and voice output. In addition, the continuation of the story was tackled. Chapter 1 appeared in May 2012, Chapter 2 in October 2014. In October 2015, Skygoblin started a crowdfunding campaign on the Kickstarter platform in order to raise a good 30,000 euros for the production of Chapter 3; At the end of the campaign, over 40,000 euros were achieved. The publication of the final chapter was announced for September 2016, but was one year late.
A graphic feature of the game are the central African-looking masks that cover the faces of all characters. As the reason for this, designer Waern states that "the faces should concentrate on the essentials and convey emotions in particular".
reception
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The Journey Down scored 74.11% in GameRankings for aggregate ratings . The leading German adventure magazine Adventure-Treff praised the story, ambience and humor, but noted that the game's low budget in terms of graphics, dubbing and minor technical inadequacies was noted. Adventurecorner praised the successful porting to mobile devices. 4Players saw The Journey Down as "an incredibly relaxing affair," but noted minor technical and graphical inadequacies.
The Aggie Awards of the magazine Adventure Gamers won The Journey Down 2017 in the category "Best Graphic Design".
Web links
- Official website
- The Journey Down at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Skygoblin.com: Thoughts on 3D characters in TJD. Retrieved March 3, 2017 .
- ↑ AGS Awards 2010. Accessed December 13, 2014 .
- ↑ Kickstarter Campaign. Retrieved October 1, 2015 .
- ↑ Test of part 1 on Adventure-Treff. Retrieved January 5, 2015 .
- ↑ a b 4Players.de: Test: The Journey Down: Chapter Two. Retrieved May 24, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Adventure-Treff.de: The Journey Down Trilogy. Retrieved May 24, 2019 .
- ↑ a b http://www.adventurecorner.de/reviews/511/the-journey-down-chapter-2
- ↑ http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/27045
- ↑ a b Meta rating at GameRankings.com. Retrieved December 16, 2014 .
- ↑ AdventureGamers.com: The Aggie Awards - The Best Adventure Games of 2017. Retrieved June 30, 2018 .