Inside Zallag

Here comes a new staff member…

At Zallag, we love all types of video games, and it doesn’t matter to have 2D or 3D as long the software is good. I am Julien, Game Designer, and I wish to talk about games on which I spent many hours.

Today this is a tycoon title that was released at the time when the French football team played for real.

Theme Park World [PS]

Welcome to Neverland

Published in 1999, Theme Park World is the spiritual offspring from a long tycoon games linage we owe to Peter Molyneux (Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Fable…). As any good and self-respecting license, this one will have its share of spinoffs – but that’s quite another story.

In this game, the player lands up at the head of an amusement park which looks like the plains of Siberia – and not the roller coasters we all know about. Your main purpose is to open four parks, each one more colorful than the next. Placing trash cans or hiring staff are part of the aspects you must manage to turn your park into a fun place that cannot be ignored.

Free-lance is the future

An advisor will offer his help to guide you now and then. Listen carefully because his advices are wise and useful. Moreover, the old man will give out Golden Keys, i.e. the amusement park’s equivalent to the Oscars, rewarding your efforts. I simply cannot imagine that anybody could restrain himself from cheering after winning a special key thanks to the park’s facilities or the quality of the hamburgers served there. These ‘achievements’ are really helpful to make progress in the game. Indeed, the game offers you to crate four theme parks (Lost Kingdom, Halloween World, Wonderland and Space Zone) which can be unlocked through a given number of Golden Keys.

Business is business, sonny

The very aim of the soft relies on the possibility to handle every single aspect of you park. It is compulsory to manage them on an equal footing because customer dissatisfaction has an impact on your overall customer base. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the hamburgers you sell if you don’t want cherubic darlings to be intoxicated. Just like a Frederick Taylor, you go so far as to plan every free space to improve productivity. It’s a common fact to go even further by offering soft drinks or fast food at an excessive price while people are queuing up. You can even take out prime-rate loans, which can be very precious if you’ve been careless and an attraction needs to be repaired.

Another highlight of the game consists in the possibility to visit your own amusement park. First-person view, even if this one’s outdated, is an excellent idea. It allows the manager to have a break and have fun with people. The only drawback I can make is that you can’t go to every building, only the attractions – but that is already worth it.

The end… justifies the means

To conclude, this game is designed for everyone, from children to grown-ups, thanks to its intuitive and complete interface or its universe full of humor. The fact that you can switch from one universe to the other allows the software to have a strong and lasting appeal. I can’t count how many hours I did spend analyzing the market, taking out loans. The same goes for paying refunds… doesn’t it? Well, Theme Park World has left me with a bunch of excellent memories at the time of the first Playstation. That game that took my life for a while, you know. It’s strange how, all of a sudden, it changed my viewpoint on trash cans and arcade games I come across. I remember I was fan of the killer combo snacks/fountains – building a fountain at the center of the park still is my favorite strategy.

The main drawback about this tycoon game stands for all games of the genre: you have to clear your data if you want to create a new park. That’s logical. But I simply could not resign myself to quit my first amusement park for which I invested so much time and energy. I have always preferred to embellish it rather than to open new ones.

Hello all!

Today we decided to make a little extra to Pia’s preview on Gameblog, by explaining you the gameplay systems. So we introduce you to the various types of characters who populate the universe of our game: Gods vs Humans.

The software offers to play four mythologies in total, with special divine powers destined to weaken the pillars of the tower to bring it down. No humans were harmed during the development of this game! You have to take care because you can alter their mood if you overdo it. All peons work on the same bases: there are distinct categories, each peon having his own purpose.

1/ The Protector: He moves from one floor to another with the sole purpose of getting in our way. At any time, he may brandish a defensive relic (sponge, ladle, fire extinguisher or magnet). When the item’s health points are depleted, he discards it and must wait some time before being able to brandish another defensive relic.

2/ The Carrier: He provides the resources required to build the tower.

3/ The Builder: He builds the pillars for each level of the tower, one after the other. He also knows how to repair and consolidate the levels in no time!

4/ The Blacksmith: He only enters the tower once the forge is built. He then settles down to build the battering ram which the humans will use to destroy the portal leading to your realm. To make him leave the tower, destroy his forge before he’s done with the ram!

5/ The Construction Supervisor: He relentlessly watches over the units and drives them to work harder. When he stands on his spot, Builders work faster and Protectors do not have to wait to brandish yet another defensive relic.

6/ The Champion: When the tower is almost entirely built, he enters the tower on the first level and starts climbing towards the summit. To prevent him from reaching your realm, strike him with your offensive powers to destroy his armor. He’ll be weary, indeed!

7/ The Evil Priest: He enters the tower when humans feel too happy to his liking. When he reaches his spot, he preaches evil to lower the humans’ mood.

8/ The Good Priest: This unit walks around the tower when he believes that the humans are too angry. He preaches good in order to improve the general mood… This one is a precious ally!

So, this is how the things work out

Do not hesitate to give us some feedback!

Hello there,

We’re working hard to open our e-store on the official website; but we have something great to tell you today As you know, we publish games for the Wii. Until now, we helped good games like Advanced Circuits (Facebook) to have more visibility in the on-line store of the DSi. However, this never prevented us from liking atypical games on the Nintendo portable hardware.

That’s why we’re proud to announce we have just been credited “DSiWare Developer & Publisher” by Nintendo! It’s time to think about game concepts we’ve been keeping up our sleeve…

We just can’t wait!

The first audio commercials for a game by Zallag have been aired on podcasts of GamingUnion website. We decided to work with the creators of these radio programs, partly due to the overall quality of their podcasts, but also because they are able to make such funny ads from basic ideas. They had total freedom starting from simple themes and guiding principles. We enjoyed so much the result that we decided to share the news with you!

In fact, the commercials are based on two distinct formats: 15 seconds and 30 seconds, and spots changing with every month. For July, we chose to talk about Racers’ Islands games (and particularly Crazy Racers). In the next couple of months, you will discover new commercials on Gods vs Humans, and I can tell you we have quite a lot of exquisite sound effects to use

You can go listen to them at http://www.gamingunion.net/podcasts/

Enjoy!

Hello,

Last week on Thursday, you could see the very first page in color of the Gods vs Humans comic book. The whole set of strips has been sketched and inked; now Piccolo works hard to offer a colorful album. Here’s some “pictorial evidence” showing two new pages from the comic book!

(Please note the comic book will be translated)

Good afternoon,

After inking the whole strips, cartoonist Piccolo is beginning to color the pages from the Gods vs Humans comic book We’re getting closer to final result… As a special gift for all Inside Zallag visitors, here’s the first strip! (please note an English version will be available, as well as a German and Spanish one)

Don’t hesitate to give us some feedback

We love video games at Zallag, recent and old school ones. This topic goes well beyond our own titles; we often talk about our retro favorites. That’s why we have decided to share it with you when we have time. Each one in turn, staff members will review a favorite. Today, it’s me, Benjamin from the marketing team, to inaugurate this new “section” of the blog with an adventure game that blew my mind!

Landstalker: the Treasure of King Nole [Genesis]

Call for adventure!

Lovers of adventure games from the 8-bit era certainly remind the sheer emotion of discovering the Legend of Zelda series on Nintendo consoles. Back in the 90s, a merciless war for supremacy went on against Sega during the 16-bit generation, with a high-level face-off between the SNES and the Genesis. In the US, some people chanted “Genesis does what Nintendon’t” on TV commercials. But the innovative gameplay and the quality of action-adventure games released on SNES (in particular A Link to the Past) forced Sega to react. In 1992, a title of Climax Entertainment studios stood out as the spearhead of the firm with the blue hedgehog: Landstalker.

In this game, you embody an elf: Nigel, a brave treasure hunter. In the opening sequence, he puts his talents to the test in the Jypta Ruins, a most hazardous route leading to a golden statuette. Back in town, he sells it to an elder shop owner when he meets a wood nymph called Friday. She reveals him the existence of a fantastic treasure, hidden somewhere on the island of Mercator. Both characters decide to team up and take away this fabulous booty!

A technical achievement, an original gameplay

Landstalker is one of my very first RPGs. It occupies a particular place in my collection, and the fact it was entirely translated into French in 1993 certainly has a lot to do with it. I can’t figure how much time I spent re-playing the game over and over! The hero is charismatic and secondary characters are charming. The plot becomes fascinating soon enough. It is a pleasure to wander in such colorful sets rendered by really awesome graphics On a technical point of view, it’s a good job too: there is no lag in the various animated sequences. It’s appreciated since they bring a nice touch of humor.

Some people might only see in it the average RPG features in games like Dragon Quest (saving data in church, playing at the casino, mimic chests). Nevertheless, this game delivers a radically different game experience. Indeed, Landstalker is a strong title thanks to its originality, which above relies on its isometric 3D display. Beyond the dynamic aspect it confers to this action-RPG, it grants a whole outfit of enigmas playing on perspectives; e.g. the Green Maze (you’ll find some speed runs on the Internet). Another special feature is the evolution curve of the character. Here, you have no experience points but an accumulation of “Life Stocks” instead. You will find them in chests or for sale in stores; each one grants an additional life point and strengthens your attacks. The rest is rather standard: you open a menu to access to your equipment, potions and magic objects.

Some obvious drawbacks, but a great result nonetheless

The game suffers from some imperfections, in particular on platforms. The gameplay can be hard to handle, for the absence of shadows makes jumping over the void somehow impossible without practice (both notions of height and depth are lost). This is mainly due to controls: the movement of the hero passes by the diagonals of the pad alone! This over-challenging aspect of the game can be too much for classic-RPG lovers. In addition, don’t expect to have a comprehensive item list. Neither will you have any magic spell. But that makes Landstalker all much clearer and smoother.

The storyline is simple. One can tell its charm is omnipresent though. This aspect of the game is most important to me. The game involves a lot of humor and challenge. It’s a shame this underestimated nugget is not blooming on Genesis games compilations or on Microsoft and Sony consoles. A PSP remake was planned but seems abandoned for some years now. On the other hand, those who have access to WiiWare have the opportunity to discover a game which is not a mere Zelda-like. In the end, don’t be afraid by its challenging gameplay: the freshness of the plot will bring you to master the controls and will captivate all your attention for a long time (15 to 30 hours to finish the game). Just go for it!

Hello,

On this Monday morning, let’s have a quick look at another strip from our Beyond Pixelz series. Here is how game concepts are presented to the team…

Hello all !

We are pleased to unveil the first official teaser for our game Crazy Racers!  We also invite you to visit our VIDEO column for a little more. It’s within a mouse clic, on the upper-right corner of the screen.

A penny for your thoughts! Do not hesitate to comment.