Following on from the previous post, it's time to look at which game was my second favourite to be involved with. This one goes back to the 1990s and the Psygnosis days. PlayStation games made up a lot of Psygnosis business in the early days of the consoles lifecycle in Europe. At one point Psygnosis titles accounted for 40% of all PlayStation software sales with games like wipEout, Assault Rigs, Krazy Ivan and Formula 1. At the same time, the company was still heavily committed to it's multi-platform origins and dedication to PC. I felt the title I put at #2 should come from that era.
Above: A selection of box artworks, screenshots and promotional posters for various games I've worked on that have been published or developed by Psygnosis in Europe.
Released in 1995, landing at #2, it's:
I could have easily put Discworld II here. Both were excellent games at the time. It feels right to pick the original release though. I've been a fan of the point & click adventure genre since Maniac Mansion on the C64. When those of us in the German office heard that Psygnosis had signed a game by Perfect Entertainment based on a series of book by Terry Pratchett, we were pretty nonplussed. Then it was explained to us that the story would take place in a disc-shaped world travelling through space, carried by four giant elephants who were riding on the back of a Giant Star Turtle called Great A'Tuin. We went from nonplussed to confused. None of us had heard of Discworld at that point, but I was interested in the genre and knew that the genre was popular with players in Germany.
Nadia Lawler was the Psygnosis Central PM for Discworld and she did an amazing job in bringing it all together from a Marketing perspective, down to hiring the same artist who created all the covers of the books - Josh Kirby - to create a bespoke piece of art for the game packaging (see above). Terry Pratchett adapted a story just for the game, which was primarily an amalgamation of the books The Colour of Magic and Guards! Guards! And the development team set about working with a exquisitely British cast of actors to record the voices of the characters in the game: Rincewind was voiced by Eric Idle (Monty Python) for example and Jon Pertwee (Doctor Who) voiced the Librarian and other characters.
Above: Rincewind meets DEATH (my favourite character)
For the German version we were faced with two challenges. One was to convince the UK head office that we wanted to localise the title into German completely, not just the text but voice over as well, and second how to translate the text not just faithfully but also in a way that it would make sense because if you know anything about Discworld you will know that it's use of the English language is quite unique. Luckily we were able to get in touch with Andreas Brandhorst, who has translated most, if not all, of the Discworld books into German. He knew the world and the lore inside out and was able to ensure there was continuity between the books and the games. I seem to remember he thought we were a bit mad when we first approached him about working on a game. He had never been involved in anything like it but enjoyed the experience in the end I think. It was crucial to preserve the unique humour and character of the original English version.
To secure the German voice-over, we had to be bullish with our sales forecasts and show a clear uplift in sales between a version with English voices and German subtitles, or a fully localised German version. Once we got the greenlight and the budget we decided to make the most of the fact that in Germany, practically every well-known foreign actor has the same "Synchronsprecher" (dubbing actor) so we went for it and hired Arne Elsholtz, probably the most recognisable German voice actor at the time. Not only did everyone associate his voice with Eric Idle, he was also known as the voice of Tom Hanks, Bill Murray and Jeff Goldblum. It was great casting and it really lifted the game. Sadly, Arne passed away in 2016.
Above: Arne Elsholtz
The sequel was equally fun to work on. Perfect Entertainment upped their game with regards to the look and feel of Discworld II. Animations were now more akin to what you would normally see in traditional 2D animated films and Eric Idle wrote a song specifically for the final credits called That's Death, a swinging Discworld riff on his famous song from Monthy Python's Life of Brian.
Above: "That's Death" from Discworld II - click on the image for the full video
Great game, great developer, great marketing, great memories.
Commenti