The Firing Line: 5 questions for December Studios on The Color Gray
It's your decision
Earlier this week, Pocket Gamer reported on an upcoming graphical adventure title for iOS and Android called The Color Gray.
The Colour Gray caught our eye because it isn't like most classic-style adventure titles. Unlike Broken Sword: Director's Cut and other similar titles, The Color Gray doesn't contain any puzzles.
Instead, the game is littered with "morally grey choices", which are said to "greatly affect" the game's storyline.
We recently got a chance to chat with December Studios' Chris Savory about and the lack of puzzles in The Colour Gray, and - among other things - the classic titles that influenced his upcoming game.
Pocket Gamer: The Color Gray doesn't contain any puzzles. Was this your intention right from the off? If so, why?Chris Savory: This was absolutely the core decision the game was built around.
We took this route because we found ourselves playing adventure games less and less as we got older. We still wanted to experience their great stories, beautiful artwork, and casual pacing, but, we didn't always feel like moving through puzzles in order to do so.
We definitely still appreciate puzzle oriented adventure games but felt that the genre needed to expand in other directions.
You're seeing that with games like Heavy Rain and The Walking Dead: The Game, both of which are fantastic and acted sort of as confirmation that other people had these ideas as well.
Can you tell us a little bit about The Color Gray's storyline and the types of choices players will have to make as they play?I'd actually like to keep the storyline confidential for now.
The focus on the choices though has always been to ensure that they are morally grey. We know in the trailer it looks like the choice is to shoot a defenceless homeless guy in an alley but there's a lot more to it than that.
There are dialogue choices and action choices. Both of which will change future events in the story. Players should feel that none of these choices are good or evil.
This is very important to us.
Yes, there are multiple endings.
I should mention that the game is intentionally short, at least compared to other adventure games. This was done to give the story closure in a single sitting.
It also lets us have choices that matter without having to keep them relevant ten hours later.
Which classic adventure titles (if any) directly influenced the development of The Color Gray?We grew up playing King's Quest, Full Throttle, Blade Runner, etc.
Blade Runner influenced us the most in terms of multiple endings and giving the game it's tone and mood. In terms of more functional influences I'd say Heavy Rain and The Walking Dead: The Game.
If The Color Gray is a success on iOS and Android, will you consider porting it to other mobile platforms or to the Ouya?I think the next place we'd take The Color Gray would be the PC. We've received a fair amount of PC requests but first want to see the reception on iOS and Android devices.
I'm not sure the Ouya would make much sense for us as an adventure game with a joystick is not something I've ever desired.
