Recore

Recore is an episodic, DIY set-up of three story-driven games, and each episode introduces new features. Much like The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, the episodic adventure titles offer a small set of tools for adventure game designers to help with the developing process. We talked to Jamie Kim, senior producer at developer Runic Games about Recore.

GameSpot: Is Recore being released in conjunction with the release of The Secret of Monkey Island?

Jamie Kim: We will be launching the game with both episodes of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. That means that there will be two releases on the same day: the original game for the PC, and the full version for the Mac. We are actually going to be launching with Episode 1, as well. It's been really difficult to get the simultaneous release on a three-quarter release schedule, but we are really happy with the way the game is going. It's going to be the best one we have ever made, and it'll all be in one place.

GS: How will it differ from the other games in the series?

AC: The episodic approach to storytelling is very different from the other games. You still have to focus on the story, and the episodes are all designed to add to the gameplay, but you also have to do something with the story.

GS: And why the decision to be releasing the first game in this series on the Mac?

AC: The answer is that we are really passionate about the Mac. The PC is still one of the best computer gaming systems, and we have a lot of fun creating and publishing for it. But the Macintosh is where our desire to be for more casual games has been amplified. The PC has already had the biggest amount of mainstream games in history. And the Mac is where our desire to get to be that little bit more hardcore and user friendly, that's why we chose Mac as our platform of choice.

GS: How does the episodic format differ from the PC version?

AC: When you look at a Mac game, it's pretty much the same experience on a Mac. I think that the biggest difference is that the Mac format gives us the flexibility to experiment in new ways and maybe doesn't be the most accessible device. It allows us to get into the home PC market. I think that's where the challenge for us is, when you're doing a game, you're trying to get a small audience that's interested in the Mac. We're also learning how to make a platform that appeals to a wider audience.

For the Xbox, we've really been focusing on developing great games that are console-like experiences and that require high-end PCs.

So there's going to be a lot of good, single-player games coming out.

GS: You mentioned a similar console-centric strategy game, but was there any comment from your director on the idea of episodic games for the Wii?

AC: Well, it's going to be a very big thing. I think that's where the developers are going to go from there. They want to make sure that they're delivering that level of quality they want to make in a video game.

So, we think that that's going to be a good place to be with that. And then, obviously, there are things that we're working on in our portfolio that we think will take a very different approach and that we're making an interesting game.

We also think that we've got the big potential to be a big player in the platform space, and that you can play all those types of games with that content and see that the controls are coming out of the Wii, not just all the other consoles.

And so, you can expect there to be other experiences as well. We're going to make games for that console too. And you know, we think that it's going to be a pretty big piece of the puzzle. I think we're going to have some big games coming out of the space and some genres that we think are going to be really fun, and we're going to see a lot more experimentation with the Wii that, from our standpoint, we think is going to take a lot more innovation. So, yeah, we're definitely going to take a lot more risks with that platform.

GS: Do you think that the games industry is going to be ready for that?

RP: Yeah. Yeah, it's going to have some things in it that you don't see happening very often. I'm not saying we're going to be able to make it into every platform that we make it. I'm not saying we'll be able to make some more specific choices. We'll have a lot of initiatives, and there will be certain genres that we don't see that would work well for us, but they'll be different types of experiences that people can try.