loonygames presents: Not Just a Passing Wind

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##### Vol. 2, Issue 13
February 22, 2000

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Not Just a Passing Wind

An interview by Russell "RadPipe" Lauzon.

"It's not just like a wind that's passing through..." - Night of the Living Dead.

ecently, Josh Vasquez, a regular contributor here at loonygames, called Nocturne, "a masterpiece." This is high praise indeed from someone not easily impressed. Of course, for anyone who knows Josh and has actually played Nocturne this isn't much of a shock. The game mixes film noir with classic horror, and in doing so creates an entire world within the game's four chapters.

It was recently announced that Terminal Reality, the development house behind Nocturne would be making a game based on the film, The Blair Witch Project, and furthermore, that this would be the first of three such games, all made using the Nocturne engine, and all tying into the same mythology.

We dispatched Russell "RadPipe" Lauzon (whose previous interviews include last issue's interview with Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart and issue 2.5's interview with Paul Steed) to talk to Terminal Reality's Jeff Smith (PR monkey) and Jeff Mills (production lead) to get the scoop on their upcoming Blair Witch games, and the influences behind Nocturne.

- Jason "loonyboi" Bergman, editor-in-chief.

Let's start off with some general info about your upcoming titles. Explain the Blair Witch Projects for us.

Smith: Blair Witch, Volume 1...is a game that we're working on with the Nocturne engine, of course. It is Part 1 of a 3 part series that is being done by the Gathering. Volume 1 that we're working on covers the Rustin Parr mythology from the Blair Witch legend, which was lightly touched on in the movie. As you may or may not know, the Haxan guys, who are the directors and producers, went to great great great lengths to supplying and manufacturing a very, long, deep, rich, broad time-spanning mythology.

Woo...Nocturne meets Blair Witch. (112k).

I think we've kind of quelled some of the initial concerns about Blair Witch the Game Volume 1 that we're working on being 3 kids running through the forest. It really has very little to do with the movie at all, other than the mythology and the realm of the Blair Witch legend. Volume 2 that is being worked on by Human Head will cover an additional story and then Ritual Entertainment is working on the third one. All of these titles should be available to the public by November. So they'll release quickly, one after the other. And then, of course, there's always the potential for additional games based on this type of storyline, using advanced iterations of the Nocturne Engine into the distant future.

Blair Witch Volume 1: you've been introduced, in Nocturne, to an organization called Spookhouse, and Spookhouse is the badest of the bad of the 'never seen' people of the world, to combat supernatural forces. So there are a couple people you've met like the Stranger, who was the lead in Nocturne and he had a little badass named Doc Holliday. She was always the Mad Scientist of Nocturne and would come up with different weapons, melee weapons, radiance emitters, and things to help them in their battles, and it's because of the story and mythology that Spookhouse and Nocturne had created, you see Stranger is one of these guys that isn't an investigator, he goes in to pretty much combat adverse forces. Whereas some of the others that you met, like Hiram and Doc Holliday, were more methodical, more research oriented. So when you go into Blair Witch, you're looking at playing through the different characters, you'll actually take the role of Doc Holliday. With her more research-oriented background, it makes her the prime Spookhouse operative to be sent out to investigate Rustin Parr and what the hell really happened.

Creepy. (108k).

Because it will be revealed to you that Spookhouse in its existance, and operatives and contacts that it has throughout time, there has been paths crossed where Spookhouse was involved with the Blair Witch legend. At least at some points in the past and possibly in the future there would and could be, similar investigations done by the Spookhouse. And our game is focusing more on bringing forth characters that we introduced in Nocturne, just because that's kind of the way we approached it. Now it won't probably be the same for Human Head and Ritual. They'll probably be introducing characters of their own that are new. So they may not all fall into the 'Spookhouse meets Blair Witch' realm. The common thread is the use of the Nocturne engine, and not always being involved with Spookhouse directly, they're mentioned on the fringe and they're all part of the same story, the same world, and the same universe, but all the games take place across different time periods, almost 100 years apart. So what we're doing with Rustin Parr episode took place in 1941 and the early 40's. Where Human Head's story will probably revolve more around 1880.

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Credits: Illustration © 2000 Rowan Crawford. This interview is © 2000 Russell "RadPipe" Lauzon, Jeff Smith, and Jeff Mills. All other content is © 2000 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. So don't do it, or we'll scare the bejesus out of you.