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the Last Express: through the eyes of an artist

ANALYSIS – VIDEO GAME: The Last Express (1997) – VERONIKA ZÝKOVÁ -

The Last Express (1997) is a video game created by Jordan Mechner and Smoking Car Productions, set on the Orient Express in 1914. This videogame was very innovative in the adventure games genre. The Last Express was the first “real-time adventure game” and until these days it remains an example of combining deep story with high artistic values, 3D environment based on detailed historical research, rotoscoped Art Nouveau stylized characters, international cast with great voice acting in multiple languages and other praised aspects I will mention further. The game has taken 4 years to develop, with budget over 5 million dollars.¹

This article will balance between serious analysis and a long-time love to this video game (or interactive media). Although it has been 15 years since its release, The Last Express is undoubtedly considered a piece of art and very accomplished narrative, which was examined in The End of Books – Or Books Without End? Reading Interactive Narratives by J. Yellowlees Douglas and other studies. Just like in the time of its release, when it received rave reviews, the game still makes it to various charts and polls of the best adventure games of all times.³ Now that The Last Express is available as a digital download on various sites⁴ and recently [on March 16th 2012] its version for iPad and iPhone was announced,⁵ lets have a detailed look at what The Last Express offers to a gamer.

"So far, I have not been talking about visuals and voices of characters. It would be shame not to mention, at least briefly, that characters are rotoscoped in 2D stylized Art Nouveau look. Not only Mucha’s and Toulous-Lautrec’s paintings were inspiration, but also comic books by such authors as Hugo Pratt, François Schuiten or Enki Bilal.²⁵ Comic book style reminds also the way creators dealt with limited 3 CDs space²⁶ and in many cases had to use not full motion, but more slide-show style, capturing significant gestures and mimics. It works surprisingly well, partly because you just accept this style and get used to it. But full motion used for character’s walking, facing you in the corridor, looking to your eyes with emotions, this is just priceless; surely one of the greatest efforts of The Last Express. You can observe characters from different angles, their actions are little animations similar to loops; they repeat certain moves. It is not too impressive, but sufficient enough to create the illusion of action."

"The voice acting is perfect and gamer can enjoy various languages in their beauty. High level of authenticity was accomplished even in this field; Russians are speaking old Russian, you can say when Austrian is speaking German and so forth. For example, character leads conversation in German and in the middle of a sentence he/she starts to speak English with strong German accent. Richness of languages is exceptional.²⁷ When I mentioned that The Last Express was going against some aspects of „interactive movies“, it was because of the difference between FMV used in these games and rotoscoped cartoon-style technique that creators of The Last Express used. It does exactly what they intended: player does not concentrate on acting that much, because he/she sees only key frames of characters talking, he/she rather listens to dialogues and focuses on story. But The Last Express is highly cinematic, as well as very interactive, so if we call it „interactive movie“, „interactive media“, or simply „video game“, it won’t make much difference.^28"

Link to the deep and compelling article here:

http://25fps.cz/2012/the-last-express/

 

The Last Express has been voted #7 of the top 100 Adventure Games of All Time

This Highly Cinematic Game has just been listed on the top 100 adventure games of all time,
#7:

Where do the accolades start for Smoking Car Productions’ The Last Express? Is it the rotoscoped graphics that give the game a uniquely classy sense of style? Is it the painstaking historical recreation of the final voyage of the Orient Express before World War I? Is it the stunningly immersive real-time progression of gameplay? Or is it the thrilling and extraordinarily literate writing? Why choose? There really isn't anything quite like Jordan Mechner’s 1997 adventure. While the story of American doctor Robert Cath and the international intrigue he encounters on a train journey from Paris to Constantinople does head to some pretty fantastical places, it is equally balanced by a genuine sense of realism and authenticity. Mechner's team went to great lengths to portray everything from foreign languages to daily weather patterns with historical accuracy. The characters portray the broad and tumultuous sociopolitical climate of the era, as Cath encounters everyone from German businessmen to Serbian militants. And in a still-unparalleled design decision, live actors were filmed and then hand-traced in a style reminiscent of early 20th century illustration.

Making things feel even more authentic is the game’s real-time progression: The Last Express doesn't wait for you. The train barrels relentlessly toward Constantinople, stopping at several famous locales along the way. Similarly, the other passengers have their own agendas to attend to; they move around the train, have conversations, go to sleep, eat dinner, conduct secret meetings, and so on. As Cath, players have more or less total freedom to explore the train and observe, interact with fellow passengers, or sneak around trying to find information. This gives the game an astounding level of replayability for an adventure game, since you'll never be able to see everything in a given playthrough; while you're off exploring one car, something else (something probably very interesting) is going on in another. And if you don’t like the direction your recent choices have taken, rather than simply restore an old save file, simply rewind time and begin that segment of the journey all over again. It all adds up to a tense, immersive, and innovative adventure that few other games have equaled.

Read about the other great games here

http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,1401/p,20

how to make your mobile site? just google it!

HowToGoMo.com

Do you need a mobile site? Google has case studies to show you how & why you might need one.

What will it look like?  They made an 'emulator' to show you what things look like on a mobile device.

Google has pre-selected a handful of vendors and ad agencies that can do the work for the brand.

So, they are offering free advice, tools and resources.  The three things you really need to offer if you want to do business with people these days.  Think of it as freemium luxe, smart marketing, web 2.5 etc...

And once the site is built, google would like to handle your marketing.

hmm, thoughts?  Has the time for mobile sites finally arrived?  Most mobile sites I've seen really suck, except for the ones relating to sports and stock info, at least the info is right there, front & center.

Is there a way to build a site that can do both tablets and mobiles, or am I being a typical producer? 

the platform agnostic in me likes the idea of creative approaches to this branding game, so I offer this freebie piece of digital strategy.  Websites are so 1997, mobile sites are so 2006, and tablet sites are just getting started.  So why not leapfrog and just make a hybrid site that is good for a tablet and good for a phone?  Make the website the mothership of all information and make the tablet the "to go" version, and the mobile site can tag along.   

francesca

why photographers need producers who know how to shoot video

Here's the deal, editorials and ads on tablets are going to start moving because they have to. Video, even without sound, is far more compelling than a still image on a screen.  Ok, I'm a little biased, I work as a producer, my job is making pictures dance. That being said, I did start out as a photographer before moving to film, video and digital media. As much as I LOVE stills and evocative art, and I really do love them, the tablet is a screen and screens are far more interesting when the pictures are moving.  They just are.  I would love to see that proven wrong, I really would.  But things are progressing towards movement, motion.  For fearless established photographers who wish to adapt, its vital that you pick up video skills and a trursworthy sidekick who can produce with you so that all you do is shoot and ramp up to edit.  Let the producer handle the rest.  Your clients will love the ability to call on you to do both and your accountant will love the fact that you're working more.

From cynopsis: "The latest Mobile Mix report from Millennial Media took a look at the iOS over the third quarter of 2011 and found that mobile impressions grew 60% year-over-year across all iOS devices.

In fact, iPad impressions alone grew 456% on Millennial's platform. Other findings from the report include:

The iPhone accounted for 54% of iOS impressions on Millennial's platform.

Android was the leading operating system across smartphones and connected devices as it grabbed 56% of impressions.

In terms of ad spend on applications, Android apps had a 49% share, which is a growth of 20% quarter-over-quarter."

Big question about Branding, positioning for Start Ups

hey start-ups, do you want to build tools for your community

or

do you want to build a community around your tools?

Do you want to position your brand as a resource and a place to grow and co-create a vision, or do you just want to have people buy your stuff? 

Why not be a resource that sells good stuff, not just your own stuff, but generally good stuff? In the age of the curator, its just as much about having good taste (an eye for talent and good products) as it is about being in good company.  Its about D.I.Y. and becoming increasingly more about D.I.W.O.

How else to we filter through the massive information overload, we rely on curators and tastemakers, we rely on our friends.  So while you might be building a brand, now you're building it with and for others and what they say and do on your site matters more than ever.

So, don't be a tool, be a resource who shares tools, information and is there to be of service to a community. 

Mr. Jobs' original spot

 

transmedia, integrated branding, blah blah blah

Ok, everybody has abused these two phrases.  What's really going on? We are experiencing a continuing trend in media consolidation, content aggregation and trying to keep up with the demand for content that is medium/media/platform agnostic.  Sounds to me like right now its about saving money for the most part and getting the most bang for your buck with the content you own.

Here's a question for the CD's & AD's, as an ad agency creative, how would that work?  While, creatives are brilliant at coming up with high concept campaign ideas that can be one size fits all (well, some are), those campaigns are only effective if creatives are given the time and resources to fine tune for each medium.  Each medium has a sweet spot, a scale that an idea works best in.

I wonder when clients ask for an integrated campaign, are they thinking they are saving $?  Although the creative may be slightly streamlined, the execution and the media spend is unlikely to be. Integrated campaigns are a great approach for solving branding problems that affect a whole brand, yet only effective when taking a more surgical approach execution wise.  Identity matters, especially when you are spreading the idea across multiple media.

Customer Service as a form of Audience Engagement

I'm just curious about how people will be doing customer service in the future since its another possible place for brand democracy and consumer-co-ownership. I was talking with a friend this morning about customer service in web 2.0, talking about a new company getsatisfaction.com and how they are seeking to unite audiences and companies to tackle customer support together and hopefully get the companies to improve products/services/etc... Its a form of brand messaging that is subtle and if handled well can do far more for a company in terms of loyalty and brand positioning. 

Currently, Twitter has become a strategy for most corps these days looking to do quick updates and customer feedback and most of these tweets come from social media interns. Although Twitter is currently dominating the next wave of customer support, it seems as though getsatisfaction.com goes deeper and is potentially poised to be more effective or at the very least enhance what is being currently tweeted.

Social Media interns are essentially becoming the dead letter office and tweeting back and forth handling the editorial voice for the co when it comes to audience engagement at the web 2.0 level.
Is the social media intern gig the new mailroom for the next 20 years or so?

I have a feeling I answered my own question.

What is the fastest way for someone new to the workforce to learn the ins and outs of a company? They have to write about it, so they better know what they are talking about. Much as a mailroom assistant at an agency would need to understand who does what and where as well as what the politics are about, a social media intern needs to learn all they can about the company, the internal workings and what the message to the audience needs to be in order to keep to the strategy and drive consumer/audience participation-engagement. 

the last express: finally gets its due as a brilliant narrative game

for the gamers and ex gamers interested in narrative, this is an exceptionally detailed review:
http://tinyurl.com/kjud54
Incidentally, this game was so much fun to work on, it felt like we were doing something quite groundbreaking at the time on technical as well as creative levels and in I guess we really were. Jordan's specialty is to take the cinematic elements and to incorporate those into game theory, what a treat it was to watch things evolve!
Still so proud of him, he made this game on spec and I think he did it to make a difference in how games worked. He could have just as easily continued making things like Prince of Persia and Karateka and all that, instead he decided to push the envelope.
Here's to all of us pushing our own envelopes in one way or another. You can download the game here: http://www.dotemu.com/en/the-last-express wanna Buy it?: http://www.adventuregamers.com/gameinfo.php?id=145 PS. I make no money from the sales of this game, I just like it and am proud of the work we all did on it.

Social media breakdown