The seminal point and click adventure game for iOS has been updated this week. We speak with legendary designer Jordan Mechner title

originally released on PC in 1997, The Last Express is a true classic point and click adventure in the names, players are plunged into a fascinating story of the death of a plot on board the Orient Express. Located in the days before the First World War, the game has a unique real-time clock, which gives the player a certain period in which to solve the mystery. Meanwhile, retail secondary characters all have their own agendas, moving train, plot progress.

Critically acclaimed at the time, the game has been thoroughly updated for the iPhone and iPad, with the original creator Jordan Mechner oversee the process along French developer, DotEmu. We spoke with Mechner, who also created the hit series Prince of Persia, the game and the challenge of upgrading to a new generation.

Can you tell us how

originally came up with the idea of ??the Last Express? There seems to be a lot of literary elements in it as Agatha Christie, of course, but also spy novels and films Hitchcock ...

A man on the run, accused of a crime he did not commit, being stuck in a dead end ... yes, indeed, Last Express has a huge debt adventure thriller The Third Man by Graham Greene, Hitchcock The Lady Vanishes and North by Northwest, with a little Maltese Falcom, and even Indiana Jones. Basically, if you fly, fly the best.

ingredients most eyebrows, as Rebecca West, Russian fairy tales and poetry of Yeats, I stirred into soups with my late co-writer Tomi Pierce, who is the best person I ' I read known.

addition, a train is an ideal place for an adventure game, because it is an enclosed space, but it moves. You must do this or that before the train stops at Munich, or you're dead. And this may be heresy, but I personally think Murder on the Orient Express of the most boring movie ever made, because the train stopped for two hours. Cinematically, we'd better be accused of stealing Hitchcock Christie.

The game was great - I loved the most majestic visual design, what type of items included Toulouse-Lautrec, but also comics Comic Strip . And character animation was done by rotoscoping not? What did you learn from this process?

wanted to get the effect of an ink drawing of life. As a player, I always thought that when you see the full-motion video actors in a play, kills the illusion of interactivity. It is easier to suspend disbelief when you're playing a cartoon character.

And yes, we are inspired by the Art Nouveau style that was popular at the time of our game: Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha ... So what rotoscoped. We did three weeks of live-action bluescreen shoot in San Francisco, with more than sixty actors, a baby and a big dog - and the costumes, makeup and wigs crazy specially designed for use rotoscoping. We also had an independent film shoot with model trains. We shot on 16mm film and digital rotoscoping spent two years creating images for over 40,000 frames of animation and tinted colors, using a semi-automatic process that we have developed in-house and patented.

And meanwhile, in the background, the game is played in this wonderful soundtrack. How did this happen? Can it be reproduced version of iOS?

The Czech film composer Elia Cmiral (Ronin) gave us a fantastic score. He managed everything, including recording with real string players, which was unusual for a game at the time, but it is important for us as a main character, Anna Wolff, is a violinist and it becomes center of the plot.

The soundtrack remains in full version of iOS, including a large SETPIECE where passengers gather in one of the cars for a violin and piano recital lasting more one hour. As a player, you can use this opportunity to explore other parts of the train, the music continues as you duck out, or if you prefer, you can stay and watch the characters perform Cesar Franck sonata is a minor as a whole.

Oh, and here's a piece of trivia: If you visit the piano car in the middle of the night and listening at the door, the pianist is heard in the recording is actually my father, who composed the music for my first game, Karateka and Prince of Persia.

How

has been updated or modified game content for the new format? Are there new features or elements of the story

The game is complete and identical to the original - including graphics, sound and dialogue - but we have added some features to iOS. There is a new three-tiered system indirectly, so that whenever you get stuck, you can get a clue, and if you're still stuck, you can get a track that is a little more explicit and, finally, who directly tells you to do.

purists and recalcitrant of the original game may want to resist the temptation, as much fun Last Express is to explore and discover other ways that are not necessarily bring you closer to victory. But with five to 20 hours of play, we recognize that many players prefer iOS more agile, so we made tracks available.

iOS , we also added Game Center achievements, biographies of characters to unlock when you meet a new character, and the ability to play cinematics unlocked - either to refresh your memory clues, or simply replay moments of favorite games.

controls rethink how

for touch screen devices?

We redesigned the original point-and-click interface of the touch screen. All shares are available to the player like in the original game, but the element of exploration with your mouse to find has been removed. Simply click the action you want. It took a little experimentation to arrive at a simple, but very satisfying. Even if you're used to the PC version like me, it's amazing how quickly you get used to playing this way. In fact, I now prefer.
How difficult is the process? And it was interesting to see the game again? Do you remember the original development process?

It was a great project for DotEmu, certainly more than you realize at first. I think it is the nature of the beast Last Express - a few games for iOS has a lot of content, and even less as alternative ways of different ways to play. It took a lot of playtesting and QA file additional quirks and all, as far as we 15 years ago. DotEmu did a phenomenal job, diligent and conscientious. I could sympathize.

In addition, the original game Last Express is expected to take eighteen months but ended up taking four years. Thus, by this standard, the port iOS was a piece of cake.
Personally, it was a great pleasure for me to play again Last Express after 15 years. Not only was relieved that the original game is good, but as a surprise even happier, iOS is now my favorite way to play. Perhaps because the pace of ELT is a bit meditative, more like reading a novel of a typical game, it feels quite natural, comfortable sofa to play instead of sitting in front of a computer. Of course, there is nothing like playing in a real train, or a long flight with a helmet.

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