[Lucifiel]

Originally Posted by Steve Ince

Okay, sorry my sense of humour fell flat.

Nah it's all right: it's not easy to detect humor.

I'm afraid I don't know if there will be a demo (I'm only the writer). That will be down to DTP and Wizarbox.

Oohkay... right, I always forget. Hopefully they will have a demo.

As far as I'm aware there are no plans to offer alternate subtitles to the specific spoken language.

Ah, oh well. Guess I'll have to wait till I'm good at listening to accents then, which I suck at despite constant exposure. :p

As for stereotypes - it depends on what you mean by that. I've done my best to make the story as interesting and enjoyable as possible and woven the gameplay into that so it all becomes a highly fused experience. Only time will tell if you enjoy it as much as I hope you will.

That's cool. Yeah... sure.

[JKR]

Thanks.

Wow, that's looking great! I can't wait. This is my #1 most anticipated Adventure Game.

[LGH]

Originally Posted by Fienepien

But you can safely assume that *generally speaking* the German market is not interested in English voices and English subtitles.

I have to disagree at some extend. True, I'm not sure if there's a real MAREKT for it in terms of selling considerably more copies. But there's definitely a large INTEREST. I very often read in German adventure forums that people would really love bilingual versions of the games. There are a lot of people who would love to hear the voices the original game designer has casted for the characters and to play the game with all the subtle jokes that might get lost in translation.

The fact that most German games don't offer bilingual versions is mostly due to licensing reasons. Developers or publishers owning the world wide rights often fear that it might get harder to find international publishing partners if there's a high risk that many people from the international community have already imported the game as multilingual version perhaps months before the English release or the US release. That's why multilingual versions are often only reluctantly allowed.

I know the case is different if the publisher for a certain country doesn't have the budget for producing full voice dubbing. In that case they will obviously need to use the English language and only translate subtitles. But even then, they usually won't make the game really "multilingual" because you cannot switch the screen verbs and the subtitles.

OK, once you have a UK version, you cannot prevent US exports and vice versa. That's a situation publishers HAVE to live with

But let's return to the situation in Germany. I remember that when dtp/Anaconda published the German Dreamfall in a real multilingual version, they got A LOT of positive feedback from the gamers. They also promised they would try to repeat this as often as possible with future games, but so far I think Dreamfall stayed an exception.

Well maybe they will remember this gamers' request when publishing So Blonde. After all, THEY will be owner of the world wide rights. But I think that chances will be biggest if they have already found an English and US partner (have they?) and if the release dates are anyway planed to be pretty close. Otherwise I fear the the chances will be rather slim.

[Terramax]

If the English version is just a month away from the German I wouldn't bother. But if it means waiting 6 months down the line for it, I'd rather play the German with multilanguage subtitles.

Ankh is a perfect example of this. The game was released in German in the summer of 2006 I think, but I had to wait until about February or March the next flippin' year, due to setbacks, before I got the English version here in the UK.

I certainly don't want this to be the case with So Blonde. I'm only really looking forward to 3 other adventures this year (Whispered World, A Vampyre Story and Still Life 2), 2 of them I've been waiting years for. I've got this strange feeling at least 2 of them will end up being released in 2009 in the UK, if they do at all.

That isn't many games to look forward to, so the last thing I need is having to wait any longer than I need to.

[PolloDiablo]

Originally Posted by LGH

But let's return to the situation in Germany. I remember that when dtp/Anaconda published the German Dreamfall in a real multilingual version, they got A LOT of positive feedback from the gamers. They also promised they would try to repeat this as often as possible with future games, but so far I think Dreamfall stayed an exception.

The Nintendo DS game Undercover Dual Motives (Doppeltes Spiel) is also multilingual.

[LGH]

I've received my copy of So Blonde yesterday (German version) and started playing for about half an hour. These are my first impressions (in the chronological order I lived them):

+ The external stuff: High-quality box, completely colored manual, included poster (with map on background)
- Intro not fully animated. Instead, it consists of hand-painted comic strips with just a few added effects. While the scenes are well-painted, it still looks a little... hmmm... cheap? Like just using the concept paintings.
+ Absolutely gorgeous in-game graphics, with a lot of animated details (butterflies, moving clouds...)
- Nice ambient music, but way too repetitive.
+ The dialogues are well written, and you can quickly sympathize with the characters. Jokes are neither as frequent as in Monkey Island nor as "strong". It's more the kind of "smiling jokes" than "laughing out loud". But that has its charm as well! Good job, Steve
+ Tons of clickable hotspots. Integrated help function to reveal them all.

I don't have much time at the moment, so I doubt I'll advance rapidly. I can't tell you anything yet about the story arch or about the general puzzle difficulty. (So far, I haven't been stuck though... which is good.)

[Fien]

If the voiceacting at the So Blonde site is anything to go by, I definitely prefer the German Sunny. I guess this is another adventure I'll be playing in German.

[mosdl]

Originally Posted by Fienepien

If the voiceacting at the So Blonde site is anything to go by, I definitely prefer the German Sunny. I guess this is another adventure I'll be playing in German.

I thought the game was original developed in english (all the screenshots were in english).

[Fien]

Originally Posted by doron

I thought the game was original developed in english (all the screenshots were in english).

I still prefer the German *voiceacting*.

[LGH]

The voice acting is rather good. But I was a little angry that the game immediately starts with a spelling mistake in the very first sentence (confusion between "das" and "dass")

[Terramax]

I don't suppose you can get English subtitles on the German version?

[Steve Ince]

Originally Posted by LGH

+ The dialogues are well written, and you can quickly sympathize with the characters. Jokes are neither as frequent as in Monkey Island nor as "strong". It's more the kind of "smiling jokes" than "laughing out loud". But that has its charm as well! Good job, Steve

Thank you very much. If I made you smile then I'm a happy guy.

(By the way, the game got 81% on Adventure-Treff. )

[eriq]

I want a copy!!!

[Igor]

Is there an English version out already?

[mosdl]

German demo is out (400 megs) at http://www.soblonde-game.de/

[usman]

What about English Release date ?

[Terramax]

Just played a bit of the German demo. Don't know German, and it was a lot harder to understand than the Ankh 2 German demo, but the overall 'feel' of the game seem spot on. I'm no expert on voice acting, German or otherwise, but I would have thought the girl would have made more of a scream when she was knocked off the ferry.

The 3D animated characters looked better than what I was expecting. They've certainly got more charm than some of the other more bland character designs.

I so wish I could have gotten further. Please, man above, let there be an English release. Don't let this be another Tony Tough 2 (unreleased in English shores).

[LGH]

English audio-interview with Steve Ince:
http://www.soblonde-game.com/intervi...erview_eng.wmv

[kukov]

Will there be an english patch or version of the game... German is totaly not my language

[Steve Ince]

The game was written in English and the English recording was done last year, so it's been ready and waiting for a while. I think the English release is later this year.