Gaming Blog – The Shockwave Spark

Shockwave recently caught up with National Geographic’s Chris Mate, VP/GM of the Interactive Entertainment Group, to talk about their most recent game release; Lost City of Z. Keep reading for an insightful peek at what goes into making a true story of exploration and adventure into a captivating game around the history of the fabled exploration of Z.

The Spark: What was the inspiration behind Lost City of Z?
Chris: The story of the Lost City of Z dates back to 1753. The Lost City of Z was said to be an ancient Maya civilization that existed in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett and his son Jack disappeared in 1925 allegedly while searching for the lost city. This compelling back story along with the recent National Geographic Channel show following a modern day National Geographic Explorer on a mission to find evidence of the city and the fate of Col. Fawcett combined to convince us that the subject of Z would make for a great game.

The Spark: How did the game evolve over time?
Chris: Our head of development and Merscom, our development partner for Z, collaborated on a back story that incorporated this particular subject. From there we reviewed the research, assets and media Nat Geo has and from all of this information the teams crafted a viable game setting and detail relative to the location’s typography, indigenous population and native wildlife. A back story script was then written and the game began to take shape. The actual game itself remained true to the initial concept from inception to completion with the exception of the typical code and feature tweaks associated with this type of fast tracked development.

The Spark: What makes The Lost City of Z unique?
Chris: We try to create objects that are true to the period, relative to the game and location. Many of these games use the same object database and the developers know which types of objects most players favor so you will see those in every game. We do more customization in order to produce a more authentic feel. Lastly, because we operate a world renowned video production house we are able to incorporate high quality video into our games. This video helps tell the story and adds another unique game element to a Nat Geo Game. You will see more and more video – moving to a higher resolution soon - from us as file size restriction continue to lessen.

The Spark: Can you talk about some of the great new games you are currently working on?

Chris: This is the most difficult question so far because we and our console licensees are working on so many fantastic projects. The next installment of the Nat Geo Adventure series will be Ghost Fleet. Based on the success of Z our expectations for this second game in what we hope is a long running series are high. We are also in the final stages of production on Mystery of Cleopatra. We are working with Merscom on this title and the game looks spectacular. Mystery of Cleopatra will introduce a blended game play format centered on hidden objects and puzzle solving. In early 2010 we will release Dogtown, a game based on the hit Nat Geo Channel series filmed at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, the site of the rehabilitation of Michael Vic’s fighting dogs.

The Spark: Making Games isn’t an everyday job; have any unusual stories to share?
Chris: Many, but in most cases you had to be there and this is a family blog. One short story does come to mind and it has to do with Terry Bradshaw. Terry was our spokes person for a Fantasy Football product I was publishing at the time. He was signing autographs at the empire Interactive E3 booth and the two hours his publicist had allocated to us for “personal appearance” was up. The last 4 people remaining in line for Terry’s autograph were concession workers and they still had their uniforms on. As Terry’s publicist closed the velvet rope to end the autograph session Terry stepped over, said hello to the 4 service workers and autographed a publicity shot for each one of them. I remember how impressed I was by his simple act of kindness and respect.