Interview With Gene Mocsy About 1954: Alcatraz

While we're on the subject of Gene Mocsy, you might remember that he started a company called Irresponsible Games, whose first game will be a point-and-click adventure game called Alcatraz: 1954, which, unsurprisingly is about escaping from Alcatraz prison in 1954. Gene originally designed the game himself using the Panda3D-based engine that MunkyFun designed for Autumn Moon's adventure games A Vampyre Story and Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island. However, the game soon was picked up by the German adventure developer Daedalic, and it was converted to their Unity-based engine.

GamingLives has an interview with Mr. Mocsy which details that event, and gives many more details about his company's first game. One of the most interesting details in the interview is about the wide choice the player has in solving the puzzles, and the consequences some of those choices might have:

"Multiple solutions are something I always want when I play games – that and an overhead map. I made sure those were in my game. It was a bit of a hassle, but I scripted the original game myself, so it was just a matter of my time. When Daedalic bought the game and re-ported it to their engine, they created an enormous flowchart of all the possibilities – that was when I realised the headache I’d caused everyone! It’s all for the player. I want you to keep moving ahead and not waste time guessing what the designer intended."

"Certain quest-lines get even more exciting and tension-filled [depending on your earlier actions], I’ll put it that way. Don’t worry about making wrong choices – you’re escaping from Alcatraz, there’s no time to second-guess yourself. Just go."

The game will be coming soon to PC. Daedalic had announced that it would be released this year, however, as no concrete release date has yet been set, it probably won't make that release window.