Jonathan Boakes, Writer and Creator of Dark Fall: Lost Souls

Title: The Last of Summer
September 15th, 2009

The last few weeks of any games production are always the most exciting, and scary! Dark Fall: Lost Souls is no different; it's exciting and scary. Very scary. People have been 'play testing' the game, and had to stop during certain sequences to calm down. I always liked to think that I made 'creepy' games, rather than scary ones, but Lost Souls has turned into something quite unique. I've not played a game like it, so I am very excited to be finally finishing the project. That's not to say this week has been a quiet one...no, no, no...I've been building the last location, recording voice artists and preparing new content for the website. It all gets quite chaotic, but I tend to work better when I have plenty to do, and plenty of stress to contend with. Here are a couple of events and thoughts from the world of Lost Souls this last week:

Creating Ghosts:

I'm a big fan of ghosts and the supernatural. I wouldn't say that I am a 'believer', but I have had my fair share of strange experiences. I have been a member of a ghost-hunting team for a few years now, exploring derelict locations, old buildings, castles and haunted hotels. Many of my colleagues exhibit a hardcore belief in the supernatural, which I do not share. Like Mulder, 'I Want To Believe', but need proof. Absolute proof. I've heard strange things, picked up EVPs (electronic voice phenomena, where voices are recorded to otherwise blank tapes), had impressive encounters with moving energies (EMF) and been mauled (yes, mauled!!), by an unseen assailant in an abandoned old jail on the Bodmin Moor. But...I am still uncertain as to whether ghosts exist. I desperately want them to be real, so search hard and experiment in my quest to prove their existence.

Maybe one day I will see one, and record it on camera...but, for now...I also enjoy making ghosts for games.

Lost Souls has several ghosts; from the lethal 'Shadowkin', dark half-formed souls that hide in the darkness, to 'The Forgotten', sad souls who are lost in time, destined to wander this earth forever in search of freedom. This week I was working on The Station Master, a member of The Forgotten. He's a tragic character, from the 1940's, who still resides in the old, abandoned train station. He is unaware of the current state of the station, which is collapsing and derelict. Inventing the look for this ghost led me to remember an encounter I had, a few years back, with a moving, sentient fog. I was investigating an old castle, (Minster Lovell Hall), and photographs a white wisp, which seemed to re-form and change shape right before my eyes.

Creating such phenomena for games has proven a challenge, in the past, but with Lost Souls I think I've cracked it. I'm looking forward to hearing from gamers, with similar spooky encounters, to say if I've managed to create a truly realistic looking ghost...so, come November, don't be shy, let me know if The Station Master is a ghost you could imagine seeing, out there, in the real world. In the mean time, feel free to tell me about your own spooky encounters, in the Dark Fall: Lost Souls thread on the Iceberg forum. I know many people have 'seen' ghosts, but each report is different and just as fascinating as my own. You may have imagined what ghosts look like, from literature, and I would be equally interested to know if the phantoms of Lost Souls have any qualities you've thought about. Until there is absolute proof of the existence of ghosts (one way or the other) it is up to us to tell our stories and seek the truth...no matter how strange!

Re-imagining the past:

Lost Souls is the third, and final, full Dark Fall game. It takes the player back to the old abandoned train station and hotel, seen I the first instalment. But, don't expect to find the place exactly as you remember it. This is a brand new story, not a re-visit, and the locations have ALL been re-built from scratch. As a 'one-man production team', I have a lot of work to get through, when embarking on a new game. My favourite aspect is the actual building. With Lost Souls I was very exciting to be re-entering old locations, which I know so well, and imagining them 'now', with further decay and darkness. If I am honest, and a little pretentious, I will admit that I felt like the Hotel was waiting for me...waiting for my return. The hotel had been expecting another adventure, for nearly 10 years!  A lot has changed, here and there, but all Dark Fall fans (old and new) will recognise the place, and perhaps...yes, perhaps the place will recognise you too. It's impossible for me to guess what made the first Dark Fall such a success; was it the ghosts, the melancholy locations, the sound, the silence, the darkness...I could spend all my life asking people, but have chosen to just get on with it; To step back into that world, and see what was waiting. Go back to the old hotel, one last time, and rebuild it as if I'd never left.

The Hotel Reception was a key location in the first Dark Fall (The Journal), and is remembered by many. New gamers will be able to enter the place, and explore for the first time, but others may be returning, after nearly ten years away from the place. I have tried to re-imagine the 'spirit' of the hotel, and get as much atmosphere on screen as possible. It is November the 5th when you enter, known as 'Bonfire Night' in Britain. It is a cold night, with moonlight pouring through the old stained glass windows. Branches scrape at the window, sounding like the claws of some terrible beast trying to get inside the building. Occasionally you will hear the dull, distant 'bang' of a firework, as the people of the suburbs celebrate Bonfire Night, unaware that you, the last visitor, has entered the old Station Hotel. No-one knows you are there, so you have only your wits to save you. Poking around in the Hotel Reception will turn up all sorts of clues, and stories. Some are harmless, charming stories, of those who came and went from the place, over a period of a hundred years...but other stories are tragic, miserable tales of those who came to the Station Hotel...but never left. They are the Lost Souls of the title, and it is you who must exorcise them, once and for all. Open up the old Hotel Register. There is a key there, to Room 1E. Take it, and make your way up the stairs to the hotel rooms, where your first 'Lost Soul' awaits.

Lastly, this is my first Developer Diary. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and also hope you have some questions for me. Feel free to ask about the game development, and the inspiration behind this brand new Dark Fall adventure.

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