The Adventure Company recently released a new horror-themed adventure title called The Black Mirror. Set on the grounds of a bleak castle, the player must find out why his father dies and unravel the mysterious and sinister circumstances surrounding his death. We recently asked the game's PR Manager Zdenek Houb a few questions about the game and his answers shed some light on this intriguing PC game.

Q: Hello and thank you for your time. First Question, who's on the development team and what kind of experience do they have? Is this your first adventure title, or your first horror-themed adventure title?

There were fewer people working on the game than you'd expect: three artists, two animators, one screenwriter, one musician, two programmers and the team leader... .

Q: What separates The Black Mirror from the other adventure titles on the market? Is there anything about the game that hasn't been done before?

The main innovation is the deactivation of active elements and things on the screen after you have used them, which has never been done before in adventure games. This eliminates the boring testing of everything on everything, as well as the depressing sound hearing the same sentence ten times over if you don't know how to continue and are trying all of the alternatives. Moreover, I would like to mention some effects that contribute to the game's realism. For example, the effect of rain, created by raindrops, flashes of lightning and sounds of thunder in the distance or fog and shadows. With respect to using the game, the inventory and the dialogue system, BM follows in the footsteps of classic adventures such as "Broken Sword." The most important thing when playing the game is simplicity and a generally user-friendly interface. In our opinion, the classic point and click system is the best and therefore we have also used it for BM.

Q: What kind of story will the game have? Will it be linear or non-linear? Will you be able to go off the main path into side-quests?

The plot itself begins with the return of Samuel Gordon to his birthplace, the Black Mirror Manor. He has returned to honor the memory of the deceased William Gordon, whose death everybody believes to have been an unfortunate incident. In the course of the game, Samuel (the player) finds out through various clues and William's diary that the truth is completely different. From this moment the story becomes more intense; a chain of mysterious deaths are discovered and many unexpected events occur. The story is linear; on the whole it's more compact and refined than non-linear games, which usually compensates the partial non-linearity thanks to a shorter playing time.

Q: Who are some of the characters you'll meet during the game?

There are 23 characters in the game and it would take several pages to describe them. The personalities of the NPC characters range from a weird stableman or a taciturn gravedigger to Hermann, a mysterious pathologist.

Q: How many different environments are in the game?

The story takes place in England, at a fictitious manor called Black Mirror. The game takes place at this manor, various locales in the local village and the distant woods surrounding the area. You will also visit a distant familial manor in Wales. The positions of the different locations are well-balanced, so the player will not get bored roaming about the same rooms over and over, but will visit a lot of other places, each with its own atmosphere. The locations in the game include, for example, a mental hospital, a cemetery, a gothic castle or a cemetery at night, which all have an impressive atmosphere.

Q: What kind of puzzles will be included in The Black Mirror?

The difficulty of BM is slightly above the usual difficulty. You'll find difficulty increases as you play. The difficulty of the puzzles also increases depending on the course of the game. Puzzles start from simpler ones, such as setting the right positions on the handles on a generator, and continue to more difficult ones, such as working out the zodiac in the vault of Dergham Gordon.

Q: Will this be a static adventure game? What kinds of animation and special effects are you using to bring the world of The Black Mirror to life?

There are hundreds of animations in the game that enliven the locations; from burning fireplaces, glittering lights, a flowing river, leaves in the wind or fireflies at night. There are very many animations and the rain, as mentioned before, also makes the scenes come alive nicely.

Q: What is the single thing about The Black Mirror that gamers will find the most unsettling or terrifying?

That's hard to say; one thing may seem frightening to one person but not to another. But you can be sure that there are a lot of impressive and gloomy places in the game as well as several moments of real horror.

Q: How deeply will you be able to converse with the other characters? How will the Manifest Dialogue affect the game?

The dialogues contain over 200 topics for discussion. They are constructed so that they aren't too short or too long; so that the players aren't bored by clicking on hundreds of sentences. According to what we heard from the critics, we managed to achieve this balance very well. At suitable moments, Samuel can choose between lying and telling the truth, but this choice will only influence the feeling that the player will get from the Samuel that he/she has created.

Q: You seem to have spent a lot of time designing the world to create a realistic environment. How elaborate is the game and what techniques did you use?

Yes, we did spend a lot of time on it; the development of BM took countless hours of work over three years. The graphics, dialogues, sound effects and all other components make the game seem real. A high level of realism can be achieved only through the combination of all parts and by thorough work on each location. We used all available professional programs for the development of this game.

Q: Music is going to play a large role in the game. What approach did you take with this? Will the music and soundtrack add to the suspense in The Black Mirror?

All of the compositions in BM are orchestral, played only on classical instruments. Music accompanies important moments in the game and impressive locations such as tombs, a church, a mortuary or film sequences. To put it differently, in places where it is suitable to evoke a certain atmosphere with music, the players will hear it; and at places where we prefer realism, such as during a visit to a quiet village, the atmosphere is created by sound effects. By alternating between these elements the game achieves a high level of realism as well as a dark atmosphere.

Q: Thanks for your time answering our questions, It's very much appreciated!