In 2012, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, a new game by the Ukrainian studio Frogwares, was released. In it, gamers will have to take control of young Sherlock, expose the insidious killers and solve the mystery of the hero's mother's death. The new product was to the taste of many — 86 percent of reviews on Steam are positive. But how was Chapter One created, who came up with John, and why did the authors make the hero run around the open world? Sergey Oganesyan, one of the authors of the project, will answer these questions. By the way, you can not only read the interview, but also watch it — so feel free to click on the video, it will be interesting!
Next year marks 20 years since the release of the first Frogwares game about Sherlock. Ukrainians have been creating detective stories since 2002 and have long gained an army of fans. What adventures have not befallen the hero during all this time: the studio managed to pit Sherlock against Jack the Ripper, Arsene Lupin and even Cthulhu.
However, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One turned out to be one of the most unusual games of the studio. Sherlock in it is not a seasoned detective, but a young guy who is at the beginning of his journey.
At the same time, the action takes place not in London, but on the atmospheric island of Cordona, where the hero spent part of his childhood. Sherlock came there to honor the memory of his mother, who seemed to have died of tuberculosis, but on the spot he suspected that the cause of death was not the disease. To get to the bottom of the truth, the hero will have to wander around the open world, investigate intricate cases and even fight bandits.
In Chapter One, the developers implemented a combat system that is quite entertaining, pumped up the dressing system and filled the world with many side quests. However, the main innovation is a childhood friend named John (no, not Watson).
John is not just some boring companion. He knows Holmes better than the detective himself, is privy to all his secrets and is ready to do anything for his friend. And in general, he is far from the most ordinary person. Largely thanks to John, the plot turned out to be good and as dramatic as possible.
VGTimes: Can you briefly describe your role in the team?
Sergey Oganesyan: I have two roles at Frogwares: I work in marketing and production.
VGTimes: Many gamers liked Crimes & Punishments and The Devil's Daughter. They probably expected something similar from the new Sherlock game, but they were met with a lot of serious changes. Why did you decide to rework the working concept and add an open world?
Sergey Oganesyan: We discussed this a lot, and at some point we realized that it had become difficult to develop the detective component within the previous framework. We hit a ceiling and could no longer come up with anything new. These would essentially be the same games, which is not always good — after all, we want to develop.
The open world became a logical continuation for us. If you are a detective, you have to make your own decisions, interpret evidence and decide where to go. Which investigations to take and which to ignore.
When the player finds himself in the open world, it seems to us a pleasant experience. At first, you are a little lost and begin to explore the world and open the map segment by segment. You find new cases, secrets, pleasant references, collectibles and so on. In our opinion, the open world is a logical development of the detective genre.
VGTimes: force you to do backtracking. For example, in the investigation «The Golden Cage», Sherlock must return to the yacht club again and take an object that he saw during his first visit. Why is this necessary?
Sergey Oganesyan: It's hard to say. Apparently, we thought that such a decision would not be critical. As far as I remember, we don't really have backtracking. If you collect all the evidence at a location, a notification appears that all the work is done: this applies to both key evidence and optional ones. Probably, at some points it was necessary to use backtracking as a narrative device. I don't think this happened often and, in theory, should not cause irritation.
VGTimes: In The Devil's Daughter, there were only a couple of moments when Sherlock had to change clothes. But in Chapter One, the mechanic is used constantly. Why did you decide to pay more attention to changing costumes?
Sergey Oganesyan: We've had the idea to develop a clothing system for a long time. We thought that in an open world, it fits perfectly into the system itself.
We have a system that allows you to attach a clue to the screen. You can select a clue, turn on the concentration mode and see a description of the people who depend on it. The same thing with costumes: by putting on different costumes and turning on the concentration mode, you can see how people treat you. This way, you understand which of them is worth asking. Having put on a policeman's costume, it is obvious that you should not go to the bandits with questions.
Dressing up is a good mechanic that spice up the investigation process and allows you to play your own Sherlock. Didn't like the Holmes we created? You can change him into a different suit, put on the canonical headdress and run around as Sherlock. We had two goals: one was gameplay, the other was role-playing.
VGTimes: We've seen different images of Sherlock in films and TV series, but young Holmes is something new. How did you come up with the idea to tell about the formation of Holmes?
Sergey Oganesyan: You need to understand that we've already had eight games about very different Sherlocks. They often changed both their character and appearance. I can't say that we had a goal to develop one character, because Sherlock for us is a way to tell certain stories.
What attracted us to young Sherlock? That there weren't many such stories. In addition, Holmes has no canon, which gave us a free hand. Because of this, we had the opportunity to think through the character of the new Sherlock ourselves and show how he would become the detective we love so much. Naturally, the character and the narrative model were based on classic works like Conan Doyle's books and some films.
The lack of understanding of why Sherlock became the way he was, who he was at all, and how he came to become a consulting detective was very intriguing. I think this is an interesting topic for storytelling.
We already said that we had two versions of which game to make. One is about young Sherlock, and the second is about his decline. In the end, we gave preference to the first idea. It seemed to us that the formation and development of a character is a little more interesting than the crowning glory of a career.
VGTimes: Is Sherlock from Chapter One a new character, or will he become Sherlock from Crimes & Punishments?
Sergey Oganesyan: In theory, Sherlock is not a new character. He will turn into one of the Sherlocks from our games — most likely, Holmes from Crimes & Punishments, because he is the most canonical.
But I will not say that our goal was to make a clear link to any specific game. There is no hard line between Chapter One and any other project.
VGTimes: You mentioned a game about the end of Sherlock. Is such a project still in the plans?
Sergey Oganesyan: Maybe. I don't think the next project will be about Sherlock, but we'll probably come back to him. We'd like to work on this idea ourselves.
VGTimes: Gamers praise the plot of Chapter One. Many say that the story works as it should in many ways thanks to John. How did you come up with this character?
Sergey Oganesyan: We understood that Holmes needed a companion. Everyone is used to Sherlock having John Watson, who is both a friend and a narrative tool. However, we needed someone new.
In our case, a companion is also a gameplay tool. In Chapter One, John helps find quests and regularly gives hints. John is also a key plot character.
In some games, where the hero does something terrible, he hides the memories of what he did in the depths of his brain. This technique was in Silent Hill 2 and in the film «Cursed Island» with DiCaprio. But we did not want to build up the atmosphere. On the contrary, we wanted to dilute the monotony and some impudence of Sherlock with a more friendly character, to whom you instantly feel sympathy. John is a counterweight to Sherlock.
Again, in plot moments Sherlock is tense, especially at the end — there he encounters a stressful situation. But John is the outlet for both the player and Holmes himself. The character allows the story to be diluted with humor and lightness.
VGTimes: In the finale, it turns out that Sherlock committed a crime. How did you come to this ending?
Sergey Oganesyan: From our point of view, it is difficult to call it a crime, although this opinion is understandable. From the very beginning, we thought out the story of what exactly turned Sherlock into an alienated genius. This is our interpretation, what can I say.
VGTimes: Why did Cordon become the setting?
Sergey Oganesyan: As I said, Sherlock for us is a way to tell stories. We thought that the story of Holmes as an outsider on another island in unfamiliar conditions would allow us to tell a more powerful story.
And Cordona is also an opportunity to show completely different characters. In London, we would be limited to a certain archetype of people. And Cordona is a place that unites people of many cultures.
VGTimes: Holmes is associated with intelligence and deduction, not with fists. Were you not afraid that Sherlock fans might not accept the combat system?
Sergey Oganesyan: We had two key feedbacks from fans: they pointed out the design of Sherlock, which not everyone liked, and the combat. As soon as we started showing battles, gamers who were used to the lack of a combat system in our games reacted sharply to the innovations.
For them, we made a system that allows you to skip battles. Plus, that's why we didn't make the combat component a key element. There are fights, but there aren't many of them — they only appear a couple of times in the story.
We wanted to mix up the detective mechanics and open-world exploration. At some point, we realized that forcing the player to only walk and investigate would disrupt the gameplay process. The game is quite large: 30 hours of gameplay, if you don't focus only on the plot.
Then it seemed to us that the combat system fits well with the idea of the game, because Cordona is a dangerous island, and Sherlock is constantly asking for trouble. It would be strange if he didn't get into situations where his life was in danger.
At the same time, we tried to make the combat system «Sherlock-like». It depends less on reflexes than on the ability to plan, anticipate the opponent's behavior, lure him to places where you can stun several enemies with one shot.
We knew it was a risk, but combat was necessary to get a full gaming experience. People who didn't like the combat system can turn it off. And those who did can go into the bandits' lair and try to knock out rewards. To each his own.
VGTimes: Each investigation in Chapter One has several suspects. However, after the verdict is rendered, the game does not always give an answer: did I solve the case correctly or not? Why did you decide not to point out the player's mistakes and successes?
Sergey Oganesyan: Yes, in previous games after the quest you could press a button and find out whether you made the right choice. However, we deliberately decided to move away from this.
If you give feedback, the player will most likely reload the save and blame the person the game pointed out. We think this is wrong.
In addition, in most quests, when you accuse the right suspect, he can confess. He will say: «Yes, I committed a crime.» And then he will tell about the motives and so on.
However, in some episodes, we made a system where the player must determine the culprit based on his moral compass. This is logical, because in real life, not all criminals confess to their actions. Someone will prove: «No, I did not do it.» Then you yourself, as a detective, must look at the evidence and think about what to do.
We tried to balance, so there are few such quests. As far as I remember, «The Golden Cage» is the most striking example, which causes a lot of discussion. However, more often than not, it is not difficult to understand whether the right choice was made.
VGTimes: Despite the high rating on Steam, there are complaints in the reviews about the lack of a mini-map, the inability to skip optional dialogues and some other aspects of Chapter One. Do you plan to improve the game, and when can we expect patches?
Sergey Oganesyan: A short introduction. It is nice to see how the percentage of positive reviews on Steam is growing. When we released the game, the rating fell to almost 72 percent. And now there are 86 percent positive reviews — this encourages us to continue working on the project, release patches and develop the game through DLC.
We are collecting feedback and may add some improvements. However, the minimap is complicated: it needs to be drawn, tested and localized, and this is long and difficult. Most likely, we will not do it.
Our assumption was that the minimap distracts from exploring the sights. We have a compass, which is probably not as functional as the minimap and not as clear. However, we hope that players who run around the city will eventually remember the streets and key landmarks that can be used to navigate.
Perhaps the idea did not work in Chapter One, and future games will be able to implement the system better, but this was our philosophy. Perhaps we will reconsider it, perhaps not.
VGTimes: When do you plan to release patches with improvements?
Sergey Oganesyan: We have already released a couple of small patches that fixed the most painful problems. For example, many people with AMD processors had a problem in the cemetery: Sherlock was supposed to look at the grave, but the game was looking somewhere at the ceiling. These processors calculated the math differently and moved the camera in the wrong direction.
A big patch is planned for December. I can't say the exact date, but there are about 150 or 170 changes. One of its goals is to improve performance. After the release of the first patch, we will see how much it improved the game and whether there are any more complaints about performance or bugs. Plus, we are preparing a DLC. A free add-on with new costumes for Sherlock was recently released, and there will be more major updates with big quests.
VGTimes: How long did Chapter One take to develop, and how many people worked on it?
Sergey Oganesyan: Chapter One was started at the end of work on The Sinking City, that was 2019. But these were early prototypes, many of which did not even make it into the game.
We fully took on the project at the beginning of 2020. It turns out that the development took two years, which we are incredibly proud of. The Sinking City had less content, but the development took longer. In fact, we made a big game with the same efforts — it was not easy in the conditions of COVID-19.
I won't tell you the exact number of employees, because it changes: new people come, old ones leave. I think somewhere around 100 people.
VGTimes: Did the conflict with the publisher over The Sinking City affect the development?
Sergey Oganesyan: Of course it did. Such things affect the team's morale, but in our case, perhaps even for the better. Chapter One's ratings from both the media and players are higher than The Sinking City's. In fact, the new game is the studio's highest-rated and fastest-selling project.
VGTimes: When should we expect the announcement of the next Frogwares game?
Sergey Oganesyan: Probably next summer. However, everything will depend on how fast the development is — this is always very unpredictable. You start with interesting mechanics that then have to be either optimized or cut out altogether, which greatly affects the development time.
It also depends on what the story will be, how quickly we write it, and what will happen with performance. Will we develop the project for old-gen consoles or not? These are questions that need to be answered.
As a marketing person, I want to announce the game as soon as possible. Then we can launch a page on Steam and PlayStation Store and collect wishlists.
Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is far from perfect, but still the best game about the greatest detective of all time. We hope that the next project from Frogwares will be even cooler — after all, no other studio releases detective projects of the same level.
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VGTimes has been operating since 2011 and during this time has visited dozens of exhibitions and festivals, where our journalists have collected many exclusive materials. For example, in 2019 we got to a closed screening of Cyberpunk 2077 at gamescom, in 2017 we prepared a photo report from WG Fest, in 2020 we were at the largest gaming event in Central Asia CAGS, and also visited IgroMir several times, where we saw Hideo Kojima and other famous developers.