One of the more interesting movies to hit US screens last year was the Russian fantasy/thriller movie Night Watch. The movie follows the path of Anton Gorodetsky, a Russian man who discovers an age old war between two groups of Others, the light and the dark. The Others are a group of humans who can perform powerful magic, change their shape, and harness the power of the Gloom, a mystical force that exists just outside of reality. A truce was forged between the two that neither group could force a newly discovered Other into the light or the dark. The movie was heavy on style, imagery, and even had a few decent plot twists thrown in for good measure. The folks at Nival Interactive are currently working on a game based on the movie and we had the chance to ask a few questions about the game.
GamingNexus: Can you introduce yourself and describe your role on the project? How long have you been in the gaming industry and how did you get started in the industry?
Hi, my name is Dmitri “Zak” Zakharov, I am the Head of the PC Development Department in Nival Interactive. Our department helped CDV with the release of the English version of Night Watch and with localization it to the other languages. I’ve been in the game development industry for over 15 years now, and the last 8 of them I have been at Nival Interactive.
GamingNexus: Will the game follow the plot of the movie or will it just occur in the same world as the movie? Will you be running into the characters from the movie?
Dmitri Zakharov: The game features its own story and it overlaps with components of the film. One of the features of the Night Watch game is the new and exciting story that allows players to interact with the characters that they know from the film. We felt that if we made a game based on the story shown in the movie, it not be that interesting and especially not surprising as everything is already known in advance. So we created our own story in cooperation with Sergey Lukyanenko, author of the book and creator of the Watches universe. The game delves into the the Night Watch universe where you will meet Gesser, the head of Night Watch, Olga, his lover and a powerful Light mage, Tigra who will be joining your team for certain missions, Zavulon, the head of Day Watch, and the evil Alice, one of the witches of Day Watch and Zavulon’s lover. You will also meet new characters, one of them, Stas, will be the Main hero of the game.
GamingNexus: Night Watch is the first in a trilogy of movies. Where in the timeline will the game take place?
Dmitri Zakharov: The events of the game take place in the same universe as the events of the movie, but it’s another story. So to consider the movie’s timeline, the game story falls after the movie, probably, before the second movie, and some references to the movie’s plot show that.
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