At the Game Developer Conference last month, Arte – a French/German publisher funded by the government whose purpose is to release artistically valuable video games to promote the culture of its home countries – revealed some details about its future plans.
One of the more interesting projects that the company is working on is The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature, created by Paris-based developer La Belle Games. Like its name suggests, the game draws inspiration from Frankenstein, but it aims to recreate the original Gothic novel written by Mary Shelley in 1818 instead of being just another one of the countless adaptations that we’ve seen in the last 2 centuries.
“The book isn’t just about the monster that we know from popular culture, but about what it means to be human,” said Adrien Larouzée, co-producer at Arte. “It’s about what happens when a child’s soul is part of an adult body, and that child doesn’t understand the way the world works.”
The Wanderer is reportedly going to be a narrative adventure featuring watercolor graphics in which Dr. Frankenstein introduces his creation to the world. The decisions that the player makes will determine how the creature will react. As a result, you will have a chance to write your own version of this legendary novel.
The game revolves around the creature’s emotional state. Depending on what you do, the monster will evolve in different courses. Not only will this have an impact on the story, but on the gameplay as well. For example, when encountering a challenging situation, it might experience sadness, anger, or even madness, and the graphics and sounds will change accordingly.
Larouzée added that Arte is also looking to offer support to video games with “meaningful content” that has strong European cultural traits. The Wanderer undoubtedly fits in what one would call “meaningful content”, but it also contains elements of cultural exchange between European countries. Author Mary Shelley was from England, but she had the ideas for her novel during her travels through Switzerland.
The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature is scheduled to launch later this year on PC, Switch, and mobile.