|
Question: Hello! Can you introduce yourself and your position in the company?
Answer: Andrey Shkolnikov, script writer and game designer.
Q: Can you tell us how the idea of a game after Nikolay Vasilievich Gogol's works came to your mind?
A: The idea took into our heads long ago. Gogol's stories, especially Dikanka series and Viy are dramatic and unpredictable, full of original colorful characters and sparkling dialogues. It is a good ground for computer games, but at the same time it is a great responsibility - we never want to make an "empty" game and especially when it based on such marvelous classical stories. The players will judge how well we completed this task.
Q: What is the difference between Dikanka 1 and 2?
A: Judging by online comments and magazine reviews we can say that the first part was approved by most players. Though some of them said that the game turned out to be short and most puzzles were easy to solve. Part 2 is going to be larger and richer in content with more difficult puzzles which at the same time are easy enough for those who play for the first time. In general, Dikanka 2 is like the first part - it is a fairy quest, based on Gogol's works and folk stories.
Q: Who is the hero of the game?
A: The hero is the same - Vakula, a blacksmith from Dikanka. In the first part the storyline is directly connected with Vakula (his beloved Oxana asks him to bring her the shoes which the tsarina wears), while in the second part Vakula happens to get "mixed up" with the game events. Oxana, now Vakula's wife, asks him to help to arrange the relationship between her friend Natalka and Petrus, Natalka's beloved. Since that moment all Vakula's adventures begin and it takes him (the player) quite a lot of time to get to know what really happens…
Q: Is the storyline identical to that of the book or are there any differences?
A: The main storyline is the same as in Gogol's "Evening before Ivan Kupala": a poor man Petrus has to become rich to marry the daughter of Golova, the village's head. Despairingly he accepts an offer of a stranger who has just appeared in Dikanka…Except the main storyline there are some elements from "Sorochinskaya Fair", "May Night" and some folk fairytales.
| 
