Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz
1. Title
“Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz”
2. Genre
2D Point’n’Click Graphic Adventure
3. Platform
PC, PSP
4. Age Rating
Rating Teen (12 +) according to the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
5. Gameplay overview
“Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” is a classic two-dimensional adventure game. The production is illustrated with cartoon style drawings by a renown artist Mirosław Urbaniak, creator of graphic stories such as ‘Western’, and author of the graphic side of Reset teenage magazine .Its another characteristic is the kind of humor resembling the famous ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’.
The average encounter in the game is supposed to be light and pleasant. Moreover, the fact that it does not require the player to show any strenuous mental involvement is one of its characteristics, as the ultimate goal of L’Art studio is to cerate an attracting, funny, ‘interactive’ story rather than an adventure at a high difficulty level (see the degree of puzzle abstraction and complexity). It is our ambition to bring more satisfaction to the player through some amusing chain of events or funny interactions between the protagonists, instead of involving him in some complicated puzzle resulting in mental Gehenna.
The player in the game “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” directs the proceedings of a duo of two completely different heroines (as different as chalk from cheese). An elegant chick called Ada and a gothic artist called Polifonia (Pola in short). Moving with these charismatic heroines through the successive locations, the player solves different kinds of riddles, collects and uses various objects, and talks to almost 60 independent characters. Above all, however, he absorbs the story prepared by our crew. Riddles and intellectual challenges are not the ultimate aim of “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz”. They rather become a means of serving smaller doses of the plot of our game.
An average encounter in “Girlz Don’t Cry 2:Disaster Dollz” is served in the form similar in a way to a classical theatrical play. Therefore the overall time of the game is divided into a prologue, four acts and obviously a dramatic epilogue.
The roles of a master of the ceremony and a narrator at the same time are assumed by a Louis Cyphre type (from the movie “Angel Heart”), both mysterious and demonic, a Man-with a Beard. It is worth adding that as far as our plot is concerned the most important events are accompanied by a vivid off-stage reaction from the audience (laughter, clapping, booing etc.).
a) Interactivity
The user communicates with the game “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” by means of a very simple point’n’click interface whereas the entire servicing of an encounter is performed by clicking the mouse and using keyboard shortcuts included in a character’s equipment (‘I’ key) or a situational map (‘M’ key).
The player is allowed to take certain objects from the game world. They are transferred automatically to the “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” heroines’ equipment. The player may combine some objects from the equipment or affect some of the elements from the game with certain objects. Moreover, the player has the ability to communicate with the independent characters inhabiting the successive acts. During dialogue sections the user does not decide what the exact words of the heroines will be. Yet he is able to determine the way the girls will approach a given subject. The player may choose between a positive, neutral and negative speech style.
Taking into consideration character diversity of the NPC inhabitants of the game virtual world, the already presented ‘dialogue’ module serves primarily as a tool to establish the right register (emotional tinge, syntax etc) of a conversation.
This is the only way to elicit information from the encountered characters and, consequently, to move the action of the game forward.
b) Visual and graphics style
The visual aspect of “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” game consists of vast, hand drawn frames as well as a gallery of cartoon-like characters, whose movements are designed by some of the best Polish 2D animators – among others, Arleta Rogalska who has worked with us on our previous project, “Boyz Don’t Cry” (please see www.chnp.pl for more information, screenshots etc.). The visual side of the project is supervised by a renown cartoonist and comic-book artist Mirosław Urbaniak, who is also the author of locations and character designs.
The aesthetic appeal of “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” evokes the associations with classic cartoons (see ‘Blacksad’, ‘Lanfeust’ or ‘Asterix’) or animated cartoons (see ‘Cow and Chicken’, ‘The Simpsons’ or ‘Looney Tunes’). The reality pictured in “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” game has been twisted in a rather humorous and friendly way. Character designs and locations caricature absurdity of the world around.
c) Sound style
Sound effects, similarly to our previous adventure productions, occupy an important position in the game “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz”. This element of the project has been elaborated in cooperation with the leading Polish dubbing and sound mastery specialists such as Miriam Aleksandrowicz, who is responsible for the Polish version of ‘Friends’ series, and Tomasz Sikora, author of the sound rewarded at the International Warsaw Film Festival.
The game stages about 60 characters – the roles we plan to distribute amongst 30 actors As to their versatility, our requirements are very high because the inhabitants of “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” not only use different voices but also speak local dialects and social jargons. They can sing, rap, talk on the exhale only, communicate with various European languages, and finally yodel and use youth slang.
The experimental jazz music in the game “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” derives the inspiration primarily from the work of Tzadik Records as well as from the achievements of The Residents group. However, we would not like to confine ourselves to only one musical stream. Depending on the requirements of a situation, the game echoes with musical motifs originating from gangster movies, music associated with battle movies or with hip-hop and folk music.
d) Game modes
Single-player game. - “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” is designed to suit the needs of a single player. Once an adventure has been completed, the player gets access to a hidden artwork gallery containing pictures and films connected to the game.
6. Main features
- An intriguing and hilarious plot. The rationale behind “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” project’s creation is to prime the players with a cool and inspiring story, the discovery of which will be a pleasurable experience.
- Diverse puzzles.. Challenges the players respond to are as diversified as possible because our intention is to maintain carefully the elements of surprise and intrigue at every step the player takes. Funny and absurd-borne puzzles are not terribly heavy. They, however, require a certain dose of creative thinking and improvisation.
- Two charismatic heroines. Ada and Pola. The players assume the roles of two radically different girls, who pass different comments about the reality. For 75% of game time the players lead the actions of Ada whereas in all the other moments Polifonia takes over.
- The gallery of /unusual characters. The game “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” features about 60 different and invariably unusual characters, who represent all conceivable (and inconceivable) social classes of the middle and eastern European countries.
- The graphic side has been created by the hand of man. Locations as well as other animations are not created with the use of 3D graphic programs. They emerge to life by means of a pencil and some paper, in the hands of qualified artists.
- A daring soundtrack. The soundtrack which reverberates with the tunes of urban hip-hop, folk music, orchestral pieces, experimental jazz, vocalization as well as the electronic output of artists from the gothic scene.
7. Story
Ada and Pola, in the middle of their holidays at the French Riviera, wonder where to get the money for the next round of pinkish drinks with colorful paper umbrellas from. A waiter dressed up like an Aztec warrior brings in an envelope for one of them. It is addressed to Pola. It says that Pola’s great-grandmother’s friend’s sister’s grandmother’s brother’s second cousin’s cousin from her uncle’s side, Countess von Nagelkopf, whom Pola has last seen during her own baptism ceremony, being on the verge of passing away from this vale of tears bequeathed a grim castle in the north of Moldavia to one of our heroines. Although in the beginning the girls take it as a strange joke, they quickly change their mind and come to a conclusion that checking what this is all about is worth interrupting their holidays. What’s more, according to the last will/letter of the deceased, Pola has only 48 hours to collect the keys to the castle. If she does not make it on time or if a certain Augusto, who is vaguely mentioned in the letter, forestalls her the Nagelkopf grim castle together with its legendary treasures will disappear right under her nose.
Throughout the prologue and the first act of the game “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” the players direct Ada and Pola’s proceedings on their way to France, through Austria and Moldavia. The second act focuses on the heroines’ arrival to Moldavia and their stay in a village full of superstitions, at the foot of the castle hill. The third act pictures the grim castle of von Nagelkopf and a surprising twist of the action. Augusto turns out to be a bad guy, a madman who threatens the well-being of the world. Therefore someone has to stop him. The fourth act of the game “Girlz Don’t Cry 2: Disaster Dollz” takes place in an island, where the heroines are kidnapped to by Augusto.
The Epilogue tells the story on the girls’ final victory over the bad Augusto. The events move smoothly to a happy end when the girls take over the castle together with its legendary riches.
8. Similar Games
- “Boyz Don’t Cry” (2004 – L’Art / Dobra Gra)
- „Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror” (1999 – Revolution Soft. / Virgin Int.)
- “The Curse of Monkey Island” (1997 – LucasArts)
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