Boris Chuprin of SPline development studio answers our questions
Thank you for taking the time out to talk to us.
- Can you introduce yourselves, your previous experience and your roles in developing “a stroke of fate”?
Hi there! My name is Boris Chuprin, I’m a project leader of “A Stroke of Fate” of the SPline development studio. Our company has been operating for quite a while on 3D graphics working for the leading game developers throughout the world; however it’s the first time we are involved in the project as developers from the scratch to its final release.
- Can you describe “a stroke of fate” – The interface, 1st or 3rd person, the puzzles and challenges, the characters etc.
A Stroke of Fate is based off classical principles typical of the adventure genre. It implies a point & click interface and a 3rd person view. We apply the most appropriate technology – prerendered background, and 3D characters and objects. There are mini-games related to espionage and sabotage activities of the main character, for instance, deciphering of messages with some secret data, or assembling of a photo camera to shoot secretly. Some of the missions can be walked through differently.
Let me introduce to you our main character – Gerhard Mayer, SS- Standartenführer. Faithful catholic, patriot of Germany. Denied Hitler’s policy from the early stages of his political career. Voted for Theodor Duesterberg in 1932. After Hitler’s stunning success, just like many others, believed that he was the one. Feels that joining the SS was his biggest mistake. Dreams of liquidating Hitler and giving Germany a beam of hope.
Getting advantage of his position in Gestapo and aligned with the like-minded people, our main character does his best to arrange Adolf Hitler’s assassination. This is a desperate endeavor aimed at getting the already lost war to an end and saving thousands of lives.
In reality Hitler survived several dozens of assassinations. We applied the most interesting details of these coups to come with our version of what was happening in Germany at that time.
- “A Stroke of Fate” allows the gamer to step into a new environment – getting close to Hitler’s inner circle. What qualities do you think will set this game apart from all the other WWII espionage titles?
Well, first of all what we are trying to reach is a historically authentic environment. Thus we invited a historical consultant and specified all the details of the ambience relevant to Germany of the 1941-1945’s. Here I’m speaking of the security system, where and how food was purchased to get served at Hitler’s table; who could be responsible if something went wrong with the lights in his office, and many other small but very important nuances. We studied a lot of archive documents, memoirs of the people who were very close to Hitler. The locations were reconstructed based on the real photos of those times.
- What stage of development is “a stroke of fate” at now?
We are close to releasing an alpha version and we hope to get it ready by this Christmas. The final release is slated for Q1 2008.
- Can you tell us what other projects you have planned?
Our plans for the future are pending the gamers’ reaction on our debut project. If they are going to like it we are keen on continuing the game series with Gerhard Mayer involved and covering other missions and operations of the WWII he was into.
- Finally what is your favorite game ever and why?
Well, I believe that’s The Secret of Monkey Island by LucasArts. It was my start, the push to make me deeply into adventure games thus I was dreaming of either being a pirate or a game developer. 
Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk to us
Thanks a lot for your interest in our project. We are looking forward to seeing you on the game’s official website: http://astrokeoffate.akella.com/.
