The Gigantic Joanna

Febraury 7, 2020

Rooms continue to get knocked off the “to do” list for Sleuthhounds: Cruise at a rate of one a day. One of the ones I really enjoyed working on this past week is the exterior of the Gigantic Joanna, the cruise ship itself. It’s a scene that’s cut to at multiple points throughout the game as a time transition in the story, typically when moving from one of the five game acts to the next.

The rough pencil sketch version I’ve been living with through production looked like this:

That’s been significantly upgraded to this:

Click to view larger.

However, what’s unique about this scene is that, given its use as a time transition, it can actually switch from the above day version to a night version and vice versa.

Click to view larger.

During the transition the sun sets and the sky shifts through reds and purples before going to the darkness of night. As well stars come out and are reflected in the water as the moon rises. Of course, it being dark the passengers still need to be able to see so the ship’s lights come on and can be seen in the windows of the ship itself as well as its reflection.

The sunset at the end of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.

The overall effect is one that was inspired by a much older game. In Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis a similar transition appears during the game’s credits. As Indy looks on over a vast sea the sun slowly sets while the credits roll. That game’s almost thirty years old now and very few games, of any sort, have scenes like that in them (excepting of course, those games with a built in day/night cycle). I’ve often found that surprising as such a scene really helps make a game feel alive. So here’s to you Fate of Atlantis, my homage to a classic scene in gaming history.

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