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'The City of Metronome' - Developer Q&A

by John Curtis on May 23, 2005 @ 5:32 a.m. PDT

Venture into the city of Metronome, a sprawling mass of haphazardly built houses and huge steam engines where the outlandish inhabitants are carrying out their chores day and night, a city where the life of every citizen is dictated by the Corporation, a single bureaucratic entity that owns all the land, the entire infrastructure and all the industries. Since we were so interested in this project, we decided to revisit their E3 booth and squeeze in a quick Q&A with Team Tarsier's Pelle Bergman.

If you haven't yet, check our The City of Metronome preview!

WP: Can you further explain the role that photographs will play in the game?

PB: We don't want to reveal too much about the story as it would ruin the players' experience of the game. All we can say is that the photographs hold important connection between the city and its inhabitants.

WP: What is The Corporation and where did they come from?

PB: The Corporation and its businessmen govern the city, but no one knows their origin.

WP: What is the name and background of the main character in the game?

PB: Tin, the main character, is an orphan who has grown up outside of the city in the care of a chimney sweeper named Chim. All his life, Tin has been dreaming of working on a train, and the game starts on his first day at work as a ticket boy.

WP: Who is the fat man we saw in the theater sequence you played for us? Who and why did he pay another man to cut a photo into pieces? Why did the boy (Tin) fish a key from the pocket of the fat man?

PB: The "theater" trailer is actually a cut scene between two missions in the game. A theater is a great place for doing business in the dark, and that's just what the security chief of the telephone office was doing. While the meeting between the security chief and a strange character occurs, Tin "borrows" the key to the telephone office where he's supposed to meet with the mysterious girl named New.

WP: Can you tell us who are and anything about the inhabitants of Metronome?

PB: Metronome is a city loaded with life and characters. Apart from the Scouts and Metrognomes, you will find races and organizations such as the henchmen, businessmen, humans, telephone switchers, tobacco dealers, and plumbers. What they all have in common is that they all work, and they all work hard.

WP: What is the role of the clock in the City of Metronome?

PB: There is a lot of work to be done in the City of Metronome, and The Corporation needs to keep track of time. To their pleasure, a character we call Biker Mike keeps the clock running for now.

WP: What are the names for the "Great Machines," both the original machine and the one created by The Corporation?

PB: There are many myths and legends about the Great Machine. Which are true and false remain to be discovered by Tin along his journey.

WP: On your website www.tarsier.se/metronome, there is a mention of a female character. Who is this character and what is her role?

PB: The girl's name is New, and she will play an important role in the Metronome game. She is a curious and rather aggressive young girl who is on the run from the businessmen.

WP: Can you tell us how speech may be used in the game?

PB: Metronome characters will have speech and dialogue. What is different in this game is that you can record and use it in your own arsenal of sounds. Someone shouting "STOP!" at you might not be so bad after all …

Corey Owen also contributed to this interview.

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