The Adventure Games

The Adventure Games

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The Adventure Games
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Wales Interactive
Developer:	Sumo Digital
Release details
Platform:	PC Mac OS
Genre:	Graphic adventure
Release date:	2nd June 2010 (Trial version, PC; UK only) 5th June (Official release, PC; UK only) 15th June 2010 (Mac OS; UK only) July 2010 (international; PC only)

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games is a series of four graphic adventure video games, the first series was released in conjunction with Series 5 on the official website. A second series is planned to be released in 2011.

Promotion

Details regarding the games were announced on 21 April 2010. The games are being produced in conjunction with the Doctor Who TV production team, with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan lending their voices and likenesses to the games. In announcing the games, series producer Piers Wenger stated that they are part of Series 5: "There aren't 13 episodes of Doctor Who this year. There are 17 - four of which are interactive. Everything you see and experience within the game is part of the Doctor Who universe."

Footage of the games was shown after Victory of the Daleks, revealing one "episode" would involve the Daleks and a destroyed London in 1963 with the tagline Fight The Daleks. This was later revealed to be City of the Daleks by Phil Ford, initially announced as being available on the 5th June. A second series of another four episodes has been commisioned for release in 2011.

Availability

The first of the games, City of the Daleks, was released for download via the BBC's official Doctor Who website on 2nd June 2010 for PCs - several days earlier than the originally announced release date of 5th June. It was later revealed that the early release of the game was part of a system test as they gear up for the official release date. A trailer for the game was shown straight after Vincent and the Doctor on Saturday to mark its official launch . A Macintosh version was later released on 15th June 2010.

At present, the first four games are available to international audiences from Direct2Drive, for $3.70 American. However, Direct2Drive has controversially chosen not to make the Mac OS version of the game available, which has had the side-effect of preventing some gaming sites from reviewing the game.

Robert Nashak from BBC Worldwide has also said that in the future, there may be retail versions of the games.

Gameplay

The Adventure Games are a puzzle-based game: the player has to navigate obstacles with a specific pattern to them, crack codes, use objects to bypass obstacles, and navigate mazes. There is little margin for error: most hazards kill automatically, and (as the Doctor) it can be hard to escape from his enemies once they've spotted you. The game follows a linear path: tasks have to be handled a certain way and in a certain sequence.

Cast and characters

Primary cast

• The Doctor - Matt Smith
• Amy Pond - Karen Gillan

Guest cast

• Sylvia - Sara Carver
• Chisholm - Barnaby Edwards
• Elizabeth Meadows, the Entity and Jones - Sarah Douglas
• Daleks and Cybermen (Voices) and Oswald Fox - Nicholas Briggs

Games

Series one

Episode Number	Title	Writer	Available	Notes
1	City of the Daleks	Phil Ford	5th June, 2010	Reappearance of the Daleks
2	Blood of the Cybermen	Phil Ford	26th June, 2010	Reappearance of the Cybermen
3	TARDIS	James Moran	27th August, 2010
4	Shadows of the Vashta Nerada	Phil Ford	22nd December, 2010	Reappearance of the Vashta Nerada

Series two

Episode Number	Title	Writer	Available	Notes
1	The Gunpowder Plot	Phil Ford	October 2011	Return of the Rutans
2	TBA	TBA	TBA
3	TBA	TBA	TBA
4	TBA	TBA	TBA

Production crew

Producers

• Gary Russell

Executive producers

• Steven Moffat
• Piers Wenger
• Beth Willis
• Anwen Aspden
• Charles Cecil

Writers

• Phil Ford
• James Moran

Future

A second series was commissioned by the BBC in September 2010. It is expected for release sometime around the end of Series 6 and will feature the voices of Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill as The Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams. The four episodes will all be written by Doctor Who writers including Phil Ford. It will once again be executive produced by Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger and Beth Willis, along with Anwen Aspden at BBC Wales Interactive.

The first game of Series 2, The Gunpowder Plot, will be released in October. It is the first Adventure Game to use the new portal technology to let the player step inside the TARDIS without having to wait for a loading screen. It also has advanced lighting systems and more complex puzzles.

Notes

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A Jelly Baby Card

• Each episode has collectible cards, marked with a "DW", which provide extra information on the Doctor Who universe. There are fifty to collect in total, ten each of Doctors, Companions, Friends, Enemies, and Jelly Babies.
• A picture of a Cyberman on the Adventure Games mini site is named "Winter of Terror". This could be the original name for Blood of the Cybermen.
• According to the folder structure of the Adventure Games directory, City of the Daleks was originally intended to be the second episode, Blood of the Cybermen was intended to be the first and TARDIS was originally set to be the last.
• The Adventure Games prominently feature music from a previous series, unlike the majority of Series 5. Only The Eleventh Hour and The Pandorica Opens used previously written music.
• A short teaser for the third adventure game was released on the BBC website, entitled Wish You Were Here.
• A second series of Adventure Games was anounced for 2011, and may have more 'prominent' characters from the series. [1]
• Shadows of the Vashta Nerada was revealed for the 2nd day of the 2010 advent calender on www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho

External links

• GallifreyNewsbase report
• Develop-Online information