Benois Sokal. Artist, game designer, demiurge

Benois Sokal. Artist, game designer, demiurge

Benois Sokal. Artist, game designer, demiurge

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On May 28, Benois Sokal, author, died in the French Reims from a severe and prolonged illness Syberia, Amerzone, Paradise And Sinking Island. Perhaps he was not as famous as Hideo Kojima, and his awards were smaller than that of Sid Meyer. However, without croaking, I will say that he was my favorite game designer. When he was gone, the game industry lost more than just the head of the studio, artist or screenwriter. Left, without jokes, a whole era. And not only for a long -niche genre Point’n’Click.

Benois Sokal left us at only 66 years old

Ars Longa

Belgian master has always been primarily an artist. For the sake of his passion for drawing, he even disobeyed a strict father-doctor and abandoned a medical university after two years of study. Having graduated from his native Brussels a very solid and respected institute of St. Luke, Benois began to draw for a young comic book magazine À Suivre (that is, "continued"). And just a year later, in 1979, the first issue was released Inspector Canardo (from the French "Canard"-"Duck"), his solo graphic novel about the anthropomorphic duck duck. Sokal was then still young, but his author’s imagination and a unique artistic style is already visible from these works.

Inspector Canardo is a parody of Noir, which over time has become quite a full -fledged noir. There were enough anti -heroes (which only Canardo himself – misanthrope, cynic and alcoholic costs), and “not quite villains”, and gray morality, and dark gateways, and unexpected turns. Yes, the setting is not unique: there was already a "Howard-Utka" before it, and then-"Blaxed". But the talent of Sokal makes "inspector Canardo" one of the best European comics of the twentieth century.

It is funny that quite ordinary WinOMania sister sites people who did not see anything unusual in the behavior of ducks, cats and dogs took part in the comics about inspector Canardo

Canardo repeatedly died – including exotic ways like drowning in a hole in urine – but always returned in the next issue. At least until he decided to finally reduce the scores with life … at the end of the first (or, more correctly, zero) of 23 volumes of his adventure. After that, he gave way to his own son – his exact copy, and everything returned to his circles. In the adventures of duck-detective there were enough mysticism like agreements with the devil, and science fiction like a portable time of time, and the real human tragedy. Canardo had a chance to participate in political intrigues, and look for the gold of the Nazis, and meet your personal Femme Fatale, and to misery over the canons of Nuar.

The Inspector Canardo has become far from the only one, but perhaps the most famous and precisely the most “long -playing” work of Sokal. The comic lasted as long as 35 years (if you count the first strips in à Suivre) and stopped going out only in 2013. During all this time, “CANARDO inspector” could not help but leave a very noticeable mark on the creative path of its author. Let's say the inspector’s blood enemy was the evil and obsessed with the idea of ​​immortality Siberian cat named Rasputin. At the time of its creation, Syberia was not even in plans, but the interest of the Belgian artist in the mysterious snowy Russia was already visible then. It was in comics that the island first appeared, which is drowning under its own weight: in the short story, and called Sinking Island. And it is also from the adventures of the CANARDO inspector – if specifically, from the 1986 L’Merzone release – the first video game created by Benois Sokale has grown.

A year after the Amerzone release, the light saw a collection of concepts, sketches and ready -made arts Le Testament de L’Explorateur

Sokaly was always interested in computers – and in particular how the artist can use them. Gradually, he mastered the graphic editors and even painted his comics using PC, then carried away by 3D modeling, and there was the time to come for Amerzone. Conceptually it was a quest with traditional clones Myst first -person view, and the quest for its time is very beautiful and extraordinary, although very simple. There were no superxite puzzles in the style of the same myst there. Sokal already then believed that the gameplay should grow from history, and not vice versa, so he was not going to make his first game too difficult. According to his idea, passing the amerzone should have been only a little more difficult than reading an exciting graphic novel: just instead of leafing through pages, the user would click on active points.

Sokal planned to meet one year and 35 thousand euros of the budget. As a result, the game took him four years and 250 thousand, but the result of it definitely cost: history, atmosphere, art – everything was at the highest level. A device that can transform even into an airplane, at least into a helicopter, at least in a submarine. Unusual animals and strange plants. The mysterious tribes of the Indians, who certainly know something like that, extremely important, which in the "Enlightened Europe" has long been forgotten … I do not know whether it is possible to get a pleasure from America today: after all, three-dimensional graphics from the end of the nineties were not very good and not very well and It looks poor. And the Myst-shaped game process will be appreciated only by the most melancholy questomaniacs. However, at least to see the drawings, sketches and sketches are necessary – at least for the sake of proprietary solar aesthetics.

A piercing-grinding introductory video to Syberia is still making his way to the bones

Perhaps you can’t call an amerzone a masterpiece: even in 1999 it felt obsolete. But knowledgeable people still appreciated the game, and Sokal even received the Pixelina Award Award. However, it was nothing more than a pen of the pen, albeit quite successful – the main masterpiece of the maestro was still ahead.

If the Sokal worked on amerzone almost alone, then over Syberia a whole team was already working. Nevertheless, most of the game became the merit of Benoit himself. He himself wrote a story and all the dialogs, he himself invented heroes and peace (by the way, the universe here is the same as in American) and, of course, painted almost everything – from bizarre groove mechanisms to locations. Despite the fact that technically Syberia was created by the studio Microids , She came out in truly author's game. And in the way, thanks to this, it became one of the best interactive adventures in history.

By 2002, when Syberia lay on the shelves, the Point’n’Click genre has long survived his golden age and slowly fell into decay. However, the creation of Benois Sokal showed that the quests should definitely not be written off in the scrap. After all, there was even a linear, but fascinating plot; not too complex, but elegant and logical riddles; Bright heroes, each of whom remained in memory: that the machine-machine gunner Oscar, that the crazy genius Hans Foralberg, that Opera Diva Elena Romanskaya ..

Syberia II was almost inferior to the first part

And it was also a damn beautiful game. And this is a merit of not only and not so much technology (although, of course, the approach, which Sokal himself jokingly called “2.75D”, worked perfectly) – the point was in the artistic vision that Benois always possessed. Clothing trains, reasonable mechanical people, fantastic animals and birds, small European towns, universities that have come to desolation, the ruins of the USSR lost in time and space – from all this was so soft, bright sadness and at the same time such a tart spirit of adventure that I just wanted to enter into monitor and stay in this world forever. Not a single game in the world has the atmosphere that Syberia had … except, perhaps, Syberia 2.

But it is not surprising, because initially it was a single work. Sokal always thought globally, and in the end he got a story, too big for one game. Therefore, the plot was divided into two parts and released them separately. But together they are taking shape in the history of the education of the main character Kate Walker – traditional, but always relevant. Well, just in a great adventure: cute, touching and at the same time exciting.

Based on Syberia, an album with drawings and philosophical thoughts was also released

The Syberia dilogy brought to SOKAL Award “Man of the Year” from Phoenix Awards and became the pinnacle of his creative career. Unfortunately, each peak is followed by a decline.

Vita Brevis

Of course, the player career of the Sokal is not only automatons, mammoths and microids. Benois always warmly recalled work in the French studio, where at one time he held the position of art director, but the artist’s free soul longed for freedom. In 2003, together with several friends and colleagues in Microids, Benois founded White Birds Productions , to work on independently on new adventure games. The White Birds Productions studio was small – only 20 people worked there – and did not do all the work on her own. The company focused on the main things for the Sookal: ideas, narrative and art design. And the rest, such as scripting or 3D modeling, preferred to give out to outsources. Perhaps this is the hidden the reason that nothing is as significant as Syberia, from under the pen of the Sokal, it never came.

The English edition of the L’Merzone comic book, one of the stories about the Canardo inspector, was called The Kingdom of the White Birds. In the future, Sokal will call its company White Birds Productions, and the topic of white birds will become through in its work

The first project of White Birds Productions under the heading of Paradise fascinated with the views of mysterious Africa and a twisted story, but repulsed the quests fans with excessive simplicity: apparently, the time of interactive stories has not yet come. Technical problems and crooked management also did not add charm to the game. In general, it was also the first truly mediocre thing in Portfolio Benois. First but far from the last.

After the Paradise sales, the studio decided to change the course. Sokal's next work was Sinking Island, which turned out to be almost a classic English detective. The closed space of a small island, which slowly drowns under the weight of a colossal hotel. The mysterious death of his master – an eccentric rich man. Suspicious guests, each of which may turn out to be a killer. In total, all this developed in history at the level of almost Agatha Christie. But the most curious here was that the action of Sinking Island was unfolding in real time, just like in The Last Express, – Very rare for traditional in everything else Point’N’Click. In general, everything was fine, and the design and plot, as always, were at the highest level. But again there were no bugs and logical inconsistencies. The game was met without great delight.

To another game of White Birds Productions, Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals, Personally, Sokal had nothing to do, although he worked for some time on the original comics along with their author Enke Bilal

The continuation of Sinking Island was to be called Broadway and talk about the murder in the New York Theater right during the performance. The authors called the interrogations of witnesses the main feature, each of whom saw only part of the overall picture. They started working on the project before the release of Sinking Island, but in the end I had to refuse Broadway. Unfortunately, this was not the only abolished play of Sokal.

The plot of Action -adventure also went under the knife Birdy , The idea of ​​which Benois was ragged for many years. It was assumed that in it we will play for a bird: we will hatch with it out of the egg, we will hunt, build a nest, protect the family and simply, in the end, soar in the air. It could have turned out to be very peculiar, especially if you remember how Sokal loved the birds: the American plot spun around the egg of a white bird, the yukols in Syberia bred driving ostriches, and the feathered Canardo should not forget.

In the full -length animation of Aquarica, Scarlett Johansson was to play the main role

Another unborn child Sokal bore a name Aquarica. It was assumed that it will become a complex multifaceted parables, told immediately after several media channels: the game, comics and even a full-length 3D-multfilm with a budget of more than 20 million euros. It was probably the most ambitious project of Benois. But it did not happen.

Sokal received the title of a knight of the French Order of Arts and Literature in 2006 and the Belgian Order of Leopold in 2007. However, this can hardly be called the merit of Paradise or Sinking Island. In 2010, White Birds Productions had to be closed due to financial problems. However, this did not mean that Benois left art or from Gamdev. He returned to graphic novels and the main game series in his life. In 2012, work began on Syberia 3 – And again under the wing Microids.

The new part of Kate Walker's adventures came out after five long years and … not that she met expectations. Maybe the point was that the first two Syberia were a completely complete story, and the third was the initiative rather than the Socal. Maybe in the fact that from our first acquaintance with the eccentric inventor Hans Foralberg, too much water flowed. Maybe something else. However, Syberia 3 lost everything that made a series of special. Magic left, charm was lost, an elusive sad-romantic atmosphere was dispelled. Not to mention the fact that for 2017 the game was very, very old, flaunted with clumsy animation, uncomfortable control, fatal bugs and fierce brakes with a not-out-of-the-very outstanding picture.

With all the shortcomings of Syberia 3, there were enough strong points in it

However, fans (and I admit, including, for the sake of returning to the world of snowy Siberia, to mammoths and snow ostriches, were ready to forgive Sokal with everything. Perhaps this is thanks to this in 2019 announced the prequel Syberia with a subtitle The World Before, where events will take place before the Second World War.

And then the Sokal simply left – and left behind one main question: what will happen to Syberia further? Judging by the demo, so far The World Before is fully consistent with Benoit's philosophy: “Art above the game design”. Everything is uncomfortable and outdated here – of course, except for the artistic part. However, fans of genius are not used to difficulties, but with the style of the game everything is clearly in order. It remains only to wait a bit: the release is scheduled for 2021. Well, the show should continue. Under any circumstances.

Syberia: The World Before. The handwriting of the master is still visible

The best that Syberia developers can do: The World Before is not to spoil anything and keep the vision as much as possible and art Sokal. I hope they succeed. After all, nothing more of it is destined for us is no longer destined. Remember the world, master.

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