Many people (including this group of passionate Dragon’s Lair fans) have asked how The Act compares to the fabulous Dragon’s Lair, Space Ace, and the other animated laser disc games of the 80’s. I love being mentioned in the same breath with these legends of video game design. I like to think the artwork of The Act is similar to the artistry of Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, John Pomeroy and other ex-Disney greats who created the beautiful artwork of the Dragon’s Lair series.
However, Dragon’s Lair‘s interactivity was limited by its optical disc technology (and the high cost of RAM at the time). The Act, by contrast, allows direct control over a character—more like Donkey Kong than Dragon’s Lair.
The Act‘s biggest innovation is that the player’s direct control is not over physical actions like running, climbing and jumping. Instead, you control emotional attitude like coaxing, flirting, and bullying. The gameplay of The Act revolves around the same thing that makes the story interesting: the relationships and emotions of its characters.
In developing The Act, we experimented with many different graphical styles including CGI and machinima. We even tried video taping live actors. However, it wasn’t until we met Anthony Michaels, Broose Johnson, Barry Temple, Sasha Dorogov, and all the other awesome veterans of Walt Disney Feature Animation’s Orlando studio that we began to achieve the level of acting required to make the “emotional gameplay” work.
Cecropia’s web site has a new look. Because Cecropia has a new direction. After many fruitful years of experimenting in the fascinating laboratory of coin-operated video games, we have decided to leave the coin-op world behind us. It is a new millenium. We are focused on the Internet.
Omar's Blog 
