Video Gamer is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
A classic ’90s point and click adventure hero is making its comeback with Simon the Sorcerer Origins, a new game in the classic series announced to arrive next year.
The game is the latest to join the growing trend of adventure returns in the past year including The Expanse: A Telltale Series and Return to Monkey Island. However, this one is being created by a brand new studio to the formerly British series with Italian outfit Smallthing Studios – alongside Leonardo Interactive – taking on development duties. We spoke with lead game designer and narrative designer Fabrizo Rizzo about bringing the series back, and an unexpected yet fabulous collaboration.
VideoGamer: First off, why Simon the Sorcerer specifically?
Fabrizo Rizzo: Our game director Massimiliano Calamai is a huge fan of the series. I am a huge fan of Simon the Sorcerer, even though I wasn’t even born when the first game came out. I’m from 1995, the first game was from 1993. So, I wasn’t even born. Luckily, my father was a huge gamer when I was young. And so he introduced me to a lot of games that I still love to this day. Some are a little bit on the older side, Some on the younger side, let’s say that.
And one day Massimiliano reached me and said. “Fabrizo, what about a prequel to Simon the Sorcerer?” And my head just blew up there, in that very moment – (makes explosion noise) It was a blast, it was a full rush of emotion. I was like, “I’m not right for this job. I was too young when it came out! I know the game but I don’t know if I’m ready!” It’s one of the biggest sagas ever made! The second biggest adventure game name in the world just behind Monkey Island; although when they came out Simon the Sorcerer sold much better than Monkey Island so they kind of level out.
So it was that, the passion of our game director, who really wanted to make this game and from that first moment we went all aboard on the ship and we really wanted to make that game. We started to feel that it was the right time and that we were the right people to create that game specifically. I really don’t know if there could be another brand or another adventure game series to say so that we could have done better than Simon. It was the right project at the right time with the right people in our opinion.
VG: Are Smallthing and Leonardo the right team to bring back Simon?
FR: We have a team full of amazing artists that are able to create 2D art on another level, they are wonderful. You are recording this conversation but if you just go to the other room, we have some, just some of our amazing artwork made by our artists that are awesome, and that’s one point.
On the other side, we are very passionate about our job, a lot of us are on the younger side as developers but we have a deep love of this industry. For example, talking about myself, I wanted to be a game designer since I was five years old. Also our game director Massimiliano Calamai is a huge gamer with a lot of experience in this industry and is a serious collector, he has anything and he loves any games, he’s on another level as a collector.
And that’s awesome because he’s able to transmit his love and his passion about this industry and we are a team that feel every day that passion when we are making a game. Some of us are more experienced, bringing more experience in the industry, some of us are not as huge gamers as some are, but every single one of us is passionate, is professional and believes in our true mission, which is to make everyone and every single player that gives us their trust will be repaid, has to be repaid with a good experience that can leave them happy. We want to show that happiness can come from small things actually. From your first simple match on your console. Just from a simple story, sometimes from the characters, we want to give that back to our players. It’s our mission. It’s what makes us wake up every single day and start work every single day of our life.
VG: What sort of changes and modifications have you made bringing Simon into modern day gaming?
FR: There were different kinds of changes on any aspect of the series but every single change was made while keeping in mind a single keyword that we still keep in mind every single day: respect. We have to respect the source material. We have to respect the authors. So any change we make, we think twice, three times about that before making it.
From a game standpoint, we wanted to create a more smooth experience in terms of adventure (games). We are far from the old times, where you had to select the single specific verb. We have a system that detects the kind of interactive elements in the scenario from the NPC, the element you can grab, the element that you can examine and use so you don’t have to select a specific verb. That is not to say it has been made any simpler in terms of puzzles of course! There are still complex crazy puzzles, that has not changed, of course, it is the heart of the entire experience.
On a writing standpoint, some aspects of the original Simon as a character were not in line with the age that the character was and it is not in line with our day and age and with what our company believes in terms of the kind of humour and the kind of both language and ideas, let’s say that. So we did not want to bring that kind of stuff back. Yeah, and simply because that was not in line with the character we were talking about. We are talking about a young child, a sarcastic one, a snarky one full of energy and English humour that made the character popular in the original games but it is still a young child and a deeper character that we may know about.
We are talking about an endearingly short boy sent to another world after being sent to another home, after being expelled from another school. He is confused, he is angry, but he is still that snarky boy. Everyone thinks he is too stupid to do something or he’s not the right person to do something, and maybe he is, but he’s also smart in his own way. He is sarcastic, he tends to talk a lot very fast. He doesn’t always know what to do, actually. And then in that time, the player comes in handy because the player is, yeah, the one who’s actually playing the game. (Laughs) He’s a deeper character, in our opinion and one that will be able to give something more than a let’s say a simple laugh, although getting a laugh is not that simple. And we’ll give some emotion, we’ll be able to transmit some emotion to our players. That’s what we want to do with the character. And especially in the ending, it would be very emotional one.
If you are a newer player, you will enjoy (the) entirety of an animated movie, full of English humour, full of emotions. But if you are a historical fan, you will recognise some links between the original chapter of the game and our game, and maybe, just maybe, tear up just a little bit. That would be, let’s say, kind of awesome. – not because I want to make people cry! It’s because we want (to) get emotions from our gamers, so that’s it.
VG: So you mentioned about the British sense of humour and – obviously as an Italian studio there’s a bit of a difference there, so was there a pressure to make sure that British sense of humour came through while also putting your own stamp on the series?
FR: Let’s just say that before writing anything, any single line of the game, we started… We studied at our best anything (that) we could. We started by studying every game in the series, even the last ones that were not made in England, they were from Germany, actually. But especially the first game – we replayed the first game about 15 times just to make sure we were doing everything according to the original author’s idea. Yeah, we watched comedy shows. Just simple British shows because we wanted to give that feeling.
Personally, just because I wanted to give that impression, I started to watch teen movies from the ’80s and the ’90s. Yeah, they were the kind of movie (that I grew up on) as a child. And I wanted that kind of feeling, that kind of – the feel of a character that is out of place, that is finding his own way and full of energy but is also snarky and sarcastic. The kind of character that is not perfect but that can give a firm response every now and then. And we want to keep that kind of humour.
We went on a more safe route with some jokes, simply because with the original game being made in the ’90s, there was a different sensibility to some kinds of jokes, but every single kind of joke that you will hear will still be made keeping in mind that feel.We want to bring that back. We started everything aligned in this way. We also have a lot of the visual comedy in our animations are funny funny, just… we keep laughing at our animations that we made like a year and a half ago, just because they are so funny to look at them. And on that side, our animation department did a great job.
VG: You mentioned taking inspiration from ’80s and ’90s movies – is that time period going to be a big part and influence on the game’s story and setting?
FR: Totally, yeah. In the game you will find a couple of references to the ’80s and the ’90s of course, and one of them is actually (a song from Rick Astley). (Editor’s Note: we’ve been asked not to name the specific song at this time.)
Yeah. We wanted that song because there was a lot of thought behind that choice of that specific song. First of all Rick Astley is English. He’s British – he is the right person. He also felt very passionate about this project himself. He had never participated in the creation of a game, but he was very happy about the idea and we did not want to let him down!
But also we looked at movies, the soundtracks, and there is some reference to something more recent, I will say. I won’t say anything more. But just keep an eye on the details in the games – (they’re) full of small details, full of something to examine to explore, and just things that we put… we put in a game not because we wanted to drag the story too much, but because we want to give the players to experience something more. Something that could satisfy the curiosity of the players. The game would be as enjoyable as much as you would like to get deep with it. So if you just want to get in the game experience, the story, you will enjoy a great story, full of great puzzles and something more. If you look at the deeper meaning of things, you might find something new. And if you really spend time, examine every single thing in the game, you might find something more out of the game.
VG: You mentioned this in the presentation earlier, and covered it a little bit just now – but how did Rick Astley get involved? How did that come about?
FR: So, I said before, one day Massimiliano Calamai, reached out to me and said “You know Fabrio, you know what would be really awesome?” “What Massi?” “If we could get a song from Rick Astley?”
Immediately, in my mind, as a millennial, I went to Never Gonna Give You Up because I thought about the meme and about Rickrolling the players. But then Massi said, ”No, no, not that one…”
Yeah. So he is involved. We had to spend a lot of time because getting the rights meant the involvement of many production houses. But from the first moment, Rick Astley was very passionate about this. He had never seen one of his songs in a game. And when we reached out to him and said “Your song, our game set in England, in the ’90s, this style, this cartoonish style, this kind of humour…” He was convinced. He was really, really, really passionate about the project and I personally cannot wait to share more about the game with Mr. Astley.
As a fan, I would like to meet him in person one day! That would be awesome! Even though I grew up in the ’90s-2000s, my father was a huge fan of music from the ’80s, the ’90s and the ’70s. So I tended to gravitate towards that kind of artist. And so they are still my heroes, my legends of music. So hearing his song, one of his best songs, you know? in our game is something that’s… “My god!”. I’m tearing up just thinking about it!
And it’s not just the work of Mr Astley, of course.. The entity of the soundtrack is based on the original soundtrack from the first game. You may have noticed that there was a little ‘top secret’ written, and that’s just a small secret we will be revealing in the future. Let’s just say it is something that is worth the wait to uncover. But in the meantime, what you heard about our soundtrack, it was just just a small little bit about the entirety of the soundtrack, which is in a small part full of completely original tracks – but for the most part based on the original soundtracks that are recognisable and iconic so much.
We just brought that back from the ’90s to our time and it goes very well with our scenarios, with our situations, and with our characters and it will be another nostalgic blast to our players. I think.
VG: Can we expect Simon to break the fourth wall as much as he did in the original games?
Fabrizo Rizzo: A lot of the time! A lot of times! (Laughs) Those kind of jokes, when he talks to you (the player) were the most fun to write. Anytime Simon goes and talks to a player was the best part to write about, because on that point you can remove the ‘cover’ of the game in a way. You do not have to have a character with that… that has to have a dialogue with a precise meaning that has to share precise information. No, no, you can have Simon break the fourth wall to give us a snarky comment.A lot of the time Simon is pretty angry with us as developers, he tends to be really angry to us! (Laughs) But a lot of time he is just talking to the player, sharing his impressions, his view of the world, some jokes and It’s something I enjoyed really very much writing about.
VG: So last question – earlier this year we saw the release of a new Monkey Island game, with Ron Gilbert returning to the series…
Fabrizo Rizzo: And what a comeback it was!
VG: So did you look towards that game in terms of the response to it from the public, and did that give you any ideas for the direction of your own game?
Fabrizo Rizzo: Well, let’s just say that Ron Gilbert is a great author. As a young game developer I could not just ignore the work of Mr. Gilbert, of course. More than that, we looked at what we liked about Return to Monkey Island and what we disliked about that, what we felt did not land very well with us as developers.
Also we looked at that response from the public; there were a lot of responses very different and, for the most part, very positive and that was great for us because we felt like It was another confirmation that this was the right time to bring such legendary sagas back to life, it was awesome!
So yes, we looked a lot at the response from the public and a lot of the game. Not so much to imitate it, but because we wanted to look at what an adventure game could be in 2023 and in 2024, in our case actually.
Simon the Sorcerer Origins is set for release in 2024 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC. (Thanks to Leonardo Interactive for arranging the interview.)
