Pic: Adventure Gamers

For those of you with a bent for computer games, you will have no doubt heard us talking about the new adventure game set in Wales and based firmly in Celtic Mythology, Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches, and created by the Welsh design team, Arberth Studios. Adventure Gamers have been fortunate enough to secure an interview with one of the three team members responsible for the design of the game, Noel Bruton.

Ruthie bought and played this game and got stuck in what appeared to be a game glitch; sadly after many hours of play she gave up. I would imagine by now that they have fixed or patched the game to prevent this happening.

In the interview, Adventure Gamers say:

In this genre, you just never know where the next horror might be lurking. In recent years, adventure fans have been treated to haunting stories from all over the world, from the U.S. to England, from Argentina to Turkey. Not to be outdone, now a small team from Wales jumps into the fray with Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches. Based on the collection of historical legends in the Mabinogion, the debut offering from Arberth Studios is a modern day tale set in the remote Welsh farmstead of Ty Pryderi, home to an ancient rivalry between the prince Pryderi and the evil wizard Llwyd that has carried on even centuries after death. Now the "House of Pryderi" threatens to claim a new victim, a teenaged girl named Rhiannon Sullivan. For her own well-being, Rhiannon’s parents removed her from the house after she began having disturbing ghostly experiences, but her absence only delays the inevitable destiny that awaits her, and so players will need to delve the depths of the paranormal mystery surrounding the house.

A new haunted house tale set against the backdrop of Celtic legend should have many fans anxiously awaiting its release this fall. In the meantime, we did a little probing of our own, going behind the scenes with Arberth’s co-founder Noel Bruton to discuss the game and the upstart development team behind it.

AG: Before we delve too deeply into the game, let’s get a bit better acquainted with its first-time developers. Who is Arberth Studios?

NB: There are three of us. Karen, whose idea all this was in the first place; Karen’s brother Richard, a designer and graphic illustrator by profession; and Noel (that’s me), Karen’s husband, who is turning his years in IT in this weird new direction. Karen and I live on a Welsh farmstead. Parts of our home bear a striking resemblance to Ty Pryderi, the fictional setting for Rhiannon – that’s Richard’s doing. A stream runs through our garden, called the ‘Nant Arberth’. I suppose you could say we took the name of the company from there, but that’s not the whole truth. In the Mabinogion, lord Pryderi had his seat at somewhere called ‘Glan Arberth’. We live in an area of Wales where part of the Mabinogion is said to have taken place.

AG: This is your first game as a team, but did you have any experience as developers individually before Rhiannon?

NB: No, none at all. I had done a bit of programming, but only as a hobby. I had a novel published a few years ago, so not unused to writing fiction. Richard models rooms and landscapes for a living, so it’s not too much of a technical departure for him, but he relishes the creative freedom that he gets from Rhiannon rather than just illustrating an architect’s ideas. Karen’s always had a thing about detailed research and she’s turned that to good use in Rhiannon, along with her years of gaming experience.

Adventure Gamers: Rhiannon is grounded in stories from the collection of Welsh historical legends called the Mabinogion, and the Four Branches in particular. What can you tell us about the cultural significance of these tales? Noel Bruton: Karen and I live in the Welsh-speaking part of Wales and there the kids learn about the Mabinogion in school. There are plays and songs dedicated to it. It’s all over the tourist shops of course in many forms. There is a distinct deference to its significance in Welsh culture. The Mabinogion is to Wales as the Arthurian legends are to England.

We have been mindful throughout that we three are English people making use of a Welsh icon and that as such, we should treat it with utmost respect.

AG: Why did you choose the Four Branches as the basis for your game?

NB: We thought we could use the Mabinogion, because if you strip it back, the Four Branches – four tales at the heart of the Mabinogion collection of legends – can be seen as four ages of man, which leads nicely to a chapter structure. There’s a lot going on in the stories as well, oodles of symbolism that would translate nicely into a computer game. It also appeared that it had never been used for a PC adventure. We extrapolated for the sake of story how the legends may still be having an effect on the present. The Four Branches gave us a protagonist, antagonist and collateral victims. Then we added an environment for it to take place in and plotted in characters who had encountered the hauntings before the player gets there.

There is much more to this fascinating interview and you can read the rest at the Adventure Gamers website.

Originally posted 2009-06-17 08:02:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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