Benois Sokal biography

The leader had been sick for a long time and died at the age of 66. For 22 years in Gamdev, Sokal managed to create several really great games and rightly earned the glory of one of the most outstanding creators in the industry. In this article, we will honor the memory of the legendary Creator and talk about his creative path, incredible successes and failures.

Benois Sokal. The beginning of Benoit Sokal was born in the capital of Belgium Brussels in the year. Already as a child, he was distinguished by an extraordinary fantasy, he loved to create and come up with worlds - is it worth it to be surprised that the young man entered the art institute, he finished him with brilliance, and then took up the creation of graphic novels.

Soon Benois came up with a hero who will love many readers for a long time. The most famous comics of the author talked about the Anthropomorphic Seleznes-Detective Canardo, which was distinguished by a ingenuity, a lively character and unprecedented intransigence. And the graphic novels were distinguished by a rather interesting setting: just in the middle of the investigation, an ordinary farmer could appear in the middle of the investigation and demand from the animals to shut up and disperse to the chicken coins.

Is the hero only imagines himself a detective, but in fact is a usual Selezem? In addition to the detective line, readers had to reflect on such unusual issues. However, some adventures turned the hero into completely marvelous places. For example, in one of the stories of Canardo found himself on the island where mysterious killings occur, and the earth is gradually plunging under water.

The other arch sent Canardo to ... snowy Siberia. However, the most successful comic book of Sokal is the one that brought the hero to the mysterious locality of the amerson: there he was supposed to find some mythical white birds in the company of the scientist. However, no matter how successful the works were, and the publisher was worried that they would soon stop interested anyone: at that time the market began to capture the compact disks, and businessmen demanded that Sokal adapt to new conditions.

At first, Benois planned to just digit the comics, giving users the opportunity to read them directly from the monitor screen, but then one remarkable game called Myst fell into his hands ... The atmosphere and mechanics of the great quest were so inspired by the figure that he decided to make a similar project in which the narrative will be combined with the need to move on the plot, to solve the puzzles, to explore the world and conduct dialogs.

However, even if the plot had a foundation, and there was still enough changes. To begin with, the Sokal decided to remove anthropomorphic animals from the equation and replace them with ordinary people. And the story itself continued the history of the comic book, sending the heroes to step in the footsteps of past expeditions. Amerzone began with the story of an experienced adventurer, who once visited an unprecedented picturesque land and met love there, only the greedy nature did not allow him to live happily: wanting to become famous as a great discoverer, he betrayed the confidence of strangers and dear women, left the mysterious lands and at the same time grabbed a local shrine with him, a large white egg.

However, you can’t build your happiness on someone else's misfortune - it is not surprising that all the remaining years of the scientist have tormented conscience. In order to finally find peace, he decides to return the shrine in his old age, but not on his own, but with the hands of a journalist, who is just our hero. Sitting on the hydroflot - a sophisticated vehicle that can soar through the air and dissect along the water surface - the character goes towards adventures.

Perhaps the tie cannot be called some extraordinary, but only the story was so touching that it clung to the gamers for the soul. The fact is that Benois Sokal approached any business with a soul, imagination and one hundred percent involvement - he managed to transform a seemingly standard plot into something really impressive. Other aspects of the game deserved praise and other aspects: the locations were very beautiful and detailed, the puzzles are interesting, and the dialogs are perfectly written.

Of course, some gamers criticized the sound design and management, but in general, American deserved high marks and excellent sales that exceeded a million copies. After such success, everyone was waiting for a sequel from Sokal, but the genius, as we know, had other plans ... Syberia Benois Sokal carefully treated his every creation and sincerely fell in love with everything that he did - he also adored comics about Canardo.

Most of all, the plot arch clung to his soul, in which the drake accompanied a certain young lady in the snowy Siberian lands. And one more thing, the Creator came across a program about the remains of mammoths found on Russian lands. It was at that moment that the idea of ​​Syberia was born inside Benoit, which will be released in M ​​and instantly gain a cult status.

According to the plot, Kate Walker, a young New York lawyer, goes to work in Switzerland to sign an important agreement there.According to his conditions, a factory of mechanized toys passes from the hands of a certain Anna Foralberg to the hands of an unnamed client, which once flourished, but today came into desolation. Unfortunately, the legal owner suddenly died, before that, telling the truth about her brother Hans, whom he considered the dead for many years.

As it turned out, the brother did not die, but simply went as a distant journey - which means that in order to complete the matter, Kate needs to be found. I would know Miss Walker how dangerous, mysterious and, say, its adventure will be transforming ... Not everyone knows that the action of America and Syberia are taking place in the same Syberia universe in the Syberia universe, it seems to be a typical Point-And-Click-quest, in which the heroine studied the locations, carefully struck useful objects and solved difficult objects Puzzles, - but so the talent of Sokal again turned the ordinary into a brilliant one.

First of all, an amazing visual was striking: maybe today the game is outdated graphically, but the chic and detailed locations are still impressive. In whatever place Kate is, she was always met by an extraordinary enchanting architecture that set the tone for the narrative-somewhere the area relaxed and created a poetic mood, and somewhere scared to goosebumps. Benois Sokal really got used to the world of the game, carefully thought over any trifle on locations and filled every corner of the fictitious universe with life, forcing gamers to feel the very spirit of adventure and believe in what was happening.

In many ways, it was thanks to this that the players so immersed in Syberia and felt in it at home. Setting was very interesting, in which incredible automatic metones were combined with legends about the mysterious peoples and mammoths with another strong side of Syberia, which skillfully intrigued the player, fascinated mysteries and was permeated with extraordinary sensuality and sincerity.

Heroes also helped to penetrate the narrative: each oncoming character had a convincing story and character - what to talk about key satellites. For example, the favorite of many gamers became an automaton Oscar, who, albeit clearly followed the laid programs, not forgetting to regularly check the ticket from Kate, but still showed human sides, thinking about his own purpose, fearing to remain alone and sometimes even offending the heroine.

Over time, Kate and Oscar become almost friends, and gamers began to treat him as a person. Despite the fact that Benois put all himself in Syberia, he was very worried that the project would not have to have critics and audience to taste. However, the first reviews removed the voltage with his hand: the game became a phenomenal success, having received excellent sales and many awards - Sokal himself even became a “man of the year” according to the prestigious Phoenix Award.

Syberia 2 is difficult to say whether there is a series, the continuation of which in those days waited stronger than Syberia. The original game was already painfully good, and its ending was clearly hinting at the sequel. Fortunately, Sokyu himself wanted to plunge once again into an unusual universe and bring the story of Kate Walker, Hans and Oscars to a logical conclusion.

The zeal was so strong, and inspiration was so comprehensive that the development was completed in 13 months. In essence, Syberia 2 remained the same game: Kate still explored the terrain, collected objects, talked with people and solved puzzles - but everything was realized by an order of magnitude better. The locations became even more beautiful and began to react properly to the appearance of the heroine, for example, the birds scattered when a person approached, the quality of the graphics has grown markedly, the shadows became almost natural, and the reflection of Miss Walker appeared in puddles - all this could not make the game a technological masterpiece, but the art of art - absolutely certain.

However, first of all, Syberia 2 waited for the continuation of the story, and in this regard, Sokal managed to surpass himself: the plot became even more mysterious and dramatic, forced to confront the insidious bandits and deadly fauna and gave gamers a truly outstanding finale. If some players considered the ending of the original game controversial, then this time everyone applauded: the plot arches of Oscar and Hans ended so touching that it was simply impossible not to let the tear.

And the execution by an automatic discharge of purpose can completely be safely added to the selection of the most emotional moments in the history of games. As a result, the release strengthened Benoit Sokal with the glory of one of the most outstanding developers and entered Syberia in the list of the greatest game series. Gamers, of course, began to beg for the third part, but the author was adamant: in his opinion, the mechanical train reached the last stop and would not go further.

Let the other games be the story of Kate and other heroes loved by the gamers and was completed as we know not forever, but the passion for the creation of games still blazed in the chest of Sokal.The Creator created his own White Birds Production studio. The name is inspired by the very white birds from American and immediately took up the development of new titles: in M ​​the adventure Paradise, in M ​​- detective Sinking Island, and in M ​​- the futuristic Nikopol: Secrets of The immortals.

Unfortunately, not one of the projects has even approached the success of Syberia or at least America: each of the games was called secondary and issued average marks. Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals after three unsuccessful attempts to create a new great Title Sokal closed White Birds Productions and retired for a long time. Of course, now and then there was talk that the maestro agreed with the publishing house to create a third part of Kate's adventures and that he was about to finish the script-however, time passed, and the continuation of the great series became as mythical as mammoths or white birds.

Fortunately, nine years later the Syberia 2 release was still the continuation. Of course, the gamers took the news enthusiastically and rushed to go through the project - it was just to rejoice, as it turned out, it was early ... Syberia 3 turned out to be a passing game, which was outdated in every aspect: the management was completely indecent, the twitched animations were terribly annoyed, there was no trace of the original dilogy, and optimization even put on their laments.

Of course, the game had virtues: the locations at times reminded of the good old times and pleased the eye, and the story was quite interesting - but this was enough only to deserve “mixed” grades from gamers. In the year, a prologue came to the fourth part of Syberia, which was also ambiguous. Perhaps the full version of Syberia: The World Before still has a chance to be a great game, but we can check it closer to the end of the year.

Unfortunately, Benois Sokal, who worked on a continuation with his son, will not see what the final version of the game turned out and what assessments he will deserve. With confidence, we can only say that no matter how contradictory the latest projects of the Creator are, and he absolutely deserved his place on Olympus of game glory. The Syberia dilogy has become a real masterpiece that impressed both experienced gamers, and became for many the first game of life, which once had a long time to fall in love with the industry.

Everyone who went through Syberia probably learned something new about himself and, perhaps, has become at least a bit kinder and wiser-and this is worth a lot. Thank you for everything, Benois. Remember the world. How do you like the Syberia series?