View manual text
dtp
entertainment
AG
www.dtp-ag.com
Please read before using this video game or allowing your children to use it.
Some people are susceptible to epileptic seizures or loss of consciousness
when exposed to certain flashing lights or light patterns in everyday life. Such
people may have a seizure while watching images or playing certain video
games. This may happen even if the person has no medical history of epilepsy
or has never had any epileptic seizures. If you or anyone in your family has ever
had symptoms related to epilepsy (seizures or loss of consciousness) when
exposed to flashing lights or patterns, consult your doctor prior to playing. We
advise that parents should monitor the use of video games by their children. If
you or your child experience any of the following symptoms: dizziness, blurred
vision, eye or muscle twitches, loss of consciousness, disorientation, any involuntary movement or convulsion, while playing a video game,
IMMEDIATELY discontinue use and consult your doctor (particularly since experience of any of these symptoms could lead to injury from falling down or
striking nearby objects). Parents should ask their children about the above
symptoms – children and teenagers may be more likely than adults to experience these seizures.
Precautions to Take During Use
- Do not stand too close to the screen. Sit a good distance away from the
monitor, as far away as the length of the cable allows.
- Preferably play the video game on a small screen.
- Avoid playing if you are tired or have not had much sleep.
- Make sure that the room in which you playing is well lit.
- Rest for at least 10 to 15 minutes per hour while playing a video game.
Warning: Avoid Damage to Your Television
Do not use with certain television screens and monitors. Some televisions, especially front- or rearprojection types and plasma screens, can be damaged
if any video games are played on them. Static images or pictures presented
during the normal course of playing a game (or from putting the game on hold
4
or pausing) may cause permanent picture-tube damage, and may “burn
in” to the screen, causing a permanent shadow of the static image to
appear at all times, even when the games are not being played. Always
consult your television screen or monitor manual or otherwise the manufacturer
to check if video games can be played safely.
Limitation of Liability
dtp entertainment AG accepts no responsibility for the completeness and accurateness of the content of the software stored on the data carrier. Liability for any
loss of profits, damages or loss of the saved data or for any other indirect or consequential damages is excluded, provided it does not result from gross negligence or
malicious conduct on the part of dtp entertainment AG. Any claims for indemnity
are limited to the amount of the licence fee paid, irrespective of the grounds for
such action.
License and Conditions Of Use
1. License
The purchaser receives the non-exclusive right to use the program on a single computer.
The right is not transferable, nor can it be loaned or rented out. Copying and archiving of
the program for the user’s own personal data security is permitted. The property, copyright
and sundry trademark rights remain those of dtp entertainment AG and its licensing partners
respectively.
2. Limitations and Modification Prohibition
The program or parts thereof may not be circulated for financial reward or free of charge.
The program may also not be licensed, rented, modified, translated or published. The software may be neither in whole nor in part disassembled or decompiled, nor by other means
converted into a generally readable form.
3. Duration of Contract
The licence is valid until its termination. The licence contract can be terminated by the
destruction of the software and all copies thereof. The licence expires directly should
any condition of the licensing contract be infringed without the required permission of
dtp entertainment AG or its respective licensing partners.
5
4. Guarantee and Liability
dtp entertainment AG accepts liability for a period of 24 months from hand-over to you that
the CD/DVDROM on which the software is stored is free of faults, the possibility of such
faults occurring can be considerably lessened through proper usage as described in the
documentation. dtp entertainment AG does not guarantee that the software can be used
without faults.
dtp entertainment AG accepts no responsibility for the integrity and correctness of the content. Liability for loss of profit, for damage or loss of stored data as well as any direct or indirect subsequent damage is excluded except in the case of intentional or gross negligence on
the part of dtp entertainment AG. Any eventual claim for damages irrespective of the basis
for the claim is limited to the amount paid as a licence fee. In all cases, liability of any kind
expires 6 months from date of purchase.
Epilepsy Warning
2
Limitation of Liability
3
License and Conditions Of Use
3
Introduction
System Requirements
6
8
Minimum Configuration
8
Recommended Configuration
8
Installation & Tips
9
Installing So Blonde
9
5. Disclaimer
Starting So Blonde
10
German law applies. Should any conditions of this license contract be legally unsustainable or
ineffective all other conditions remain effective in law. Conditions deemed to be ineffective in
law are to be substituted by regulations that come closest in spirit to the original.
Uninstalling So Blonde
10
Advice On Technical Problems
10
© 2008 dtp entertainment AG, Goldbekplatz 3-5, 22303 Hamburg, Germany.
Configuration
Main Menu
Ingame-Menu
15
18
Continue Game
18
Save Game
18
Quick Save
20
Load Game
20
Quick Load
21
Options
21
Quit Game
22
Game Controls
23
Main Screen
23
Inventory
25
The First Minutes Of The Game
Credits
Additional Information
Legal Information & Copyright
6
13
28
30
33
34
7
Introduction
Hi! My name is Sunny Blonde. It’s so cool that you’ve
bought my game! Now I can finally tell somebody just
what an amazing experience I’ve had. Not long ago I
was leading the life of a totally normal seventeen year
old. My biggest adventure was watching that horror
flick recently with my friend Kimberly, now was that
gruesome or what!
OK, now where was I? Oh yeah , I got myself dragged
into a really exciting story. Hey, but it really wasn’t planned. Well , I was just supposed to be on a boring Caribbean cruise with my parents when suddenly a terrible
storm blew up and somehow I got swept off of the ship
and the next minute I find myself waking up totally
alone on a beach .
The beach was really beautiful with palm trees and
awesome exotic flowers. But I had one mega-problem :
my make-up had turned to mush! Man , a girl just
can’t go around looking like that and guess what? My
cell couldn’t get any reception and there was also absolutely no sign at all of my parents. So there I am and
I’m thinking well it really can’t be so bad, I mean whe-
8
re there’s a fabulous beach , the next luxury hotel can’t
be too far away, now can it? So I set off on the search
for some top resort where I also guessed my parents
would be longingly waiting for me.
But once I had met the first person on the island, it
sure became clear to me that something just wasn’t
right. I found these people that really did behave like
REAL pirates from the 17th century! Then I found out
something about a mysterious curse that lay over the
island. Since I couldn’t find either a hotel or a cellphone, I had to find out, no matter what, just how I was
going to spend my holiday on this island. You’ll soon be
seeing everything that happened to me, so let’s get going
right away and take the fate of this forgotten island in
our own hands!
Come on , let’s go for it!
Yours
Sunny
9
Installing So Blonde
Minimum Configuration
Please use the installation program to install „So Blonde“.
Operating System
Windows® 2000/XP/Vista
Processor
Pentium® 1.6 GHz
RAM
512 MB
Graphics Card
64 MB DirectX® 9 compatible
graphics card
Sound card
DirectX® 9 compatible sound card
DirectX Version
DirectX® 9.0c or higher
DVD-ROM
DVD-ROM
In the installation assistant’s greetings window that appears next,
click on “Continue”.
Free hard drive space
3GB
In the following Licence/User Agreement window, select: “Accept”.
Input devices
Windows®-compatible keyboard
and mouse
Now confirm the destination folder in which ‘So Blonde’ will be
installed with “Continue”, or enter another destination folder
according to your preference.
First place the ‘So Blonde’ DVD in your DVD-ROM drive.
If the installation doesn’t start automatically, start the game
manually by double-clicking on “setup.exe” on the DVD.
Now select the language you wish to use during the installation
process and confirm your selection with “OK”.
Recommended Configuration
Next you have to confirm or change the start menu folder and
then begin the copying process by clicking on “Install”.
Operating System
Windows® 2000/XP/Vista
You will now be asked whether you would like to create a link on
your Desktop. Select either “Yes” or “No” here.
Processor
Pentium® 2 GHz
If you subsequently click on “End”, the installation will terminate
RAM
512 MB Windows 2000/XP
At the end of the installation process do can select either “Yes” or
“No” depending on whether or not you wish to begin playing the
game immediately.
1024 MB Windows Vista
Graphics Card
128 MB DirectX® 9 compatible
graphics card
Sound Card
DirectX® 9 compatible sound card
DirectX Version
DirectX® 9.0c or higher
DVD-ROM
DVD-ROM
Free hard drive space
3GB
Input devices
Windows®-compatible keyboard
and mouse
10
Attention: If your computer does not have the current DirectX version
already installed, the ‘So Blonde’ installation will be interrupted while
this is updated. Following this you will then have to restart the installation of ‘So Blonde’.
11
Starting So Blonde
Place the ‘So Blonde’ DVD in your DVD-ROM drive.
The ‘So Blonde’ welcome screen will now appear.
Click on ‘Play’ to start ‘So Blonde’.
If the ‘So Blonde’ DVD is already in the corresponding drive, or the
automatic read function has been turned off, you can run ‘So Blonde’
from the Windows® Start menu. Select ‘Programs > ANACONDA > So
Blonde > Play So Blonde’.
Uninstalling So Blonde
In order to uninstall ‘So Blonde’, select ‘Programs > ANACONDA >So
Blonde > uninstall So Blonde’ in the Windows® Start Menu.
Advice on Technical Problems
Display / Sound Problems
With all presentation problems we recommend that you make sure
you have the very latest drivers installed for your Graphics/Sound card
before you start panicking and contact tech support. Simply updating
the drivers will solve problems in many cases.
NVIDIA Cards
You can find the most up-to-date drivers for NVIDIA cards at
www.nividia.com
ATI Cards
You can find the most up-to-date drivers for ATI Graphics cards at
www.ati.com
Performance-Problems
Make sure before starting the game that there are no other programs or
applications running. Running ‘So Blonde’ along with other processor
intensive programs can lead to performance problems, since these may
prioritize processor capacity needed for running ‘So Blonde’. This is especially true of virus scanners, firewalls and other permanently active
programs. If you experience long load times or jerky video sequences,
then reinstalling the game can help.
You can also improve the performance by making some adjustments to
settings in the Configuration window, which is displayed each time you
begin ‘So Blonde’. See the ‘Settings Dialog Window’ section.
Updates
‘So Blonde’ has been developed and tested with the greatest of care,
however, in the case of a technical problem it is always worth checking
to see if there’s an update from the makers of the game.
www.soblonde-game.com
12
13
Support Information
For questions about the game or in case you are experiencing
any technical problems, please contact dtp entertainment AG’s
customer services via the email address below:
This Settings dialog window is displayed each time you start
‘So Blonde’. You can also reach this menu via the Windows®
Start Menu ‘Programs >ANACONDA > So Blonde > configure So Blonde’.
This is where you can enter the parameters for the graphics engine.
[email protected]
Anti-Aliasing
You will typically receive a reply within 1-2 business days. However, response times may vary considerably during busy periods.
This field shows the antialiasing (edge-smoothing
modes) available on your
system. The higher the
value entered, the better
the quality of the display.
If you’re having performance problems with ‘So
Blonde’ simply enter a lower value here, or switch
off anti-aliasing completely by selecting ‘none’.
Graphics Card
This value is recognized automatically and should only be altered in exceptional circumstances.
Waits for VSync
This value states whether or not the vertical synchronization is
activated or not. The default setting is ‘VSync’ activated.
If you’re having problems displaying ‘So Blonde’ you can experiment by deactivating the ‘VSync to remedy any possible problems.
14
15
Use Compressed Textures
Compressed textures improve loading times on lower specification computers and improve the performance of less powerful graphic cards.
Therefore activate this option if the game runs too slowly.
Use Widescreen
If you wish to play in fancy widescreen mode, you can select the aspect
ratio 16:9 with a resolution of 1336x768, or 16:10 with a resolution of
1280x800 . This is provided that your monitor and graphics card display
drivers support these resolutions.
The ‘Cancel’ button cancels any changes you may have made to the
settings and ends the Settings dialog. ‘So Blonde’ will then NOT begin.
Activating the ‘Save and Quit’ button saves your current settings
including any changes you have made and ends the Settings dialog.
‘So Blonde’ will then also NOT begin.
The ‘Play’ button saves the current settings and begins ‘So Blonde’.
The Main Menu is very similar to the In-game Menu described below.
There are only two items that are different: The options ‘New Game’
and ‘Bonus’
New Game
This option starts a new game directly.
Load
This where you can carry on playing a previously saved game. There is
more information about this option in the ‘In-game Menu / Load Game’
section.
Options
This is where you can make changes to the game settings. There is more
information about this option in the ‘In-game Menu/Options’ section.
Bonus
As soon as you have played the game all the way through, different
bonuses are made available to you.
16
17
While you are playing you can access the
following menu by pressing the ESC key.
Continue Game
You can also over-write an available saved game (as well as
Quick Saves). Instead of selecting ‘New’, simply select an available saved game and click on ‘Save’. If you wish you can also
give the saved game a new name.
Tip:
This option closes the menu and continues
the game.
Save Game
In order to save a new game, first select the entry ‘New’ and click on
the ‘Save’ button. A dialog window will now open in which you can
enter a title for your new saved game.
Click on the ‘OK’ button to save the game.
It’s a good idea to use a descriptive name when you are saving a
game. This will help you to remember where you are up to in the
adventure when you come back to play the game later. ;-)
There are plenty of memory slots for you to save your game. Use the
arrow buttons to scroll through the list. In some situations (conversations, mini-games, when you’re leaving somewhere) it isn’t possible
to save your game. You will not therefore be able to open the Save
Game Menu on these occasions.
20
21
Quick Save
Quick Load
There is an extra memory slot for ‘Quick Saves’. Simply click on the F5 key
on your keyboard for the game to make a ‘Quick Save’. This will then overwrite the last ‘Quick Save’. In some situations (conversations, mini-games,
when you’re leaving somewhere) it isn’t possible to use ‘Quick Save’ to
save your game.
You can load your ‘Quick Save’ game by clicking on the F9 key.
Options
Sound Options
There is a symbol which appears in the top
left corner of the screen to tell you if your
‘Quick Save’ has been successful or not.
Load Game
In order to load a game, select the saved game that you wish to load
from the list. To remind you exactly where you were in the game when
you saved the game, a screenshot will have been stored beforehand
and also the exact time at which you saved the game. This makes it
easier for you to get back into the game… You can scroll through the
list of saved games by clicking on the arrows.
From top to bottom:
Volume: This control lets you adjust the overall sound volume
Music volume: this control adjusts the music volume level
Effects volume: this control adjusts the effects volume level
Dialog volume: this control adjusts the dialog volume level
22
23
Further Options
Information
This option activates the hot-spot feature, which is especially designed to help game newbies. If you press
the space bar while playing the game, all of the available objects in the present screen will be displayed.
Clouds
Depending on the configuration of your computer, you
can select between stationary and moving clouds. The
latter require more processing power from you computer, however.
Map
If you activate this option, when you leave a location, a
map of the island is displayed showing where Sunny is
on her way to.
Main Screen
Interacting with the environment
To interact with the environment, move the mouse cursor around
the screen. When the cursor moves over an interactive object, the
cursor will change its form dependent on the context. Since ‘So
Blonde’ offers different levels of interaction there are many actions
available for most interactive objects or game characters. By right
clicking on an interactive object or person a list of available interaction symbols will appear. Select the desired action from the list by
left clicking on its symbol. You can always recognize interactive elements by the caption that appears. It’s best to try as many forms of
interaction as possible with an object, so that you don’t miss some
important action. The available actions are:
Feet Symbol
If the cursor shows the feet symbol, by left-clicking
with the mouse on a location you can walk to that
place and so get to (almost) anywhere in the game.
The feet symbol is the standard action for Sunny; by
double-clicking she will start to run.
Quit Game
Selecting this option takes you back to the Main Menu.
24
Eye Symbol
With the help of this symbol you can observe an object or investigate it more closely. Look carefully at the
objects to find out more about them.
25
Hand Symbol
The hand symbol stands for physical interaction and
this can vary according to each object.
Mouth Symbol
If you move the cursor over a game character the
mouth symbol usually appears. This means that you
can talk to this person.
Arrow Symbol
This symbol lets you leave a place or go to another
location.
Tip:
A right-click on an interactive object or
person opens a list of interaction symbols. Select the desired action from the
list by left clicking on its symbol.
26
The Dialog Function
If there are several conversation topics available, then a dialog
list will appear. By left clicking on the desired dialog, this part
of the conversation will be produced. Depending on where you
are in the game, the content of a character’s conversation list can
change, since as the game story develops many conversation topics
may come and go. You should always speak to characters over and
over because they may well have new important information for
you…
Playing the Mini-games
As the story unfolds, Sunny finds herself time and again exposed to
certain situations, which lead to so-called ‘mini-games’. In an amusing and entertaining way these make up puzzle progressions that
Sunny has to solve before the story can progress.
The ‘mini-games’ are played with the help of the mouse and a few
keys. Each game begins with a help screen, which gives exact instructions to how the game is played. There is also the option to
choose between ‘Play’ or ‘Win’ in order to skip the mini-game, if
you prefer.
Inventory
Move the mouse to the lower edge of the screen in order to display
the Inventory. All of the objects in your possession are displayed
here by means of symbols. Using the two arrow keys you can scroll
through the Inventory. Using a right or left mouse click you can either
closely examine or select an object respectively.
27
As soon as you have selected an object from the inventory, this object
then becomes your mouse pointer.
By right clicking on an already selected object you can cancel the
selection again.
To use an inventory object in a game scene, first of all select it within the
inventory and then drag it onto an object or a person in the game window and then left-click with your mouse.
Not all of such actions lead to a successful outcome, however.
You can combine an already selected inventory object with a further inventory object by left clicking on it as well. A combination will only occur,
however, if there can be a meaningful result.
28
29
So now I’d better take a look around this beach to see if I
can find anything useful.
I see over there? A red lifeboat. I’m sure going to have to
take a good look at that and maybe I’ll find my beloved
handbag as well. Yay, hot damn! It’s my handbag! There’s
also some emergency food rations. Great… Hey and what’s
that? A weird looking… Aaaaahh! A ‘Kangaroo-Coati’, not
only has it scared me to death, it’s stolen my handbag too!
Now he’s sitting up there in a tree and won’t come down.
I’m going to have to lure him down somehow. Maybe he’s
hungry? Now then, let’s see, what’ve I got to eat..? The exotic
fruit, the emergency rations which I can most probably
use with the coconut and water. I’m sure I can magic up
something delicious to tempt the little guy out of the tree
and get my handbag back.
Aha! An empty coconut… Water dripping from the tree and
collecting in a pool like a mirror… Oh wow… What do I
look like? Is this a bad hair day, or what! But one second…
I guess I can use the coconut to collect water in.
Yippee! I’ve got my designer handbag back and now with
my make-up I can make myself look half decent again.
Shame I’ve not been able to find my mirror, I’m going to
have to make do with that shiny water in the pool.
So maybe there’s something else to find at the back of the
beach, so let’s get going. And there’s a small kid sitting over
there on the beach. Hmm… but I can’t possibly talk to him
looking like this…
So now I’ve got myself more or less presentable, it’s about
time I got to talk with the little kid and then check out the
rest of the island. I can’t wait to see what I’m going to find
at the end of this beach…”
The First Minutes in the Game
“Oh my God! Here I am, all alone and abandoned, washed
up on this awesome beach. But hey, on a stunning island
like this, there’s got to be a whole load of five star hotels… Right? But my hair’s just gotten ruined and well, I
won’t say a thing about my make-up. But before I can go
anywhere, I’ve just got to sort myself out and without my
handbag, that’s pretty well an impossibility. OK, so first off…
I HAVE TO find my handbag!
Wow, delicious! There’s some exotic fruits lying around here,
I’m definitely going to take those with me. And what can
30
31
Developed by Wizarbox
CEO
Fabien Bihour
COO
Cyril Labordrie
Project Manager
Julien Millet
Story and Dialogues
Steve Ince
Additional story and
dialogues
Jérôme Britneff-Bondy
Lead Game Designer
Jérôme Britneff-Bondy
Scripting & Additional
Game Design
Jean-Eudes Thuroczy
Anthony Lee
Lead Programmer
Olivier Martin
Programming
Vincent L‘Hermite
Benoist Malherbe
Clélia Tran
Nicolas Besson
32
Mini-games programming
Jérôme Naulin
Additional artist
Nicolas Dufresne
Kevin Choteau
Additional programming
David-Vesa Cohen
Sylvain Grosdemouge
Music and Sounds
M.A.S
Art Director
Natalia Renault
Ambiances
Jérôme Britneff-Bondy
3D&FX Director
Ludovic Delcroix
Wizarbox Team Special Thanks
To Rocketbox
Antoine Goursolas
2D artists
Stéfano Collavini
François Berthemet
Natalia Renault
3D artists
Ludovic Delcroix
Roger Bellon
David Lemaitre
Jean-Yves Vatin
Cyrille Bauchart
Natalia Renault
Stéfano Collavini
3D Character supervisor
Emilie Guilloux
Characters Animations
Emilie Guilloux
Pierre Gilhodes
David Lemaitre
Big thanks to Emilie Guilloux and
Anthony Blondeau for their time
at the beginning of the project.
Published by
dtp entertainment AG
Development Director
Mathias Reichert
Marketing Director GSA
Thorsten Hamdorf
Product Manager
Rebekka Adolph
Public Relations
Claas Wolter
Content & Community
Manager
Bettina Korb
Junior Art Director online
Christian Leibe
International Sales Director
Christopher Kellner
International
Marketing Director
Claudia Kühl
Producer
Paul Guillaumon
Egbert Latza
International
Marketing Team
Ashley Hodgetts
Marc Morian
Mario Maglione
Localization
Johannes Bickle
Maren Nötzelmann
Patricia Grube
Matthias Eckardt
QA Manager
Pan Schröder
Mathias Reinke
33
Lead Tester
Tomasz Manthey
Tester
Benjamin Burger
Bernie Duffy
Bastian Rosing
Colin Bien
Daniel Chan
Finnja Alina Lange
Frank Oberdorfer
Jacqueline Bellon
Jacek Boguszewski
Jessica Chan
Jens Knauber
Jonas Teegen
Katharina Gipp
Lennart Müller
Malte Baum
Matthias Hauptmann
Marc Schönbrun
Matthias Möller-Titel
Oliver Groote
Spencer Chapman
Stefan Müller
Tobias Birk
Tobias Gohr
Ulrika Tegtmeier
Vincent Pehrs
Packaging- and
Manualdesign
Dennis Barcelona
Coverillustration
Animagic
dtp Special Thanks To
Achim Heidelauf
Jessica Pfefferkorn
Christian Krüger
Henning Bösken
Jonathan D’Cruz
Marc Buro
Mark Gants
Steffen Böhme
Technology inspired by Jan Nedoma‘s Wintermute Engine.
Please visit http://dead-code.org/
This game uses modified samples from The Freesound Project
library.
Please visit http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/
So Blonde uses the Ogre engine for rendering.
Please visit http://www.ogre3d.org/
Portions of this software are Copyright © 2007
The FreeType Project (www.freetype.org).
All rights reserved.
Art Direction
Stefan Sturm
34
35
NOTES
Portions of this software are Copyright © 1995-2005
Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
This game has been made with the participation of
“Centre National de la Cinématographie” and
“Ministère de l’Economie, des Finances et de l’Industrie”.
So Blonde © 2008 dtp entertainment AG. All rights reserved. Developed
and created by Wizarbox. All company names, brand names, trademarks
and logos are the property of their respective owners.
Financed by dtp Game Portfolio 2006 Fondgesellschaft mbH & Co KG,
Hamburg.
Rental forbidden! No unauthorized copying, decompiling, hiring, public
performance, or broadcasting!
No liability is accepted for any possible damage by virus.
www.soblonde-game.com
www.dtp-entertainment.com
36
37