Daedalic: Point-and-clicks ‘need to evolve’ in order to survive

Point-and-click games still have a "dedicated fan base," according to Daedalic’s CEO Carsten Fichtelmann, who just released the first episode of its new game Pillars of the Earth on PC and consoles last week, but the wider consumer market also have "an outdated picture" of the genre that makes them a difficult sell, particularly on consoles.

Speaking to MCV, Fichtelmann said: "The term point-and-click is a problem, because that’s not what you do on a console. However, if you have the consoles in mind right from the beginning, you can build an interface and controls that are made for it – and then it’s a whole different story."

Naturally, Daedalic put consoles front and centre when developing Pillars of the Earth, which has been adapted from Ken Follett’s best-selling novel of the same name. The development process, however, was far from easy, particularly when it came to identifying the game’s target audience.

"It’s a great opportunity, a big challenge and it comes with huge responsibility – all at the same time," he said. "The responsibility comes in because you want to make sure you match the expectations of different people – gamers, fans of the book, a new audience and last but not least, Ken Follett.

"The book originally was released in 1989, so it’s a touch hard to define a clear target group, simply because you are talking about such a huge audience. At the same time, gaming has grown in popularity since the 1990s onwards, so it‘s safe to say there’s a significant overlap, at least that’s what we see when we look at feedback we’re getting on social media, for example."

To help broaden the title’s appeal even further, Daedalic will be reaching out to mainstream media outlets as well as the traditional gaming press.

"It‘s important for us to reach out to that existing fanbase and let them know about the game," said Fichtelmann. "In general, all local publishers of Ken’s books showed high interest in this project and we are working on cross-marketing activities with most of them. Ken’s new book is going to be released in September and we are confident we can utilize synergies then."