Interview: The House of Tesla Devs Have Planned The Story As A Trilogy

The House of Tesla
The House of Tesla

After finding stellar success with The House of Da Vinci trilogy, Blue Brain Games has recently announced its latest puzzle adventure — The House of Tesla — that follows a similar structure but with new innovations. As the name suggests, the game features Nikola Tesla as the main character and focuses on various aspects of his life and inventions to present players with exciting handcrafted puzzles.

Similar to the Da Vinci series, the studio has myriads of ideas for The House of Tesla, and to get a closer look at some of them and to learn more about the game’s development process, we spoke with Viktor Dobrovolný, Lead Game Designer and Project Leader for The House of Tesla, over an email interview.

The House of Tesla
The House of Tesla – via Blue Brain Games
Introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your work on The House of Tesla.

Viktor: My name is Viktor Dobrovolný, and I’m the Lead Game Designer and the Project Leader for The House of Tesla at Blue Brain Games. My job as one of the game designers is to make sure that both the gameplay and the story are fun and have a good flow and that the gameplay’s difficulty is balanced. My job as a project lead is mostly about dealing with day-to-day problems and keeping track of what is being done, how it is being done, and how much it differs from what should be done. If we do not make the game on time, chances are it will be my fault – sorry people!

Aside from the works of Tesla, is there any literature or fiction you took inspiration from?

Viktor: Tesla is obviously the most important character in the game, but he is not the only one who will take part in our story. We read a lot of historical documents and news articles about and by our characters, as well as about important events that took place during the life of Nikola Tesla. We also took (and are still taking) a lot of inspiration from many fictional and non-fictional works, be it for visuals, places, events, or feelings in general. To name just a few of them in no particular order: the book The Devil in the White City, the film Metropolis, the works of Mark Twain and H.P. Lovecraft…

The House of Tesla
The House of Tesla – via Blue Brain Games
Is there a particular reason why you landed on Tesla? What other great minds did you consider depicting?

Viktor: I wasn’t part of the studio when the decision to go with Leonardo da Vinci was made, but apparently, at the time, there was a very narrow race between Tesla and da Vinci. So, going with Tesla next was pretty much a done thing from the beginning. That said, Tesla is a very complex and interesting character, he is part of an era we really wanted to depict, and there are some very interesting and well-known people connected to him.

Although the teaser had some great snippets of what to expect, it barely had anything regarding the story. Please tell us a bit about that.

Viktor: I can’t say much about the story without spoiling anything, but the focus of the game is strongly on what is probably the most famous laboratory of Nikola Tesla, the Wardenclyffe facility. That also means that one of the characters who has a strong influence on the game story is the famous financier who funded the building of the facility, J.P. Morgan.

The House of Tesla
The House of Tesla – via Blue Brain Games
After finishing up work on The House of Da Vinci trilogy, how did you approach this title that is in the same vein as your other work?

Viktor: We feel that The House of Da Vinci series is where we want it to be from the gameplay and narrative standpoint. Given the setting and planned story of The House of Tesla, we want to go back to the series’ roots and follow the first game’s style more closely, with a stronger focus on puzzles and narrative mysteries.

In what other ways will The House of Tesla differ from your earlier work?

Viktor: We are staying faithful to the core gameplay loop of our previous games, but we are always moving forward. We have a new approach to the narrative, which blends a mysterious atmosphere and an interesting story in a way that is more interconnected with the puzzles. We have a new in-game device the player character can use that allows us to make new, original, and immersive puzzles. We now also have better audio tools at our disposal, allowing us better management of sounds and more dynamic changes to music (still done by the greatly talented Tomáš Živor).

The House of Tesla
The House of Tesla – via Blue Brain Games
Are there any aspects in The House of Tesla that you would say have significantly improved from Da Vinci? Whether it be in terms of puzzles, graphics or mechanics.

Viktor: We are shifting our pipelines so we can take greater advantage of our awesome concept art department – so now you can expect more pretty and well-thought-out objects and environments. For the first time, we have someone working as an art director – and he puts our famous attention to detail into the big picture of the game. There is, of course, more, but I hope our players will be able to see for themselves soon.

Can we expect this to turn into a series as well?

Viktor: Oh yes. The story we have planned would be best told as a trilogy, so I hope you will hear more about the House of Tesla in the coming years.

The House of Tesla
The House of Tesla – via Blue Brain Games
Do you plan to release the game in Early Access or a demo before the full launch?

Viktor: We do not plan Early Access, but we would like to release a demo version with the first chapter of the game so people can try it before buying if they are so inclined.

How long has the game been in development, and how many developers are actively working on the title?

Viktor: The game has been in development for a bit over a year now. The number of people working on it is changing a bit depending on the phase in which the project currently is. In the beginning, there were about five of us, led by our Creative Director, brainstorming, preparing pipelines, and dreaming about the art and story we wanted to convey. Currently, there are about ten people actively working on the game, and this number will grow as we move towards programming, testing, and other less artsy but no less important parts of game development.

The House of Tesla
The House of Tesla – via Blue Brain Games
Any plans to release the game on other platforms?

Viktor: Definitely. Our main and most current objective is PC release, but our game still has a strong focus on all the mechanics, which are highly intuitive on mobile versions (Android and iOS). You can also look forward to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox console versions.

Anything else you would like to share with the readers?

Viktor: It is humbling to see a lot of support from fans of our previous games on both Steam and social media, even in this relatively early stage of game development, and I hope we will make a game that will make you think in more ways than one.

The House of Tesla is a puzzle adventure by Blue Brain Games that was revealed on January 24, 2024. The game is expected to arrive on PC in late 2024, with Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox console versions and Android and iOS following later on.

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