Development
Journey to the Center of the Moon was announced for the PC at E3 2005. The Adventure Company collaborated with developers Kheops Studios for the release. Benoît Hozjan, the co-founder of Kheops Studio, became Managing Director of the game, while Alexis Lang became the Lead Game Designer.
Journey to the Center of the Moon was later renamed Voyage: Inspired by Jules Verne. Benoît Hozjan explained the change, saying that Journey to the Center of the Moon "seems to be confusing and some people thought that it could be the sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth," another Verne-inspired PC game, "so marketing decided to change it." The name was changed on July 7, 2005, a few months after the game's announcement.
Benoît Hozjan explained Kheops Studio's choice of Jules Verne's work as a basis for Voyage, saying that: "Jules Verne's novels provide the two core elements of adventure games: dreams and challenges. Characters are ordinary men engaged in concrete challenges that are great inspiration for puzzles." He further went on to say that the game is influenced by Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, which documents the lead up to the lunar trip, but draws more heavily from the sequel Around the Moon, which recounts the actual voyage. The main difference, Hozjan said, was that in the novel the protagonists fail to reach the moon, whereas in Voyage the trip is a success. Additionally, Alexis Lang attributed the inspiration for the Selenites to H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon, explaining that: " pictured a very ancient Selenite civilisation horrified at human roughness. Wells was more misanthropist than Verne. To balance this fact, we've added a touch of irony in our story and chosen a very optimistic and joyful main character."
The Adventure Company announced the release of the Voyage demo on August 3, 2005. The demo included the game's introduction in the shell. Voyage, originally slated for a September 27 release, was shipped to stores ahead of schedule on August 16, 2005. The game retailed for US$19.99.
Read more about this topic: Voyage: Inspired By Jules Verne
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