Pilgrim: Faith as a Weapon
Pilgrim: Faith as a Weapon is a 1997 adventure video game, written by Paulo Coelho, who wrote The Pilgrimage, the novel on which the game is based. Pilgrim has been described as a "commercial cultural heritage game" and "graphic interactive fiction". It is the premiere title of Arxel Tribe and the first in an adventure trilogy, which also includes The Legend of the Prophet and the Assassin and The Secrets of Alamut.
Plot
The game is loosely based on Paulo Coelho's 1987 autobiographical novel The Pilgrimage. It is a time of superstition and religious persecution, where Catharism reigns supreme. Set at the beginning of the Albigensian Crusade in the south of France, the story sees Simon Lancroix aim to complete his dying father's wishes by finding a secret manuscript and delivering it to a friend named Petrus. It is revealed that this is actually a Coptic manuscript that a renegade Templar brought back from the Crusades; it is believed to be the lost Gospel of Saint Jean. This manuscript is passed around to various characters in different locations. Meanwhile, Pope Innocent III orders the inquisitor, Diego de Osma, to retrieve the manuscript. Mystical creatures such as angels and demons also become entangled in the battle.The first half of the game sees the player complete a series of tasks to help other characters. They in turn help the player. Halfway through the game, the player meets Petrus. He reveals that the player's father was the leader of a fictional religious sect called "The Tradition", which aims to bring an absolute truth that no other religion can. From this point the game covers symbolic, spiritual, and supernatural philosophies such as dreams, peace, compassion, love, salvation, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, growing up and giving up, and re-learning what we knew as children; the final scene takes place in Limbo.
Gameplay
Pilgrim is a first-person point-and-click adventure. Players click through a series of static frames—a slideshow of pre-rendered 3D environments—to move around. The player is not free of their movements and must often strategically click screen points in a certain order to reach a destination. The cursor becomes an arrow to indicate a possible movement, and a click transitions the player to the next location. It is possible to die in the game; one cause of death includes the player failing to accomplish certain time-dependent challenges. If the player dies they are returned to the beginning of the latest checkpoint, often after a cutscene. There are also two unwinnable states. One of them occurs if the player gives all their money to a beggar in Toulouse, in spite of needing it to go past the very next door. The player is encouraged to "save early, save often". The game's final puzzle has been described as "no less than an exam about what you're supposed to have learned". The game comes with two discs, which are required to install the game; regardless of where the player is, Disc 1 must be inserted every time they boot up the game.The "Inventory" interface has three elements. "Bag" is used for acquired items. The number of items and the weight a player can carry are limited. "People" contains the characters the player has encountered, knows about, or wants information on. "Items" has the objects which have been seen or heard about but not acquired. "People" and "Items" of interest can be brought up as topics of conversation with others. To use an item in "Bag", the player clicks on it to activate it, then clicks "View". To offer a topic of discussion, the player clicks on an item in the "People" or "Items" tabs to activate it. They then click on a character in the "View" screen to talk about it. The puzzles require both reflection and patience. The "Bag" items and the clues within the "Encyclopedia" can be applied and manipulated to solve puzzles thereby advancing the story. The latter is similar to how the Chronopedia in used in the Broderbund adventure game Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time. The game has a hint system to provide clues for the more obscure puzzles. The entries in the in-game "Encyclopedia" have been described as "spartan", consisting exclusively of text. Sometimes when a character mentions a topic that is available in the "Encyclopedia" during a conversation. A keyword will appear on the screen which may then be clicked to bring up the corresponding entry. While not required, this feature allows the player to delve deeper into the interesting historical nuggets featured throughout the game. The player has an in-game notebook, into which they may copy-paste extracts from the "Encyclopedia".
Development
Inspiration
was founded in 1990 by two Slovenian architects — Matjaž Požlep and Diego Zanco. Before Pilgrim, the company was known for designing and producing animated computer graphics for the architecture industry on Silicon Graphics computers at three agencies in Ljubljana, Paris and Milan. Frenchmen Stephen Carrière and Guillaume de Fondaumière joined the company three years later in 1993. They helped to diversify it into a special effects company for the advertising industry in 1994 by creating an educational film for an Italian design agency, which went on to win awards and be featured at the Berlin Film Festival. That experience gave the team a desire to create graphics as a means of expression and to pursue more ambitious projects in the entertainment industry — specifically video games. Arxel Tribe tried unsuccessfully to raise funds for over a year to pursue this goal. In 1996, Anne Carriére Multimédia was founded as a subsidiary arm of Éditions Anne Carrière, the French publisher of work by Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho and French cartoon artist Jean Giraud. The subsidiary was created to specialise in the production of a genre of video games called "author games"; they chose Arxel Tribe to serve as the title's development team. Stephen Carrière's mother, Anne, was the head of Éditions Anne Carrière. This connection gave Arxel Tribe the opportunity to collaborate with a high calibre of creative talent on its debut foray into the video game space.The premiere project of the new venture was chosen by Anne Carriére Multimédia to be an adventure game based on Coelho's The Pilgrimage. The artistic direction was handed to French comic artist and frequent video game collaborator Jean Giraud ; The Pilgrimage would be his last gaming project. Moebius had previously illustrated the French edition of one of Coelho's books, and had designed covers for gaming projects such as Panzer Dragoon and Fade to Black. Coelho's books had sold millions of copies providing an incentive for the threads of his work to be woven into PC games. According to SK Online, Coelho "accepted the proposal with great pleasure" after learning that the general appearance of the game would be decided by Moebius. Moebius and Coelho began the design work in 1996. Also in 1996, a year since their last diversification, Arxel Tribe had a meeting with Coelho and Moebius. This resulted with the company switching gears to become a video game development studio and signing onto the project, which was to be published by Infogrames in 1997. Fondaumière recalls "sitting at a bar in Frankfurt with Paulo Coelho discussing the crazy idea of creating a videogame together". Carrière and de Fondaumière helped Arxel Tribe re-position itself as a developer of "author games", and the company bought the rights to publish a video game adaption of Pilgrim. Arxel Tribe had made a lot of money in the advertising industry and was increasingly interested in moving into the video gaming industry; they were in a financial position that enabled them to pursue this vision. Moebius required an investment of 20 million francs to become involved. Matja Požlep noted that creating a game based on Coelho's work was a good idea because potential customers would already be acquainted with his work. Guillaume de Fondaumiere recalled that as professionals, Coelho and Mobius charged a high price for their work and had a highly ambitious, challenging, and expensive vision. Arxel Tribe's lack of experience in video game development meant that the collaboration became a "fantastic, but also a painful experience" much to their dismay. The game was originally called Pilgrim during the development stage, and by its release had the subtitle Faith as a Weapon.
Arxel Tribe chose adventure gaming because the genre had recently been experiencing technological advancements that were comparable to those seen in the shooting genre. New releases such as Doom and Quake, had opened up new graphical and narrative possibilities. Arxel Tribe aimed to create an adventure game with an "epic" and "gripping" narrative that did justice to the source material's "initiatory, romantic and spiritual journey". They wanted to make a "humanist journey with a very deep storyline", instead of being "just another adventure game". The development company collaborated with Coelho in adapting the story into more of an investigative detective mystery to better immerse the player while encouraging them to use logic and their imagination. The early 13th century was chosen as the game's time period because of its "historical and mythical richness" abundant with heresy, crusades, and errands by knights. The developers felt this was the ideal setting to illustrate the "generous and humanist philosophy" inherent in Coelho's book. Carrière said that video game manufacturers were drawn to comic book writers, screenwriters or cartoonists because of their desire to create a unique graphic universe that sets the game apart from the rest of the market. Matjaz Požlep said the company worked within an adventure gaming niche and within that an intellectual gaming sub-niche. At his time 46 people were working on Arxel Tribe games at their Ljubljana headquarters.