''Boyz Don't Cry'' (Polish: ''Chłopaki Nie Płaczą'') is an

adventure video game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an Interactive storytelling, interactive story, driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus ...

developed by L'Art, released on March 30, 2005.

Development

Warsaw-based L'Art employs 25 people. It is known within the

Anglosphere The Anglosphere, also known as the Anglo-American world, is a Western-led sphere of influence among the Anglophone countries. The core group of this sphere of influence comprises five developed countries that maintain close social, cultura ...

for publishing localized versions of video games like '' Myst III'', ''

Nocturne A nocturne is a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night. History The term ''nocturne'' (from French '' nocturne'' "of the night") was first applied to musical pieces in the 18th century, when it indicated an ensembl ...

'' and ''

Hopkins FBI ''Hopkins FBI'' is a 1998 point-and-click adventure game from MP Entertainment, most famous for very large (at the time) amounts of gore. A sequel titled ''Hopkins FBI 2: Don't Cry, Baby'', involving Hopkins having to rescue the President's daught ...

''. The company initially focused on local game versions and multimedia presentations in order to increase funding for a new, unique video game. The company finalized this game while developing ''Ski Jumping 2005'' and two games set in the modern theatre of war. Maciej Oginski finished writing the game's screenplay and dialogue in December 2003. The development process officially began a few months later. Oginski aimed to write a script in the style of

Monty Python Monty Python, also known as the Pythons, were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy ser ...

and ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

'' that would be enjoyable to those who had not seen the earlier films. The finished script consisted of 500 pages, and voice actors recorded over five hours of dialogue, filled with slang,

newspeak In the dystopian novel '' Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also published as ''1984''), by George Orwell, Newspeak is the fictional language of Oceania, a totalitarian superstate. To meet the ideological requirements of Ingsoc (English Socialism) in O ...

and expletives. Developers chose to make the game in 2D as they were against 3D and felt FMV was tacky. It was reported in a Just Adventure preview, published August 19, 2004, that the company hoped to find a North American publisher for the game. They ended up publishing the title themselves. The game was originally meant to be published in Poland in September 2004.

Plot and gameplay

The game is loosely based on the comedy film '' Chłopaki nie płaczą'' (''Boys Don't Cry'', 2005) and centers on a duo of gangsters named Fred and Grucha. Gameplay is similar to a classic

two-dimensional A two-dimensional space is a mathematical space with two dimensions, meaning points have two degrees of freedom: their locations can be locally described with two coordinates or they can move in two independent directions. Common two-dimension ...

LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor, former video game developer and video game publisher, publisher, and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George ...

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

, where players interact with characters, collect inventory items and complete puzzles to advance the story.

Critical reception

Przygodoskop thought the game would appeal to players who just wanted a fun experience, noting that it "wasn't ambitious, intellectual, or a milestone". GryPC wrote that the game's script could reasonably be used as a sequel to the film ''Chłopaki nie płaczą''. ''Game Press'' gave specific praise to the title's "Polonization" for its emphasis on appealing to Polish players and including historical or cultural references they would likely appreciate.

Adventure Gamers ''Adventure Gamers'' is a computer game website created by Marek Bronstring in March 1999 dedicated to the genre of adventure games. It publishes reviews and previews of adventure games, as well as opinion articles and interviews with game de ...

enjoyed the title's "gorgeous ..sumptuous looking stylized artwork." Gry.imro thought it was the best Polish adventure game in years. Imperium Gier praised the game's humour and cast of characters, but disliked the plot and gameplay. Gry.mocny disliked the "annoying" interface but appreciated how the game was not merely a straight remake of the film. Gra.pl noted the game's humor contained a large amount of social and political satire.

References

{{Reflist

External links

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2005 video games Adventure games Single-player video games Video games based on films Video games developed in Poland Windows games Windows-only games