![]() Warcraft (and, arguably, Warlords and Ancient Art of War before it) made me want to write a campaign for a strategy game, which I was able to do with TimeGate Studios for Kohan II in my second major paid writing gig. Starflight (and later Solar Winds and Star Control II) made me dream of making a space opera, something I’ve thus far failed at – Star Captain was my attempt. (The five grand I got for it paid for a trip in Europe with my then-girlfriend, now-wife after a study abroad semester, so I owe more than a bucket-list checkmark to that game.) Loom and to a lesser extent Hugo II: Whodunit made me dream of making an adventure game, something I accomplished with Primordia. ![]() Final Fantasy II made me dream of making a jRPG, something I (mostly) accomplished with my first paid writing job, a fevered week spent scripting Infinity, a GameBoy Color RPG. ![]() Those games, in more or less chronological order, are as follows. These games may have had no more merit than did the Frosted Flakes jingle or the narrative arc of Challenge of the Go-Bots, but they are snug in my memory, ensconced in, and enhanced by, warm nostalgia.Ī handful of games had a direct inspiration on me: I played them, and wanted to make a game like them. Almost all of these recollections have a social dimension to them because these were games I played with neighbours and friends (we each owned only a small handful of games) and even when we played them solo, we’d still share tips and tricks at school and in the alley behind our houses. Mark : Because the stature of childhood experiences grows proportionally with the body itself, the Nintendo games of the 1980s have outsized importance in my memory: the exploration and sheer adventure of Zelda the huge, alien organisms of Contra the grinding of Dragon Warrior, which my older brother and I would trade off on while the other was at soccer practice King Slender’s backbreaker in Pro Wrestling and Bo Jackson’s speed in Tecmo Bowl the brawls in Ice Hockey and the one time I managed to score by flinging my skinny skater through the goalie in a kind of kamikaze attack the melodrama of Ninja Gaiden the music and sense of progression in Mega Man 2 the insuperable toughness of Double Dragon. Other favourite games are Curse of Monkey Island, Quest for Glory IV, and Conquests of the Longbow, which I feel is severely underrated. At this point, however, I feel like I’ve gotten all the Gabriel Knight out of my system. I made an entire 8-part series of freeware games that were highly influenced by it (Ben Jordan) and my most recent release, Lamplight City had more than a passing aesthetic resemblance to GK1. What are some of your favourite games and which games influenced your work as a developer?įrancisco : I would say it’s fairly obvious that one of my favourite and most influential adventure games is Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. After all, that’s part of point-and-click’s appeal. I’ve compiled those links at the bottom of the interview for your convenience, along with links to each of the developers’ games and studio websites.ĬSH: Before we get down to business, let’s take a trip down Memory Lane. Please note, the developers do mention a few other articles throughout the interview. The interview’s quite long (>13k words!), so I’m going to keep this introduction short and jump right into it. During the interview, we talk at length about puzzle design, interactive storytelling, tutorial design, dialogue in video games, the evolution of adventure games, and finish up with some shameless plugging (and a couple of teasers for some upcoming games). I selected these four developers for the interview because, while they are all very accomplished, they have also taken very different approaches to game design which I thought would lead to some very thoughtful discussion. Joining me is Chris & Nic Bischoff from The Brotherhood (Stasis, Cayne), Francisco González from Grundislav Games (Lamplight City, Shardlight), Christian Miller from Silver Spook Games (Neofeud), and Mark from Wormwood Studios (Primordia). I am very pleased to present you with my latest interview, courtesy of some incredibly talented adventure game designers – some of the best in the business. Hello again everybody! I fell off the radar for a while there, but I’m back with something very exciting. Interview by Chris Picone, 29 January 2019
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