Roberta Williams Newsweek Interview (Marrch 1997)

[Baggins]

Here is Roberta's comments about her change in direction in KQ8 vs. Phantasmagoria in March 1997; http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1997/03/30/sierra-s-queen-is-still-on-top-of-her-game.html

March 1997;
I've always felt that the adventure-game genre was sort of mine. Other people have dealt with it and been very successful, but most times I was able to define where the genre would go next. With my next game, Mask of Eternity--we're trying to have it out by Christmas--I'm hoping that what I'm doing now is the beginning of the final answer

Is this the next King's Quest?

Yes. In all the previous games we explored a script-oriented approach to telling people an interactive story. I always felt like every game I did would have a more intricate story, a richer feel, more characterization, more music. But I think I went as far as you can go with the story approach and still be a game. If you go any further, you go into moviedom. I hit a wall. I'm totally backing off that. I think the true right answer is to give people the widest possible means of exploring that you can get. So in this new game I'm trying out 3-D worlds, new worlds where players can venture anywhere they want to go. But in order to accommodate this total freedom in exploration, I have to back off the story and go more free-form. It's the hardest project I've ever worked on.

Why is it so hard?

How can we do it and still keep somewhat of a semblance of a story going? What technology do we use? In Phantasmagoria I used almost 3,000 pictures, and each one was as pretty as I could possibly make it. But now we want people to explore, to see what's there all around them. I can do that, but the pictures won't be as pretty. Right now computers can't handle that. But my dream is that what we're working on now will be the kernel of what people will be playing 17 years from now.

Reminds me of Telltale games and the direction they are taking with Jurassic Park kinda? It's going more towards being a 'movie', and less of the older adventure styles.

[Fierce Deity]

Jurassic Park is taking a sharper turn in my opinion. An adventure game that is like a movie is fine, but what little gameplay that's in Jurassic Park is being simplified by marking each interactive object with a button overlay. It's like a quick time event, but at a snail's pace. And there doesn't seem to be any consequence for picking the wrong combination of buttons. It's an adventure game that is being built with the console audience in mind, but at the price of losing the PC gamers' interest. If that's how the game is going to play, it'll be so boring on the PC. To each their own though. I do like Telltale's games, but I'm only interested in their "true to the genre" titles.

[Baggins]

It sounds like a visual novel, with movie scenes...

I remember a ride at Epcot Center that had these buttons at the end, that would decide the fate of the last sequence of the ride. People could all vote on which they'd like to see, and the most votes would lock in the ending.

Here is a comment from Roberta back in 1992 during hte development of KQ6 about her view of Adventure games;

I hate to call them games. I think of them more as interactive stories. Every story has well-written and engaging but it's up to the designer to add the interactivity--the roundness of exploration and the challenge of puzzles."

[Sir Perceval of Daventry]

It sounds like a visual novel, with movie scenes...

I remember a ride at Epcot Center that had these buttons at the end, that would decide the fate of the last sequence of the ride. People could all vote on which they'd like to see, and the most votes would lock in the ending.

Here is a comment from Roberta back in 1992 during hte development of KQ6 about her view of Adventure games;

I hate to call them games. I think of them more as interactive stories. Every story has well-written and engaging but it's up to the designer to add the interactivity--the roundness of exploration and the challenge of puzzles."

You have to remember Roberta moved into the land of "movie games" herself with Phantasmagoria.

[Baggins]

KQ7 was a movie game as well, it just went for the animated Disney movie approach.

KQ7 and Phantas share the same interface as well as far as the single user cursor and inventory box, IIRC.

[Fierce Deity]

I still think that those games were more interactive than what Jurassic Park is allegedly going to be. At least you could explore. Jurassic Park looks like a still frame with different options, but there is only one option that will move you forward to another still frame. If they change anything about what they showed the first time around, the game could have potential, but it's far from an adventure game as far as I can see. An interactive movie can at least be immersive. I see nothing immersive about pushing A, X, Left Bumper, and then Y. Ooh, a cutscene. 

[Baggins]

Fierce Diety, that's why I think it sounds more like its following the visual novel genre. Have you ever played any of those? They are mostly popular over in Japan.

Think basically "Choose Your Own Adventure" Books from the 1970-80s. The books that inspired "Interactive Fiction" (I.E. Adventure Games) in the first place.

[Fierce Deity]

Fierce Diety, that's why I think it sounds more like its following the visual novel genre. Have you ever played any of those? They are mostly popular over in Japan.

Think basically "Choose Your Own Adventure" Books from the 1970-80s. The books that inspired "Interactive Fiction" (I.E. Adventure Games) in the first place.

Yeah, I know "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. I liked those. I suppose I was just debating with myself then. 

I appreciate the types of games that allow the reader or gamer to be a part of the story. If it's like a movie, it's fine, cause at least there is storytelling. I just despise the kind of games that limit the actual gameplay to a very minimum proportion, that it might as well have just been a movie, instead of a game.

[Baggins]

http://www.amazon.ca/Lost-World-Jurassic-Choose-Adventure/dp/0752224468

Oh look the game had a prequel!

Lost World Choose your Own Adventure!