- This topic has 17 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 18 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
I am currently enrolled at Westwood College Online earning my BA in Game Design. For one of my classes we are to prepare a proposal for an RPG. I wanted to pay homage to the series that inspired me to become a game designer. I would like to know how to contact Roberta Williams for permission to use the King’s Quest world and characters; I have already contacted Sierra Online (and Vivendi Universal) and am eagerly awaiting a response. I felt that I should ask the source of the King’s Quest series for a blessing before I continue on my quest. You might say that I am still looking for the peacock feather…
Please respond to my email and please title the e-mail “King’s Quest RPG” or the like so my e-mail does not eat up your response. Thank you!
-
Ken Williams reads messages posted here so he can reply re: Roberta. As for Sierra / Vivendi, you are unlikely to receive a reply from them. I don’t think you really need anyone’s permission just to do a proposal or even a project for a Game Design class that incorporates King’s Quest elements.
If you are subscribed to email notification for SierraGamers.com, the title of the emails will be “New messages have been posted on the Sierra On-Line Fan Site website”.
-
Quote:
“… (by Claireobijedi@msn.com ) … I would like to know how to contact Roberta Williams for permission to use the King’s Quest world and characters;…
…”Claire:
You’ve found us!
The bad news is that all rights to Kings Quest are owned by Vivendi. Roberta and I have no right to authorize anyone to do anything related to Kings Quest.
I wish you luck in getting a response from Vivendi.
-Ken W
-
Thank you so much for the quick contact, I realize that KQ is part of Vivendi but I wanted to know how you felt about the games being used. If I get the go ahead, I would like to offer to send the game proposal to you to look over before it is handed in.
Thank you so much for the quick reply and thank you for inspiring me to be a game designer!
-
Quote:
“… (by Claireobijedi@msn.com ) Thank you so much for the quick contact, I realize that KQ is part of Vivendi but I wanted to know how you felt about the games being used. If I get the go ahead, I would like to offer to send the game proposal to you to look over before it is handed in.Thank you so much for the quick reply and thank you for inspiring me to be a game designer!
…”I support the fan games and think they are a cool idea (as long as no one gets in trouble). That said, it always seems like a lot of work for a project that is ultimately doomed – because the marketability of the product is so constrained.
It’s very unlikely that Roberta would look at your design. She made the comment the other night that she likes to think forward, not backwards. She is focused on whatever comes next, and doesn’t like to think about things she did before. She didn’t like thinking about Kings Quest 1 when she started on Kings Quest 2, or Kings Quest 2 during Kings Quest 3, etc. She loved the Sierra years (actually decades) – but, they were then and this is now. She refuses to do any interviews or ANYTHING related to the Sierra years.
I’d post your writing here, and see if people will comment on it. My guess is they will. Good luck!
-Ken W
-
Whoops I did not mean to offend anyone 🙁
The assignment will probably not become anything either, it is just getting us to practice writing proposals. They are going to be graded on that alone, they are not being sent any where as actual “real-live” proposals. I just felt like I should ask permission even though the game proposal/ assignment is not going anywhere (except to my instructor). You mentioned that the fan games are great as long as no one gets in trouble, that was exactly my thought.
Thank you again for the prompt response.
Vivendi has yet to be so quick to respond to my inquiry…
Claire
-
-
-
-
some RPGs require some kind of secondary world depth… i mean, history, some kind of mythology etc. King’s Quest games did have some of this thing, but it was very crude… for example, what is there above Daventry? Realm of the Sun, or Etheria? is the realm of the clouds related to them? Who is the lord of the dead? Azriel or Samhein? what are all the races and species? what are their origins? generally, what is Daventry’s past?
I’d LOVE to see something that explains like this
-
Of course, Peter Spear did some history of the KQ world in his KQ companions… but I never much liked his ideas, and he doesn’t tackle the things you mention (well it went up to KQ7, I think you may want to just plain discount Mask if you’re doing a back-history, though Mask certainly had some cool stuff in it).
-
Quote:
“…
It’s very unlikely that Roberta would look at your design. She made the comment the other night that she likes to think forward, not backwards. She is focused on whatever comes next, and doesn’t like to think about things she did before. She didn’t like thinking about Kings Quest 1 when she started on Kings Quest 2, or Kings Quest 2 during Kings Quest 3, etc. She loved the Sierra years (actually decades) – but, they were then and this is now. She refuses to do any interviews or ANYTHING related to the Sierra years.-Ken W
…”I think it’s a total shame that Roberta feels this way. Roberta is the reason why a lot of people in this forum are interested in, or actually working in, the game industry. (me for example) One thing I’ve noticed is VERY prevalent in this industry is that only the tiniest fraction of people actually see value in doing post mortems on their work. (looking back) Many say they do, but very few earnestly do. It usually gets done, but half-heartedly, is promptly forgotten, and people repeat the same mistakes they did 3 years prior. It’s a horrible shame that Roberta is of this school of people that would not impart her extremely vast knowledge to others on how things went from a designer’s POV. Very few people get the chance to design as many games as she has over the span of so many years, and her hindsight on mistakes/successes would help guide many others around time-consuming pitfalls and on to better game designs.
I’ve been inspired to get into games ever since I read Roberta quoted early in her career saying how she saw that most games out there were mindless action and that she wanted to make games that tested one’s ability to think logically and problem solve. I am personally trying to find out why this type of game fell out of favor (the average game today does not require the brainpower needed for the average game 15 years ago) and what can be done to respark an interest in them. I’m glad that Ken sees the value in analyzing the past, but I think Roberta’s perspective could be extremely beneficial as well.
-Jim
-
It is too bad that Roberta has not been interested in talking to the fans here, but we have to respect her wishes at the same time. The archival team and I are naturally preparing comprehensive post-mortem interviews with many Sierra ex-employees. We are making sure to ask new questions with new perspectives and it will definitely not be standard interview fare. The interviews will be part of one of our special archival projects and we hope that when the time comes and Roberta sees what we are doing, she will be willing to talk us. I don’t want to get into this stuff much right now, but rest assured we will have a submission area for fans to submit questions for consideration, when the time comes.
-
-
hello im John. I love kings quest games. Can you write to me at johred9474@aol.com .
Quote:
“… (by Ken Williams) (by Claireobijedi@msn.com ) … I would like to know how to contact Roberta Williams for permission to use the King’s Quest world and characters;…Claire:
You’ve found us!
The bad news is that all rights to Kings Quest are owned by Vivendi. Roberta and I have no right to authorize anyone to do anything related to Kings Quest.
I wish you luck in getting a response from Vivendi.
-Ken W
…”
-
-
Quote:
“… (by johnred9474@aol.com ) hello im John. I love kings quest games. Can you write to me at johred9474@aol.com .…”
Hi John. I really don’t do much writing to individual people. I’m hopelessly outnumbered by people who used to buy Sierra products. If I spent just 1 minute to write a thank you to each one, I would still be writing hundreds of years from now.
A group THANK YOU will have to suffice.
-Ken W
-
Do you think that Sierra will sell the rights to Kings Quest since they are not doing much with the series? Maybe open it to public domain? Todays video games seem to be linked to a movie or TV cartoon character in order to do well. There are ofcourse the war and sports video games. At my age and place in life, I don’t see where I found the time to play all of those games.
It is nice to know that Ken and Roberta Willams are still together after all of these years. That is the true Kings Quest story. How did they meet?
-
