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(re: Good old Sierra-Times, Thanx to Ken & Roberta!) Marco:
Thank you for the comments!
If you want, try posting a screenshot from some of your games – I’m curious to see what kind of games you are making.
I understand your comment about only 3-d games selling. You may want to experiment with producing an adventure game in 3d, using one of the game engines that is already on the market. My guess is that lots of different 3d engines are available to pick from. Check out
Link: http://www.garagegames.com(http://www.garagegames.com)
– this is one of the Sierra developers (Jeff Tunnell from Dynamix) who has developed a 3d engine and is selling it cheap (around $100) for people who want to build 3d games. To be honest, I don’t have any idea if Jeff’s is the best engine or not. I haven’t really looked to see what is in the market. But, I do know that Jeff is a good guy, so I’d be surprised if his engine wasn’t pretty good.
Actually .. my sense of the market is that the real money these days is in games for the video game machines (playstation, etc). My guess would be that the PC software (entertainment) market is smaller today than when I left the industry six years ago.
Here’s my current thinking as to what I would do, if I were to do something: (or, at least what I’ve been thinking lately)
I’m thinking that my next project will be a server base game that has a simple text based interface, but is open to independent developers writing front ends to. In other words, start with a game that is server based, and fun to play – but, ugly – and, then let the hundreds of independent entrpreneurs/developers around the web write sleek looking clients/graphical interfaces for different parts of the product. The idea would be that a whole market would revolve around developing pieces to the game.
I’m explaining this poorly. Imagine if you will (and, this isn’t really what I’m thinking about) – that I were to build a server-based simulation of a battlefield. The battlefield might recognize that soldiers could be in it, that they could be in vehicles (some of which drive and some of which fly). Soldiers or vehicles, etc might have weapons. On the server side I would resolve where everyone is, what they have, and the result of conflicts — but, all the graphics are on the client side. If I do the server right, then lots of different graphic interfaces could be written to display the battlefield. Code could be written to represent (and display) different kinds of tanks, airplanes, weapons, etc.
Anyway…. that’s what I’m thinking. I’m a little different than most developers in that I need to do something that I can do myself. I’ve done my time of running a company. It was an awesome experience, but “been there, done that”. I like travelling now, and always have my laptop along. I’m not an artist (as this site proves beyond a doubt), but do know how to code (although my coding skills are very rusty after 20 years as a bureaucrat).
Good luck with your games!
-Ken W( re: RPG’s as opposed to Adventure Games) Hello,
I do not remember where I got this link, hopefully it was not from this board. Anyway, if you play Neverwinter Nights, this is a cool looking module. Someone remade Quest for Glory 1using the NWN engine. It is a module. I have not played it yet, but it looks pretty cool.(re: re: re: Larry 8 officially announced!!!)
I see it now. Over at community.sierra.com on the Larry board, one of the game developers is doing a Q & A. He has answered some good questions so far. It may make some of you feel better.
(re: Game Design Methodologies – Various stuff from Roberta)
this stuff is very cool!
i’m curious about the design document for the unproduced game. do you know anything more about this? i.e. – when it was proposed, what type of interface it would have used (animated? FMV?), why it was never produced?
i’d love to see more materials like this. i find it extremely interesting (especially to see how roberta was involved in the early stages as the game’s author and creator…)
-emily
(re: Game Design Methodologies – Various stuff from Roberta) This stuff ROCKS!!! It is off the charts!!! This is what true Sierra Fans crave! Ken, you and Roberta are my heroes!!!
Hubert Young(re: Game Design Methodologies – Various stuff from Roberta) Here are some old pages I “borrowed” from Roberta’s design documents.
I have lots more of this – let me know if people want it posted…
-Ken W
Seriously Ken! That’s like asking the Pope if he wants to go to Heaven! If you find the time to “borrow” and scan anything else from Roberta for all of us to see, you have our eternal gratitude! This is wonderful! Personally, I’d be especially interested in King’s Quest-related material.(re: re: Larry 8 officially announced!!!)
I’m sure he’s referring to Al’s admission that he is in negotiations with Vivendi to participate in Magna Cum Laude….
-Mongoose
(re: re: Larry 8 officially announced!!!) What I’m curious to know is: is Jan Rabinson (I think I spelled his name correctly) going to provide Larry’s voice again. It would make sense that, in this day and age, everyone in the game will have some sort of vocal associated with them; it’s almost unthinkable that Jan wouldn’t be asked to add his voice.
Anyone know anything about this?Morgan
(re: Game Design Methodologies – Various stuff from Roberta) Yes, i’d love to see tons of that stuff (whatever you have time for, and whatever doesn’t put you out 🙂
Keith(re: Larry 8 officially announced!!!) Doern,
You know that the game has been announced right? I am just not too clear as to what you are referring to.( re: Larry 8 officially announced!!!) I think for nostalgic purposes, it would be awesome to have Al in on the Larry game. I also believe that there are plenty of people in the world with a distorted sense of humor, and that a funny Larry game is possible without him. I think the game looks promising so far. It may not be a classic adventure, but I am open to new ideas. Eventually the gaming industry will experience a revolution again, after all, is that not what Ken and Roberta did in the first place?
I am appreciative that Sierra was open to making another Larry game. Of course, you could say that they should have been doing this all along. We will just have to wait and see how this turns out. We always have the fan games too.(re: Game Design Methodologies – Various stuff from Roberta) this is awesome! the design documents were really cool. Roberta’s research on interfaces was very interesting. Sierra must have surely heeded her word, in the case of better inventory screens, as I recall mostly all Sierra games released at that time implementing her suggestions.
(re: Stuff from Roberta and Interaction Scan Project Update) Brad:
I have the videos … LOTS of videos .. some very boring .. some really interesting.
I went to my storage locker to check on the old magazines — it is a HUGE locker, and I thought that it was half empty. No such luck. It is piled to the ceiling with boxes, desks, furniture, etc. I have several reasons to hunt through stuff, but am lacking the energy to tackle a project that large. Maybe next week…
I’ll ask Roberta what she has as far as a “full game design” – my guess is that she does have one. I can’t imagine her throwing a design away – and, I remember seeing a thick book for KQ8 just recently.
-Ken W(Larry 8 officially announced!!!)
Link: http://www.allowe.com/L-8news.htm(http://www.allowe.com/L-8news.htm) Perhaps you should check this out (scroll down a bit)!!! Although nothing’s fixed yet, this is veeeery promising!!!Well, perhaps Al’s no god, but he sure can be a cunning fox at times.
doern(Stuff from Roberta and Interaction Scan Project Update) Ken:
Those scans of the design Documents and Maps are awesome! Something that we might want to consider putting on the Archive collection (in part or in whole). I promise I am still at work on the Sierra Newsletter, been busy wrapping up some design concepts at my day job – was able to work with Robert @ Kinkos and get that first one up – I have talked him into doing one of the more recent newsletters since it has 64 pages instead of 32, and more color graphics and such. He is doing a more acurate time study, and we should be able to present you with a breakdown of the process a cost at each step.
For those of you that were concerned with the resolution and striaghtness of the pages. Rest assured that we are keeping 300dpi scans of each page, and that the crookedness displayed in the PDF seems to be happening in the conversion process to the PDF becuase the TIFF files look perfectly straight. When we output the PDF’s we will take a vote from everyone on the final resolution/quality. Right now that compress will yield a 5.5Meg file on the 32 page mags, and probably around a 15Meg on the 64 page newer mags. Maybe even more with all the color graphics/ads. So that is somewhere around 30 per CD. Looks like it will be a 2 CD set for those.
I think we are in agreeance that the OCR process adds tremendous value to the project, being able to search articles and such. Do you have a complete game design document Ken? A complete one from a single game would be something that I believe could be looked at for generations to come, and learned from – would be very valuable for the CD/DVD collection.
Any more luck on hunting down those videos at all? I know you have been staying busy. Just let me know.
-Brad(Game Design Methodologies – Various stuff from Roberta) Here are some old pages I “borrowed” from Roberta’s design documents.
I have lots more of this – let me know if people want it posted…
-Ken WMap #1
Map #2
Phantasmasgoria Interface Design 1
Design Document Page 1
Design Document Page 2
Phantasmagoria Interface Design 2
Phantasmagoria Interface Design 4
Phantasmagoria Interface Design 5
Phantasmagoria Interface Design 6
Phantasmagoria Interface Design 3
Murder Mystery Map
KQ8 Design Ideas
Pencil Sketch from KQ7(re: re: Game Design Methodologies) i would love to get my hands on the 2 page story ideas and the 30-40 page intermediate design documents for some of sierra’s games. that would be a great tutorial for aspiring game developers
(re: re: re: re: re: Larry 8 officially announced!!!) For those worrying about the new LSL not being as good as the old ones because it’s not made by Al… Well, Al Lowe isn’t God, and while I know Al is a very humorous man, I am sure that whoever is/are designing MCL are too.
Besides, I myself think that the last three LSL games weren’t as good as the first three, so in a way I’m actually glad to see someone take a look at the brand with a fresh mind.(re: To Ken and Roberta. It would mean a lot to me if you reply :)) Øystein:
Both Roberta and I read your email. Thank you for writing!
-Ken W(re: QFG5 Puzzle Help)
After a certain point in the game you cant get to Erasmus’s house. I dont want to ruin the game for you, but he gets poisoned (Did I spell that right?) and you dont see him anymore.
(re: re: Cant get Phantasmagoria 2 to work at all?) Sierra Online Tech Support has been very helpful in getting alot of my old games to work on my comp with XP. What I recommend is you fill out one of those online forms and ask for their help. They responded to my questions within a day and it was a snap.
Too bad they didnt have this feature in the old day… I still cringe at the memories of waiting on hold for hours (long distance, no less) to talk to a Sierra Tech Support Specialist. 🙂
I hope this helps,
Elias(re: re: re: re: Larry 8 officially announced!!!)
If you haven’t found it yet, the link is http://www.sierra.com/file_list.do?gamePlatformId=607
-Mongoose
(re: re: re: Larry 8 officially announced!!!) Hi,
I think, the game will not be so good, as the old ones, which was designed by Al.
Can anyone tell me, where I can get the trailer ? The screenshots looks not so well, but it seems that there was many developed till this time!
Marco(To Ken and Roberta. It would mean a lot to me if you reply :)) Hello, Ken!
I was practically raised on Sierra games, and I really loved them. They were the reason why I bought a PC in the first place. It’s hard to tell quite how much Sierra has meant to me. I know this sounds kind of geeky, but I have to get it out 🙂
I used to fantasy about going to the Sierra HQ in Oakhurst and kept bugging my parents to go there on vacation, but since I live in Norway, it would be quite expensive so we never went to America. I’ve always wanted to meet Ken and Robera in person (and Al Lowe, the two guys from Andromeda etc.) and I still think about it from time to time. So if you read this, Ken, you have to know that you and your wife have meant very much to me through the years.
– Øystein
