you ASK the Questions
Where we point and click your queries over to Ken
merman: How closely was Disney involved in the series of Sierra educational games featuring their characters? There were creative wars throughout the development of the Disney products. Our people didn’t think they understood interactivity and how to produce a good game, and their people didn’t think we understood the characters. The biggest issue was that Disney’s people really wanted to design the games, as did our people. My designers had to be forced to work with Disney, and the two sides never had great chemistry. Roberta did some of the games and only agreed to work on them if she could ignore the people at Disney. The games that resulted were great, and I’m proud of them, but they were a challenge for both sides.
kiwimike: are there any specific standout technological developments you’re most proud of introducing into the computer and games industries? Certainly TSN and the use of online in games is my biggest achievement. Massively multiplayer online games, five years before the internet hit the mainstream? How could I not be proud of that? Our team did amazing, and impossible, things and had fun doing it!
paranoid marvin: Was there ever any thought of a movie adaptation of any of the games? I always wanted it, but could never make it happen. Had I hung in there a few more years, I have no doubt it would have happened. For years, I tried to buy the rights to Leisure Suit Larry from Sierra’s new owners. I thought it would make an awesome animated cartoon movie. When I saw the movie Spaceballs, I thought it was Space Quest converted to a movie. I’m sure someone on the creative team must have played Space Quest.
antsbull: the AGI engine was groundbreaking within the industry and cost a lot to build – was it quite risky for Sierra at the time? At the time, there were no tools of any sort for software development. AGI was not just programming language; it was also all of the animation and music tools that a developer needed to build a game. The goals for AGI were to reduce development cost through empowering the developers, artists and musicians to do their jobs efficiently, and to provide platform independence. I needed to create a level of abstraction between the game and the hardware, or operating system.
merman: are there any unfinished or unreleased titles that people don’t know about? Good question! There were demos that never saw the light of day. Al Lowe did a game, Capital Punishment, that was an action game about politics. It was hilarious but never released.
retromartin: What was behind the decision to make Police Quest as strictly procedural? The early Police Quest games were designed by Jim Walls and I think he wanted the player to do everything exactly as a officer would do it. Later, we worked with Daryl Gates, former head of the LAPD. Chief Gates is considered the father of the SWAT team tactics. The team’s goal for the product was to do a ‘police simulator’ not a ‘police game’.
paranoid marvin: you tended to die many times in Sierra adventures! Was this intentional? [Grins] Yes! I am sure it was.