Gray Matter/Gabriel Knight connections and non-connections [spoilers]
 

(First off, I just want to say that this isn’t a thread for arguing whether GK/GM was better! Just about links between the two series)

I’ve just finished playing Gray Matter and had a good read through the lengthy reactions thread!
I saw that someone one there noticed the same thing I did, this being that from the SIDNEY searches in GK3, we know that GK4 was originally planned out to be about ghosts and, presumably, Gray Matter ended up being the ghost story Jane Jensen decided to tell.

Question: do you think Jane Jensen lost interest in telling GK4 as a ghost story, and found herself developing the story of Styles/Sam as a better fit for this idea?
OR
Do you think JJ came up with an idea she liked even more for GK4, and came up with GM as a side-project to keep the ghost ideas?

Just something I’ve been pondering, curious about your opinions!
(essentially these are two pretty similar things but I guess what I'm wondering is.... now we've had ghosts does JJ still have something up her sleeve for GK4??)

As another point, did anyone else find GM played like a very similar replay of GK3?
Exploring the town > Assimilating into a group > Puzzles around the local area > Searching the group members’ rooms > Everyone has ‘one secret’ > Semi-supernatural puzzle with trials at the end?

Not that this is a bad thing, I was just surprised at how much they had in common! I wonder if this was the game designers, or if JJ has found that this kind of game is the best fit to her writing style?

Also, I was very happy to spot the obligatory GK references in GM on the student noticeboard! Anyone spot any others?

Whatever Jane Jensen thinks about possible new GK plots is moot. Without the rights to the series there is nothing that she can do with the series. With the possibility for new commercial games based on the old Sierra IPs this may well change, but for now it is a dead issue.

Sure, GK4 actually being made is still a lofty dream (for now).... but I' m sure I read an interview with Jane Jensen (was it here?) where she said she's always had a conclusion to the series in mind and if she couldn't make the game she'd share it one way or another. I'm more just curious as to whether Gray Matter's adopted any of the details of this conclusion, or if it emerged as something completely separate, with GK still locked away somewhere.

No real way of knowing without hearing from JJ herself, I'm mostly just pondering the possibilities!

I think these things may have a connection, but more subcouncious if any. I doubt she'd want to go too much into GK4's territory with a new game, just in case there's still some kind of a project on the way.

And of course this isn't purely a ghost story either, in the way meant by GK4, I'm sure.