Adventure Gamers - Forums

TimovieMan - 05 October 2020 10:20 AM

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions!


That said, how aware were you of what other companies were doing (I’m thinking LucasArts, Legend, Cryo, Coktel Vision, AdventureSoft, and many more), and how did that shape your decisions back in the day?
Were the other adventure game companies seen as “competitors to be destroyed”, or was there more of a “friendly competitor” atmosphere?
Did you even focus on adventure game companies, or just video game companies in general, no matter the type of game they made?

Coktel Vision was a subsidiary of Sierra .. so, I was certainly aware of what they were doing.

And, of the others you mention, the only company I was aware of at the time was LucasArts. Maybe the others came later? Or .. nothing they did excited me. In my time, the big “competitors” in the adventure game space were LucasArts, Broderbund (with Myst) and Infocom. They definitely scared me, and pushed me to: a) Seek revenues beyond adventure games, and b) Invest whatever it took to stay ahead of the competition from a technology standpoint, and c) Demographically focus our games, so that we weren’t in direct competition

Whereas I studied competitor products, I tried to avoid having our designers and employees do so. I didn’t want our games to copy others. I always said, “Leaders lead and followers follow.” If we started looking at competitor products we would fall into following and that would destroy the company. From my position I needed to understand the competitive market in order to form sales forecasts for products. But, for the creative people I wanted them just to think about the game they were creating and not worry about competition.

I hope this isn’t confusing…

Jabod - 05 October 2020 10:26 AM

First up I have to confess I was never a fan of Sierra games although I quite enjoyed GK2 and Phantasmagoria 2. However, there was one game that I thought was brilliant, although not an adventure game, and that was 1994’s Outpost.
The problems with it though were unfortunate. Firstly having to get the floppy disk to sort out some serious playing bugs (although I still have the CD I’ve long since lost that floppy); secondly there were meant to be several upgrades released for the game which never happened and thirdly there were quite a lot of stories doing the rounds at the time about it being rushed to release because of the costs being racked up and a level of revenue had to start rolling in.

So what did happen - assuming that you can remember as it is, after all, 26 years ago

There’s an entire chapter in my book about Outpost. Our initial release was a disaster. It’s a VERY long story .. but, the bottom line is that the game wasn’t complete when we shipped it. We did release fixes and even a sequel, but as you noticed, our first release was no good. Sorry.

Check out kensbook.com/faq for information about my book.

Doom - 05 October 2020 11:31 AM

Hello, Ken! I’ve been talking recently about how many games Sierra left and how I still discover new gems even 25 years after. The last was Shivers 2 which was published at GOG just this year. People still play old and indie games through GOG and Steam, and there’s this retro aesthetics and nostalgia about 1980-90s presented in modern media.

At the same time former Sierra employees either disappeared without trace or fight to produce a single game for years like Jane Jensen or the Andromeda Guys, others fail and retire like Al Lowe and Jim Walls. It seems like the biggest problem is the lack of proper management, developers often seem to be disorganized, they try to appeal to both old and new audiences and end with half-backed (if any) games.

This is most probably an old question, but it has bothered me for years: didn’t you consider reuniting everyone in some Sierra 2.0 online (literally) company and focus on professionally made oldschool games? Even 5-men indie companies like Wadjet Eye proved to be successful, and I can only imagine how many projects you could’ve released after all those years if working together.

I’d love to see it happen, but not with Roberta or I. There was a window of time, right after we retired, when I’d have happily gone back to Sierra to “fix it.” I offered several times to work for free. I even contacted both Havas/Vivendi and Activision offering to work free to turn around Sierra. But, no luck.

My book spells out Sierra’s strategy and secrets. Hopefully someone else will copy them.

At this point, Roberta and I are as retired as retired gets. We actually started on a new career as world cruisers and circumnavigated a small boat. We even have a second 15 minutes of fame for some of our insane adventures (like taking a 68 boat across the Bering Sea.)

One of my goals with my book was to inspire others. I’m trying to manage the book so that I don’t make a dime. If the book inspires even one kid to do something cool, or reach just a bit harder for success than they would have otherwise, that will be my profit.

Anyway .. the quick answer is: No. Now that the book is out there, I’ll do a few interviews and then go back to my other life as a boater.

TimovieMan - 05 October 2020 12:18 PM

Do you and Roberta still often get recognized and talked to by gamers (as well as boaters)? And how does that compare to back in the Sierra days?

We do still get recognized, but not nearly as often as in the old days. Probably once a week someone will ask if we are “the Ken and Roberta.”

The crazy thing now is that we have to ask if people know us from my boat blog or from Sierra.

-Ken W

Jabod - 05 October 2020 01:11 PM

A whole chapter? That sounds like there was a lot more involved than was heard of over here in the UK.
As I’m interested in the answer that’s a book sale for you in the next week or so although it’s going to have to be a Kindle copy as the paperback here in the UK is nearly £30!

Agreed. There’s nothing I can do about the pricing. It is over 400 pages of color, so it’s expensive to print.

The Kindle version (and, PDF and Epub) are only $7 USD.

I read it on the Kindle (on my ipad, so I got the color) and that worked nicely.

Here’s the outpost chapter. Don’t tell anyone

Click to download the outpost chapter

-Ken W

Jabod - 05 October 2020 01:54 PM

Thanks Ken, appreciated.
I’ve just downloaded so if you want to remove the chapter feel free
I’m still going to get the book (Kindle unless I win the Euro Lottery tomorrow night. If I do that I’ll buy a physical copy for all the people here that I’ve come to know over the years. I’ll even pay shipping costs ) as I’m also interested in the overall story of Sierra so you haven’t lost a sale.
As an aside. If you still have any contact with whomever thought it good idea to insert that pinball game at the end to launch the new spacecraft then please give them a kick up the arse from me! Bloody stupid idea. Closing cinematic was pretty damn good though, particularly for when it was

Enjoy the chapter, and the book. I’ll leave the link online for others who read this thread.

Thank you! - Ken W

Kenwilliams - 05 October 2020 02:55 AM

Greetings all! Thank you for the feedback on the book.

If anyone has questions about the book or Sierra I am happy to answer them.

I haven’t seen the book yet, so I don’t know if these are answered in the book or not, but here are few questions that come to my mind immediately:

1) If you hadn’t been involved in the design process, how many Sierra games you could have solved without a walkthrough? Did you play games by other companies and did you finish them without any cheats/help?

2) What’s the story behind all your cameo appearances and references in the games? Just for fun, or was there something that was somehow based in something that had happened in real life?

3) I have always been curious about the Half-Life thing and Sierra. I guess this might be covered in the book? But how did that all happen, and how in the end Sierra ended like it ended, but Half-Life and what followed made Valve the most powerful company in the game business?

4) What’s the secret of Monkey Island?

My answers below, preceded by ***

-Ken W

I haven’t seen the book yet, so I don’t know if these are answered in the book or not, but here are few questions that come to my mind immediately:

1) If you hadn’t been involved in the design process, how many Sierra games you could have solved without a walkthrough? Did you play games by other companies and did you finish them without any cheats/help?

*** I was never a gamer, and was never particularly good at adventure games. I am an impatient person and didn’t like agonizing over puzzles. I was a big fan of Leisure Suit Larry and Space Quest—and, especially Phantasmagoria, but suspected I cheated and called the designers constantly, even on those.

2) What’s the story behind all your cameo appearances and references in the games? Just for fun, or was there something that was somehow based in something that had happened in real life?

*** I always fought what I call “inside humor” in our games. I didn’t think Sierra’s customers would get the jokes. That said, I looked the other way when it was me the designers or programmers were picking on, in that I thought I was known to Sierra’s customers. I never encouraged adding me to a game, and removed some references if I didn’t think they were funny.

3) I have always been curious about the Half-Life thing and Sierra. I guess this might be covered in the book? But how did that all happen, and how in the end Sierra ended like it ended, but Half-Life and what followed made Valve the most powerful company in the game business?

*** Yes—there is a whole chapter about Half-Life in the book. The digital versions of the book are only $7 .. you might want to check it out. This video -> YOU TUBE VIDEO SHOWING THE BOOK shows the book

4) What’s the secret of Monkey Island?

*** I remember thinking Monkey Island was an incredible game, but probably didn’t play 5% of it personally. My guess is that I leaned over someone’s shoulder while they played. I’m the wrong one to ask…

*** Hope this helps!