Pieter Simoons (a.k.a. “Radiant”) is the proprietor of Crystal Shard Games. In the past two years he has released several innovative and fun adventure games such as META and Warthogs. More recently, he accomplished the thing that hundreds of doe-eyed amateur adventure gamers attempt and fail to do: He released a huge, epic, and high quality adventure game. During the creation of A Tale of Two Kingdoms, Pieter led a team of dozens of people on a quest that took over two years to complete. This installment of Twelve Interviews focuses on the difficult task of leading a team through the development of an amateur adventure game.

First off, tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a graduate in computer science who started on a full-time job shortly after beginning the ATOTK project. I have been interested in game design ever since I was ten or so, starting out in BASIC. Of course, AGS didn’t exist yet, back then. My first real game was completed when I was fifteen; since then, I’ve worked on several dozen projects, ten of which qualify as completed full-scale games.

Aside from that, I live in the Netherlands and enjoy dancing and debate, as well as being reasonably competent at wind surfing. I am told to have a quirky sense of humor and a radiant personality, hence the nickname.

You recently released the long-in-production A Tale of Two Kingdoms. Give us a brief rundown of the history of the project.

A Tale of Two Kingdoms took slightly over two years to make, involving several dozen artists, musicians, and playtesters. It is inspired by Celtic mythology and Grimm’s fairy tales, and of course by the Sierra and LucasArts classics. The game strives to combine the best elements of these in an epic and multi-sided story.

It is a large game, containing about eighty rooms and spanning nearly 100 megabytes in quality graphics, animations and music. It involves a lot of detail, such as the falling leaves and fluttering birds in many rooms, and has some unusual features with secondary characters that wander around and can be given orders.

Double question: Why undertake such an epic task to create a freeware game? Did you ever consider making the game commercial?

I have actually created commercial games in the past, and it was briefly considered to make ATOTK commercial as well. However, having a wide audience has greater appeal than making some relatively small amount of money from the game – which would have to be split between over a dozen people that contributed in varying amounts, and so forth.

Why undertake it? Because being creative is a very fun and rewarding activity, even if it can take years. We started out small and watched the project grow, and now we can look back on something impressive that we created. I feel that is more rewarding than ending up with a check at the end.

Many team members took part in the production. How did you recruit people to the team? Did people come and go from the team or was it mostly the same group of people for the entire production?

Part of the recruiting was done by watching the AGS forums and contacting people who offered their services or displayed good skill; aside from that, some people contacted the team and offered their help directly. New recruits are asked to create a piece of art or music for the game, in a timely fashion. This is then used in the game; or, if it is of poor quality or simply never completed, the recruit is dropped. There are quite some people that enthusiastically offer to help, but turn out to have not enough time on their hands.

The makeup of the team varied over production, as new people were taken in and older members moved on to other things.

Have you been the leader of a large team project like this before?

Yes. I have completed two projects of this magnitude before ATOTK, specifically SubTerra (an action/puzzle game) and Leylines (a turn-based strategy game). Please see our website at www.crystalshard.net for details. Aside from that, there have been numerous minor projects – for instance, we did some one-week projects to the side just to get our minds off of Theylinn for a while.

Did you have an extensive design document that you used to direct the team’s efforts?

Kind of. Most of the rooms, puzzles and characters were written down early in the project, and we went from there. This includes a list of all items with where to find them and where to use them, and a directed graph of puzzle progress, to ensure there wouldn’t be any dead end situations. Some of this was changed later on, usually when someone had a cool idea we could use. For instance, the room with the cliff bottom was not in the original design, but since an artist thought it would look good and started drawing it, we added a purpose for it in the game.

How did you dole out responsibilities and make sure the team stayed organized and on track? Take us through, for example, the development of the art assets for a room in the game.

The art assets for a room basically consist of asking a particular artist to draw a particular room. I tend to give people wide leeway in how to draw something, sticking more to general guidelines of the atmosphere of the room, and what objects required for the game’s design. This is then sketched and colored in. Later on in the project, we spent some time letting artists touch up work for one another, to improve consistency. Aside from that, since most of our artists are perfectionists, they would touch up their own rooms, and in some cases re-do them from scratch if they weren’t satisfied with their result.

Staying organized is the matter of splitting the work into practical chunks of, say, one room or one character each, and keeping track of which artist is working on what. We had a forum for communication, and organized chat sessions over IRC or MSN to keep in touch.

Do you think it’s best for the team leader to also take on the roles of designer and/or programmer? Do you ever wish that you could have worn fewer hats during the production of the game?

While I did spend more time than I wanted to on keeping the team together (especially early on, when a lot of time was spent recruiting people), at least for indie games it is best if the team leader has a practical development skill. Often, but not always, this turns out to be the programmer, as the programmer is the one who has to put everything together and make sure it fits. I do not believe there is room in volunteer / amateur teams for a person who just “manages” but doesn’t do any concrete work. I don’t mind wearing two hats, but it was a lot of work at times.

How much game design input or story/puzzle suggestions came from other team members? Was it your way or the highway, or was it more of a team effort?

Feedback is, in my opinion, crucial to game design. If a team member points out something interesting that is missing, or notes that a situation or option doesn’t really make sense, it deserves to be listened to; if not, when the game is released, people who play it will likely note the same things, and the game will be the poorer for not making use of that. Incidentally this is why so many of ATOTK’s puzzles have alternative solutions.

Were there any stumbling points for you as team leader? Did you ever feel like you could have more effectively directed the team’s efforts?

Writer’s block is a big issue. As they say, a large project is 10% inspiration and 90% ; it is next to impossible to stay focused on a big project for a long time. A low point during development was a month in which basically no progress was made at all. A way of dealing with this is to take on small side-projects for variety; examples of such projects are Warthogs and META.

A stumbling block early on was the lack of sufficient sprite artists. This was resolved when Fizzii, one of the background artists, decided to teach herself sprite work. Another stumbling block was the lack of suitable auditions for some parts of the voice pack, since nearly all the auditees were teens or students, and several of the characters in the game are very old. This wasn’t really resolved; we eventually decided to drop the voice pack.

What advice would you give to someone else who was leading a team in the development of an adventure game for the first time? ‘Cause… uh… I have this friend…

Start out small. It is far more motivating to succeed at making a small game, than to start a big project and fizzle out.

Be prepared to change. Designing the story and puzzles is one of the shortest tasks in the overall development. Do not adhere too strictly to what you’ve written down in week one, and be prepared to change anything, everything based on feedback.

Speaking of which, you can never have enough feedback. Get your friends to play the game for a bit, while you sit next to them writing down their comments. If they fail to understand some situation or puzzle, or consider the interface inconvenient, it is your responsibility to fix this.

Be honest about your skills, and other people’s skills. This requires some tact, but if something looks or sounds bad, it needs to be said. This also means that if something is wrong with your own work, you must be open to people who tell you this.

And remember, everything takes twice as long as you think it will.

Finish of the interview by saying something deep and/or profound.

The Indie community persistently shows that you don’t need a lot of money to play a good game, nor to create one. The next time you play a commercial game and think of something that could have been better, remember the opportunity is yours.

The first five games in the series have met considerable praise and adoration. You can download them from Francisco’s site at GrundislavGames.com.

On to the interview:

First of all, tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Francisco Gonzalez, I’m 24 years old, and I live in Miami, Florida. I like travelling, and hope to save up enough money to see lots of places before I get too old.

You were the host of the long-running and wildly popular AGS Podquest, why do all good things have to come to such a sudden and unexpected end? Why?!

In all honesty, Zoot and I just got tired of it. It was getting increasingly difficult to come up with discussion topics, contests, interviews, so we decided to go out while we were still bearable. We’re still going to try and do special edition podquests from AGS gatherings and things like that, so it’s not completely dead.

In your spare time, what kinds of games do you play? Any recent favorites?

I like playing adventure games, even though there are so few of them around. I recently played Dreamfall, which I enjoyed quite a bit, so right now it’s my favorite. I enjoy a little Half-Life 2 and Counter Strike every now and then, and I like God of War for PS2.

What made you want to make games?

It all started when I was a young lad of about 10…

In reality I played Hugo’s House of Horrors and was fascinated by the concept of adventure games. Previously I’d just played platformers and arcade type games, you see. Anyway, once I played some more I decided that making my own would be
fun.

Were your first attempts as good as your latest games?

A difficult question to answer, as I don’t really think of my games as “good” or “bad.” I make games I myself would like to play, so to me they’re more or less enjoyable. The first AGS games I made were the Carver Island games, which I’ve taken down due to embarrassment, so I guess the answer to the question would be “no.”

What inspired you to make a game centering around a paranormal investigator?

It’s kind of a complicated story. Originally I replayed Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and that inspired me to make a game about travelling the world. So I started planning a game about an AGS newbie who meets Chris Jones, [Editor's Note: Chris is the creator of the popular AGS] then goes on a worldwide search for the stolen AGS source code. Then I realized how silly that game would have been, so I stopped working on it.

After that, I still had the idea of world travel bouncing around in my head, and eventually I decided to make a game about a guy who goes around investigating local legends and folklore related to the paranormal. Rather than have your typical cliched paranormal investigator who deals with werewolves and vampires and “classic” hollywood monsters, I wanted to mix it up a little bit and have him look into stuff that was based on reality.

When you made the first game, did you know that you were going to make more in the series?

Yes and no. I knew I wanted to make more games, but at the very beginning I still wasn’t sure about how many games I wanted to make, or what the overall series story was going to be. I think it’s evident from Case 1 that I was just excited to be starting a new series. However, I will let the cat out of the bag and announce that I am working on Ben Jordan Case 1 Deluxe, which will be a re-working of Case 1, with better graphics, expanded story, and generally a better introduction to the series.

What made you decide to attempt an episodic series?

Practicality. I knew that if I focused on small games and not big ones, I’d be more likely to actually get them done and not give up on them. Also it was the fun of variety. You can keep the same character, but have him go different places, yet still keep the same overall feel.

You’ve hinted repeatedly that the series has an over-arching plot line that will soon become more evident. How much of the rest of the series do you have planned?

As of right now, I have the rest of the series planned. I know how it’s going to end, who’s going to live, who’s going to die, who the main villain is, etc etc.

Sometimes I think I haven’t really made the over-arching plotline very apparent, which in a way is good, because it means nobody suspects what is going to happen. However, people do ask me questions every now and then, so I guess someone knows something is going on.

Did you have this over-arching plot planned out from Case 1, or did you think it up further along?

When I did Cases 1 and 2, I hadn’t really thought about the rest of the series yet, so that’s why they might seem a little “detached” from Cases 3, 4, and 5. However, once I release Case 1 Deluxe, I think that will hopefully change.

It wasn’t really until I started on Case 3 that I decided to sit down and start writing out the rest of the major events of the series. I allowed myself flexibility with the individual cases and their locations, which actually changed quite a few times. There were originally going to be 9 games, but I decided that one of them was going to be very stupid, so I got rid of it, merged some plot lines, and condensed it down to 8.

Finishing five quality games at all is impressive, but to finish five in a series? Do you find it difficult to continue working on this series and not stray off to work on something fresh and new?

First of all, thanks for saying they’re all quality games. I don’t know if I agree completely with you, but it’s nice to get compliments.

No, I don’t find it difficult, because to me each game is different. The only game so far that has made me a little tired is Case 5. For some reason I just lost interest in it towards the end, and I think it shows a little in the finished product. However, for the last 3 cases, I’m very excited to work on them for completely different reasons. Case 6 is exciting because of the location and the chance to improve my art, Case 7 for the story, and Case 8
because it’s the big finale.

How do you stay motivated?

I have fun when I make games, and also because I have all these ideas in my head and I want to get them out there and see how people react. I’m really excited about releasing Case 7 because I think that’s when I’m going to start getting hate mail.

You’ve gained a sizable online fan-base. What’s that like?

It has it’s ups and downs. It’s a great feeling to get emails saying how much people liked the games. I even had someone donate money! On the other hand, it can get a little annoying when people start asking repeatedly when the next game is going to be released, although with Case 5 I have nobody to blame for that but myself.

What have you learned from creating this episodic game series?

I’ve learned that episodic games are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they’re easier to do, require less work, and can be made faster than full-length games. On the other hand, they can be completed fairly quickly, and then the anxiety for the next one begins.

There’s also the fact that some people get into it from the most recently released game, then play the series out of order, which makes the story a little hard to follow.

What advice would you give to others trying to start up their own series of games?

Six words: Don’t announce a release date EVER.

Other than that, go for it.

What’s your favorite Ben Jordan game and why?

That’s like asking a parent to pick their favorite child. At the moment, however, my favorite is Case 6. As for the ones I’ve released, I think I like Case 4 a little more than the rest. But don’t tell them that, please.

Once you’re finished with the BJ series, what’s next for you?

Assuming I still have as much free time as I do now, I’m going to keep right on making games. I already have an idea bouncing around in my head for a historical adventure that I don’t think anyone has done before. We’ll see what happens.

Finally, say something clever and/or profound to finish the interview.

Something clever and/or profound.

This one is, again, very specific to the amateur adventure scene. We focus our discussion on the common mistakes that amateur adventure developers make when creating games.

Oh yeah… and it’s pretty long…

Jozef Purdes has never released a game. He’s not a frequent poster to the message board. He has never even used AGS. Nevertheless, he is a well known and important figure among the AGS community.

Jozef is the author of the relentlessly thorough Independent Adventuring column over at DIY games. [Editor's note: DIY games has since died. He now runs his column on his own blog over at Independent Adventuring.] In his monthly column Jozef does his best to play and review EVERY independent adventure game released. It’s a daunting and unenviable task, but nevertheless, Jozef continues to deliver.

Seeing as how he has turned a critical eye to more AGS games than just about anyone, I knew that he would have some excellent insights on amateur adventure game development. I was lucky enough to bump into him at the Bloody Towel and have a fabulous confabulation over some baconburgers. I wanted to hear his thoughts on common flaws in amateur adventures but got sidetracked on some other subjects first.

The following is a transcript of our discussion:

First off, tell us a bit about yourself.

I was born slightly over 29 years ago in Bratislava, Slovakia. Came to the US in 1995, went through college in New Jersey, where I then stayed for another four years working as an investment analyst. Last August, I moved to Atlanta, where I entered the MBA program. I’ve got one more year to go, and then I hope to find a job in the business incubation area.

As far as my gaming past goes, I started out with the Zinclair ZX Spectrum. After two years or so, I got a bootleg tape full of interactive fiction; my first exposure to adventures. I got exposed to PCs as part of my part-time work in Slovakia. They were PC 286 computers, and my first game, Crystals of Arborea, I was hooked, spending nights mainly with strategies at that time, especially Warlords and Civilization. I went through the usual Monkey Island series and Sierra adventures, but got really hooked only after I played Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Since then, I’ve been gaming all the time, but stayed almost exclusively with adventure games, puzzles and turn based strategies.

How long have you been involved in gaming journalism?

I started writing for my abandonware site in 1997. I later abandoned it, and in 2000 I started writing reviews for Epinions.com. I soon became an Expert in gaming, which on the site was a function for the top reviewers in each category. They served as a buffer between other reviewers and the site management, and to advise new members (the function later transformed into two, Top Reviewer and Adviser, which I retained till I stopped writing). In 2002, me and a few of the top reviewers from Epinions created Netjak.com, where I’m still writing, even though not as much as before. In early 2004, the editor of DIYGames has asked me to join the site, and since then I’ve been writing the monthly columns and the occassional reviews when I found some extra time. [Editor's note: No he's not]

How important, in your estimation, is objective evaluation (that is to say, reviewing a game based on its merits and not on one’s own biases as a gamer) to mainstream gaming journalism?

I think that objectivity is overrated. Especially if I read five reviews of the same game, I don’t want to read the game description over and over again. Instead, I’m much more in favor of consistency. There are simply game reviewers who have been consistently rating games for years now, and even if I don’t share their tastes, their score and review can tell me more about how much I’d like the game than any consistent review. The most notable example here is Tom Chick, the writer for Quarter to Three and most recently Computer Games. He dislikes some genres that I like and vice versa, but having played some of the games and compared them against his reviews, I know what to expect now, whenever I read one of his game reviews, because he’s been so consistent over the years.

How about non-mainstream or specialized journalism such as DIYgames?

I’d like to see more objectivity here. Not for the sake of objectivity, but I think the non-mainstream media is skewed too much towards the subjective. The problem I’m seeing here is that the media have too few dedicated reviewers. Even DIYGames, which is relatively well staffed, is struggling with the amount of games that are flowing in. As a result, we all are free to select from an enormous number of games to review, and we naturally gravitate to the best or most appealing ones, so we consistently rate between 3 and 5 stars, out of 5. While we may be right in our rating, the review selection is not representative of the independent scene.

Can bias be blamed for the fairly consistent low scores garnered by adventure games in mainstream reviews, or are the games of today that still follow the tried-and-true adventure game formula just not as good as they used to be?

That’s difficult to say. I’d say that adventures are being misunderstood by magazine editors, and they are being assigned to the wrong people. As I understand it, console adventures are mainly platformers with adventure elements, and so if a fan of such games gets a PC adventure to review, he or she may be disappointed. I consider myself to be a fairly hardcore adventurer, and it reflects on my ratings: I rated games like Salammbo and Journey to the Center of the Earth very highly, much higher than the average, while games like Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon and Wanted received quite low ratings, due to their simplicity, interface and non-adventure elements.

In fact, if you look at Gamerankings, you’ll see that many adventure games are highly rated by adventure-reviewing sources, while more mainstream media rates them lower. Good examples of this are in particular Journey to the Center of the Earth, and A Quiet Weekend in Capri. More than bias, I think that the mainstream media simply don’t have any adventure-dedicated reviewers anymore.

Quite frankly, I didn’t think of looking at game journalism before, so these are only my opinions, based on absolutely no facts, so take them with a grain of salt.

Lets move on to your Independent Adventuring feature. What made you want to take on the daunting task of playing and reviewing every amateur adventure game released?

I appreciate art, and I see amateur adventures as art. Nobody can agree on a definition of art in gaming, but for my purpose, it’s a game that has been created by a real developer, not by marketing consultants. And even though there are quite a few titles that I wish I haven’t played, others more than offset this.

But to be entirely honest, it wasn’t my idea. Greg Micek, the editor of DIYGames, has come with the idea, and I told him I’d try to do it, but I wasn’t too enthusiastic until I wrote the first column and realized how much fun it’s been to play all the games.

Do you enjoy it? I mean… there are so many! … Aren’t there some real stinkers out there?

You’re right; there are quite a few poor games. Still, there are so many great games that I can live with the relatively fewer stinkers. Also, I tend to give a lot of benefit of the doubt to people, so the worse games don’t hurt too much ;)

Any recent or classic favorites, AGS or otherwise?

Most recently, I fell in love with Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment. I’m also very fond of games that are slightly out of the ordinary. For example, SSH’s Princess Marian series is one of my favorites, because of its very unique and cute personality. Last year, some of the games I enjoyed the most had either very unique graphics, such as Biwa of Blood, or great humor, like Who Killed Bambi?. And while I enjoyed larger games, such as titles by Pinhead Studios or the Ben Jordan series a lot, there’s so many of those that after a while they tend to blur together.

Do you feel that the underground adventure game scene is important?

I think it’s very important! For some reasons. First of all, it proves that game genres can never die. In the days before Dreamcatcher (and even now), the vast majority of adventure creation activity takes place with independent developers. As a result, commercial adventures are always pushed a step further in their development, to justify their price in the face of free competition. Consequently, the overall quality of adventure games is higher than it would have been otherwise. Second, the underground adventure scene is quite important to me. I really don’t like any action games, and with such titles dominating the store shelves, without independent adventures I’d have nothing to do. And finally, just look how much creativity is being allowed, thanks to AGS and other engines. I grew up primarily with books, and I never dreamed of self-publishing or reading self-published stories. Even today, we don’t see too many of them. Yet, lots of people are coming up with their own stories, and an entire vision of a world where the stories take place. With so much creativity going on, I can only expect computer gaming in general to greatly benefit in the future.

Compared to the other amateur adventure game engines and communities, what are your thoughts on AGS and its community?

Now this is a difficult question. I have never tried to create anything with any adventure engine, so I can’t comment on the AGS software. However, considering the number of games released every month, I can imagine it’s easy to use.

As far as the community goes, I believe that AGS is the only significant underground adventuring community. There are others I visit, especially the Adventure Developers and Adventure Gamers forums, most of the activity takes place on AGS, especially after The Crow’s Nest closed. That said, however, I found the AGS community to become too entrenched. There are very few new people joining, who actually contribute on the boards for the long run. While things like the Mittens show that the community is very close, I’m also afraid that the community is becoming a little exclusive.

Concerning amateur adventures, how important are the different aspects of the game (graphics, sound, story, programming, gameplay, etc)?

That’s difficult to say. Obviously, story is very important, but I found that my favorite games are those with a unique personality. This is usually a result of unique graphics and writing. But I wouldn’t be too worried about what’s more important. Instead, I personally focus on things that hurt the game. The most visible problem tends to be poor grammar, but in the long term, I find lack of originality to be the biggest problem. I don’t think we need another haunted house or a mystery detective; Ben Jordan should be enough. Chances are I’ll remember the original story, not its clone.

Having played so many amateur adventures, you must have spotted a multitude of common flaws that even the most experienced amateur developers drop into their games. Lets discuss some flaws in each aspect of the game’s production: What are a few common missteps that you see regarding a game’s story? How can these flaws be avoided?

As I said, the one flaw I tend to pick up really quickly is grammar. This is not as much a problem with experienced game developers, but even a single typo can stand out. That’s just me, though.

Probably the biggest design problem that I’m seeing is the lack of explanations. Sometimes, the authors have the entire setting in their heads, and they make assumptions that they don’t communicate to the player. This, in turn, makes some puzzles or actions appear illogical. This has killed very many adventures for me.

But at the end, most seasoned adventure developers have their game mechanics pretty well covered. I just wish they added a little more emotion to the story, to make it more engaging to the player. Very often, even in otherwise great games I feel absolutely no attachment to the main character. Maybe it’s just me, but in those cases I feel like the developers created a game they thought the gamers would like to see, and not the one they wanted to create.

What common mistakes do you see regarding a games graphics?

There are two, both having to do with the character animation: characters facing the wrong direction, and poor perspective. In the former, I see way too often that the characters seem to walk sideways. As far as perspective goes, sometimes the character size doesn’t seem to change appropriately, according to their location. I guess both problems are connected with the AGS editor, so I wouldn’t know how to fix them.

Discuss a few commonly-recurring flaws that you’ve noticed regarding a game’s sound. How can these flaws be avoided?

There’s only one thing that irritates me: full mp3s, which inflate the overall file size. Other than that, I only have a problem with music I recognize. That’s not inherently wrong, but sometimes the music clashes with the setting. I don’t mind listening to “We Don’t Need Another Hero” and “Eye of the Tiger” in Supergirl; in fact, the music selection was appropriate. However, if I heard “Chariots of Fire” while exploring a haunted mansion, I’d be very unhappy.

What about the gameplay design? Where do you commonly see mistakes and how can they be avoided?

There’s only one flaw I can mention here: action or timed sequences. Avoiding this problem is easy: avoid adding them into your games. I don’t mind what anybody else says, I’ll be always whining about them. But to be fair, sometimes they work, such as in the Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment, where they were very easy.

And finally, the game’s interface. Discuss a few commonly-recurring flaws that you’ve noticed in this area.

One problem I’m seeing, especially with new developers or people who want to use intricate interface graphics are very large cursors, which you don’t know where they point. This can be avoided very easily; some games added a bright pixel on each cursor, indicating where it points.

What about programming? How often do you see minor bugs? How much do they affect your opinion of a game? What about major bugs?

I don’t see too many major bugs. In fact, I’m very happy to say that I haven’t seen a game-ending bug for a long time. However, I wish people would be more careful when flagging non-recurring things. Sometimes even very good games allow for the came conversation to take place over and over again.

Let’s talk about innovation for a second. Most of the games coming out use one of the tried-and-true interface models (LucasArts or Sierra). Few attempt to add real innovation to the adventure game formula. What kind of laudable innovation have you seen coming out of the community? How important do you feel innovation in gameplay is to the amateur adventure game scene?

I think innovation is overrated. And this is coming from somebody who just spent the summer commercializing new technologies developed at Georgia Tech… I don’t think you can innovate too much in adventure games, as far as the interface or game mechanics go, mainly because so many people associate certain elements with adventures. In fact, I would say that no other genre is being so narrowly defined by its fans as adventure games (there’s been a really good article about it recently). As I said before, I see underground adventure games as pieces of art, and thus I’d like to see more artistic innovation. People should not be afraid to use new, innovative graphics (the Critics Lounge people may hate me for this). The same goes for stories. Even reworking some older stories, especially from public domain books, would be better than the amount of repetition I’m seeing.

When it comes to game mechanics, though, the game I mentioned a few times already, Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment, shows one way to innovation. It is simply a series of minigames and a trade simulator, with strong adventure elements. Jane Jensen’s BeTrapped! is also very innovative, adding adventure elements to Minesweeper game mechanics. It seems to me that in the future we’ll see many more games from other genres, which would have enough adventure elements to be considered adventure games. So instead of improving traditional adventure games, other genres will be transformed into adventures.

In this respect, the underground scene plays a huge role. Innovation is largely gone from large commercial products, and so if we’ll see any significant change, it will come from the bottom up.

Do you have any game-making aspirations of your own? (If you’ve made a game previously and I just don’t know about it, chalk it up to my piss poor research department.)

Sorry; you won’t find anything made by me. I did a few short games in ZX Spectrum, and the only larger project there was to make a Monopoly clone. I’m currently thinking about trying my luck with AGS, but so far haven’t gotten to use the software, as I just finished the story, and currently keep busy with the graphics. I am hopeful I’ll release it before the Universe collapses unto itself again.

Any clue as to what we can expect to find in your game, whenever it may be released?

It takes place in an alternate past, but it could just as well take place elsewhere. At the heart of the story is a person with a dilemma: whether to stubbornly keep destroying other people’s lives for the greater truth (possibly an unattainable ideal), or whether to give up, and save those he loves.

I must admit that my main problem with writing this story is that I tend to be a little verbose, as you may have noticed, and I also love to quote people from the books I’ve read. The first version of my script was choke-full of quotes from Thoreau, Emerson and Muir. I took some of them out, but it still will be a game I’d want to play, so others may be disappointed.

As for when it will be released, I’ve got absolutely no idea. I’m learning as I’m going, and after I finish the backgrounds, I’ll have to learn character drawing and animation, before even trying to power up AGS.

Where would you like to see the amateur adventure scene in five years?

Just where it is now, with fresh blood. I’d like to see the best current amateur developers to have their games in the local Best Buy five years from now. Others should be able to release commercial independent games, and those who just started would be the veterans, training a new generation of adventure developers.

How long do you see yourself continuing the Independent Adventuring feature?

At least as long as there is nobody who’d do it better, or until I marry, and my wife confiscates my computer ;) So far, I’ve had too much fun to stop writing.

Say something clever and profound to finish the interview.

Now this is by far the most difficult question I’ve gotten. Please bear in mind that I’m too sober to think of something really good.

Amateur adventures are art, and their authors are true artists. As such, I don’t feel comfortable with criticizing any of them; I’m trying to merely report what’s going on, and to point out those art pieces that I liked. I’m very happy to be able to contribute to the independent adventuring scene, and I hope that five, ten years from now, we’ll still be all here. Some of us creating new games, others reporting, and all of us enjoying them.

Thank you for your time, Jozef.

The first two may seem more specific to AGS games, but I hope the new interviews will have a broader scope.

So, without further achoo… I present my interview with Rebecca “Kinoko” Clements, originally published June 22, 2005.

Kinoko, who is constantly being mistaken on the forums for a man (How’s that for an introduction?), made a splash in the AGS community with her first game, Cirque De Zale. It was nominated for several AGS awards and Inventory awards, and won the Inventory award for Best Indie Adventure. She is currently hard at work on her next game, an action RPG in the style of the old SNES classics, titled Gift of Aldora.

I was fortunate enough to sit down around a few pints of grog (and an internet browser) with Kinoko to chat a bit with her about herself, games, and herself making games. The following is a transcript of our discussion:

First off, tell us a bit about yourself. Who is Kinoko?

I’m a 22 year old Aussie girl who was brought up spoilt with video games galore. I love cats, noodles and rugby league.

Tell us one strange fact about yourself that we don’t know.

Popsticks scare me (seriously).

This August [Editor's Note: Last August], you’re packing your bags and moving to Shizuoka, Japan. When did you decide to apply to teach English in Japan?

Probably around October last year. I’d always known about JET and I was nearing graduation from uni, so I had to do something with my life. I needed to get to Japan somehow to complete my study of the language and JET came highly recommended. I’m now thrilled I was accepted.

What kinds of games and genres do you play? What are you playing now?

Right now, almost literally right now because I WILL be playing the game as soon as I’m done with this, I’m playing Zelda – Minish Cap. I wasn’t to thrilled about the game when I got it months ago but I’ve recently picked it up again and now I’m hooked. I’m also playing Harvest Moon – Friends of Mineral Town on GBA. I recently got married, and my wife is pregnant now! [Interviewer's side note: Ok, I totally did a double take at that. It took me a second to realize you were talking about a game...]I do play a bit of D&D with some friends every now and again but I almost never play PC games these days (besides AGS games). I used to be big into PC gaming when I had an amiga and C64, but these days I’m all about console gaming. It’s what I was brought up on. I play all sorts of things, I love anything that’s genuinely unique or just plain well-made and fun, but my real love is for RPGs.

How often do you play games that come out of the AGS community?

It varies. I guess it depends on how often something that really grabs my attention comes out. I dont play everything released, just the things that strike a chord with me, particularly when I can see real effort put in.

Any favorites?

I’m a bit of a Yahtzee whore, I love 5 Days, 7 Days and O.K. Noone can go past Pleurghburg, and I adore the Apprentice. More recently, Saturday School had been the best thing I’d played in ages.

When playing other AGS games, what common mistake do you see repeating itself over and over again and how can developers avoid making it?

I’ve always thought one of the biggest mistakes is believing that graphics don’t matter. Adventure games tend to be lovers of “old school” graphics and simplicity, and we’re always saying that graphics don’t matter when you have a great story and game in general, but too many people take that to mean that graphics can be completely… scat-house. It works in joke games, but when you’re putting a lot of effort into story and programming, I think the graphics, as simplistic as they may be, should at least show effort and care. It’ll make the player care more about your game to know that you did. The other big one is not enough beta-testing. One scripting error can be enough to turn you right off a game. While I’m on the subject, spelling and grammar, people! Fixing up all these things can really make your game seem like a great piece of work.

With a lot of developers, the initial concept is a difficult one, and Cirque had a very unique concept. How did you come up with it? Where did the inspiration come from?

I’d love to tell a charming story, or a clever one, but I honestly just sat down with a notebook and thought about what would “sell”. I knew I wanted to make it in the style of early Lucasarts games, and I knew I wanted a main character with a lot of personality, I just had to think of a theme. I thought about what had been done in adventure games so far (pirates, magicians, royalty and whatnot) and thought that a circus would serve the purpose.

Take me through the process of making your first game. Did you meticulously plan everything out, wing it as you went along, or somewhere in between?

I planned the basic elements I wanted in the game, and a couple of specific jokes I wanted to work in. Then I planned the whole game from start to finish, story and puzzle wise. After that, I drew sketches of my backgrounds and the “map”, Alexander’s sprite and basically started from there. I didn’t have everything planned from the start, I added and changed things as I went along, but the bulk of the game was planned out before I started. I think you have to do that, really. Plan, plan and plan and have everything sorted but be flexible and open to change as you work on the game.

In this process, what went right and what went wrong?

Scripting went wrong most of the time, seeing as I was learning the problem as I made the game. Also, I fell into a lot of the same traps most people fall into when making their first game, such as only having one style of puzzle, a very linear storyline (not always a bad thing) and things like that. I’d say one of the things that went right is that the dialogue I pretty much wrote on the spot was pretty well-received, and things I thought would seem corny/obvious/lame because I’d seen it so often and in such detail were, again, well received by people who hadn’t been working on the game for 3 months ^_^

What made you decide to make an RPG as your next big project?

Adventure games and RPGs were always my “Big Two” in gaming. I’d done one, it was time for the other. I think I was also replaying Terranigma at the time (greatest game ever) and felt like I wanted to carry on the flame a little. Very few RPGs these days really excite me the way they did ‘back in the day’.

Cirque is widely loved for its excellent writing and humor, great art and animation, and entertaining puzzles and gameplay. It grabbed me because playing it for the first time evoked a sense of nostalgia, as if it was a long lost LucasArts game. It nailed everything that made classic adventure games classic. In doing this (and at no expense to the game’s quality, may I add) Cirque never attempted any new gameplay innovations, instead opting for the tried and true LucasArts verb-based gamplay. You’ve stated that the gameplay of Gift of Aldora is based on the Illusion of Gaia/Terranigma series and The Secret of Mana. Will GoA be playing by the rules and sticking closely to the action-RPG formula laid out by these series or will you be adding some interesting gameplay elements of your own?

It’s hard to say, since it is still in development and I do keep scribbling new ideas all the time. For the most part, it will be made up of ‘tried and true’ methods from various games. Don’t expect anything terribly revolutionary, but I hope the game will invoke a feeling of uniqueness simply because it isn’t just a tribute-style game like Cirque was. The main motivation behind this game, however, IS that I want to relive my old SNES console RPG days. I guess I hope will simply feel like something worthy enough to be placed at the feet but among those old games I love.

For you, what’s the best (most enjoyable) part of making these games? The design, the art, the coding, the vast amounts of money that you make…?

The vast amounts of money I make… gee, I wish that was it. Given that I’ve spent the last 10 years calling myself an artist, it’s probably weird that I consider one of the funnest parts of game-making to be programming. I find it incredibly satisfying, and you don’t have to wait for things to dry or scan a thousand pages. It’s easy (physically so, that is) and just like problem solving. I think the winner would have to be conception though (not the baby kind). It’s so utterly fun coming up with characters and ideas and trying to mush them together in a story.

What’s the worst (least enjoyable) part?

Animating. It’s satisfying when it’s done, but sitting there trying to animate a little sprite, moving pixel by pixel and then testing and testing… I find really tedious.

Building an adventure game, as we all know, is a huge undertaking. It requires a lot of time and work. So many games get announced, gain a lot of attention, and then fade into oblivion (only to have their “in production” threads dug up by a guest, invoking the wrath of the Mandarb). You’ve recently started the “Release Something!” thread, which aims to jump-start some of those ailing games. Since you’ve taken it upon yourself to help those poor dust-collecting game projects and since you’ve proved that you can finish a game (and a quality one at that), do you have any tips for developers to help them be able to follow through with their projects?

Work on it every single day. The biggest problem comes from taking “breaks” (which I’m very guilty of). It’s too easy to forget about your own game when it isn’t in your every day life. that said, don’t spend 24 hours 7 days a week on it either. It needs to be a part of your life, not your whole life. If you do that, it’ll eventually wear you down and you’ll stop out of spite for the game.

Thus far, you’ve been flying solo, creating the graphics, code, music and everything in between for your games by yourself. Lets say you were given the freedom and funding to assemble a dream-team of people from the AGS forums to work on a new and exciting game. Based on the work you’ve seen on the boards, who would you choose? What roles would they fill? What role would you fill? Or would you prefer to continue working on your own?

I think I’ll always prefer working on my own, because I’m incredibly picky and bossy. I wouldn’t mind some help with scripting sometimes, and an animator. Still, if I were gonna be working with other people, I’d need to do it face to face because I’m a control freak and it’s too easy for people to get away from you online. There are all sorts of people on the boards I’d love to do a project with though. No names :) [Interviewer's side note: Wuss...]

And finally, the sarcastic titular character of Circue de Zale endeared himself to players by insulting people. Insult me, thereby endearing yourself to the masses.

Oh, Vince, but I LOVE you! *hugs and cuddles*

Oh please… you’re not going to endear yourself to anybody like that…

I’d like to thank Kinoko for her time and for sharing some of her wisdom with the community. Before we say goodbye, do you have anything clever and profound to say to finish the interview?

One of my favourite quotes and very applicable to me – “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources”.

Kinoko, thank you so much. We look forward to your next game.