chapter11studios

Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror is Revolution Software’s follow-up to the extraordinary graphic adventure Circle of Blood (called Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars in Europe). Like its predecessor, The Smoking Mirror is a visually beautiful game that puts its two central characters, American adventurer George Stobbart and his French reporter girlfriend Nico Collard, […]

Sierra On-Line’s King’s Quest VII: The Princeless Bride is, in my mind anyway, the final game in the best-selling series. The series deviates to hack-and-slash 3-D in the eighth installment (Mask of Eternity), and while it leans perhaps a little too far in the other direction in King’s Quest VII—which plays like an extended Disney […]

Just when you thought it was safe to play another King’s Quest game, designer Roberta Williams decided to change everything with the series’ eighth, and perhaps final, installment. Featuring real-time combat, 3D graphics and a hero outside of the series’ famous royal family, King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity is a significant departure from the previous […]

When last we spoke—waaaaay back in the coda to my Adventure Architect series—I wrote, “The next time you hear from me—maybe a month from now, maybe next year, maybe five years from now—it’ll be because the first act of the game is done and ready to download.” Sorry, gang. I lied. I know, I know. […]

Interacting with the game world   Well, here we are. Unlucky column number thirteen. Last time, I discussed my theory for character creation, including developing a unique personality, physical appearance, and back story. Flowing directly from that is the subject of this installment: interacting with the game world. Graphical User Interface   The graphical user […]

Character design, or The Origin of ‘Rattlesnake’ Jake Dawson   Think about your favorite adventure games. Gabriel Knight. Monkey Island. Broken Sword. Grim Fandango. The Longest Journey. The stories are very different, but they each have one thing in common: great characters. Whether the goal is to make your way through the Land of the […]

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Project Management Probably the best part about designing my own adventure game is that I get to be closely involved in all of the interesting parts of the project, from generating plot and puzzle ideas to acting as the de facto art director and all around supreme […]

Of cliffhangers and dangling plot lines… Those of you who are astute observers or faithful readers of this column will recall that this installment was initially supposed to focus on character creation and design. I had labeled last month’s “coming soon” teaser something along the lines of “Anatomy of a hero.” (And thanks to all […]

Building a working adventure game world (Or, everything goes wrong, but I charge ahead anyway) You know that saying about the best-laid plans of mice and men? Like, how they often go awry? Well, I would hereby like to officially nominate amateur adventure game designers in general, and myself in particular, to our rightful spot […]