Bob Bates

Interview by Randy Sluganski
September 30, 1998

Bob Bates is the producer of Mindscape's horror game, The Blackstone Chronicles.

Can you provide some background material on yourself?

I started writing adventure games for Infocom in 1986. I came to the business as a writer, with no technical background whatsoever. Since then, I've picked up just enough programming knowledge to screw up the logic for the games I design, although, sadly, I wasn't able to do that for this game. Other than that, I'm married, with two children, and lead a fairly normal life, considering my profession.

Describe the degree of collaboration between yourself and John Saul.

Legend has worked with many authors on our games, and John has been more involved in the development process than any of them. Because he and I were developing our products simultaneously, we staked out "turf" early on, and spoke frequently to ensure that each of us wasn't designing/writing stuff that would cripple the other. John has been an avid computer user and gamer for years, which is unusual for a mainstream author, and he came to the project with very definite ideas of what he wanted to see in the game. Fortunately, our design philosophies coincided, and we worked well together throughout development.

If The Chronicles sell, will there be a sequel?

That's really up to Mindscape. I'd be interested. Maybe you could talk to them.

Does Mindscape have plans to work with any other horror authors on PC adaptations? (i.e., Stephen King, Clive Barker, hint hint.)

Again, that's a Mindscape call.

If you could be any one character in any adventure game, who would it be?

There was a guy who sat on a bench in the academy in TimeQuest. I'd like to be him. Mostly what he did was think and teach.

What unorthodox advertising methods are planned for TBC?

I believe Mindscape is planning to tattoo a copy of the game's logo on Alex Trebek's forehead for an entire season of Jeopardy. (Although I'm not sure that qualifies as "unorthodox.")

What are your hobbies outside of creating adventure games for a living?

Pretty much all I do for fun is read. What can I say? I'm a boring guy.

What is the key element to any adventure game?

I only get one, eh? Okay, the key element to an adventure game is the creation of a story that has interesting people, doing interesting things, in interesting places.

Do you believe that adventure games are dead or just undergoing a transition period?

I think they're in transition, because I think the well has been poisoned for the "true" puzzle-based adventure game. I wonder if the gaming public trusts designers any more to come up with "fair" puzzles. At the first sign of difficulty, they start to question whether the puzzle can be solved with a reasonable amount of thought, or whether it's another one of those illogical problems that only the designer understands. For a while, they were content to go scurrying off to the hint books. Now, they are simply beginning to avoid the category. So what do we transition to? Probably the action-adventure, where you'll still find storytelling, handled through a mixture of action and watered-down puzzle elements.

What is your favorite pizza topping?

I'll let you limit me to one key element to an adventure game, but not one pizza topping. When I get a pizza, it comes with green peppers and onions.