Interviews

Interview with Cesar Bittar, Phoenix Freeware Online’s Project Director of King’s Quest IX

By Alexander Tait

07 June 2004

Coincidentally with the recent article in The Inventory, I was given the opportunity to do an interview with Cesar Bittar, the Project Director of the King’s Quest IX development team.

1. Thanks for taking the time for the interview. In The Inventory, you identified your favorite King’s Quest. Remind us of what it was and what made it your favorite?

I am a fan of stories, of plots that do not come out of a cheap “bathroom” reading. I like when I see designers really taking the plot and story of a game into consideration, and taking the time to also develop the lands and characters. King’s Quest VI was filled with this. Even if Alexander was 2D, the whole background story was developed to points where they constructed a solid world that was open for experiencing. The whole game was really well thought out, and thus is the reason I believe this is not only mine, but many people’s favorite.

2. So, which was your least favorite King’s Quest and why?

It would be unfair to say anything from 1-4 as I played these “out of time”. So, I would go with King’s Quest V, because, even if groundbreaking (it introduced 256 VGA and the point & click interface Sierra used for so many years), the game was poorly designed in my opinion, especially when you could meet dead ends that forced you to retrace steps of previous saved games (if you were lucky to have them). I had to play the game a couple of times to finish it, and it really frustrated me at points.

3. Although adventure gamers have criticized King’s Quest 8, it was my first trip into the world of Daventry and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Was there anything of merit in King’s Quest 8 in your opinion?

I enjoyed the game greatly. I am a very open minded person, and King’s Quest was open to these kinds of experiments in a bigger way than say, the Gabriel Knight series. Moreover, I never saw Mask of Eternity as a true King’s Quest game. I enjoyed it as something based on the King’s Quest world, but not a real continuation to the series, although we do keep it as part of the storyline of King’s Quest IX.

4. Who will like King’s Quest IX?

Anyone who likes a great plot and a good adventure game. Fans of the saga of course, but it is also open to everyone who likes fantastic and smart stories. Fans of series such as Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance, and even Final Fantasy, may find many elements of King’s Quest IX appealing to them. The game truly is a different and unique experience that goes beyond a simple adventure game.

5. What other games have inspired the development of King’s Quest IX?

I believe Final Fantasy plots inspired me a great deal. Of course, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the way it was presented was something I really looked after. I dare to say also the Flash online series Broken Saints played a part here. However, the one game that made me open my eyes to a real change into the way King’s Quest had been approached over the years was the masterpiece The Longest Journey. After playing that game sometime in January 2001, I knew King’s Quest needed to be taken to that level of storytelling in order to cause an impact in the public.

6. Tell us about the storyline of King’s Quest IX.

Like I said in the interview with The Inventory, the game revolves around a prophecy that contains two sides, and it plays into the story as the flip of a coin. Duality is one of the themes that surface into the grand plot, as I am a believer that there is no pure good or true evil, and that things always happen for a reason. Here, two societies find ground to a battle that involves such prophecy and have been taking place for one thousand years. A prophecy in which each one of the characters of the gameplay a key role.

Much more than that, however, what this game is really about is unity. How to deal with your own demons to become one, bringing such duality into oneness. It is a journey of the heart, of the soul, of the mind, and it will beat these character down to an abyss, where they will finally choose if they should prevail, and why they should prevail, or if they should just give up.

7. Does the game require any knowledge of the King’s Quest story?

It is not necessary, but it is always a plus to know who these characters are off-hand. Having said that, however, all the important events of previous King’s Quests are explained through the story as they become noticed.

From another standpoint, given the vast amounts of personality injected into these characters, those without previous knowledge of who they are, will probably find it easier to encounter such complex characters than those who know them and are used to seeing them as 2D fairy tale characters.

8. Adventure gamers have been resistant to 3D graphics in games. Is there anything in King’s Quest IX that will win them over?

We use 3D in the game to enhance the plot. We incorporate the feature in a subtle way, giving adventure gamers what they want (screen-to-screen gameplay); while at the same time we use 3D to give the game a more cinematic feeling. It is not something that has not been done before, but there are a couple of sections where the 3D aspect of the game will really shine.

9. How many voice actors are there? Why do adventure games struggle to find good voice acting?

About 45 are cast and that is without counting the online voice actors.

It does not matter how good a plot can be, how smart and touching it can be, if you do not have the right people to pull the feelings as they have been written, the story will not have the same level of impact, as it will lack believability. If the actors cannot pull the character’s arch of a story, the way they change and become something truly different than what they were at their introduction, the audience will not feel this, and it will all turn out to be wasted words and infinite boredom.

10. Has there been any contact with Sierra about this game?

We have not yet contacted Sierra.

11. Is this your first game?

Yes, it is. Although when I was six, a friend and I tried to put a game together. It never worked, of course, but we did get one screen done.

This is not the first story I’ve written, however. I have been writing throughout my whole life all kind of stories and poems. I am starting to like writing fantastic plots much more now. I used to write drama, and classic and psychological horror before, as well as love poems.

12. I recently played Beneath a Steel Sky and was struck by how good old games were. What is missing from many of the modern adventure games?

Blame Myst. A third person perspective adventure game is always more enjoyable because you get to know your character better. In the Myst-kind of stories, you normally take the role of the gamer, and how much fun can that be? It totally kills the idea of escaping somewhere else and becoming someone else.

I do not think, however, the magic is gone. It is just that we used to have more companies creating games and now such is not the case. I have found this magic in other genres. I am currently playing a game called Xenosaga (an RPG) and even though I still have to finish it yet, I believe it is already in the top five games I have ever played.

Then again, you have games like Syberia, The Longest Journey, and Broken Sword 3. They are still there; they are just not as many anymore.

13. Tell us about Phoenix Freeware Online.

The idea of the company was bringing the adventure genre back to its roots, while revamping it with new elements such as really effective plots. We are currently located all over the world, and even when King’s Quest IX is our main project now, we will surely expand and create more games in the future.

King’s Quest IX is, in many ways, our learning curve. All the experience we have acquired from this project will make it much easier when, in the future, we delve into other productions.

Phoenix is also a community. We want to create a space for adventure gamers where they can be given what they miss from the golden days, and do not feel so alienated from the current state of the gaming industry.

Our website illustrates this fact by having monthly contests where fans have the opportunity to be in the game, original Flash games based on classic arcade and King’s Quest games, the developers’ journal where you can hear from the directors themselves, chat sessions where you can directly meet and talk to members of the team, the forum, newsletter, gallery, screenshots, and the list goes on and on.

14. Who is on the development team?

About 40-50 people located all over the world as I said. They are all very talented individuals who work as a team in order to fulfill a big dream. I am still amazed at the incredible talent most of these folks have in their respective areas.

15. How difficult is it to make a free game of this quality?

Very hard. We cannot work with real schedules and real life always gets in the way. We are not privileged to work in an office from 9-5, so we must make the best use of the little resources we have and try to maintain communication and motivation. We have a core of individuals that drive the project, and then others that we need to chase after so they complete the given assignments. It is not easy to demand when you are paying your people; however, as any serious volunteer project out there, rules are maintained. Everyone who wishes to be part of our team needs to make sure they can dedicate some time to the project weekly.

16. Will there be any action sequences in the game? Mazes?

There are a couple of “arcade” sequences but nothing to be scared of. They only add tension to the sequences they are part of.

On the question of Mazes, there are a couple of them too. However, they hardly work as the traditional mazes found during past adventure games. The first two encountered are: the Beast Castle’s (from The Land of The Green Isles of “Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow”) maze, which looks a lot like the one used in Conquest of Longbow; and the second one is a forest in the Isle of Mist, which works a lot like the Bayou one in the original Gabriel Knight Sins of the Father.

There is however, a bigger, much more elaborated maze where the final chapter of the game takes place. However, this place, called “The Maze of Infinity”, only serves as a setting, but never as a maze needed to be solved. I basically wanted to recreate the feeling of the well-known 80’s movie “Labyrinth”, and mix it with the excitement found in the original Phantasmagoria’s final section, the famous Chasing Sequence. Back to the question of how our 3D will enhance the gameplay; this is one of those places where the feature will shine in a very amazing and unique way.

17. Adventure games aren’t dead; they’re merely out of phase with the current market. Do you see that commercial interest in adventure games can be restored? What would it take?

Experiments. The thing is that these experiments will not work as long as they are not supported by the current adventure gamers. If we can bring the interest back into the genre, then true golden adventures will also become much more viable.

Experimentation may be the only way to bring the adventure back. Look at the RPG genre and how it was pull back. It was only after Blizzard’s Diablo that it kicked back into the mainstream. And even when most people truly believe Diablo is not an RPG game, it did serve as an opener for true RPGs making it back.

18. Do free games help or hinder the popularity of commercial games?

I have read that AGDI’s (formerly Tierra) remake of King’s Quest I boosted Mask of Eternity sales. On the other side, it may hurt the industry in a way in which you could prefer downloading a free game rather than buying a $50 one. I am not an expert in the area, although I have been educating myself more in the business of the gaming industry lately, but I really cannot give you a true answer at this point.

19. Are there subplots that might be discovered in subsequent replays of the game? Does this game have replayability (beyond the fact it is an adventure game and often enjoyed with repeated plays!)?

The game is very linear. As a designer, you have the option of working on a very solid story that you wish the player to experience in a very linear way, so that you have control on the story impact, or sacrifice story to gameplay. As a lover of stories, I decided to sacrifice gameplay and focus on an amazing story. The story itself is really powerful enough to cause a desire to experience it multiple times.

20. Are there any in-jokes in the game, nods to other games?

Even when we have created the darkest King’s Quest to date, we did not forget about the distinctive humor of the series. There are a couple of jokes regarding adventure playing in general and other Sierra series, as well as a few in-jokes for our own community. Most of the jokes, however, will be enjoyed by anyone without previous knowledge of Sierra or involved in the King’s Quest IX community.

21. Will there be a point system?

Yes. Both that and progress reports, that help you know how far you are into a chapter.

22. Will there be hints in the game?

Other than the required clues to solve puzzles, no, we do not plan for an in-game hint system.

23. Will there be a companion in the game?

More than one. We introduce two new characters in the game: Tig-R-Oat, a funny, heart-warming tiger-goat hybrid from the magical race of The Enchanted; and Unique, a snotty and sarcastic fairy unicorn about the size of one’s hand. They will accompany Alexander and Rosella through their journey, making them really important characters in the evolution of the plot, and the twin’s character arch.

Gameplay-wise, you will be able to use them in solving some of the puzzles, but really, the most important part is the way they relate to Alexander and Rosella.

Also, you will be able to control the other main characters periodically, as they appear in the later chapters of the game.

24. Will there be different levels of difficulty?

No. The puzzles range from very simple to ones that really make you think.

25. So, what’s next when this is finished?

There are plans for future endeavors, but I cannot comment on them at this time.

26. Increasingly, I see the influence of adventure games in other genres of gaming, particularly with storyline development and puzzles. What are the five best non-adventure games?

1) The whole Final Fantasy series.
2) Xenosaga
3) Kingdom Hearts
4) Beyond Good & Evil
5) Blizzard’s “craft” series (Warcraft, Starcraft).

I would only like to take a moment to thank you for the interview and to let the whole adventure community that King’s Quest IX is going to knock you socks off.

Cesar, thanks a lot for taking time out from the game.

King’s Quest IX: Every Cloak has a Silver Lining is located at http://www.kq9.org, Please check out the project and register on the newsletter to keep up with the updates and progress.
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