Interviews

Interview with Robyn Campbell
creator of Wonderland and Murder Most Foul

by Alexander Tait

1. Tell us about yourself.

I am 46, living in New Zealand, and am married with three children. My oldest got married last year. I work part time as an accounts manager at my husband’s work and am absolutely addicted to my computer...ask my family!!! I love playing games on my computer and surfing the net. I also like reading and watching murder mysteries and CSI-type programs on TV. I also find ancient Egypt fascinating. My favourite TV programs are Stargate SG1 and Star Trek TNG and Voyager.

2. How long have you been designing games?

I first started making adventure games on a Sam Coupe computer about 13 years ago. In fact both my games, Wonderland and Murder Most Foul, were done using an adventure creator on the Sam originally. This meant when I decided to redo the games using InterAx, it was easier than making an original game as I had all the objects, conversations and flags to make them work already worked out, which made it simple to covert. I just used the same flags and just had to make the graphics for the scenes and object etc. and set up the flags in each scene to make it all work.

3. It’s refreshing to hear New Zealand accents in a game. How many games have you designed?

I am glad you enjoyed hearing some New Zealand voices. It does make a change to American accents, as you say.

So far, I have one game complete (Wonderland) , with Murder Most Foul nearly finished except for final voices, music, and beta testing to make sure everything works as it is supposed to. I have also started a new game from scratch with an Egyptian/Atlantis theme. My original Wonderland game used graphics from a program called Storybook Weaver, which was a program to make children’s books. This gave a cartoony look to the game, but for Murder Most Foul and the new Egyptian game I am using Poser and Bryce to make 3d characters and 3d scenes, which involves using a lot of other peoples created 3d objects since I am not very good at making an object from scratch. The graphics look much more realistic and give depth to the final scenes, but it takes a lot longer to make the scenes for the games.

4. Why did you choose InterAx?

I had been looking for a simple but effective game design program for some time and found an earlier game designer made by the creator of InterAx. I wrote to him saying I liked it but it didn’t do all the things I needed. He was in the middle of designing InterAx, so I was able to beta test for him and make suggestions about features I wanted. I found the program very easy to use because it didn’t involve learning a game language or having to write lines of code to make the game work. It is a matter of making a scene in another program and saving it as a bmp/jpeg file. Then you just select it as a background in InterAx and add more jpeg/gif/bmps for each type of object or just select an area of the screen and choose the type of object you wish to work there. For example, you might have a person in the scene who you want to talk to. You make a reactor object, select the area of the screen where the person is, and set up flags to control when you can talk to them etc., and which wav files should run for the conversation. This may involve adding hidden objects which change flags in the background. Once you understand how to use flags, it is quite simple to start constructing a game in the editor and then run it in player mode to make sure your flags are working correctly.

I tried a lot of game designer programs and got confused by them. I have found InterAx less complicated to use than many of them, but it is more a Myst style game designer than those that have people walking across the screen. But with InterAx you are able to use video footage for that type of animation if you want to.

5. Do you play adventure games?

Yes, adventures are my favourite type game. I love the way an adventure involves you in the game and makes you feel part of the adventure.

6. What are you working on now?

I am working mainly on my new Egyptian adventure as much as I can as well as working part time and looking after a family! I’m trying to get the Egyptian game to a stage where the first part of the game is complete and can be released as a demo. I will then continue with the rest of it. I also work as I can on the Murder Most Foul game, recording voices as people can do them for me. The hard part is when you design a game by yourself, and not as part of a team, you have to do all the work yourself, so it takes time to get it all done. You are dependent on other people being available to do things like voices for your characters.

7. How will adventure games survive in the face of shooter types?

I think people who love adventures will always be interested in adventure games. Some adventure games have combined a shooter type game as part of an adventure, which appeals to both type of game players. I tend to find that style more difficult as I am not good at leaping and jumping and shooting, but have played many of that style because of the adventure aspect.

8. What are your biggest influences in game design?

I enjoy the Myst style of game where you see what the character is seeing, and interact with your environment which is why InterAx suits me. Seeing how realistic games are becoming and wanting to get away from the more cartoon style of graphics was what made me move into using Bryce and Poser. And hopefully one day I will also be able to make my own objects in 3d type programs, instead of making interesting blobs :)

I think all of my favourite adventure games have affected the types of things I expect to see in a game and probably influence my games as well.

9. Who will enjoy your games?

I hope my games will appeal to a wide range of people. Wonderland was specifically made for children, as I designed it with my own children in mind. But Murder Most Foul and my newer Egyptian game will appeal to adult adventurers.

10. Do you play games? What kind?

I play adventure games and some simulator type games like The Sims. I prefer the slow moving style of these sort of games rather than the fast action of fast moving shoot-em-ups...probably because I am so bad at shoot-em-ups. Somehow I hit the wrong key and end up dead.

I also play an online game called Runescape, which has an adventure aspect to it involving quests.

I also enjoy puzzle or card games on computers and occasionally do jigsaws on the computer too.

11. What makes a good adventure game?

To me a good adventure makes you feel you are the character and that you are actually in an adventure. I don’t like the puzzles to be too complicated, but do enjoy puzzles in the game. I like a bit of humour as well, as having a good laugh while being part of an adventure really adds value to the game. It is also important to have a good game interface as nothing ruins a game more than a complicated interface that makes it difficult to play. I much prefer the “click on the screen style”, than the old text adventures probably because I used to always miss the obvious and be running around in circles or just plain stuck in text adventures.

12. What are your top five adventure games and why?

I am afraid I have more than five favourites :)

My all time favourite is Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. I loved it when they brought out the talkie version, and periodically drag out my old computer just to play it. I loved the way it had three styles of playing parts of it, and have played each one many times. I don’t care that the graphics are blocky compared to today, the style and humour of the game just make it a classic.

I also loved Flight of the Amazon Queen. I enjoyed the quirky humour through that game as I did in Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max Hit the Road . All these games were more of the era of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.

I also loved the Broken Sword series. I loved the humour and the way you felt part of the adventure.

I also loved many of the Kings Quest series. I have a set which has up to Kings Quest 6 and the two Laura Bow ones. Laura Bow and The Dagger of Amon Ra is also a particular favourite of mine. Probably because it incorporates an Egyptian theme.

I loved Star Trek TNG - A Final Unity as well because I am a Trekkie at heart and loved being able to play my favourite characters. It was mainly a straight adventure and didn’t involve so much of the shoot ‘em up style of later games.

I also like these days the CSI adventures which let me be part of a CSI team, characters which I know so well from TV but like all adventures I normally resort to a walkthrough.

My all time most hated adventure was Star Trek Generations. I never managed to complete the game which left me very disappointed. They made it more a shoot-em-up style, which I didn’t mind, but because they made the save game part take you to the start of the level, not save where you were, I just found it impossible to complete. Also they had a time limit on each stage of the game which meant I couldn’t just keep trying to leap and jump in the hopes of eventually succeeding.

For someone like me who loves Star Trek so much I wanted so much to complete the game, and I enjoyed playing the characters and even the shoot-em-up style but the save game aspect was such a disappointment. To me completing an adventure, with a walkthrough as necessary, gives you such a feeling of satisfaction and I usually replay adventures over and over when I enjoy them. I was unable to even complete this game. I know many other people were in the same position as me, never completing it, and I hope the game designers learnt from that mistake.

13. So, where to now?

I find that it is difficult for me to find all the bugs in games, as I tend to play knowing what is supposed to happen, so I can miss bugs that other people find. And getting people to sit down and play it and give you feedback can be tricky...they are all too busy running away after I asked if they will record voices for me lol.

It’d be great to get some feedback from people who download Murder Most Foul. When they play it, if they could let me know if they find anything that doesn’t seem right I’d appreciate the feedback. I can’t remember which version I have up on my site at the moment, so possibly it may have bugs I have fixed previously :)

The main things still to be done with Murder Most Foul is the replacing of my voice with new voices. I record all the voices initially for testing the game. I still need to add music to the scenes. I have got the game to the ending, but haven’t done the credits etc., or finishing touches like that. On my computer, it includes a small video bit at the start showing you opening the letter, but I am not sure if that is with the download on my site. If not, let me know as I can replace the files on my site. Originally the download was for some friends overseas, so I can’t remember if I included the video bit in the zip as video files tend to be big files :) and since then we have moved from dial up to ADSL so it is easier for me to replace stuff now.

The Egyptian game is still very much in development. I have nearly completed the first area, at the museum, which I was thinking of releasing as a demo for Kevin (InterAx creator) to include on his site. Then I will be moving on to doing more scenes for the Egyptian part of the game. Because I use Bryce and Poser, making graphics for the scenes is very time consuming, both in finding or buying objects to put in scenes, as well as the actual rendering of the scenes, which sometimes take hours, then to find some person is not standing on the ground correctly lol. As it ties up my computer rendering, I haven’t worked on it just lately as much as I should.

Thanks for your time, Robyn.

Robyn’s website, JustKiwis features downloads from her games, including screenshots and demos as well as photographs of her and her family. There are also links to her husbands interests in Trainz!

The InterAx website features links to Robyn’s games as well as information about the program and other demos that have been submitted.