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Interviews

THE BEST DAMN JANE JENSEN INTERVIEW EVER
Conducted by Randy Sluganski

Page 4

Randy-JA: Did you know that CompUSA puts a lot of the adventure titles in the children’s section? I’ve already found Monkey Island, Schizm and a host of others in the children’s section and every time I go there, I move the adventure games back where they belong and then the staff kicks me out of the store. Best Buy finally opened an adventure section and they have true adventure games in the section, unlike other stores. The stores are finally listening. I literally receive hundreds of emails a year from Just Adventure readers who have followed my lead by complaining about the placement of adventure games to store management.

Jane Jensen: I’m not surprised. I saw Syberia, it was the only adventure game on the shelf, there were three rows of the same and then Syberia!

Randy-JA: I understand you’re interested in magic. Do you perform magic yourself?

Jane Jensen: One of the characters in the game, Samantha, is a magician. This came about because I was looking for something interesting for her to do on her own time besides the main mystery and also as a way to do some different puzzles. So, as usual, when I decide something like that I did a lot of research on it, performed a lot of bad tricks for my family and friends, but I have not nor will I ever have any illusions of being a professional magician myself.

Randy-JA: Are the magic tricks in the new game used to solve puzzles? Do you need to collect the ‘inventory items’ needed for a magic trick to solve a puzzle?

Jane Jensen: Yes, it’s mostly inventory based. The is still bible stage so any of this could change, but Sam, the main female character, has a book of magic with different spells. The book is really kind of juvenile, something like a 12-year old might have, its something she’s owned for a long time. Something like ‘The Demonic Mailman’ might be a trick – first it tells you to steal an envelope from a family member or friend, then it tells you how to steam the envelope open so there’s no marks, then it says take out the letter, scan it and then do something really nasty, such as, if it’s a water bill, change the amount owed to a million dollars. Then you put it back in and reseal the envelope put it back with the unopened mail. So it’s not only being able to do tricks like that, but then you have to run across an instance in the game where that would actually apply. For example, in the first chapter of the game, you’re trying to convince other students to join this experiment by this mad scientist sort of character and the way you get one of them to do this is by faking a letter from his mother. Sam also does some sleight-of-hand stuff, so there’s a special interface through which she can do special things like sleight-of-hand to palm an object. Once it’s palmed it can be planted on someone or put up her sleeve.

Randy-JA: Are you considering online play for the new series?

Jane Jensen: It really hasn’t been decided yet. The main focus of what The Adventure Company wants and what they’re funding is a great adventure game in a box. We may add some online elements to it, but it’s not going to be like multiplayer shooting or anything like that.

Randy-JA: Cryo Network tried some online games a few years ago that failed mainly because they attempted to appeal more towards what an action gamer would want rather than what an adventure gamer would want. Could your new game eventually be something with a two-player co-operative online play with chat rooms where you could meet and talk to other players who could help you solve a difficult puzzle and share their experiences; much like UbiSoft’s online Myst game Uru.

Jane Jensen: We actually initially considered having a two-player multiplayer where one person plays one character and another person plays the other character and you could each go your own way, but you could also have some co-operative puzzles. I think there is potential in that long term, but it was too much too undertake to do that in the first game where we’re trying to build a franchise and get the game released in a reasonable time frame. We are still considering doing something like a piggy-back mode where you could play with someone else, basically a remote friend just as if they were both sitting at the same computer, and you would both see the same game environment and might have a chat window where you could discuss what to try next. But it would basically look like and play like a stand-alone adventure game.

Randy-JA: Your new book, Dante’s Equation is to be released at the end of July. Can you tell us a little about it?

Jane Jensen: The book is in two segments. The first segment is set on the good old planet earth and is about the discovery of a physical law of good and evil known as the one-minus-one. In the second half of the book the characters will actually visit other universes which have a different balance of good and evil. That’s the idea of Dante, because Dante visited heavens and hells, so basically you visit other plants which have different levels of good and evil.

Unfortunately we had to end the interview at this point, but we will have a review of ‘Dante’s Equation’ in July on Just Adventure. And don’t forget to enter our drawing to win an autographed copy of Jane Jensen’s new book Dante’s Equation or one of five autographed dust jackets from the book.