Interviews
THE
BEST DAMN JANE JENSEN INTERVIEW EVER
Conducted by Randy Sluganski
Page
2
Randy-JA:
What is your opinion of The Adventure Company being announced as the
publisher of your as yet untitled game?
Jane Jensen:
I think The Adventure Company is a godsend, not only for me personally,
but for the entire adventure gaming community. We talked to a lot
of publishers and some of the large publishers like EA and Microsoft
and Midway will say right to your face that theyre only interested
in the hardcore, young male audience. They realize that there are
other people out there who are interested in games, but they have no interest
in pursuing that market and thats just down the line how the gaming
industry feels. But Dreamcatcher,
and especially the brand The Adventure Company, have made a successful
business out of making product and buying product for this alternate
audience, for older people, for a cross-gender audience, and not only
are they the one publisher who has not ignored them, but they have
also structured a successful business model to the point where they
are now ready to fund Triple A adventure titles made from scratch
in North America by good talent. They have also grown the adventure
community. Some of their titles like Crystal Key have
sold better than any of the Sierra titles ever did and I think there
are two reasons: one is that more people of all genders and ages
are playing games than was the case five years ago, so the potential
audience for adventure games has grown, and second Dreamcatcher
has done a great job of distribution; of getting shelf space and putting
adventure product out there.
Randy-JA:
Theres been a great bit of positive feedback regarding the announcement
of your new game, but there has also been a lot of negative backlash
on two fronts: one that it is not a Gabriel Knight game and two that
the Adventure Company does not have a history of Triple A
titles from the ground up. What is your response to these criticisms
from people who are so negative without even having yet seen a screenshot
or a demo?
Jane Jensen:
Well, I think its silly. If theyre waiting for Sierra to get back
into adventure games, its just never going to happen. This industry
more than any other industry, more than film or books or television,
is a changing industry. Its changing every year. From what Ive
seen The Adventure Company is the future. A lot of the titles theyve
done in the past where titles that they purchased from Europe and
they were the only company publishing adventure game titles at all.
I think theyre doing the right thing: theyre going after experienced
designers, they wouldnt have come to me if they didnt want to make
a Sierra-style, third person adventure game, they
would have gone to somebody else.
Randy-JA:
Can we ignore the quotes in the press release about a Myst-like
atmosphere with arcade elements?
Jane Jensen
I wrote that line, me myself, and that is a perfect description
of Gabriel Knight 3. Le Serpent Rouge is a logic puzzle and
they have always been in my games, they will always be in my games.
I love mysteries, I love adventure games obviously but you cant have
a game where all you do is walk around and talk to people. There
has to be a variety of puzzles and thats all that line was trying
to convey that there is going to be a variety of puzzles. It is not
an action/adventure game, there are no guns, there
are no jumping and running puzzles. There will be possibly some mild
arcades of a kind that there have always been in Sierra games just
to mix the gameplay up a little bit. Ive
always done logic puzzles, for example, the drum code from Gabriel
1, so I think the fears can be laid to rest, this is not a first-person
Myst-style game this is a full 3D Sierra-style,
third-person adventure game.
Randy-JA:
Besides the Gabriel Knight games, youve also worked on Eco
Quest and Kings Quest VI. Every one of your games to
date has been a critical and financial success. What do you do to
continue that trend? Youve been out of the industry for a while,
is there a chance that maybe youre not tapped into the marketplace;
a chance that maybe you could fall on your face with this new project
and it may not work?
Jane Jensen:
Sure, its possible. After Gabriel 1 there was a lot of press
about how it was a one-hit wonder and I would probably never be able
to do it again. I think at this point Ive done four major games,
if you include Kings Quest VI, and also Im just publishing
my fourth novel (Dantes Equation), so I have had a lot of experience
at developing new stories and characters. Im really thrilled with
how the story has developed for this game. Its got so much power
in it; its got a lot of symbolism and depth and yet it is also satisfying
on a sort of a pop scary level. Im excited about it, and I know
that the art resources that are going to go into this project from
the Dreamcatcher side are going to be first
rate, probably the best Ive ever had, so Im not too worried about
it. All you can do is try to reach a place in the project where you
feel passionate about the vision; that it is so complete for you personally,
and carry that through production and hopefully when you get to the
other side other people will feel the same way about it.
Randy-JA:
Are you more the type of person who believes that your game should
be based on what the consumer wants since you do receive so much
fan feedback, yet so much of it is so overwhelmingly positive and
uncritical as to be nonproductive or are you of the opinion that
if youre pleased with what you write, then you feel others will be
pleased with it also?
Jane Jensen:
When I do a new story, whether its a book or a game, the first step
is to find a subject that really excites me. With my book Millennium
Rising, I had picked up a book on millennium prophecy at a bookstore
and I was up all night reading it and it was the kind of thing were
every five seconds youre going to your spouse, Hey honey wake up,
you have to hear this.
Thats
stage one, I have to find something that I think is really exciting
and gets me excited as a subject matter. I think thats maybe what
sets my stuff apart a little bit is that all of my games and all of
my books have been about something. Its not just a story, but it
involves something, a hint of real life subject matter that people
find interesting. Because I come from that basis, I already have
a pretty strong vision in my mind when I go into it and thats the
backbone of it. I am influenced by letters I receive, for example,
I had a pretty clear picture going into this series of what things
about Gabriel Knight were particularly appreciated. I get a lot of
letters from people who have visited New Orleans or visited Munich
and have actually toured Ludwigs Castle and theyre so excited that
they send me pictures of themselves from locations in the game.
For this
new series we had originally contemplated setting it in a fictional
Vermont town and a fictional university, but considering how important
that experience of being in a real location has been to the Gabriel
Knight fans I decided that was an element of Gabriel Knight I wanted
to continue in this new series so the game is going to be set in a
real location.
