Interviews
THE
BEST DAMN JANE JENSEN INTERVIEW EVER
Conducted by Randy Sluganski
Page
3
Randy-JA:
Youve covered vampires, werewolves and voodoo where will the new
series take us?
Jane Jensen:
Well the new series is not quite as fantasy based, its more abut
the nature of reality. This is a pilot episode of a series. The
first Gabriel Knight was written as a series, the first episode –
Sins of the Fathers introduced the characters, gave the back-story
of Gabriel and by the end of the game he was set up as Schattenjaeger.
This game has a similar structure, it introduces the character, it
makes the partners and it sets-up the whole premise for the series.
Randy-JA:
Do you think the confidence you exude when someone is talking to you
is part of the reason for your success?
Jane Jensen:
No one ever talks to me Randy. I think its a confidence they feel
in the game.
Randy-JA:
But I feel a confidence emanating from you when youre talking about
your new series that is infectious.
Jane Jensen:
Its the passion. Its that passion that goes into the game and I
think thats what people feel on the other side when theyre playing
the game. They feel that this is someones vision, someones passion
and somebody was really excited about this.
Randy-JA:
Does your husband read your books or play your games?
Jane Jensen:
No, but hes a big supporter of my career. He always hears the plot
at least a thousand times before it actually comes out. He hears
every impossible incarnation of every character trait so hes so sick
of it by the time there is a book or a game that the last thing he
wants to do is sit down and experience it again.
Randy-JA:
Whats the proposed title of your new game?
Jane Jensen:
We had a title and I loved the title, but marketing just found out
that there was a conflict with the title as theres a gaming studio
that has the same name so we have to change it. The title was Gray
Matter.
Randy-JA:
And the main characters?
Jane Jensen:
The main characters are a male and a female much like Gabriel Knight.
Actually in the first game you play as the female more. There are
nine chapters right now and you play as the female character in six
of them. The reason why is because the male character is actually
the more prominent character, but I wanted to introduce him in this
story almost from someone elses perspective. Hes a very mysterious
figure in this first game so you actually play more from her perspective,
but you do play as him for three chapters and later in the series
it will be more evenly balanced.
Randy-JA:
Does the male character have a name?
Jane Jensen:
He had a name but its up in the air right now. Whats in a name?
Hes a neurobiologist who lost his wife in a car accident. Hes become
reclusive and now spends his time investigating extraordinary occurrences.
Randy-JA:
Arent you afraid that creating a new game in which the main characters
are male and female will only invite comparison to the Gabriel Knight
games? Even though it might be the best game in the world, people
will be let down because they will inevitably compare everything to
Gabriel Knight. Wouldnt it have been more feasible to do a role-reversal
for the new game and have a lead female character and a male understudy?
Jane Jensen:
Well you do actually end up playing more as the female character so
in a way the male character is secondary in the first game. But this
is just the way the story evolved, Im not going to twist it to try
and
.look, the male character came to me and he was just great. You
know you cant win, even when Gabriel 3 came out it got some
negative critical reactions because people were comparing it to Gabriel
2, even if this was Gabriel 4 people would be comparing
it to Gabriel 3.
Randy-JA:
But wasnt most of the negative reaction to Gabriel 3 from the computer
magazines?
Jane Jensen:
Yes. The game was probably the most esoteric, most intellectual
of the three and it came out at a time when adventures and story in
general were not popular, so it wasnt a
good combination. But Ive received so much support for that game
since.
Randy-JA:
There seems to have been an upswing in the medias opinion towards
adventure games. Last year at the E3 there were literally no adventure
games here. What do you believe has contributed to this change?
Jane Jensen:
There really has been an upswing. Even in the mainstream press you
see people asking, Where are all the adventure games?
My stepdaughter
got a new computer for Christmas and we went to CompUSA to buy a game
and literally there were three aisles of shelves and all the titles
looked exactly the same and they were all shooter games and car games
and you know what, there was not one title I was interested in. I
think there has been a resurgence of interest in adventure games just
because people probably want something a little bit different and
maybe theyre thinking, gee when I was 8-years
old there was this Kings Quest game I played that was fun. I think
everything goes in cycles and people are ready for something different
again.
