Interviews

ALEXANDER TAIT INTERVIEWS
MONTE CHEYENNE WOLFORD, CREATOR OF NACAH AND THE UPCOMING,
DEREK.

Monte Cheyenne Wolford
is the creator, writer, programmer, composer, (and anything else you
care to think of!) of Nacah, the first adventure game created
from a Christian perspective. While I was writing the walkthrough
for it, I contacted him for help about one particular puzzle. Having
an interest in the creative process, I asked Cheyenne if he’d be kind
enough to answer some questions.

Thanks for your time, Cheyenne.
Let’s start the interview with what I consider essential questions:

1. Tell us about yourself.

I’m a 23-year-old second-generation
home schooler, a self-taught computer graphic artist, and adventure
game maker who loves God’s second book – Nature. I love exploring!
I spend a lot of my spare time hiking, mountain biking, canoeing,
and paragliding. Being in God’s nature draws me closer to my Creator.
I love living in an area where you never know what you will find over
the next mountain, maybe a bear, old cabins or new waterfalls! You
just never know what’s out there waiting to be found!

2. Why did you decide
to make Nacah? Where did you get the idea?

All my life I loved doing
anything creative, music, art, animation, inventing, etc. When we
got our first 25-megahertz computer, I realized this was the tool
that could combine all of my loves into one. I instantly started trying
to make a game but soon realized that you need more then just a computer
to make a game. This started me down the long hard road, buying tons
of software I didn’t need. I would search everywhere for some kind
of tool to make a game with, only to find a program with promises
written all over the packaging and nothing more then a Pong or maze
game maker inside.

Then one day my whole vision
changed, I was in a computer store looking at all the new stuff when
something jumped off the screen of a nearby Mac and blew me away.
It was a self playing demo of Myst! The big problem, I didn’t
want to spend $59.00 for a computer game. My love was creating and
the solution was to make my own game. Everybody said Myst was
just a slideshow so I figured that all I would need to make a game
like Myst was a good slide show maker or multimedia presentation
program. After buying about five different slideshow makers I realized
how wrong it was to call Myst just a slideshow. As the years
past I never gave up and just continued buying and trying everything
I could find, slowly a game started to evolve and it was this evolving
game that finally became Nacah. My idea was simple, growing
up a Christian I always wanted to find a Christian adventure game
but could never find anything out there. Had I found a Christian Bible
adventure game I probably would not have even worried about the price,
in fact my parents most likely would have bought it for me. Knowing
this I started making Nacah with no goal in mind other an adventure
and exploration through your Bible and through some amazing places.

3. What games have you
played and how did they influence you?

I never really spent time
playing games, I spent all my time trying to make one!! Quite awhile
after starting Nacah I saw Myst in a bin for $14.95,
I grabbed it and in playing it realized what an important part puzzles
had in the flow of the game, they could speed it up or slow it down.
I also played a little bit of Lemmings but I don’t think it
influenced me in anyway whatsoever in relation to Nacah!

4. How long have you
been into computers and more specifically into programming?

About 8 years, and all
of that time was spent in trying to make some kind of adventure game.
Throughout that time I crashed my mothers computer numerous times,
often beyond repair! Then when Windows 95 came out claiming to be
the solution to all my crashing problems I made the move over, only
to realize that many of the games I had made in DOS no longer ran
on this new platform.

5. How long (in both
time and details such as how many cups of coffee or other events that
happened) did it take to make Nacah?

I don’t drink coffee, but
the generator drank hundreds of gallons of gas. We also wore out about
three generators. In hindsight maybe this is why there’s a generator
puzzle in Nacah that’s so tough to solve. Just the other day
I found an old version of Nacah, it was labeled 1998 and had
taken me about a year to make. So Nacah has been in the works
for about five years. The final version still has some of the original
Artwork, sounds, music, etc. It’s been a long journey. I would think
I had Nacah finished only to find it ran on nobody else’s computer
but my own. This was very discouraging and I started to slow down
on Nacah. Then a friend inspired me: he gave me the address
to Bible Games Company. Almost over night I had a distributor and
a goal for finishing Nacah. But by then we had moved off the
power grid, I remember running out in the middle of the night to refill
the generator with gas as the battery backup sat beeping away. Another
thing that made it hard is that during the day I’m a stone mason.
It’s great physical work but leaves you very tired and drowsy in the
evening. I remember nights when I was up at 2:30 in the morning working
on global variables, or a puzzle that wasn’t working right, or a door
that was open when it was supposed to be closed. I would stay up working
on Nacah in a half sleep, then go to work the next day and
half way through the day start wondering and trying to remember what
it was that I had done to Nacah the night before.

6. Who will enjoy Nacah?

Anybody that’s been looking
for a Bible adventure game should love Nacah, or someone who’s
played everything and is looking for something that’s different and
unique.

7. The idea of using
a Bible to get hints for the game is novel-why did you decide to do
that?

The Bible can still be
found in most people’s home, although maybe covered with dust or hidden
in the attic. Nacah is designed to make you get the Bible out and
use it, while hopefully have some fun going through it.

8. What’s the underlying
story of Nacah?

People arrive at the islands
of Nacah with no direction, plan, or goal. They find themselves disoriented
and in darkness. You go through the game gaining knowledge, light,
and skill. At one point you see a ship sailing out on the sea: who’s
sailing on this ship and where is it going???

9. What do you do when
not creating adventure games?

Live a life that’s filled
with adventure, going on mission trips, exploring ghost towns, hunting
for things that are unique and unusual. I also love teaching people
some of the things that have been giving me so much enjoyment in life,
the Bible, music, art, paragliding, etc.

10. What is the most
important part of an adventure game?

That’s a big question.
I guess it depends on who it’s targeted at. The most important thing
to me would be a good balance between being educational, fun, and
having learned something of importance when done.

11. Tell us about Derek,
the sequel? How will it be different? What can we look forward to?

First of all, a story that
really brings everything together. A people called the Matteh, that
have been thrust into darkness by the Dalaq, a false religion claming
to have control over Man’s very conscience. The Matteh have not had
the Bible in their language for centuries. The only Bibles left were
rewritten by the Dalaq in a language the Matteh could not read. Is
there any hope for then Matteh???? There is believed to be a group
of sincere Mattehs called the Qadas who took copies of the Bible in
the Matteh language and fled to a secret valley in the mountains,
but that was many years ago. Are they still there? Can they be found?
Do you have what it takes to find them and set the Matteh free from
darkness, by giving them the Bible in their language again?

12. Has the response
to the game been positive? How has it sold?

Yes, Very good! I have
not had any complaints, everybody seems to love the game. It’s selling
well considering that it was just released. I’m sure there’s a lot
of people who would love to buy if they knew it existed.

13. You used Adventure
Maker for Nacah; will Derek be using it too?

Adventure Maker is the
best tool I’ve found for making a game like Nacah. Instead
of working on programming it lets you work on what’s important, like
gameplay, graphics, sound, etc. At the present I’m making Derek
on Adventure Maker. Adventure Maker is supposed to have a lot of upgrades
coming in the near future, things like panoramic views, transitions,
etc. Derek will have all these upgrades if they can upgrade
Adventure Maker in time for Derek‘s release.

14. Do you have any
advice for would be adventure writers?

Just keep pressing on!!
The game will only be as good as what you put into it.

Cheyenne’s Nacah
is currently available and he’s hard at work on the sequel, Derek.
Find out more about both titles at his website: http://www.virtuegames.com.
Cheyenne welcomes feedback about Nacah. Contact him at [email protected].