Dreamfall

Articles

Every year after the E3, while other sites are posting breathtaking and up-to-the-moment updates, Just Adventure takes a week off to recoup both physically and mentally from the noise and mayhem of the E3 (okay, I admit it, this year it took me longer than a week to recover!).

Unlike previous years when I’ve bored you with my day-to-day escapades at the E3, we’ve decided to instead focus on previews of the numerous adventure games (and I’m sure you’ve already read our previews of Dreamfall, Paradise, Tony Tough 2, Runaway 2 and more on the way). But there were also numerous side meetings, random encounters and surprises that can’t be related in a preview.

HIGHLIGHTS

On the flight to Los Angeles, sitting in the surrounding seats were the developers of Final Destination. They were a great group and we had an interesting conversation about independent game developers and the past and future of the adventure genre.

Charles Cecil, who is doing some work for 2K, told me of a new project that will excite adventure fans when it is announced. In the meantime, there is a possibility that some of the Broken Sword games may appear on the PSP.

Speaking of the PSP, we found at least a half-dozen adventure games for the PSP and Nintendo DS. We’ll have a preview of all of these games soon, but there seemed to be an undercurrent of excitement at the E3 towards developing or porting adventure games to these new handhelds.

Meeting the staff of Himalaya Studios was a real thrill. What a talented, young group of developers and Al Emmo & The Lost Dutchman’s Mine looks great. They were visiting Lori Cole the next day to consult about their Quest for Glory remake and have promised to send us pictures for an article.

Always interesting to chat with, Djamil Kemal let slip that a Missing add-on will be published by Dreamcatcher and then invited me to a filming session for the sequel, Missing 2. Not content to rest on his laurels, he then demoed some screens from his next, unannounced project and swore me to secrecy, but I can tell you that it rocks!

The staff of Dreamcatcher – a warm, gregarious group of professionals who are sincerely concerned about the adventure genre and the adventure community. It was great to see them actively pursuing adventure developers at the E3.

It’s always a pleasure to hook-up with Megan Gaiser – CEO of Her Interactive – and though her enthusiasm is always contagious, she seemed especially excited about the new Nancy Drew game and after seeing Secret of the Old Clock. I can understand why.

Kudos to the staff of Funcom for forging ahead with their Dreamfall presentation even though electricity had just been restored and the air conditioning was still kaput. Who better to share a hot and sweaty room with than a bunch of guys from Norway?

Meeting Bill Tiller of Autumn Moon Entertainment. We spoke for over an hour about Vampyre Story, LucasArts and numerous other subjects and could easily have chatted for another hour.

Lowlifes