SIDNEY EXCLUSIVE:
Interview with ADAM BORMANN, Design Assistant of Gabriel Knight 3.
Question: Adam, your job on the development of GK3 is described as 'Design Assistant' and your list of responsibilties is certainly quite extensive :) Which aspects of working on GK3 have you enjoyed the most?
Adam: I've enjoyed a lot about my job. I would probably have to say that what I've enjoyed most is working with Jane. She's really helped me understand what it really means to be a game designer. She has an incredible mind for detail, and it's great to watch her thought processes unfold.
Question: You've personally become very involved with the GK fan community by responding to questions and conveying news. Do you feel this is a part of your job description or does it come from your own experiences of being a fan?
Adam: A little of both. When I first started at Sierra, I was hired as the webmaster. In this position, part of my job was to keep tabs on the message boards, as CindyV had done until she hired me. Since I am still a GK fan, I could relate to the people on the GK message boards, so I posted there a lot. When I moved to the GK3 team, the message boards weren't my job anymore, but it was fun, and I enjoyed sharing with the community.
Question: Having been a fan of and having worked on adventure games, do you think you've found your niche as a developer or do you want to work on other types of game?
Adam: I would love to work on more adventure games! Since it's still up in the air whether or not Sierra will do anymore adventure games, I really don't know if I'll get a chance to though. I think I would enjoy working on an RPG as well, since I was a serious AD&D player, and love RPGs like the Bard's Tale trilogy, and Fallout.
Question: As someone who's entered the industry after being a dedicated gamesplayer, can it be just as exciting to play games when you know all the processes which went into building them?
Adam: Most of the people here are gamers, we love to play games. But when you know how they're put together, you have to sort of shut that part of your brain off while playing, or it could ruin it. If a game is really addictive, and really fun, you ignore everything except the game. But if the game isn't that fun, all you can see is how it was put together.
Question: Can you explain us how the proces of betatesting was. How were people's reactions? How did they do their job?
Adam: Well, that's a big question. We sent out the beta CDs in two batchs, "day 1" and "day 1 and 2." The day 1 batch got a lot more response than the second. A lot of the testers did a great job finding bugs, and helped us out a lot. A few of the testers, we never heard from at all. The people who were already fans of the series really liked it. A few people even said it replaced GK1 or 2 as their favorite game. I would say that's pretty favorable. And I'd agree with them, it's replaced GK1 as my favorite game of all time. And not only because I scripted it!
Question: All GK fans have their own reasons for being attracted to the games. What were yours, and how has working on GK3 changed your perceptions on these?
Adam: Like so many other people, it was that crazy Sins of the Fathers box that first attracted me. How could you miss it? As soon as I saw that box, I bought it back in 93. As soon as I started the game, I was hooked for life! When I finished it, GK1 replaced Monkey Island as my favorite game.
Question: When you joined the project over a year ago, how did the game compare to the product which is close to completion?
Adam: When I joined the project, the game was completely different. The only thing that stayed the same were the characters, and the dialogue. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. The engine has been completely rewritten, the graphics engine has been enhanced and modified, all of the environments have been completely redone, and we now have a scripting language that didn't exist when I started.
(Nico's note: I think we can all agree now that this is a very reasonable explenation for the delays in GK3's development.)
Question: Can you tell us a little about how the team works? Does everyone
generally work in their own areas or do you spend a lot of time working
together?
Adam: It really depends on where you are in the project. At the beginning of
the project, when we are still working towards proof of concept, everyone
works together to make sure we're all on the same page. When we start
rolling with production, everyone goes into an eyes-straight-ahead mode,
where you just deal with your tasks and don't bother anyone else. Then
after a few months (or 8) of that, everything starts getting put together,
and then we start working together again. On any given day, all of the
scripters will talk to all of the animators, all of the environment people
and all of the programmers. The scripters are really the ones in contact
with the most people, because they are in charge of putting all the pieces
together.
Question: How was your first day on GK3? What was it like meeting all those
famous names like Jane Jensen, Robert Holmes, etc. ?
Adam: Since I was the webmaster for 6 months before joining the GK team, I had
met everyone much early. I met Jane first, and that was incredible. I
just listened to her talk about her projects (GK3 and Millennium Rising)
and tried to not make a fool out of myself when I answered. Of course, I
did make a fool of myself. At this point, I didn't know anything about
GK3, and made the comment, "I'm glad that you haven't done a vampire game.
Everyone does vampires." Of course, I was pleasantly surprised to find
out that no one has done vampires like Jane does vampires.
My first few days as the webmaster, I also met Roberta Williams, Al Lowe,
Mark Seibert, Tammy Dargan, and Mark Hood. That was pretty incredible.
They could have fired me after that first week, and I would have
considered myself satisfied. I'm certainly glad they didn't
Question: And finally... in your wildest dreams, what's the perfect GK game like?
Adam: GK3, gold master CDs.
GOOD LUCK ON FINISHING GK3 AND IN YOUR FUTURE CAREER!
MANY THANKS TO PHIL COLVIN FOR PROVIDING US WITH QUESTIONS!