-- "3D inherently gives a feeling of greater involvement because the dimensional aspect of it puts you into the scene in a much greater fashion than the 2D world. You can move around the characters or any object, and this sense of depth and immersion already enhances the involvement. But playing with the prototype did change the way I saw the game, and has led to more spatial/relational puzzles and more of a concept of the world being dollhouse- like and moving on its own initiative. This greatly affected the layout of the story and design. I think this change in the design will create more of a sense of involvement for the players than the last two installments did."

-- "The Gabriel Knight games are among the few that are not "point-and-shoot" adventure games. Can you give any assurance to GK fans that GK will not become a point-and-shoot type of game?"

-- "I can see Sierra using the GK characters or a GK 'universe' to do multi-player and even arcade or strategy games, but that kind of thing would be ancillary and wouldn't be marketed as a 'GK adventure'. I think we know what the series is and is not at this point -- what's critical in making it a 'GK'. (For example, story and character are *inherent*. FMV is not.) Everyone understands that trying to vastly alter that would mean death to the fan base.

"Besides which, if Sierra did insist on moving that direction with GK, I wouldn't be designing it -- so as long as you see my name on the series, it won't be a shoot 'em up."

-- "Are the personalities of Gabriel, Grace or Mosely based on real people? Do qualities they have that allow them to solve cases come from yourself or someone you know?"

-- "They're not direct cut-outs of real people, but they've certainly been influenced by real people. Grace has a lot of me in her, but she's also quite different. Mosely's got a lot of personal mannerisms from a friend on mine from the KQ6 team, but he's also quite different. Gabe -- he's more of a mental image of a 'certain kind of man', I suppose! As for their case-solving qualities -- I suppose Grace's obsessiveness is a bit like me. Gabe -- I don't know exactly where his combination of laziness and throw-himself-in-head-firstness come from. Again, maybe an idea of mine about how men's minds work (vs. women's)."

-- "There is a lot more depth of story and character in the GK games. Has this made for any difficulties in marketing the game, or even getting Sierra to back the game?"

-- "It made the initial proposal difficult to sell. If you tell marketing types that the 'different' thing about the product is 'story', their eyes glaze over. They really don't get it. So we put on bells and whistles to make them happy. I think now they're beginning to see that they *can* position GK as a top story series. And Sierra, yeah, this last game was a hard sell because Sierra's turned away from story for almost all other products. Somehow, GK survived -- I think it's because they know GK is *about* story so they either do a GK as a story game or don't do it at all."

-- "Do you yourself believe in any of the occult or magic portrayed in your stories?"

-- "I absolutely don't practice any kind of occult or magic -- primarily because it scares the crap out of me. As for *believing* in it... I would say that I swing between skepticism and fascination. I do believe that there's some really bizarre aspects of consciousness and the power of the mind which have yet to be fully explored. I hope to get more into that kind of research. But if you're asking me if I believe in werewolves and vampires, no -- at least, not literally. :-)"

-- "I found in your games the same pleasure I find when reading Stephen King's novels; both blend reality with mystery and fantasy in a way that is nearly impossible to tell the difference within them, so I wanted to ask you why don't you start writing mystery novels?"

-- "I have. It's called 'Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers'. :-) Seriously, I have a great interest in novels and plan to do more of them in the future -- both GK novels and non-GK novels. I even have a rough plot outline for a traditional, non-supernatural mystery series, but it's not high on my list of things to work on right now."

-- "Which have you found the most challenging, writing the games or the novels?"

-- "The games are definitely much more *difficult* -- in terms of the amount of material involved, the amount of time it takes, the process of playtesting and trying to ship a game on time, etc. etc. But the novels are challenging in a different way because it's a new creative form for me and I'm still trying to work on my prose style. Also, they're more 'difficult' in that it's a much larger pond and it's going to take a lot of patience on my part to reach the audience I want to reach with the books. So both fields are challenging in different ways."

-- "What about a Gabriel Knight movie? Who would you cast?"

-- "There has been interest several times, but the licensing cogs at Sierra are pretty slow to grind and so far nothing has really worked out. Perhaps some day!

"Based on your casting comments on the boards, I'll be shot for even venturing a suggestion... But I suppose I'll say that if they had to have a name lead for Gabriel, my choices would run along the lines of Eric Stolz or Harry Connick Jr. Yes, I know you want to hear me go through the *entire* cast, but I have dialogue to write!"

-- "What are your nightmares about?"

-- "I guess I have normal ones like everyone else (chasing, etc.) but I don't remember them. The ones I remember are always apocalyptic. In college I often dreamt about being caught in a nuclear war because I was very troubled by the whole nuclear situation. I still dream of it occasionally, but nowadays it's more often about tidal waves, earthquakes, or getting some horrible virus and being really sick. Sometimes I even dream of the rapture (I'm in the street and people are rising up in the air and I'm trying to follow them). I'm not sure why this is such a point of subconscious tenderness for me, but it is. I suppose it's my conservative Protestant upbringing."

-- "As a writer, are you vicariously living through your mysteries? Which is to say, is the concept of Gabriel Knight and the Shadow Hunters something you have been either consciously or subconsciously fantasizing about since childhood? And if so, which character are you living most through? Gabriel? Grace? Gerde? Another?"

-- "No, I can't say it's a lifelong fantasy, though many things about the series have been life-long interests, such as the Inquisition. And, of course, the basic premise of the good vs evil and the whole doubt that there even are such distinctions are key elements of my curiosity about life, and thus key to my writing. So I guess I'm not exactly 'play-acting' through any of my characters in the sense that a kid 'play-acts' Spiderman or something. If anything, I kind of question the whole idea, really, of the 'hero', and that's why Gabriel is the way he is. On some level the series is a 'superhero' series, and that may be where most of the younger players relate to it. But on another level it's about fallibility, about the confusion of trying to look at life through that simplistic of a viewport. Yes, in the GK universe some things really are *horrible* and need to be stopped. And yet... the 'good' certainly isn't saintly and even the 'evil' is damned inviting and perhaps even sympathetic.

"As for which character I relate to the most -- I relate to both Gabe and Grace and I always 'feel' like them when I'm writing for them and they 'act' in a scene for me in ways that the supplemental characters do not. This is pretty weird since I can also sympathize with each of them about how irritating the other one is! (can you say, schizophrenic?)"

SPECIAL BONUS QUESTION:

John Patt

-- "What is your favorite breakfast food?"

Jane Jensen

-- "LATTES."

"Thanks for your great questions, everyone!"

NEXT MONTH Every month, "The Schattenjager Diaries" will be chock-full of exclusive information and updates that are available only to subscribers. Keep watching your e-mail for the next issue... you may be surprised by what we reveal!