SIDNEY EXCLUSIVE:
Interview with JANE JENSEN, Designer & Writer of Gabriel Knight 3.
Question: As I'm sure everyone who is reading this knows, you are coming to the end of well over two years of development on GK3. How does the final product compare to that original vision you had nearly three years ago?
Jane: I think it's terrific. Looking at it final, it's scary actually, because you can see how much work it was. When I began the project I thought I had designed something a little "smaller" than the other 2 games, something easy to produce. Boy, was I wrong! So I guess that's the main difference -- it has turned out much larger and more expensive than I thought.
Question: Is there any aspect of the game that's come out particlay well or, on the flipside, you were hoping to achieve but weren't able to?
Jane: I think the normal game play, the way the characters look, their expressions, the cameras, and so forth, are better than I anticipated. On the flip side, in a few of the very most intense dramatic scenes, I think that animation can only achieve so much. But overall, the level of quality is much higher than I anticipated.
Question: Towards the start of development, in your first entry to Gamespot's GK3 Designer Diary, you described your 'burnout' having completed GK2 with various pressures upon you. In comparison, what's GK3's development been for you?
Jane: It was very trying. The worst part was the long period of time that we basically were not seeing any progress at all because the engine had to be reworked. Then, when we were able to start putting the game together, there were so many stops and starts and redesigning things on the fly -- this is all very predictable when you're creating a brand new engine from scratch, but it was still very difficult and frustrating. And then, when we were finally rolling and making real progress, the 3D process just took a lot longer to perfect. In the old SCI 2D world or even with FMV, once the animation was in place or the avi movie was done, that was it. You knew it would never change. With GK3, the scenes are all scripted and they're dependent on changes in the environment such as camera boundaries moving (which continued to happen up to the last second) as well as core programming systems such as the facial expression system, which were not 100% solid. So you might perfect one little tiny scene, only to see in the next bulid that it was screwed up again. Multiply that by about 2000! So the process also has been much more time consuming. I guess in terms of "burn out", yeah, I can honestly say that I'm not interested in going near production any time soon! But that may change after some time passes.
Question: During such a long project do you find yourself caught up in the 'nitty gritty' of making the game or do you try to keep yourself focussed on the bigger picture and the final product? How easy is it to balance the two?
Jane: The designer must have a handle on both. You deal in the nitty gritty every day, but you are also the one who has to understand the big picture and how each little change might effect it.
Question: Looking towards the game itself. Although you have combined historical and fictional elements in both previous games, this is the first GK game where the premise (the mystery of RLC) is thought of as a controversial topic. Did you feel pressured by this when writing the game, or were you able to treat it like the previous games?
Jane: I didn't feel pressured. It was a bit different to develop because it was so heavily based on a real location. I actually had to work out the solution to RLC and then design it into a puzzle sequence that the player could solve. But that was the fun part! As far as controvsery, there were times when I was writing the story that I stopped and went -- whoa, that's gonna get some flack -- but then I just kept going. To me a story is an integral thing -- it goes where it goes and to go anywhere else would be a lie. So I really didn't think too hard about changing it to be "safer" or less controversial.
Question: The GK games are loved not only for their mix of historical/mythological and fictional elements but also for their puzzles and challenge. Do you find yourself having to think up and add puzzles as a separate process or do they come naturally as part of the writing? Has 3D and the G-Engine made this process easier or more difficult?
Jane: Sometimes the puzzles are clear in the writing of the story, but usually we add a lot of them later, once the story is done. For example, in the story document I might say "some puzzle here to get the bike" and then that puzzle is designed later. But the larger, more story-oriented puzzles, such as solving the mystery of RLC, are integrated into the story design. The 3D has made things easier and more difficult. More difficult because there's some weird expectation for 3D puzzle design. You come up with a puzzle and it's like "*that's* not a 3D puzzle, you could do that in 2D" so I think that a lot of great puzzles are trashed just because they could possibly be done in 2D. To me that's silly. Who cares? It's still a great puzzle, and it's more interesting in 3D. On the other hand, 3D definitely allows more freedom in puzzle design.
Question: GK3 has arrived into a 3D oriented market. Having worked with it, do you think adventures have finally found their ideal medium for developers to make everything they design, or is there still more evolution to come?
Jane: I think there's more evolution to come. I doubt things will go back to flat 2D but I think 3D will change a great deal in the future -- perhaps be able to incorporate real actors again, or go more to a VR kind of technology.
Question: A lot of designers have said that they don't like the way development teams have grown to 50+ members and preferred the old style where the designer would work with smaller groups working closer together. What's your feeling on this?
Jane: I don't mind working with the larger teams, but I think it's a shame that it takes so many people now because that basically translates to big budgets, which means more original or riskier titles aren't going to get made.
Question: The GK games have won tremendous praise and awards from within the industry. However, compared to the commercial dominance of games such as Myst and Riven their success can seem modest. How much do those two factors effect your own perception on whether the game has been a success?
Jane: Well, I think if it as a "cult hit" or a "critical success", but I don't think it's that widely known, even within the gaming community. It keeps me humble! Keeps me working hard.
Question: And finally... in your wildest dreams, what's the perfect GK game like?
Jane: Oh, God! Don't ask me questions like that now. I'm still way too absorbed in GK3 to think of anything beyond. Ask me a year from now. :-)
GOOD LUCK ON FINISHING GK3!
MANY THANKS TO PHIL COLVIN FOR PROVIDING US WITH QUESTIONS!