KQ8 development

This article concerns the development of King's Quest: Mask of Eternity. It is a repository of details concerning early prototypes of the game, up to its final finished version.

General Game Development
Published in Interaction, Fall 1996 issue, published while Ken Williams was still the CEO of Sierra Online. "My wife, Roberta, is working on the newest King's Quest game, Mask of Eternity. It's an enormous project and has the largest team we've ever assembled. Roberta's feeling is that adventure games are starting to 'all look the same.' She wants to try to completely redefine the genre. For about six months all she did was study games. She studied in detail every successful game on the market, even non-adventure games like Duke Nuke'm, Warcraft II, and Super Mario for the Ultra 64. She is well into Mask now and expects it to complete in time for Christmas '97. It is impossible to describe because there really aren't any games like it. When I asked Roberta how to describe it, she said, 'Imagine a King's Quest game which takes place in a true 3-D world, with true 3-D lifelike characters. I borrowed Dynamix's flight simulator technology and pushed it in a new direction. The result is still King's Quest but it's much more immersive, and the 3-D makes the game more interactive. It also changed how I design. The 3-D allowed me create challenges for the player which never could have been done in a 2-D environment, including many that use physics.'"-Ken Williams, CEO of Sierra-Online, InterAction, Fall 1996, pg 10

Ken Williams; http://www.sierragamers.com/aspx/m/634063/bbs/Topic.3825.530202

Story Development
Mask of Eternity's storyline went through several phases as the story of the game was developed. Here is a listing of what is known.

Prototype storyline
One of the earliest phases of the game's story, Connor, then unnamed was to be a marble statue of a knight that was brought to life at the moment of the cataclysm that turned everyone living into stone. "KQ8 will be set in Daventry -- at the beginning of the game, at least. YOU will be a brand new character -- a marble statue of a knight which has been brought to life through an accidental reversal of a spell which turned King Graham and his family into stone (by an evil sorcerer)...as the knight -- can save them and then get the chance to become a 'real man' in the end (a la Pinocchio). Princess Rosella might be SO grateful that he saved her and her family that...who knows? ... At first the story of KQ8 was going to involve a sort of ?evil magic? which causes everybody in Daventry - including King Graham and his family - to turn to stone while, conversely, this same magic would cause a reverse effect on a stone statue?bringing it alive. Then - this ?guy? would have to set out to figure out the cause of this evil magic and try to save the people of Daventry by defeating the source of this evil. As the story (and the game) developed, though, the story began to change. Now - it involves a ?normal citizen? of Daventry (Connor of Daventry) who survives the onslaught of evil magic, managing, somehow, to ?stay alive,? while the rest of the citizenry turns to stone. Connor figures out that the source or cause of this ?magic? involves a sacred golden object called the ?Mask of Eternity.? A piece of this mask saved him?and it will be the means by which the rest of humanity will be saved?.but it?s up to him to accomplish that immense task."

'Connor mac Lyrr' phase
During a later stage of development, while Ken was still CEO, Connor became the sone of a fisherman of Daventry, and was initially named "Connor mac Lyrr". These are some of the few references concerning the 'Connor mac Lyrr' phase of the game;

"The backstory: Twenty years before the time of the game, a magic mask analogous to the Holy Grail exploded into seven pieces which - surprise - were scattered hither and yon on the cosmic winds. In this newest King's Quest installment, we meet Conner, the son of a poor fisherman, born at the instant of the momentous explosion and marked, figuratively and literally, by a piece of the enchanted shrapnel. In the present-day of Conner's 20th year, a horrible chaotic spell sweeps across the land - never mind why, it just does - turning all mortals to stone except the auspicious Conner. His only hope to restore the pebbled populace of Daventry is to locate the seven fragments of the mask...-May 1996"

The Mask of Eternity is no mere sword and sorcery adventure. You enter the Kingdom of Daventry as Connor mac Lyrr (the son of a fisherman), who alone has been passed over by an evil spell that turned every mortal inhabitant to stone. Connor must find a way to restore them to flesh and blood. At the heart of the dilemma is the The Mask of Eternity, which was broken into seven pieces and scattered by the Cosmic Winds to seven different lands at the moment of Connor's birth. A piece of the Mask touched Connor as he was born, leaving a vivid scar on his cheek. He carries this scar as an adult - a sign that he has been marked for greatness. The quest to find the seven pieces of the Mask and restore them to the Island Temple is his destiny. Only by accomplishing this can he end the chaos that now rules the land. -Interaction Magazine, Fall 1996, published while Ken Williams was still CEO of Sierra.

Other magazines such as CGW, have spelled this phase of the character's name as "Connnor Mac Lyrr", but it is unclear if that was ever Sierra's spelling for the character's name during that phase of the game's production. The name "mac Lyrr" was dropped almost a year before the game's release.

Early 'Connor' phase
"'With past King's Quest games I focused around the Royal Family,' Roberta Explains. 'But I've done just about as much as I could with the Royal Family. I knew I needed to bring in a new character, and I wanted the character to be less Disney-ish and more cerebral. The spiritual father of Mask is J.R.R. Tolkien not Walt Disney,' she concluded firmly. Connor is very much a new character. He is an inhabitant of Daventry, a kingdom he doesn't rule but whose fate lies in his hands. A terrible curse has turned all of the people living in Daventry, including the Royal Family themselves, into stone. Connor must find the answers behind the curse, including why it's been imposed, who imposed it, and, possibly most importantly, why he alone has been spared the terrible fate of his comrades. Connor is a warrior and it's his combination of strength, cunning, intuition, and intellect that makes him best-suited to save the kingdom."-Interaction Magazine, Fall, 1997

"It would seem the King's Quest series has grown up a bit with the creation of Mask. Evidence of this continually surfaces throughout the game but is especially apparent with the central antagonist and Archarchon, Lucreto. His storyline parallels that of Lucifer, the fallen angel whose attempt to overtake Heaven ends him up in Hell."-Interaction Magazine, Fall, 1997

World Development
Will it bear such hallmarks as the Kingdom of Daventry?... Connor begins his adventure in the Kingdom of Daventry, but he doesn't stay there long. Seven new lands await!... The world of King's Quest: The Mask of Eternity reaches from the sunless Underworld of the living dead through the alchemical plains of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, into the ether of the Celestial Realm--and even to a dark mysterious island temple... -Interaction magazine, Fall 1996.

The world would have been one large interconnected world, apparently allowing new areas to load on the fly. The zones apparently would have radiated out from Castle Daventry, which would have been located in a location seemingly more similar to how it was shown in previous games. But due to limitations with the game engine's color palettes, and computer systems at the time, Sierra was forced to make it a linear world, with separate zones. At least two levels were cut.

Daventry would have been much larger zone, with villages, green forests, and farms. It would have taken place during the day (as opposed to the darkness seen in the current game). At one point during the production they added a darker cloudy sky, before finally settling on the pitch black Daventry in the game. The swamp would have been part of Daventry.

There was apparently going to be another zone near Daventry set by the sea, near a seaside tower, in a green hilly area. Another removed zone appears to have been set underwater, with seaweed, fish, and ancient ruins.

Dimension of Death would have been named the Underworld. The art style of the "Underworld" would have been much different, using a Mesopotamian style rather than the current Egyptian motif. According to the old MOE website, the river that passes through the Dimension of Death was going to be named the River Styx early on. Although this name was not maintained in the final release, instead being referred to as the River of Death.

"Azriel, Lord of the Dead, once claimed eternal control over this realm. Now, with the evil curse infecting even this seemingly immune region, the 'undead' have a stronghold on the dimension. Passing through this land in search for the key that unlocks the gates of the dead lands, Connor must fight off skeletons and zombies to avoid becoming a permanent resident! And in order to depart from this realm, Connor must find the only way to cross the famed River Styx."

At one point the Frozen Reaches was known as the Frosty Mountains.(Interaction Magazine, Fall 1997) The land would have had snow covered pine trees, giving the land a bit more life.

The Barrens would have been known as either lands of fire, or hotlands (although hotlands may have been a location within the lands of fire). Interesting thing to note is that land would have had some dry spiny bramble bushes, giving the land some foliage.

Combat
Combat was inspired by Alexander and Abdul Alhazred's sword fighting in King's Quest 6.

"'In dealing with the challenges of finding the seven pieces of The Mask of Eternity, the title gives you more ethical choices than ever before. A prime example is the potential to destroy some of the evil, magical beasts that get in your way - a mode of behavior that was not included in previous games. 'If this was the real world, you might actually have to fight and kill an enemy, says Williams. 'In the Mask of Eternity there are seven instances where you must mortally defeat a monster before you can proceed.'"-Interaction magazine, Fall 1996.

Removed Encounters
Originally there was going to be a Leprechaun inside the Old Castlekeep of Daventry, that would give Connor more information about his plight, and give him a few more quests. But it was removed in the final release version.

A redcap goblin was to lurk around the world, and Connor would encounter it several times throughout his adventure, he had to be battle it and kill it, in order to get past it.

The Swamp Witch's part in the game was originally much larger. She would have been able to change herself into a beautiful woman, to lure Connor into her castle to save her, before exposing, her true form. Conner would have been forced to escape, and fight her for his life. This was removed from the final version of the game as well, and the witch stays outside of her castle. However references to the witch's wiles are still mentioned if you examine the skeletons in her castle.

Fire bugs could be found in the hotlands. Connor would have had to find a special way to defeat them as he couldn't fight fire with fire.

A fire breathing hydra, would have been encountered in ocean near the sea-side town.

Connor would have also encountered a red weeper, presumably more powerful than the standard variety. The skin for the enemy can still be found in the game's graphic files.

While Frost Demons made it into the game, they went through some graphical changes, around the face (notably the removal of the horn on their forehead).

Fire ants went through an even bigger model change, with the original model completely replaced.

Graphics for a snow beast exist in game, but were not used in the final release. Its unknown if it was a graphic for the Snow Mane, or for something else encountered in the Frozen Reaches.

Graphics for an ice serpent exist in the game files, but were not used. It is assumed it would have been an encounter in the lake in the Frozen Reaches. Perhaps prototype graphics for the two-headed dragon.

Graphics for a red eyed variation of skeleton enemies could be found in the game as well. Perhaps representing more powerful versions of the enemies. Additionally another graphic exists for what appears to be skeleton noble, in pharaoh like regalia that never made it to the final version of the game (perhaps it was an alternate graphic for one of the characters currently in the game).

While graphics for mage snow nymphs made it into the game, there was also a graphic for a snow mage healer. The character did not make it into the game. She would have presumably been able to heal Connor from wounds.

Items
Silver currency was going to be an extra currency in the game. While it didn't make it into the final release, it is possible to access the silver through a game cheat, although it serves no use.

The Woman Behind the Mask: A Q&A with pioneer game designer Roberta Williams
Conducted by Eric Twelker

We recently sat down with Roberta Williams in her Seattle home and chatted with her about the evolution of her games through the years and the ever-changing face of adventure games as evidenced by her next revolution, Mask of Eternity.

You are well recognized as one of the inventors of interactive storytelling. How did it all begin?
Now that I look back, I realize that I was compelled to design an adventure game of my own. As a child, I loved fairy tales. I would go to the library, pick up every fairy tale book I could get my hands on and read them cover to cover. At night, I would go to bed and stay awake creating adventure stories in my head, all along thinking, "Wow, this is a great story!" So, I've always had these stories inside of me that I wanted to somehow convey to others. In the late '70s, I played Colossus Caves [one of the first text-based adventure games] and was immediately addicted to it, playing it for hours on end. I was compelled to get through it and see every path and solution. It was much like what I'd always done, controlling my own stories in a way very different from the linearity of, say, a book. When I finished the game, I immediately wrote the story for Mystery House and Ken, a great programmer, created it on our Apple computer.

===Mask of Eternity departs from the traditional two-dimensional adventure game by using a three-dimensional game engine most commonly employed in first-person action games. How is Mask's story conveyed using this technique?===

In interactive storytelling, it's important to blend the right amount of interactivity and story telling. Phantasmagoria, for instance, was heavy on storytelling, but didn't have too much interactivity. Mask of Eternity is an adventure game on the other side of the spectrum with an emphasis on interactivity in it's virtual world. It's not story-like in the traditional sense: I've experimented with adding as much freedom of the player's control while, at the same time, maintaining a strong narrative.

In Mask of Eternity, the entire world is designed with story in mind. The world is in chaos - order and humanity have been banished and you, as Connor, must restore it. The player learns about the world and furthers the plot by exploring locations, finding and using inventory items and interacting with other characters. And unlike a first-person combat game, even fighting creatures is part of the story. By doing so, the player will discover who these creatures are and why they've emerged into the world.

Tell us a bit about Mask of Eternity's story.
In the opening scene, we see a fantastic world off in the celestial realm. A white-robed, priest-like character approaches a gold mask set atop an altar, and summons to the sky. He transforms into a dark being as lightning crashes down on the altar, exploding the mask into pieces that hail down to the world below. In Daventry, King Graham's magic mirror begins swirling and displays the bad omen of the mask breaking apart. We then meet Connor. While walking down a road the wind kicks up and clouds begin to roil. A piece of the mask sails down from the sky and lands at his feet. Just as he picks up the piece, a storm swirls overhead, the sky turns dark and everyone turns into stone... except for Connor, who is somehow protected by the piece of the Mask. The player will soon discover that it's up to him restore order to the world. Eventually, Connor must face the dark being himself and attempt to banish him from the celestial world.

What were your goals when setting out to create Mask of Eternity?
My goals are always the same: to make the player feel like they are in the game, so much that they forget the real world around them. Playing 2D adventure games, I always wanted to have the ability to see what's behind the backgrounds, peek under a table or on top of a roof and explore every corner. In Mask of Eternity's 3D world, the player has a much better sense of really being there. Mask of Eternity is a beautiful and open environment that is very exploratory. You're no longer limited to the flat picture on the screen.

Tell us about the puzzle elements in the game.
The puzzles are based around connor's experiences and actions. Some puzzles involve finding and using inventory items to get around a problem. For instance, in one part of the game, Connor must find a way to cross the River of Death. To succeed, Connor must find a way to activate a lever on a drawbridge on the other side of the river [nope, we won't give away the solution!]. In another part of the game, Connor must find a way to enter the sanctum of the Lord of the Dead. To do so, Connor must cross tiles, each bearing a symbol, in the right order. But first, Connor must search for clues that will decipher the correct order of jumping across the tiles for getting across.

What is the theme of Mask of Eternity and what does the mask itself represent?
Mask of Eternity is about spirituality: what is means now and through the ages and where people have searched for it. As you go through the game, you sense that Connor is looking for his own meaning and discover the game's main themes: truth, light and order. Puzzles in the game revolve around these themes. For instance, the City of the Dead's theme is truth. When he reaches this section of the world, Connor is tested and, if successful, will be affirmed that he is the deliverer who will bring truth back to Daventry.

The mask stands for the all-powerful being, the creator. The mask is sun-like and, in many religions, the sun represents God. In most religions, like the sun itself, you never can look directly at the creator unless you become immortal. There are certain places in the game's quest - obstacles, puzzles, interactions with guardians that you meet - where the player is trying to accomplish that feat. It's all integrated into the story in such a way that people who know what to look for will understand the overall quest.

Information from Mark Seibert
Monday, June 22, 1998

It's been awhile since my last progress report. The game is really starting to look good, and we're heading into the home stretch as far as development goes. That's why this will probably be my last progress report. The design is complete, the technical issues have been mostly resolved, we're down to just doing it, and I don't want to take my attention off of the most important thing...Making a great game!

So what have we done, and what can you expect? Most of the engine issues are resolved, or are very close to being resolved. Here's what we have been adding and tweaking:

Real shadows - Not just some blob of color below the character, this is a shadow that is generated on the fly from the actual character moving. These shadows can be turned on separately for Connor, the characters, the monsters, and the objects (Depending on your machine speed).

Dynamic Lighting - Lights in the world effect the characters, the objects, the terrain, and the buildings around them. This has created a lot of great moodiness in the worlds. In addition, these lights can move around, flicker, and can effect distant objects causing light pooling effects.

Translucency - We added this effect to water, magical items and effects, spirits, glass, etc. All of these translucent objects can have their opacity set to optimize their appearance in the world.

Monster AI - Yes, it's been controversial. King's Quest: Mask of Eternity will be the first King's Quest that has an element of real-time combat. Remember King's Quest VI? Wouldn't it have been fun if you could have participated more in the final sword fight ? Well now you will! Don't worry though, this is not a combat game, it's just one of the many parts of the game that make it fun. We have included 3 difficulty levels for combat: Easy (For those who might have difficulty with fighting), Normal (The way we think it should be), and Hard (For those who are gluttons for punishment).

3D - It's a whole New World out there. You're no longer stuck moving from picture to picture. You move Connor and the camera where you want, when you want. There's never been a more open explorative game.

Adventure - Yes, this is what it's all about! King's Quest has always been an adventure, and King's Quest: Mask of Eternity will be the biggest and longest King's Quest to date. The seven worlds are huge. Exploration is a major factor. A map for each world uncovers as you explore every road, house, cave, and structure. As you explore, you'll meet over 50 characters to talk to, dozens of creatures to fight, and a plethora of puzzles to solve.

Story, Story, Story! - Roberta has always been a great storyteller, and she won't disappoint with this new episode in the King's Quest saga. As in all King's Quest's you will discover a story steeped in myth and lore, ancient civilizations, and characters from legends of old.

Well, as you can tell, we're all very excited about this game. It feels very new and fresh. We can't wait to get this done and out for you to play. So, with no further ado, I'm going to get back to work and try to get this thing done!

-- Mark Seibert, Mask of Eternity Producer

"Yes, this was the only KQ game that was not fully developed at one location. The idea was to leverage the 3D engine Dynamix was building in Eugene. We were to use their engine and focus mostly on content.  The problem was that the engine work ended up WAY behind schedule and that had disastrous results on our content development.  To make a long story short, we finally took what they had and finished it ourselves.  Unfortunately, by the time we did this the project was way behind schedule, way over budget, and we still didn't have an engine.  We scrambled to complete the project and it unfortunately showed.  It saddens me to have had the King's Quest series end with a product that suffered so."

"Yes, the castle entered through the passageway behind the waterfall is Castle Daventry. The reason you don't see much of it is that it was damaged in the opening scene. That is why you can only go so far in before you find blocked passageways. We wanted to originally let you explore the entire castle, find the royal family turned to stone, etc, etc, but as you know, things had to be cut and this was one of the many things that was easy to have a story reason why not to do it."

"So yes, many things were cut - the leprechaun, the Red Capped goblin, I think two complete levels, and then MANY major cutbacks on what is there. As you point out, a good example is the Swamp Witch. In the original script as it was developing, her part was much larger. But as we had to devote time to technical issues, the aesthetic issues and the amount of detail and breadth of content continued to get chopped.  Remember, this was also right at the time the industry was saying that 'Adventure gaming is dead.'  It was not easy to convince marketing to invest more to develop an adventure game. The end result was that we shipped what we could, and it was a pretty sad showing for such a great series." Information about Mark Seibert and Roberta's discussion of King Graham's age in the game; "I’m sure we had this conversation. Since Graham is still around, it can’t be too long of a period of time, but I don’t think we ever gave it an exact time frame – I think we merely discussed it in terms of “Graham is now old.”"

"'Roberta's point of view was that the 'Dimension of Death' was not the under world(KQ6). It was a unique and different place.'" -Mark Seibert, Mask of Eternity's Producer.>-Mark Seibert, March 11, 2006.

Just Adventure Interview
 * What is Roberta Williams currently doing with MoE?
 * She has been the designer from day one. She's still very much involved in the process.

Released Product
Roberta Williams Speaks Out on JustAdventure.com:

The question you asked above is the reason King's Quest: Mask of Eternity was different. The adventure game as we all know and love it is a dead animal, except for those of us who love and revere them. The problem is that those of us who love and revere them are becoming a smaller and smaller audience. If I had created King's Quest 8 exactly the same as the other prior seven, it might have gotten great reviews and kudos from its biggest fans, but it wouldn't have sold as many copies as it has ... I'm sure of that. The people who seem to hate Mask of Eternity are, ironically, King's Quest's biggest fans, and the people who seem to love it are those people who have never played an adventure game before, but who have played lots of other types of games ... especially more action games.

The idea was to bring a brand new audience into adventure game playing--those who would never even consider playing an adventure game. The idea was to show all of these "new" gamers that there is another type of game out there--the adventure game--and that it, too, can be cool. Rather than the hard-core adventure gamers out there being mad at me for "tinkering" with the adventure game, they should understand that, rather than just sitting around and doing the same old thing, I was trying to bring new blood into the genre ... thereby trying to keep it from dying. Times change, and tastes change ... they just do, and you've gotta do what you've gotta do to try and reach the biggest possible audience to keep a genre alive.

One final comment on this: Even though in reviews of "pure" adventure games--places where an adventure game is an adventure game, and never the twain shall meet with other types of genres--Grim Fandango seems to garner great reviews while Mask of Eternity is a dud, a traitor, and a terrible game ... Mask of Eternity has outsold Grim Fandango two to one. What does that prove? It proves that I was successful in bringing in new people to the adventure game marketplace, which is good for all concerned, but ... it also means that there will probably be some changes in the adventure game that today's big fans of adventure games will have to accept. The old-style adventure game that we all know and love will just not cut it in today's world.

Josh is right in that it is "different." No doubt about that. As far as the term "commercial" is concerned, that really has no meaning for me. All of my games have been "commercial." They've never not been commercial. What does the word commercial mean? It means "having to do with commerce," and also, "designed for profit or mass appeal." Now, I ask you, what's wrong with that?! If a game doesn't sell, it's not going to stick around and there's certainly not going to be another one! When you design a computer game which takes a couple of years and a lot of money, you obviously want as many people as possible to see it. I have always approached each and every one of my games with the idea that I wanted as many people as possible to play them. Maybe some people see that as offensive; I don't.

I do want to let everyone know, though, that nobody loves adventure games more than I, and it has always been my goal to have as many people as possible experience this wonderful genre. However, it's important that people understand, Josh Mandel included, that things change and tastes change. The adventure game has to change also, albeit perhaps not exactly in the same way that I changed it in Mask of Eternity. If experiments are not done to find how to mainstream the genre or to make it more "commercial" for today's audience, it will die ... and then everybody loses. Those "purists" may have gotten their way to keep adventure games from evolving, but all they would have really succeeded in is helping to kill it.

Talkspot Interviews

 * Mask of Eternity Talkspot 1/3
 * Mask of Eternity Talkspot 2/3
 * Mask of Eternity Talkspot 3/3 File Wanted

Making of Mask of Eternity
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