The Making of the Quests

The Making of the Quests is an appendix in The Official Book of King's Quest VI by Donald B. Trivette.

Introduction
Creating, designing, and producing a King's Quest takes a lot of time and work by people with a variety of skills. We thought it would be interesting to follow the process from inception to completion for a typical quest. Although King's Quest V is the quest we are going to view in detail, the others followed a similar process.

Scripting
Each quest begins when Roberta Williams outlines the story on scraps of paper and in notebooks, making changes freely as the plot thickens. Sometimes she consults her children, as she did for KQV, but husband Ken is little help. He is more interested in the technical and business details than the story line. As the story begins to gel, Roberta makes rough drawings of each scene, called rooms by the developers. Along with the drawings, she sends lots of photographs to the artists to help convey what she has in mind.

Roberta also writes a script describing how each room works, although sometimes the action changes as the story develops. Room 2, the scene just south of Crispin's cottage in KQV, is the beginning of the path to the mountains. Cedric is supposed to warn Graham if he doesn't have enough gear to cross the mountains successfully. Here's the original script for that room:


 * Room 2


 * Path below Crispin's house.


 * Hot spots - Path, large tree.


 * Characters - Graham and Cedric.


 * Special views or animation - None.


 * "Look" messages (Eye icon) - Would give an "X" symbol if there's nothing to "see."


 * Path or tree: "A worn dirt path wanders through a thick wood alive with the sound of many creatures. Between the trees, to the east Graham can see the outline of a great :mountain range."


 * Manipulation (Hand icon)


 * Path: Clicking the "Hand" icon on the path causes Cedric to POINT with his wing to the east and say- "See how the path goes to the east up into the mountains? That's the :route to Mordack's castle."


 * Cedric puts down his wing and continues - "If you follow the path to the south over the next rise you'll come to the town."
 * (On subsequent times (FOREVER AFTER THIS) just put up an "X.")


 * Dialog-No "specific" dialog between Cedric and Graham except for the "Hand" icon on the path causing Cedric to "speak."


 * A side note-If Graham is not ready to cross the great mountains yet because he hasn't obtained everything he needs, then when the player starts to take Graham up the :mountain trail (to the east), Cedric will fly nearer to Graham and say - "You aren't ready to cross those mountains yet, Graham! You'll never survive without being :properly outfitted."


 * Of course, the player always has the option to ignore Cedric's warning and go up into the mountains anyway. If the player HAS everything he needs then Cedric won't say :anything.


 * If the player tries AGAIN to go up into the mountains from here but is STILL not ready then Cedric will say - "You're not going to listen to me, are you, Graham? I told :you you weren't ready to tackle the mountains yet. Ah, well. Do what you will. I'm not going to warn you again."


 * After that, whether the player is ready or not, Cedric won't say anything.

Later it was decided that something stronger than a warning was needed to keep a player off the path if he hadn't collected the necessary loot to survive the mountains. A poisonous snake was put in as an obstacle; to get rid of the snake you must have the right instrument. This gatekeeping/checkpoint routine keeps a player from getting to the end of the game only to find he has forgotten to pick up an important item at the beginning.

The snake change was one of 13 changes outlined in a memo to the programmers. This is how the room works in the shipped version of the quest.


 * 7. The tambourine will not only be used to give to Dink - but it will also be used to scare off a snake which has been conveniently placed on the beginning of the :mountain trail - either room 2 or room 29 - whichever seems better. Without the tambourine to scare away the snake, the player can't go up into the mountains - and if :Graham gets too near the snake, the snake will bite and he [Graham] will die.

Even deaths are scripted in minute detail. In addition to a snake bite, Roberta's notes list 39 other ways to die, including this heartrending scene in the damp dungeon under Mordack's Castle.


 * 37. Dying in the cell because you don't have the locket or didn't give it to Cassima (so she won't show you the hole in the wall).
 * After about one minute put up the message:
 * "After observing no discernible escape route from the small cell, Graham sinks to the floor in despair, knowing he will never see the light of day again."
 * (Show Graham sinking to his knees and putting his head in his hands as in numbers 14, and 15-show the little mouse come up to him and either sniff at him or look at him :with curiosity.)
 * Put up the death message of:
 * "Cheer up, Graham. At least you're not alone."
 * Show a picture of the little mouse wriggling his whiskers.