KQ8 development

KQ8 development is an article concerning the development of King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (aka King's Quest VIII). It is a repository of details concerning early prototypes of the game, up to its final finished version. Note: This article contains some speculation for some of the pictures that lacked explanation.

General Game Development
The game went through three main phases during development which count as the game's true development (the exact split of these phases is unclear). There were apparently two separate designs within the 'Connor mac Lyrr' phase, the 'Connor of Daventry' phase was the third design. The final phase, can be split into two parts, early phase, and late phase (but essentially are considered a single design).

Note: 3Space level editor was apparently used to create many of the game worlds/maps for early phases of the game (while the game engine itself was being developed over at Dynamix). Due to Dynamix extended engine development period, Sierra switched to building their own in-house engine (which retained only a few features from the original 3Space that they had started development with) for the start of the 3rd and final phase, the 'Connor of Daventry' phase, the truly playable version of the game.

Roberta Williams;
 * I decided King's Quest was going to go 3-d while I was working on Phantasmagoria. That was in, around 1994, maybe 95, somewhere around there. It was about the time Doom came out, and it just made a splash. Everybody was playing Doom. Other 3-d games were beginning to come out around that time too. It just became clear that computer games were going to be going 3-d. I pretty much made up my mind during the development of Phantasmagoria. I knew I was going to be doing the next King's Quest. I knew, being the eighth in the series, that's tough, gives the desire...You know its going to be the eighth of the series, its gotta be bigger and better than ever, and you gotta keep this thing going, and its gotta be great, and its gotta be all these things. It's really tough to do that. In all honesty its much better to work on a brand new game, that nobody has ever seen before, that nobody knows about. Because you can do anything, the sky's the limit. But to try to do something that's eighth in the series, is really not easy, and so to me to go 3-d was, we had to do that. ...and also I, Mark and I entertained the idea of making it multiplayer also, but that was nixed. It was like, well were doning 3-d, and that's enough, you know, for now. Maybe Multiplayer later.

-Roberta Williams, Talkspot part 2.


 * Actually I went through three different designs for that game. Three complete designs. The first two got tossed out for various reasons. Probably alot of which I got a little over exuberant in design, then just this was impossible, forget it...It was a three year project even so. We were really developing a new technology here, and there were was alot we had to do, and we were pretty much developing from scratch.


 * "The budget for King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, was three million over three years".


 * "When I started development on King's Quest Mask of Eternity, we also decided, we were thinking at the time to make it multiplayer, and also 3-d, but we dropped the multiplayer aspect of it. It was just too much to try to develop, and also develop 3-d."

-Roberta Williams, Talkspot part 1
 * "I think the first two designs, there were three designs for Mask of Eternity, the first two...as far as the designs, pretty much straight design, I did for the most part myself. Those two, actually parts of the first design, made it into the second design, neither one of those exactly worked right, and we were running up against a time deadline..."

-Roberta Williams, Talkspot part 2

'Concept' phase
Primarily a first person game, with small sections of 3rd person (no finished engine at this point). All ideas were on paper at this point (concept art, etc).

"I think you're wrong about the first person perspective (and the first person perspective will primarily be when you're 'walking.') There will still be third-person views for various 'story point' areas and for various puzzle areas -- where a third-person perspective would work better than a first-person one. There is actually MORE we can do for the game, and make it MORE interactive by having the game be both first-person and third-person. Having a totally third-person game has cut back on interactivity because of all of the animation which has to be done for every single 'thing' which can be done. By mixing both first and third-person, we'll be able to really 'up' the interactivity level. Also -- being able to really 'explore' the world of King's Quest will take on new meaning because you'll be able to 'walk' wherever YOU want to -- there will be no restrictions. Therefore -- we'll put all kinds of different things to find and/or do in many more locations than we normally would. Also -- a lot of people say that a first-person perspective, especially when 'walking around' is much more personally immersive. This is NOT being done for technology sake -- it's being done because more and more people actually prefer a first-person approach...at least during the 'walk' mode. It will feel good...trust me on that. I wouldn't do anything that wasn't great -- and wouldn't feel like King's Quest."

"Also -- at this point we THINK it's going to be first-person during the 'walking and exploring' part of the game, but that hasn't been completely determined as yet. It may yet turn out to be totally third-person. Obviously, we want to do what would be the most fun and compelling. We're doing some experimenting right now...I 'think' we're tending to swing the way of being able to be either first-person or third-person in most of the game, but be ONLY third-person in parts of the game where it makes sense -- or be ONLY first-person in other parts of the game where it makes sense. Therefore, it would utilize the best of both worlds, and feel very open and exploratory to the player" -Roberta Williams, late 1995

"Mask of Eternity: From the world of King's Quest" phase
This phase represents two separate designs based on known information. But what material goes into each stage is unclear (there may be grey areas between where the two designs meet). An early title marquee/concept art for this phase calls the game, "Mask of Eternity: From the world of King's Quest" (Roberta's name doesn't appear on it), though Roberta and others called the game KQ8 in the development videos from that period (the concept art may represent the period in which Roberta was deciding to pull her name from the game's development, see below), and a May 1996 preview through Gamestop. It was also called KIng's Quest: Mask of Eternity, or King's Quest 8 during development notes included in Interaction magazine released around the same time (see Fall 1996 issue).

This phase was done mostly in 3Space 3-d level/model editor by Dynamix, but they would have access to the less sophisticated versions of the engine used in EarthSiege 2 (which may have allowed for some limited playable exploration, but without the puzzles, or other elements the engine could not handle). While they waited for a more robust, upgraded copy of the 3Space Dynamix flight simulator engine (in development for Red Baron II and other Dynamix flight sims) to be completed they worked on the models and prototype levels.

Published in Interaction, Fall 1996 issue, published while Ken Williams was still the CEO of Sierra Online. Early on during this period (sometime before May 1996, possibly as early as 1995) Mark Seibert suggested to add combat to the game, as much of the areas explored between puzzles were empty. Ken mentions that his wife was designing a 3D King's Quest game, and that she was looking at games such as Duke Nuke'm, Warcraft II, and Super Mario 64 for inspiration. He pointed out the game would include challenges that use physics.

Around September 1996, Bob Davidson became CEO of CUC software. the Davidsons took offense of Roberta's work (primarly based on their conservative view of Phantasmagoria), and attempted make there own 'sanitized' non-violent and possibly non-religious version of KQ8 (see King's Quest VIII (Davidson & Associates). They put a group of managers in charge that made demands of Roberta's team, even going as far to try to tell them to ignore Roberta's ideas. Roberta Williams began to feel as if she was losing much of her creative vision and control over the project, but she continued to work with her team on her own version (resisting the Davidsons' version). During this point Roberta even felt like leaving her name off the final product.

There were also quite a few other problems with technical issues, etc, preventing Roberta from completing the game as she had originally intended. Because Dynamix new engine wasn't ready (still in development), the MOE team was forced to start building a new engine from scratch. It's not exactly known when the trouble began.

She also hit other technical issues along the way as well. There is a quote in the Roberta William's Collection making of video in which Mark Seibert (from around the Connor mac Lyrr phase) in which he states that she had ideas that the team thought were "impossible" with the technology they had available; "...she comes in with these ideas, and you just go, you can't do that, its not possible" (Roberta wanted them to create the tools so it would be possible). Roberta further references technology limitations in Talkspot interviews as well; "...Probably alot of which I got a little over exuberant in design, then just this was impossible, forget it...We were really developing a new technology here, and there were was alot we had to do, and we were pretty much developing from scratch." In addition, it was early during this period that Mark Seibert mentions he had to convince Roberta to fighting and enemies to the game (to fill empty areas). She had initially argued against the inclusion of combat, but ultimately she agreed it was a good idea (and it would be one of the issues she would later bat heads with the Davidsons over).

There were apparently some technology limitation issues limiting Roberta's vision, as some things were deemed too impossible by her staff. Material was being scrapped, and ideas were switching around. For example one character switched from being a red cap goblin, into a leprechaun, and back to the red cap goblin before they finally decided on scrapping the character (incidently the character became the Spriggan leader in the finalized game). Quite a bit was scrapped during the first design of this phase, moving onto the second design, and quite a bit more would be scrapped before moving onto the third and final design, the 'Connor of Daventry' phase.

The name 'Connor Mac Lyrr', shows up as late as the Spring 1998 issue of Interaction Magazine, by then the game was actually far into the final version of the game. If it hadn't been dropped by that time, it was dropped not much later.

"King's Quest: Mask of Eternity" phase
By this time Roberta had reasserted her control over the project (Davidson & Associates had finally backed off their own project probably around the same time they left the company in January 1997, see below). Roberta was able to continue her own design, and she was finally willing to include her name with the project. Roberta did the writing for the game's story and script (and was the main designer).

This was the proper playable phase, when things were beginning to be finalized and the game not only included locations but also puzzles. The earliest screenshots of it appear around spring of 1997. The concept box art at this time added King's Quest into the title, calling it King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, but the focus was put on "Mask" in large letters. 'King's Quest' was in much smaller letters using the classic font from KQ5, KQ6 & KQ7. Roberta' name still appeared to be missing from the promo titles. The promo video from KQ collection series, called the game simply Mask of Eternity, with no King's Quest listed at all.

At beginning of the third and final design, they started with the the earlier version of 3Space engine, but later replaced it with their own in-house engine due to the lack of the updated version from Dynamix.
 * "We started with the engine from Red Baron, but pretty much left only the rendering portion of it for the software engine, pretty much everything else we rewrote up here at our location."

-Mark Seibert, Talkspot part 2, December 1998.

Early portions of this phase used a few art assets left over from the earlier phase, but things were starting to change towards the appearance in the finalized game.

With a finished game, Roberta and Mark then went on to work on voice casting and voice director for the finished project. Roberta and Mark helped write the documentation.

Roberta's comments concering her story and script for the finished game;
 * "Well, ya, it's different if you compare King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, to the story writing process of Phantasmagoria, much different. Phantasmagoria was written in a much more script format, much in the way you would think about writing a movie script, only much longer. Your average movie script is 100 pages long. Phantasmagoria was just about 600 pages, and that's because you had to write in all the contingency scripts for various other paths you can take, and things you can do beyond the stuff your supposed to do in order to play the game and advance the story. With this game being much more open and being much more exploratory, because you can go literally anywhere you want, you can wander in any corner of the world, behind any bush, behind any house. It creates more problems with the story writing, but it opens up much more of the interactive aspects. So you just have to be a little more creative in interspersing your story in there. I could go into greater details on how to do it, but I think that would be too long for now. The secret though is learning how to intersperse story with an interactive experience.

-Roberta Williams, MOE Talkspot interview, December 9, 1998, Part 1.

"In some ways, it was harder creating Phantasmagoria and in other ways it’s harder to create KQ: Mask of Eternity. (By the way, I feel to the need to stress that this game is “King’s Quest” first and foremost. “Mask of Eternity” is the subtitle. Basically, it’s “King’s Quest 8.” I noticed that you keep referring to the game as “Mask of Eternity” - but not really referencing “King’s Quest.” I need to make sure that people who read this understand that this is DEFINITELY a “King’s Quest” game.)"

"Anyway - with Phantasmagoria, we weren’t really creating a new game engine, but we were dealing with a lot of issues concerning integrating video, actors, silicon graphics, blue screen effects, etc. - within our old established adventure game engine. With King’s Quest: Mask we are dealing with a game series which already has an established look and feel, but we are creating a brand new 3D engine to evolve the series and bring it up to the expectations of today’s audience. Both were difficult in their own ways; it’s difficult to say which is/was harder. (None of my games are easy! It seems that each one in its own time was difficult! But…I love a good challenge.)"

"I certainly HOPE it survives in this 3D era - and why shouldn’t it? It’s a 3D game, too! “King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity” is a true 3D, third-person adventure game…with some action elements. It’s very “now.” It definitely has its roots in “King’s Quest,” but it also is new and fresh…the whole look and feel is updated. There is a new character to meet, Connor of Daventry, and you can explore SEVEN beautiful 3D worlds to your heart’s content. We also added some “action” elements to give the game more of a “real-time” feeling and to enhance the 3D experience. You kind of know the story - but there are also lots of puzzles to solve in this game, too. The puzzles fit very well into the 3D aspects of the game." -Roberta Williams, 1998

What is harder or easier to design the physic and logic puzzles for Mask, than it was for puzzles in the old days?


 * "Once you get used to it, it's probably just as easy, but its sort of getting your mind around the idea of designing for more physicality, than before. Everytime I've made changes to how you approach the adventure game, you always have wrap your mind around how to do it. When I designed for parsers, then alot of the way I would design puzzles would be based around the parser, based around being able to communicate through sentences, then when we went to the icon bar, then I needed to, we needed to be a little more creative about designing around the idea of using inventory objects, and do a little bit more, and using visuals on the screen better...But when we get into 3-D, and the objects are really there, in a physical form as far as the computer is concerned, and you can rotate the camera, and look all around it, you can go behind it, objects are inside of them, and look up, climb up, climb down. They could have a solidity to them. So you are able to manipulate objects, much more physical way, and it does require you to think differently as a designer, and I can't say that it was easy at first. I think that I might have stated at one time that three designs were done for this game and the 3rd one, was the one that finally stuck. I think part of the problem was figuring out exactly what to do with 3-d and physicality with adventure games.-Roberta Williams, Talkspot part 2, December 2008.
 * I think just as we went through the puzzle design, and it's always just keep in mind what can we do in 3-d, that couldn't be done in 2-d. How do we really make this a 3-d adventure.-Mark Seibert, Talkspot part 2.
 * Ya, I think a good example might be there is one puzzle, where we, there is a mill house, that's has a water wheel that's on the river, so you walk along the river, and you can see the water wheel is turning, and its being turned by the water in the stream, and you go inside the mill house, there's a turning...mill stone. ...and it's turning and turning, its a big millstone, and up above the millstone is a loft where you can see there is a rope and hook that you want, you know you want to get it, because Connor mentions he might be able to get it. So the only obvious way to get that rope is by jumping onto that mill stone and jumping up again, but everytime he tries, he gets knocked off by this turning mill stone, so he needs to think of a way to stop the mill stone from turning...So anyway you are looking around, and you know you want to get that rope and hook, and try jumping, and you can't do that. There doesn't seem to be any other way inside the Mill House, and be able to get up there, so you go outside, and look around. You can walk all the way around this mill house. You can walk up and down the stream. You can even walk up to that turning water wheel, and get thrown off into the water. But then you notice this tree, and if you click on it, you get sort of a look message, and he says, oh it looks like its leaning over the river. So you can use, get an axe at some point in the game, and he actually chops it down, which causes the tree to fall, and it falls across the river, and it dams it up. Then of course it stops the river from flowing, which stops the water wheel, which stops the millstone inside. So now you can jump up on it, without being knocked off by this turning mill stone, and get your rope and hook. That's an example of using more physicality when it comes to puzzles.-Roberta Williams, Talkspot part 2.

Davidson Associate's involvement
Meanwhile, between September 1996 and January 1997, while Roberta was busy developing Mask of Eternity (with its own series of problems), Roberta apparently found criticism from Bob and Jan Davidson of the parent company Davidson and Associates.

The Davidsons criticized the game based on their religious conservative views felt Roberta and Ken Williams were a corrupting influence on the nation's youth due to her work on Phantasmagoria. They apparently saw Phantasmagoria as immoral and Mask of Eternity as being too violent for the nation's impressionable youth. Not trusting Roberta to make a game that would fall within their standards, they set up their own team (of managers) above Roberta, who developed their own script and puzzles for the game, stripped off the violence and any other themes they felt unfit for the game. They tried to bypass Roberta, ordering Sierra team to make the game their way, and to ignore Roberta (see King's Quest VIII (Davidson & Associates)). Roberta began to feel as if the company wasn't listening to her, and that she had lost all her voice and control. It wasn't until around January 21, 1997 (when the Davidson's left), that she regained enough control back to her version of the game. However the damage by the Davidson's had been done both to time and resources. The game had other sets of problems, due to Dynamix unfinished game engine, and the need for Roberta's team to build one themselves, more time and resources were spent (the game was pushed back several times), and material had to be cut to make the game's final release date.

It is unclear how much the Davidson's had completed on their version of the game, and how much it differed from the released game. But based on the Jan Davidson's complaints it apparently lacked the violence and combat found in the released game, and possibly would have been less religious.

It's possible that some of the Davidsons ideas may have made it into the final project, but this is unclear.

Story Development
Mask of Eternity's storyline went through several phases as the story of the game was developed. Roberta apparently chose Connor, because she felt she couldn't do anything more with the Royal Family, King Graham was getting too old and Alexander was living in the Land of the Green Isles.

Roberta also has said; "The only character from previous King's Quests will be a couple of cameo appearances by King Graham. I felt that it was time to feature a new character to the saga of King's Quest as long as we were updating the whole look and feel of the series."

Roberta has stated that the general idea of the story remained the same throughout the various phases, but that she never really changed her ideas very much (though some material may have been reduced).
 * Were there any other storylines thought about before the current one? Describe a few of them.


 * Not really. The basic idea of a golden, all-powerful, sacred "mask" having something to do with a terrible crisis in the land was pretty much the essence of the story from the very beginning. And having a "normal guy" who lives in the kingdom of Daventry be the one to fix this problem was also part of the storyline. Now, as to exactly who he was, and what exactly he had to do to fix the problem, took a bit longer to figure out. We went back and forth on that one for quite a while!.

Here is a listing of what is known.

'Concept' phase
One of the earliest phases of the game's story (mentioned around late 1995, but may date as early as 1994), 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. The game was primarily going to be in first-person, and switch to 3rd person for cutscenes, and certain puzzle areas.

"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 far as King Graham, Alexander, Valanice, and Rosella are concerned -- they ARE in the game, but they are the poor victims of the evil sorcerer's spell. YOU -- as a 'former' statue-turned-alive-knight -- are the main character of King's Quest 8. You can save the royal family from the evil spell they've been placed under. You -- 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?" -Roberta Williams, late 1995

Later comments in 1998, near the release of the game.

"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.-Roberta Williams, 1998"

...and a comment by Mark Seibert also in 1998, near the release o the game.

"Marble statue... you mean Connor as being the marble statue? You have to excuse me here, this game has gone through so MANY redesigns that I'm not sure which version you're talking about. My guess is that you're talking about when Connor was a one time supposed to be a statue come to life. Well, the story is close to the same, except that Connor is not a statue guy. He's just a guy that lives in Daventry. As for the interesting plot... yes, but I don't want to give it away."

'Mask of Eternity: From the world of King's Quest' phase
During the 1996 stage of development, while Ken was still CEO, Connor became the son of a fisherman of Daventry, and was initially named "Conner" or "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...-Gamespot, May 1, 1996"

Here is a section from an article published in InterAction magazine while Ken Williams was still CEO;

"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.

The Computer Show Preview The Computer Show, volume 8, number 9, September, 1996

The name 'Connor Mac Lyrr', shows up as late as the Spring 1998 issue of Interaction Magazine, by then the game was actually far into the final version of the game (with graphics closer the released version). If it hadn't been dropped by that time, it was dropped not much later.

CGW referred to his name as "Connor Mac Lyrr" (as late as August 1998), but that was published far into the next phase, the 'Connor' phase, after "mac Lyrr" had already been dropped from his name (in other publications). One review claiming his name was 'Connor Ly Marr'

However, in the released game his name had been intentionally shortened, and had no last name nearly up to a year before the game's release. Mark Seibert says the renamed him "Connor" or "Connor of Daventry" to shorten his name. Perhaps to make it closer to single names used by other characters in the series (Graham, Valanice, Gwydion/Alexander & Rosella), which went by their first name, and had the title of "of Daventry" attached.

'King's Quest: Mask of Eternity' 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


 * 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.


 * What happens in the game is that the most sacred, powerful object in the world, the Mask of Eternity, is shattered by an evil magic (really, an evil “sorcerer-type” guy). When this happens, “Truth,” “Light,” and “Order” are banished from the world and all of humanity turns to stone, while all the supernatural creatures of evil and chaos crawl out from the dark nooks and crannies of the world and begin to spread turmoil and upheaval throughout the land. Connor, being the only “human” left (because he found a piece of the Mask - which saved him), is the one who needs to find the remaining pieces of the Mask and then return it to its rightful place…and to destroy the evil “sorcerer” who caused all of this mess in the first place. If or when he does so, he will cause “Truth,” “Light,” and “Order” to be restored to the world…and humanity to come back to life. -Roberta Williams, 1998

Many of the early ideas of elemental realms and divine realms were kept, although folded into existing realms. The swamp was tied to water, Underground Realm was tied to earth, the Barren Region was tied to fire, and Frozen Reaches was still connected to air. The Dimension of Death still maintained some ties to "darkness/moon", and Realm of the Sun maintained its ties to the sun/light (gold is still symbolic of the realm).

World Development
What do you do to design any puzzles for games, what do you do first?
 * "Roberta: Any puzzles? Mark Seibert: Story first. Roberta: Ya st...I think to design puzzles, I do think that puzzles come a little bit later, the very first thing you need to do, is you need your quest, you need your goal, you need to know what it is your doing, and then...what I usually start doing is developing my story to go along with the quest, and I develop my story and the map of the world, synonymously, and the puzzles fit into the story, and you work those in one by one.-Talkspot part 2.

'Concept' phase
There may have been discussion of making one large interconnected world, apparently allowing new areas to load on the fly. The zones apparently would have radiated out from Castle Daventry. This was likely within the "Stone Statue" period or a liminal period between stone statue and 'Connor mac Lyrr' phase.

Note once they started working on the 3space level/model editors, they scrapped this idea, instead choosing to go with Roberta's preferred idea to make a linear world. The 3Space engine would not allow for a fully connected world either, due to palette limitations and level size restraints.

An early making of video included with the Roberta Williams Anthology shows a concept map and brain storm map of Daventry region itself (not necessarily the other levels) during the early design process of the game. The version of Daventry seen in the maps never made it into any engine. It shows Castle daventry in the center, and a few farms surrounding it. The unicorn/ugly beast pond is seen in the top right corner of one of the maps. Readable sections of the map include, "Castle" (with several Rivers flowing from the moat surrounding it). To the northwest of the castle are three bits of text saying, 1. Bull Pen/Milk Barn, 2. Farm House, and 3. Hay Barn. In the northeast is an area marked with "Shallow Pond", and surrounding it, "Unicorn Forest". Scattered around are boxes marked, "cottage".

'Connor mac Lyrr' phase
Articles concerning the game from 1996 to late 1996 (the first true phase). Initial level and character designs were being developed in the 3Space level editor at Sierra's studio. The actual game engine itself was still being developed over at Dynamix. There were are apparently two seperate phases within this stage.

"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.

Roberta's plan was to separated the world into different levels. At least two levels were cut in the final release, in this version is a seaside area, underwater level, and possibly a larger Realm of the Sun, with outside elements. Limitations with the game engine's color palettes, and computer systems at the time, meant that Sierra each level was based of a single theme and palette.

Several of the realms fell into concept of elemental realms, each based on an element theme and a relating metal and race (Earth/Gnomes/Copper, Air/Air Sylphs/Quicksilver, Fire/Salamanders/Iron & Water/Mermaids/Tin), there were to be possibly two "Divine" realms (Sun/Gold & Moon/Silver).


 * "Ya, probably, if we had talked about making it one big world, the thing that really held us back from doing it, was the fact that game was actually palletized, every level was based on a pallete. So we have, you know...the colors in Daventry would be hurt by the colors in the Barrens, which are kinda orange and all that. You have the ice world that's all blue. So, each world has its own little, you know, look and feel which made it alot easier for us to do by separating them out."

-Mark Seibert, Talkspot part 2.
 * "Ya, I think that if you explore one big world, it would get boring after awhile. I always felt the more places and different types of places you can explore is always more fun in the long run."

-Roberta Williams, Talkspot part 2 December 1998.

There were ideas to have seaside and underwater levels (including the Hydra ).

Daventry would have been much larger zone, with villages, forested areas, farms, and rivers. It would have taken place during the day (as opposed to the darkness seen in the current game). The swamp apparently would have been part of Daventry. The alechemist's shop would have apparently served a larger role.

There was apparently going to be a different starting zone near Daventry set by the sea (as Connor was the son of a fisherman), near a seaside tower, in a green hilly area. There was apparently going to be a harbor town. A pub by the harbor (something lived inside of it). There was to be an island with a shed (apparently the home of an "island" King). Connor would have been able to get around the ocean by boat, and possibly use his rope and hook to tie up the boat, and keep it from floating off.

Another removed zone appears to have been set underwater, with seaweed, fish, and ancient ruins, and an Underwater City, the home of mermaids. It would have also included a shipwreck, that may have belonged to ocean going raiders. There were ideas for the player to find a treasure map there, and maybe a shovel that would lead on a treasure hunt to find pearls (initially an amethyst).


 * You talked about a Doom-like sequence, and a shipwreck underwater. Why was there no swimming in Mask?


 * There is are alot of things I wanted to do, and we discussed doing in KQ:MOE, swimming was one of them. Actually I went through three different designs for that game. Three complete designs. The first two got tossed out for various reasons. Probably alot of which I got a little over exuberant in design, then just this was impossible, forget it. The shipwreck and swimming was part of the first two designs, but by the third the which was the one we went with it was gone, and basically it just kinda came down to time and I hate to say that. It was a three year project even so. We were really developing a new technology here, and there were was alot we had to do, and we were pretty much developing from scratch. Just being able to add the routines for swimming and for underwater currents, and all that was just too much for us to do and get a King's Quest game out. It would have been a four year project, instead of a three year project.

-Roberta Williams, Talkspot Part 1, 1998.

Dimension of Death would have been named the Underworld. The art style of the "Underworld" would have been much different, using much more defined Mesopotamian style rather than the current Egyptian/Mesopotamian motif. The player would enter the Underworld by using a rope to climb a rock to the Underworld.

There was to be a Trading Post (likely became the weirding trading post) in the Barrens may have served a larger role, and involved a Bandit. The "Tomb" would have been an area called the Volcanic Hills. The Barrens would have been the home of the Salamander race and the submen.

The Frosty Mountains would have been home to the the race, the "air sylphs" who lived in the ice castle.

There was to be a dark cave/tunnel behind the waterfall, a place called the 'the dark abyss' (another name for the Underworld?). Apparently Paradise Lost was to be a realm of darkness. The player may have been able to use a piece of the mask, "seeing" mask piece, to see in dark areas, including the "utter darkness of Paradise Lost".

The Temple of the Mask would have been the Island Temple implying rather than being in the sky it would have been out at sea somewhere, at least one quote from a magazine implied that it was separate fro the "Celestial Realm". Probably requiring use of the boat to reach it.

Early 'Connor of Daventry' phase
Early on in this phase, Daventry had a darker cloudy sky (rather than the pitch black in the final release).

At this point early 1997 into 1998, the name of the village in the starting area (which made it into the game) would have been known as Daventry (rather than laying "outside Daventry").

"Daventry once bustled as a thriving village under the peaceful rule of King Graham and Queen Valanice. Now, continuous darkness covers the land, vile Goblins and monstrous Spriggans roam about unhampered, and the entire population has been turned to stone. Connor starts his journey here, leaving behind his home in search for the sacred pieces of the Mask of Eternity-MOE website"

The DOD was still known as the Underworld, the river passing through would have been known as the River Styx.

"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.-Official MOE Website"

The Underground, included Gnomes looked more like dwarves.

The Barrens were described as the lands of fire, or hotlands (although hotlands may have been a location within the 'lands of fire'). One interesting thing to note is that land would have had still had dry spiny bramble bushes, giving the land some foliage.

The Frozen Reaches was still known as the Frosty Mountains.(Interaction Magazine, Fall 1997) The land would have still had snow covered pine trees, giving the land a bit more life. Snow Demons at this point in time still had horns.

"The seven worlds are: Daventry, Dimension of Death, the Swamp, the Gnome Underground, the Barrens (A lava region), the Frosty Mountains, and the Realm of the Sun (Where the temple for the Mask resides)." -Mark Seibert, 1998

Late 'Connor of Daventry' phase and release
Information concerning early 1998 until the game's release.

"The design of King’s Quest is not finished…and neither is the dialog. Design doesn’t end with turning in a design document. It’s an ongoing thing. You think of new things; you play portions of the game and see that you need to “add” here, or “take away” there; you adjust various aspects of the game; you add, delete, or change dialog; you add more variety/atmosphere/ambience to the worlds; you change characters or add characters. Also - one of the biggest jobs of the designer is to play test the heck out of the game…right up until the minute it ships. You play it and play it and play it until you think you can’t stand to look at it anymore to find each and every little bug, design problem, graphics/animation problem, sound problem, dialog problem, etc. The designer is there at the very beginning - with the initial concepts - and still there at the bitter end…signing it off for shipment."

Early 'concepts'
There were apparently initial ideas to have seven mask pieces rather than five.

According to an early concept notes, it seems that each piece of the mask of eternity may have had a special ability. For example the "seeing" mask piece would possibly allow the player to see in "dark" areas including, a cave/tunnel behind the waterfall, the dark abyss, and the Paradise Lost (which apparently originally was going to be a place of darkness).

One of the early concepts for the mask portrayed it as a kind of cracked stone mask.

Later design process

 * "The idea I sorta had in the back of my mind in developing this game, its not really heavy, or fleshed out strongly, it was the idea of exploring spirituality a little bit, I don't want to get heavy with this, but the idea of religions maybe, or lightness and darkness, chaos and order, and why people believe the way they do, and I sort of went back to primitive religions, and looking really at all religions, seeing what was some commonalities among them. ...and one of the things I found was the idea of a sun god as either the main god or even the sacred God we all believe in today has even had alot of sun symbology with him...and so I looked back at, like Mesopotamia had their big god, who was a sun god, and he was shown by his symbol was a golden disk with wings. If you look at our mask that we have here, he is golden, and gold has been symbolic of the sun, because it's an incorruptible material, it always shines, it never tarnishes. You can see he sort of has that sun look, the rays are coming out from him. The wings above his eyes came from the old Mesopotamian god, the winged disk...and also the beard comes from the idea of the lion and Leo, and lions have also been associated with God, and sun gods, and the sun in ancient religions, and is also a very powerful male symbol...and so I took those ideas and worked with a very good artist, working for Sierra, by the name of John Shroades, and he, I gave him all those ideas, and I gave him different masks he could look at, and the different symbology of various masks, ancient masks, and he came up with this, and I just think it's a very strong symbol."


 * "ya, and the mask is, I mean really...even the idea of the Mask of Eternity, is a term that means essentially...again it is a reference to sort of a god, or old religions of a god. It is sort of like everybody has their own version of what your god could be or what it could look like or stand for. The image or the mask is each person's version or vision of what it could be. Because you could never really see the face of God."

-Roberta Williams, Talk Spot 2.

Combat
Combat was inspired at least in part by Alexander and Abdul Alhazred's sword fighting in King's Quest 6. Ideas were first introduced during the 'Connor mac Lyrr' phase during 1996, and made it all the way into the final game.


 * The one thing which is quite different from the older “King’s Quest” games is the fact that Connor can fight many of the evil creatures of “chaos” - but, with the good and friendly characters…he is more than a gentleman.

-Roberta Williams, 2008

Early on, there was no combat, or ideas for combat. This quote from Mark Seibert points this out;
 * When we started working on the project, we first started by designing Daventry, and ended up with this huge map, and Connor wandering around this big area, with pretty much nothing to do in between the puzzles, and that in connection with Roberta's story, I started recommending lets add things like combat, and health items, and things like that, to give us more things to fill out the world, and to keep the player involved in between the puzzles. ...and so we came up with this very simplistic combat system that I don't think gets in the way of the story, its a very easy to grasp, click on the guys, until he is dead, Diablo-like combat. I felt it really added to the system."

-Mark Seibert, Talkspot part 2, December 1998.


 * "I have to admit I was a little nervous about it and I never questioned it, I always felt it was the right thing, and I feel time will tell as to how that eventually works out, only I must say by the sales of King's Quest, and by the fact so many people seem to be enjoying it, it must have been the right thing to do. I think combat, got quite a bit of attention and controversy, because they say that's not part of King's Quest, but it certainly can be part of King's Quest, if its a knightly quest, and its good vs. evil, and if it fits into the story, which I think it does very well in this game."

-Roberta Williams, Talkspot Part 1, December 1998.


 * The reason why combat was added, and first of all, I don't think people should take it negatively because combat is definitely can be part of a story, lot of people think combat, that is just an action game, just action. But if you think about some of the great movies that have been out there, some of the great books where combat has been part of it, if you think in terms of adding it to the story, and if it fits very well with the story, then I think it's very appropriate. My idea was I wanted to do a story that was more in like the tradition of the epic games, where you had your true hero that would go out, and think about some of the old legendary figures of King Arthur or Sir Lancelot or Jason and the Golden Fleece. I mean they were all super heroes that would go out and they would fight the monsters and they were working for good. ...and really also if you sorta think about the quest, the quest for faith, or even your inner self. It can be said fighting the monsters, is the same as fighting your own inner demons. But when you think in terms of putting it into the story, fighting chaos, and your trying to set order right, and your fighting evil, I think its very appropriate. How would Star Wars be without Luke Skywalker out there fighting the bad guys.

-Roberta Williams, Talkspot part 2, December 1998.

The above quotes are probably referring to the 'Connor mac Lyrr' phase (as ideas for enemies were already included by then). His quote mentions "Connor wandering around...between the puzzles", it may be mentioning limited use of the 1995 version of the 3Space engine, so actual interactivity was limited (and wouldn't have actually allowed puzzles, but they might have been setting up the locations where the puzzles would have been implemented).

All though game limited game play at this stage at the most, they were coming up with ideas, on how to add combat into the game after Seibert's suggestion. They began designing the enemies which Connor would encounter. These included the snow demons, and the red-cap goblin/leprechaun. "'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.

3-D Game
The decision to make hte game 3-D was Roberta Williams;
 * "Who decided to make Mask of Eternity a 3D game? Were you worried at all about this decision?


 * I did. When I was finishing Phantasmagoria, I knew that KQ8 would be my next project. At that time, several games came out which were 3D. I knew that King's Quest needed a "makeover" if it were to continue as a successful series of games. I made the decision at that time that KQ8 would be 3D. The difficult part would be to determine how King's Quest would become 3D, what technology to use, how it would affect the "King's Quest-ness" of King's Quest, etc. Those have been issues we've been dealing with for about two and a half years now. And ... no, I'm not worried at all about the decision to make King's Quest: Mask of Eternity 3D. In fact, I'm even more sure than ever that it was the right decision to make.


 * What's your favorite feature in Mask of Eternity?

T:here are so many new features in King's Quest: Mask of Eternity; it's hard to choose one. I would say the fact that it's one of the first true 3D adventure games is the most compelling feature of this game. It also has real-time action components to give more interaction and reality to the game. The seven different "worlds" within the game are also very beautiful--and with 3D you can explore them freely. It is very, very immersive.

Encounters
There were several encounters that either discussed or developed in the early stages. Most of these ideas never made it past the concept or 'Connor mac Lyrr' phases and were dropped before the start of the 'Connor of Daventry' phase.

Concept material'

Assorted ideas seen in concept art or mentioned in concept notes (from various phases), most of these never left the concept stage (i.e. no game models were made).

In one of the earliest concepts, there was to be an evil sorcerer that turned everyone into Daventry to stone, and turned a statue to life.(this character evolved into Lucreto)

There is a picture of a dragon (with a little bird on its horn). It's possible that the dragon partially made it into the game, as there is a dragon head inside of Julia's Tavern.

Concept arts show the gryphs appearing more gryphon like, standing on four limbs.

There is also mention of "wood whisps" and hinted that they have a connection to the green man. This seems to have developed into the idea of the Swamp Wisps and King Mudge who have an elemental connection to the Swamp. One of the concept art is of a rather elf like creature (with plant like features), perhaps the "green man" mentioned in concept notes.

It seems that there were to be a few other humans that survived the cataclysm beyond the wizard, including the Alchemist, a hermit, a Bandit, and an "island" King.

There was also ideas to expand the the role of the Alchemist, and/or include a Sphinx, and connect it to a Phoenix's Egg (perhaps indicating the idea of including a phoenix). The Alchemist and his shop were maintained (although he was made one of the victims of the cataclysm, and his shop contained one of the game's side quests, and clues). The idea of the sphinx might have evolved into some of the lion headed (mask of eternity emblazened) riddling doors found in the Realm of the Sun.

There is a concept picture of a large chicken-like bird creature, perhaps a cockatrice or the phoenix.

There was going to be a Bandit in the Barrens that needed to be saved. He may have had a connection to the Trading Post (precursor to the Weirdling trading post). This might have evolved into saving Queen Freesa from the Fire Dwarfs (as seen in the final game).

There was discussion to have a race called the "submen" who would either help the player obtain the fire gems (became the fire gem in the final game), or hinder them for a "fire puzzle"(although this idea was scratched out in the notes). These likely evolved into the fire dwarfs.

There is also discussion of a race called the "air sylphs" who apparently lived in the ice castle (this evolved into two seperate characters, the frost nymphs, and Sylph of Inner Beauty).

There was apparently supposed to be a race of mermaids who lived in the Underwater City.

There was to be a race of salamanders in the barren region.

The wizard apparently would have served a completely different role than he did in the finished game (they hadn't completely fleshed out his role however). According to Mark Seibert, there had been early discussions of Wizard possibly being Crispin from KQ5, but they decided not to make a point of it as the game was developed.

There was apparently going to be an "island" King. Who apparently lived in a shed on a small island in Daventry (some of this probably inspired the Wizard's island).

There was an idea for a hermit who would talk to the player, after he discovered the first mask piece. He would explain things such as about an "island" King, the mask, and other things about the adventure. After the character completed the mask, the hermit would give a key to the Sun Temple. Parts of this seems have been folded into the Wizard (who owns an island in the game, and tells Connor about the mask piece he acquired). It also seems to have inspired the old hermit living in the Underground Realm of the Gnomes who also offers explanations about the mask, and also gives clues to finding the 'Key' to Temple of the Sun (a crystal pyramid).

There were were ideas to give the shipwreck a backstory that it belonged to raiders (vikings? pirates?) who were about to invade Daventry, when they wrecked their ship (hinting that it was probably destroyed during the cataclysm). It's unclear if there were to be survivors encountered by the player.

Castle Daventry would have been fully explorable, and Connor would have apparently been able to encounter not only Graham, but also Valanice, Alexander, and Rosella turned to stone.

'Connnor mac Lyrr' Phase

Originally there was going to be a redcap goblin who was to lurk around the world, and eventually Connor would have to kill him to get by him.

This idea apparently evolved into a Leprechaun inside the Old Castlekeep of Daventry (although its noteable that the Roberta Williams Anthology shows pictures of both). Both ideas were removed before the released version phase of the game (he may have made it in as early as the, "early 'Connor of Daventry' phase?).


 * "Whatever happened to him?...He tries to...he was kinda there, then he wasn't there, then he was there, then he wasn't there, and then his last iteration which also didn't survive, the little redcap goblin turned into a leprechaun that was supposed to be in the castle keep ruins in Daventry, and at the very last minute that also died out unfortunately. So he kinda went through several different versions before we finally decided we weren't going to have him."-Roberta Williams, Talkspot part 2, December 1998.

The Redcap goblin/Leprechaun was apparently transformed into an encounter somewhere near the castle ruins. According to Mark Seibert, the encounter still exists in the game in some form (This is most likely the Boss Spriggan at the top of the ruins, where the Leprechaun would have been found). One bit of trivia one of the files (found in the swamp related subfolders) in the released game is named redcap99.bmp and another red88.bmp, which appear to be a nod to this cut character. Although the image itself appears to be a texture used in the Swamp. It seems that they must have just 'saved over' the original files, and then used the files for something else.

The Swamp Witch's part in the game was originally much larger.


 * "In Daventry there is this Swamp, and there is this Swamp Witch in there, and she kinda looks like a part snake, part alligator, and part mermaid."

-Mark Seibert

She would have been able to change herself into a beautiful woman, to persuade Connor into thinking she was good, and lure her into her castle, before exposing herself, and showing 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. Most if not all info relating to this encounter exists in material relating to the 'Connor mac Lyrr' phase of the game.


 * "Well, it was in the design at one time"-Mark Seibert
 * "The swamp witch turned into a beautiful lady? I don't remember that in the design?-Roberta Williams
 * "Remember in the design, she was going to be like this siren, she was going to be this beautiful woman, that if you followed her up into the top of the tower, she would..."-Mark Seibert.
 * "Oh that's right."-Roberta Williams
 * "That was a long time ago"-Mark Seibert
 * "That was long...that was like two designs before the design that we...I tell you...I didn't remember that, that is amazing...little bit of trivia that is true."-Roberta Williams


 * "Actually I think if we could go back into the design, I think I would advocate doing more with her. I think she was much more fun character. I think I would have liked to have been able to see her inside her castle, and to do some things with her in there. Which we had originally planned, but it's one of those things. It's always painful to see the leftover design that gets left on the cutting room floor, and you just think about that. The Swamp Witch is real fun."-Talkspot Part 2, December 1998.

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 ('Connor mac Lyrr' phase )

A fire breathing hydra, would have been encountered in ocean near the sea-side town (pictures may have been shown as late as 'early 'connor' phase'?).

'Connnor of Daventry' Phase

The gnomes would have looked more like dwarves (early 'Connor of Daventry' phase).

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). Horns were still shown as late as the early 'Connor' phase?

Fire ants went through an even bigger model change, with the original model from the 'Connor mac Lyrr' phase, being completely replaced in the released game.

Full-color graphics for the snow mane exist in the files of the released game, but were not used in the final release. Although the model used in the game appears to be more ratlike (but remains semi-invisible when revealed).

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

Graphics for a red eyed variation of skeleton enemies could be found in the files of the released 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 the skelking that guards the Bridge of Life).

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

Items
Silver currency was going to be an extra currency in the game, during the 'Connor mac Lyrr' phase. While it didn't make it into the final release, it is possible to access the silver through an in-game cheat, although it serves no use. The money would have been kept in a pouch.

There would have been a treasure map which lead to pearls (or amethyst), and a shovel to dig the treasure up.

The rope and hook may have served roles such as climbing down a rock into the Underworld (this evolved into using it to climb into the church, to open the entrance of the mausoleum where the Underworld entrance was located) or tieing a boat to the shore so it wouldn't float away.

There was apparently going to be a crown as well.

Each of the mask pieces apparently had an ability, such as the "seeing" mask piece (for seeing into "dark" places).

The player character would have apparently not found one but several Fire Gems.

The slingshot would have apparently been one of the projectile weapons. Maybe one of the earliest projectile waeapons in the game.

In one image, there appears to be what looks like a tin can as an inventory item as well.

There is artwork for an inventory item called a ClockShaft in the game. This was presumably for some kind of clock puzzle.

There is also artwork for the inventory for the AntiPoisonFlower. In the game, Conner eats the flower, and never holds it as an item.

Lands
Both a sea side area, and an undersea levels never made it into the game.

Connor became a tanner, and was moved inland to a small village.

Castle Daventry was reduced in scope, and most of the castle was 'blocked off'.

Paradise Lost was turned from a land of utter darkness into a lost paradise close to the Realm of the Sun. An outside levels showing the floating rocks of the Realm of the Sun didn't make it into the final game.

The 'black Abyss' is the swirly pink and dark vortex realm seen at the end of the game (that either Lucreto or Connor can be sucked into). It was likely inspired by the idea of the 'the dark abyss' a land of darkness from the early concepts. The Abyss is mentioned by the Archons & in the debug console in the released game. Lucreto is ultimately banished and vanquished in Abyss. In the early notes it is unclear if the Abyss was meant to be the Dimension of Death, the old idea for the dark 'Paradise Lost' or a separate place altogether (perhaps even an underwater abyss). A version of Abyss would have apparently been visited in the early concepts of the game (if it was an original location, perhaps Lucreto would have banished Connor there, forcing him to have to find a way to escape).

Temple of the Sun was moved from being an island in the sea, to a floating temple in the sky.

The finalized world map also seems to show an area that is never colored in throughout the course of a game. The area appears to be a forested riverland area with a large forked river passing through it. It is unclear if this area was intended to be a level of its own or not.

Talkspot Interviews
The three part, Talkspot radio interviews made several weeks/months after the release of Mask of Eternity. Discussing the success of the game, and the design of the King's Quest Series, and King's Quest: Mask of Eternity in general: What is your favorite games?
 * Mask of Eternity Talkspot 1/3


 * Oh gosh, My favorites are...obviously the latest one I just did, I gotta mention that one, King's Quest: Mask of Eternity. Beyond that, Phantasmagoria, I really just enjoyed working on that. King's Quest V, King's Quest 4, and The Colonel's Bequest. If I had to name any of them those would be them."

What characters of yours would you license to another company?


 * "Well, right now I'd have to say Connor, from the Mask of Eternity, because he's the latest and greatest. You know, I really really like him, and I think he's a great guy, as far as guys go, he's a great guy, and a great character."

-Roberta Williams


 * Mask of Eternity Talkspot 2/3
 * "Ya, my favorite spot is, there is this place where you can get inside Castle Daventry, and it's the dining room and throne room, where you can see the pictures of King Graham and Queen Valanice and then also the Magic Mirror, which reminds me of the Older Games, so that's my favorite place."-Roberta Williams


 * Ya, I like the pictures of Graham and Valanice in the castle, because we actually went back to the original paintings from KQ5, and scanned them in, that was kinda fun. Personally, I like the ruins, the castle ruins, because their kinda fun, and there are a few trick traps there, that are kinda fun to play with.

-Mark Seibert


 * "Ahem, and you can get some good views from there also"

-Roberta Williams
 * "...and there is a little secret place you can find, and get a stash of cash...behind an illusionary wall."

-Mark Seibert Asks the questions why only five pieces of the mask instead of seven. What did end up on the cutting room floor? What are the easter eggs in the last three worlds? More on how Sierra's deadline affected the game. Roberta's involvement in the game and controversies in the development process.
 * Mask of Eternity Talkspot 3/3 File Wanted

Information from Roberta Williams
Here is a post from Roberta Williams about MoE. It can be found on the MoE forum.

July 7, 1997:

I have been reading with interest all of the various comments that everybody has had about KQ8 (Mask of Eternity). I find it interesting that everybody has their own ideas about what King's Quest IS. And everybody seems to have a bit different idea. It seems, on this board, anyway, that quite a few people have the idea that King's Quest is (or should be) non-violent...no ifs, ands, or buts about it. And it must be cute, funny, have fairytales in it, and have lots of puzzles and inventory objects. First of all, I have to say that King's Quest comes from ME and each one is different and has its own flavor. Some have a darker tone, and others have a lighter tone. Some touch upon violence, and some don't. King's Quest reflects the mood that I am in when I go to tackle another one.

King's Quest really is a reflection of me and how I'm feeling about the subject and upon the reference material I am using and how I approach the subject. Basically, King's Quest comes from me and my heart and it always isn't going to be exactly the same, because I'm not always exactly the same, and I, like most people, feel a need for a change of pace and a sense of moving forward and of trying and experiencing something new. With KQ7, I was in a "Disney-esque" mood. Some people really liked it, others didn't. Earlier King's Quest's reflected my moods during those times: KQ3 was very dark, and it utilized lots of magic and magic spells with the basic idea of finding ingredients for "black magic" spells and then casting those spells. (Certain religious groups were upset with me over that one!) KQ1 certainly had violence. Sir Graham had a dagger and could kill the dragon (and it didn't get you "stuck," by the way, if you did so), and you could also kill the goat. It's true that I also had non-violent ways of dealing with those situations, but, that's because I chose to handle it that way for that particular game. I've gotten into trouble over the years for all the various ways that my main characters can "die." And they die a lot! I am known for changing course a lot, and changing my style a lot. I like change, and I like to keep people guessing. KQ7 felt very Disney-esque, and I felt like doing something different for KQ8 but yet, still keeping a "King's Quest" feel to the game. Each game in the King's Quest family has been different. Almost each time I do a new King's Quest, people get up in arms and say it's going to be "different" and won't feel right. Yet, each time, it DOES wind up feeling like King's Quest but each in its own way...and people just kind of KNOW that when they are playing it.

That's because I know, in my heart, and what I am feeling, that it is, indeed, King's Quest. The components that make a King's Quest are (in my mind, anyway and since I am the creator of the series, I guess that holds some weight): A land, or lands, of high fantasy; fantasy creatures from myth, legends, and/or fairytales both good and bad; situations to be found in those same types of stories; a "quest" type story; a calamity in the land with one "hero" to "save the kingdom"; a story of the "good" hero against the "evil" bad guy; a story that everyone can relate to, i.e., a "reason" for having the hero go out and risk his or her life for "saving the kingdom"; interesting worlds to explore; high interactivity; interesting characters; great animation; great visuals and music. Within that general framework, I feel that I can have some "leeway" to accomplish those tasks. In the case of KQ8 I chose to give this game more of a "Tolkien-esque" feel rather than a "Disney-esque" feel. But each of the above elements is true for KQ8 as they were for KQ1 through 7. KQ8 indeed has a story, actually, a much more profound story than prior King's Quests. It is a new telling of the ultimate "quest" the quest for the most powerful, spiritual, benevolent item of all; the Mask of Eternity. This story takes its cue from two sources: the Quest for the Grail, and the Christian story of the struggle between God and Lucifer. When we say that the story is very dark that's really not true; it's just that the story is more profound and seriously looks at the struggle between good and evil. Rather than taking a bubbly, Disney view of good and evil, I chose to look at the struggle between good and evil from a more serious, traditional, almost spiritual, viewpoint. If you look at the traditional stories of the Grail and even in past Christian legend, you find that it is not light-hearted, gooey, and bubbly. Those stories are filled with conflict, peril, finding ones own morality, proving oneself a hero by overcoming evil creatures of Chaos, but yet proving oneself virtuous and good with all things good. That is the theme with this game. Connor is indeed a new character within the world of Daventry. Currently, he has no connection to King Graham and his family, but that doesn't mean that King Graham is not aware of him...and what he's going to do to help Daventry. This is, instead, a story of Connor and a story of how one young man of "common" background can rise to the situation and prove himself to be the true hero which can save the world. It is the traditional story of the young "initiate" who becomes stronger through proving his mettle, his virtue, surviving perils, overcoming evil and in the end can even conquer the ultimate evil. By doing so, he will restore the land and all of the people, and good creatures and animals within it. The Mask of Eternity is the "key." It is the source of all Power, all Order, all Truth, and all Light. It belongs in its place in the "Realm of the Sun." It has been broken into five pieces and distributed throughout the world. A mysterious evil (guy) has destroyed it and taken over the Realm of the Sun. Darkness has now settled over the land and all people (mortals) have been turned to stone, while creatures of darkness have risen from the very cracks and crevices of the earth at the instigation of this evil guy. Now Chaos reigns in all the various regions of the world: In Daventry (where all people have been turned to stone, including King Graham and his family); in the Dimension of Death (where even the Judge of the Dead has lost control of his guards and the souls); in the swamp (where the evil swamp witch has poisoned the swamp water and has all the good swamp creatures in her thrall); in the underground Realm of the Gnomes (where the industrious gnomes are willing to sell you items to help in your quest, but have also lost some control to the rock demons and an evil dragon); in the Barrens (where the trading post dwarfling has lost his "business" to the predations of an evil basilisk and the savagemen block your way to the Frosty Mountains); in the Frosty Mountains (where travel is impossible without the commandeering the controls of a flying crystal dragon, and the snow nymphs need relief from the evil Ice Lord); and finally in the Realm of the Sun (where the bad guy has taken over the domain of the Archons and the Mask of Eternity....this bad guy, the ultimate source of the terrible evil and darkness which has overcome the world). Connor must overcome all of these problems while recovering the pieces of the Mask and returning the Mask (in whole) back to its realm to its altar. Not until it has been returned will green and light return to the world. Not until then will the Realm of the Sun "shine" again and the waters flow.... I feel very proud of this game and the story which goes with it. Do NOT gain any preconceived ideas which may be wrong about this game from some preliminary screen shots which you will see at this early date. As time goes on we will supply you with more screen shots which will show other aspects of this game which are not "fighting" oriented. The reason it appears that this game is all about that is because we have not ever done a game which has that element so we're concentrating on that element right now. The other elements; the story elements, the character elements, the animation elements, the inventory object elements, the puzzle elements...are all stuff we've done before and will be much easier for us to put in place....we just haven't done those yet.....therefore, you're getting a skewed view of this game which is WRONG. I plan on keeping in touch with everyone and endeavoring to answer questions. I will try to check in a couple of times a week. Thanks for your patience in reading through my long-winded explanation of KQ8. Hopefully, this will have helped answer any nagging questions about "Mask of Eternity."


 * Williams defended her strategy [for inserting action and combat], saying it was time to introduce something different.

``It appeared that adventure games were just dying,'' she said. ``It just appeared that no one wanted adventure games anymore. ... I needed to do something strong and relatively risky in order to get it back.'' 

In Newsweek
March 1997;
 * I've always felt that the adventure-game genre was sort of mine. Other people have dealt with it and been very successful, but most times I was able to define where the genre would go next. With my next game, Mask of Eternity--we're trying to have it out by Christmas--I'm hoping that what I'm doing now is the beginning of the final answer


 * Is this the next King's Quest?


 * Yes. In all the previous games we explored a script-oriented approach to telling people an interactive story. I always felt like every game I did would have a more intricate story, a richer feel, more characterization, more music. But I think I went as far as you can go with the story approach and still be a game. If you go any further, you go into moviedom. I hit a wall.


 * I'm totally backing off that. I think the true right answer is to give people the widest possible means of exploring that you can get. So in this new game I'm trying out 3-D worlds, new worlds where players can venture anywhere they want to go. But in order to accommodate this total freedom in exploration, I have to back off the story and go more free-form. It's the hardest project I've ever worked on.


 * Why is it so hard?


 * How can we do it and still keep somewhat of a semblance of a story going? What technology do we use? In Phantasmagoria I used almost 3,000 pictures, and each one was as pretty as I could possibly make it. But now we want people to explore, to see what's there all around them. I can do that, but the pictures won't be as pretty. Right now computers can't handle that. But my dream is that what we're working on now will be the kernel of what people will be playing 17 years from now.



The Woman Behind the Mask: A Q&A with pioneer game designer Roberta Williams
Conducted by Eric Twelker, summer 1998

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.

Roberta Speaks Out
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.

Roberta Williams Interview 2006
Roberta has said a few things about KQ8 and the RPG aspects in hindsight, that while she thought they were good ideas when she was making them and during its release, her views have changed over time.


 * When discussing the transition from 2D to 3D for King's Quest VIII: Mask of Eternity, I can only say that we were on to the right idea of switching to 3D. However, the implementation was not exactly correct. In 20/20 hindsight, I would have omitted the RPG (role-playing) aspects and would have stuck with more traditional adventure game elements. I would have thought more in terms of physical puzzles that could be done better in 3D than in 2D, but, still, I wouldn't have changed the game so dramatically just because I was switching from 2D to 3D. But, what do they say about 20/20 hindsight?

-Roberta Williams, 2006

Roberta Williams speaks out (2011)
Ken Williams passed along a message from Roberta, regarding the problems caused by the Davidsons.
 * "Davidsons ‘killing’ Phantasmagoria as it was still going strong: True.


 * Two teams working on KQ8 at the same time: Partially true. There really was only one team, but I was assigned several ‘managers’ to work above me and those managers were told to not really listen to me and do things their way (presumably, Davidsons’ way?). Hence, the frustration on my part and the fact that KQ8 suffered as a result.


 * Roberta Williams"

Comments during development and near the release
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

December 1998; What would the game have lost the most if you had made in the KQ7 style?
 * "I think the ambience, I think the game has a wonderful mood to it, it's kinda of dark and mysterious and look of the screen and the music and the sound effects just make for a wonderful experience. I don't think it would have gotten the same experience from cartoon animation."

-Mark Seibert, Talkspot Part 2.

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.

Another interview with Mark Seibert from 1998;


 * Roberta is great to work with. Since she has a winning track record here at Sierra, her projects are given more freedom to experiment. In addition, she seems to feel very comfortable to have everyone on the team give input to the project. On her projects we've tried to make it a very creative and open environment for the team.

Comments made long after the release
These comments were made long after Mask of Eternity's release and may suffer from 20/20 hindsight and changes in opinion (some of the comments may have descrepencies with earlier quotes made by Roberta Williams, information from interviews, as well as information from early published development material).


 * 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.”

-Mark Seibert, March 11, 2006.


 * Well, Graham seems to be putting on the years, but is certainly not ancient yet. So it must be within only a few as he would otherwise be much older."

-Mark Seibert, July 7, 2010


 * "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, March 11, 2006.

Comments made during development.
"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


 * KQ8 will be 3d ... the design goal was to be 1/2 Super Mario 64 and 1/2
 * Kings Quest. The characters are 99% new, although the setting is still
 * Daventry. There is a bunch about the game in InterAction, and also, if
 * you can, try to see the video that is on the Roberta Williams Anthology
 * CD. It shows some of KQ8, but most interesting is hearing Roberta talk
 * about the game. I'm hoping I can think of a way to get the video into
 * wide distribution -- for people that already own most of Roberta's games
 * it isn't worth buying the anthology just to see the video -- but, it is
 * definitely worth seeing.


 * Thanks - Ken (December 3, 1996)

Chris Matthews quoting his dad's thoughts in spring 1997 on why King's Quest had to evolve in the market (Interaction, Spring 1997);


 * "The traditional adventure game is dead."...it's time to change adventure games at least as much as the gamers themselves have changed over the last few years. It's time to make them "less pretentious. More open-ended, faster paced, and just more fun to play than they have been." After all..., "what's the use of creating these super-serious, overly literary, and downright studious games when the major audience that will play them played a Nintendo or a Sega last year? These folks are used to playing games where the correct answer to any problem might be jumping over something, hitting it with a hammer, or maybe even shooting it with a big bazooka. Why hassle through all the literary pretense when most of today's gamers just want to blow something up."

Information from Ken Williams made long after the game's release
Information from Ken Williams, note may suffer from 20/20 hindsight and personal opinion (it may not fit in with quotes made by Roberta in interviews and other published sources), or opinions that have changed over time.

Note: There are some descrepencies between the timing that Ken Williams claims he left the company, and when sources such as Interaction magazine, and interviews of the time show he was still working at Sierra up until November 1997. The exact details of this may never be known. Most of these comments regards the problems caused to Mask of Eternity between September 1996 and Januarry 21 1997, when Bob Davidson set a team managers to control the development of KQ8 were ordered to ignore Roberta's ideas (Ken was still very much at Sierra during this time, but had a reduced position).

From a comment from apost at Sierragamers, made in 200?;
 * KQ8 is a wild story.


 * KQ8 was in development at the same time that the company was sold. Basically, Sierra went through changes during the development of the game, and those changes are reflected in the game. During the first half of the game, I was the CEO - during the last half of the game my status shifted to "reasonably nice guy who used to work here". My way of doing things was different than the new way of doing things.


 * My #1 issue was always to maintain the "clarity of vision" of the game designer. A Sierra project, like KQ8, has nearly a hundred highly creative people on it. Many of these people were working at Sierra because they wanted their shot to be a game designer. It was not uncommon for everyone on a project to seek opportunities to "put their mark" on the game. This is a delicate issue. I recruited people who could be designers, and I was a huge supporter of creativity. Roberta wanted ideas from the team, but at some point, if you accept too many ideas, the product can become a muddy mess. There were dozens of people on KQ8 who could have been the designer, any of which would have made a great designer. But, unfortunately, if this tendency, on the part of developers, to add their creativity to a product, isn't carefully controlled, the product starts to veer into "design by committee". Roberta had her vision for the product, as did almost every person on the project.


 * When I lost control of Sierra, Roberta's ability to maintain her control over KQ8 was also eroded. The product that shipped is very different than what would have shipped had the company not been sold.


 * There was another issue at work on KQ8. Roberta is a perfectionist (I'm guilty of the same sin). Whenever she would play the game, she would turn in lists of hundreds of "bugs". Perfectionist can be a pseudonym for nit-picker. When a development team gets a long list, the natural tendency can be to look at some bugs as nit-picky. I always supported my designers. I wouldn't let a game go until the designer was happy (with a couple of exceptions that I regretted later), even when it seemed like we were spending lots of money to fix stuff no one cared about. It was critical to me that the game our customers played represented the game our designer wanted produced. When I left Sierra, Roberta's ability to get bugs fixed diminished.


 * Ultimately, the last year of KQ8 development was a tough one for Roberta. For a long time, she refused to let the game ship and there was threatened litigation floating around.


 * This is not to say that the game that shipped isn't a good game. Roberta was reasonably happy with it at the end - but, it reflected a much wider product vision, than Robertas alone. People other than Roberta influenced its development, in a greater capacity than in her previous products. There will be some gamers who see the change as positive, and some who wanted a Roberta product more consistent with her prior products.


 * There is an example I used to use on this point. One of my favorite authors is: Steven King. I also like Peter Straub. Each alone is a bestselling (mega-selling in Kings case) author. They cowrote a book; the Talisman, which bombed. Either alone could have sold plenty of copies, but together, the whole becomes less than the parts. KQ8 had wonderful people on it. This message should not be construed as being derogatory to anyone (other than that I am definitely critical of the management changes that took place.) My belief is that if the new owners had taken a couple of days to ask about "what made Sierra special" in the days after acquiring it (they could have asked me, or better yet, its customers) before dramatically changing things, things would have gone a lot smoother in the transition.


 * -Ken W

Ken Williams at The Silver Lining forums, 2010;
 * As was pointed out, MOE had a very different flavor from the earlier Kings Quest games. The 'rest of the story' is that it was developed after I left Sierra, and that there were multiple opinions as to what the game should be. When I was running the company, these differences were not an issue, because everyone knew my position on the matter. I always felt that a game is like a book, and that there should only be one author, or one creative vision, for the product, and that the game needs to sink or swim with a single vision. It was Roberta's game, and needed to be her vision. Typically, on a game, there are 100s of people, and most of them are 'wanna be’ game designers. They look for every opportunity to show off their creativity, and prove to the world that they should be the next hot designer. I understand and respect this, but it really just screws up the product. I would argue that if you were to publish a book, with the top 200 authors who ever lived each writing one page, it might have good press value, but would be an unreadable book.


 * With me gone from Sierra, Roberta's ability to force the project to be her vision, alone, was compromised. It suddenly became a group effort, with lots of smart people each having their own ideas. Sierra hired only the best, so they weren't bad ideas, but they weren't Roberta's ideas. The game became a mish mash of lots of people's good ideas, but clearly not a Roberta game. There was even a period where Sierra wanted to release the game, and Roberta wouldn’t allow her name on it. After a bunch of negotiation, and changes to the product, to mosey it back towards what she designed, it did finally release.

However, it should be pointed out that based on material predating the Ken's leaving Sierra, the ideas that made it into the final game, are essentially the same ideas from the outset when Ken was still the owner and CEO of Sierra On-line. That is from the beginning when Roberta first announced the game, the game included ideas such as combat, action, and platforming elements. Early articles discuss how there was inspiration taken from sources such as Doom, Duke Nukem, Tomb Raider and Mario 64. Even Ken in his own words said that the Adventure game was dead, and according to his son, Chris Williams, paraphrasing him, they would have to evolve into something else to stay around, something that would keep the audience attention, as they were moving towards arcade games and video games such as Sega and Nintendo. These ideas survived into the final released game. The Roberta William's Anthology (1996) even included a video of work in progress material from KQ6 that showed enemies were being designed for the game before CUC even came into the picture.

Ironically, the biggest critics of the games violence came from the Suits in the parent company CUC and Davidsons & Associates who went about trying to create their own non-violent sanitized version of the game using Roberta's team (between 1996-1997) (see King's Quest VIII (Davidson & Associates)). So developmental problems from the suits, had more to do with the suits trying to censor and sanitize the game of violence (contrary to popular belief they were not the ones advocating the violence in the game). It was that problem, and there attempts to make there own game that made Roberta feel as if she lost control over the game, and refusing to include her name. Though in the end, even though she reasserted control, pushed her version through (mostly intact), the Davidson's competition certainly was one of many aspects of development that hurt the finalized version of KQ8 (beyond the technical issues).

In 2003, Ken reassured that the direction Roberta took with KQ8 was the right thing to do for genre to evolve and survive, the future of the genre needed to be neither 'action' but neither include traditional puzzles either (but involve greater direct interactivity with the world, more randomized with characters with Artificial Intelligence);


 * Ken: "The adventure game needs to be re-invented to succeed. Doing more of the same with a new plot wouldn't cut it, beyond selling a few Sierra fans. My #1 skill at Sierra was in pushing people to innovate. There is too much copycatting in the industry today. No one has the courage to do something completely different. I don't think Sierra (or, anyone) will do an adventure game anytime soon. If they do something like what Sierra did, it will be at best a mediocre success. My guess is that companies no this, but no one wants to go out on a limb with something completely different."


 * "Imagine Super Mario quality animation, and the ability to interact with the world, but with realistic characters, and mature plots. But, a story game - not a action game, and not a puzzle game. Focus on characters and plot. That said, I would launch two different projects to reinvent the market, and my second idea might be the bigger one.


 * I like the idea of where infocom was going. There were the inklings of an idea in their text games - which was to focus on artificial intelligence. If the same effort were coupled with todays computers - perhaps a game could be built that is a VERY accurate simulation. I like the idea of an environment with unpredictable characters. The problem with multi-player is that most people don't like multi-player environments. I think that through having truly smart NPCs, something that could be done that gives the best of both worlds; single and multi-player games. If I personally did a game, this is the area I would focus on. The problem is that games become puzzle games at some point. It's the player versus the traps left by the designer. I have a lot of ideas on how to build credible intelligent characters."


 * "I always thought the future of storytelling was on the computer. I predicted that computer games would be bigger than films, and still believe there is huge potential with story-telling games - if done correctly. Watching a story from the inside is more exciting than from the outside. Phantasmagoria was a first step towards where I thought the future was. It's disappointing that we blew it with Phantasmagoria II and shot the category."


 * "By the way: I always hated the word "adventure game". Phantasmagoria was a horror game. It worked when it scared you, and didn't when it felt like a "puzzle" or "adventure" game. Larry worked when you laughed. It was a "comedy" game. It didn't work when it felt like an "adventure" game. Decide the emotion you are going for; tears, laughter, fear, etc - and go for it. Do what makes the emotion, and blow off the rest. In some cases my own designers forgot the rule, and those were the weak parts of the games."

Ken admitted had he continued Sierra would have stopped producing 'adventure games' (at least in the traditional sense altogether);


 * By the time Sierra was sold, it was mostly a non-game company. In about 1990 I made the decision to focus away from games. This came about as a result of a discussion with Bill Gates himself. It's a bit of a long story, but we had been talking about Sierra and Microsoft doing a project together when I got bold enough to ask Bill if he would ever consider buying Sierra (I had always had tremendous respect for Microsoft, and would have teamed up with them in a minute). His answer changed Sierra's future.


 * People at Sierra remember this meeting well, because I came back and changed the company dramatically. Bill said that he had just noted the bankruptcy of United Artists. His contention was that they were in a hit driven business, and that ultimately in a hit driven business you run into a time of no hits. Sierra lived and died with the best seller charts. Fortunately, the charts were very good to us, but Bill's contention was they had also been good to United Artists. Ultimately, you run out of hits and die. It might take a hundred years, as was the case with United Artists, but it always happens. My goal with Sierra was to create a company that would live forever. I didn't want to be a "hit machine".


 * I set a new goal for Sierra to exit the hit business, and reorganized the company around a new vision to be 1/3rd education, 1/3rd productivity and 1/3rd perennial products. The first two categories should be obvious, but the last needs some explaining. My goal was to find products that could be "rev'ed" each year, such as Microsoft's Flight Simulator, or Electronic Arts Madden Football. I wanted to find an array of products that could be done better each year. Flight (and other) Simulators fit this category, as did construction sets. Products like Caesar fit this definition. The Incredible Machine.


 * By the time the company was sold, I had about 80-90% of revenue that matched my vision. It's not clear that I would have continued in adventure games at all. My guess is that this vision won't make me popular with adventure gamers, but it was working. My focus was on building a company that would live forever. The new owners had different ideas and scrapped many products I considered key to this vision. I wish they had at least asked where I was trying to steer the company."

Assorted Articles

 * Gamespot preview (discusses an early version of the KQ story, 20 year old Connor, mask breaking at the time of his birth)
 * Gamespot May 1996 preview
 * Inquisition 2000 (Spring 1997)
 * Gamespot Roberta interview, Feb 1999

Making of Mask of Eternity
Two videos; The first is from 1996, and the second is from mid-1997. FOPd_wVpuqI SoWFtF3kMxk

Credits
Credits Team Mask

Designer/Writer Roberta Williams

Producer/Director/Co-Designer Mark Seibert

Art Director Jason Piel

Animation Director Jason Zayas

Programmers Adam Szofran Alan Clark David Wenger Jeff Orkin Jeff Pobst Jim Edwards John McKinnie Scott Bodenbender 3D Artists Barry Sundt Bob Munsil William Todd Bryan

Animators Ethan Walker John Piel Marc Vulcano Ray Bornstein

Quality Assurance Lead Jennifer Keenan

Sound FX & Additional Music Ben Houge

Additional help from: Al Eufrasio John Shroades Layne Gifford Mark Martino Mikhail Agadzhanov Rob Kenny Steve Conrad William O’Brien

Additional Credits

Voice Director Roberta Williams Mark Seibert

Voice Casting Roberta Williams Mark Seibert

Voice Auditions VoiceCaster Burbank, CA

Voice Recording Hollywood Recording Services

Voice Recording Engineer Mark Howlett

DREAMS Software Specialist Ben Houge

Original Music Composed & Performed By Kevin Manthei Ben Houge Mark Seibert

Opening, Closing and Flight to Temple Movies Digital Post Graphics Seattle, WA 39

Packaging Dan Amdur Jim Veevert

Documentation Mark Seibert Cheryl Sweeney Roberta Williams

Quality Assurance Manager: Gary Stevens

Assistant Manager: Ken Eaton

Lead: Bernadette Pryor

Engineer: Erinn Hamilton

PC Technician: Pat Callahan

Compatibility: Byron Hummel

Analysts: Ishmael Burns, Julie Bazuzi, Marc Nagel, Kate Powell, Noel Prude

Beta Testers Kate Ashley, Chris Canavan, Alan Chan, Lars Christen, Robert Glover, Mark Goodman, Chris Kateff, Geoff Keighley, Noah Koontz, Linda Lindley, Wes Litt, Tom Marley, Sherry Marshall, Steve Martin, Jeff Miller, Michael O’Brien, Michael Piontek, Della Rodgers, Mike Shavelson, Charles Solen, Corey Vanderlaan, Robin Ward, Stuart Young Special Thanks To Mark Hood, Scott Lynch, Jim Murphy, Zippy the Incredibly Inflatable Spitting Wonder Llama, The World Famous Talking Bear, --and all the moms, dads, husbands, wives, girlfriends, boy friends, & significant others without whom this game would have been completed months earlier.

Cast
Cast
 * Ben Houge Ferryman, Skeletons
 * Bill Farmer Weirdling tradesman, King Gryph
 * Daran Norris King Graham, Weapon Seller Gnome, Ice Lord (Thork)
 * Jan Rabson Crystal Mystic, Henchman
 * Jennifer Darling Swamp Wisp, Lady of the Lake, Unicorn/Ugly beast
 * Jim Ward Unseen Voice, Armor Seller Gnome, Hillman
 * Kevin Richardson Prophet Tree, Lord Azriel, Lucreto
 * Kirsten Seibert Gwennie
 * Mary Kay Bergman Swamp Witch, Apothecary Gnome
 * Neil Ross Spirit Knight, Archon, Wizard
 * Nick Jameson Daventry Official, Sage Gnome
 * Philece Sampler Swamp Wisp, Queen Freesa
 * Richard Horvitz Swamp Wisp, Ice Orc Foot Soldier, Skeleton
 * Scott Bullock Connor, King Mudge
 * Tasia Valenza Sylph, Sarah

Several characters are unclear, perhaps unlisted (or listed under an alternate name)... These include the Old Man/Hermit (and his younger counterpart) in the Gnome Realm, the mining Gnomes, the Fire Dwarves, the Crystal Dragon, Hector, Snow Nymphs, Gryphs, Weirdling Shaman, Gwennie's brother, Whispering Weeds, and perhaps a few others.

The Crystal Mystic could be either Hector or the Old Man/Ancient (or perhaps all three).

Miscellaneous

 * The shape of Castle Daventry's throne room was due to limitations in the game engine at the time. It was simplified to work within the game engine. It also directly referenced the appearance of the throne room as seen in a picture in the The King's Quest Companion, 3rd Edition.
 * Before KQ8 was released, there were some fans complaining about the series, claiming that it was "getting old", and wonder if Roberta would create a new series instead. Roberta disagreed.
 * After eight games, don't you think the King's Quest series is getting a bit old? Will you ever consider starting a brand-new series from scratch with an entirely different and original plot and characters? If so, what technologies will this game use?


 * Let's wait to answer that question after King's Quest: Mask of Eternity has shipped. I think you will find that we were very successful in breathing new life into a series which could be construed as "getting a bit old." It is totally a breath of fresh air. It is like nothing else but yet feels very much like King's Quest. We may have accomplished the "impossible." I truly believe that this newest, latest iteration of King's Quest will be the best-selling yet! As far as starting a brand-new series from scratch with an entirely different and original plot and characters: I've done that many times in my career, and in the future ... who knows?