Rumor Mill

HFARDII IN lilt HALLWAY

It's Wintertime. Unlike what yon might expect from a "California-based" software company, outdoors we have ice, snow, and sub-freezing temperatures. For the numerous programmers, musicians, artists and animators of the company — most of whom hail from sun-soaked Southern California — leaving nice warm beds each morning to come to work can be something of an unwelcome challenge. Though it is cold and miserable outside, inside the building the atmosphere is quite different. The many games of Christmas 1993 are complete. The new games that players will find under their Christmas trees in 1994 are just getting underway. The artists and programmers, who just a few short weeks ago were in "crunch mode" to get their products out for last Christmas, are more rested and ready to get back to work. The game designers and art directors are full of new ideas and new energy. It may be the dead of Winter outside, but inside of Sierra it is the Springtime of renewal.

Sierra Brand

It's a great time to be an observer here at the development offices of Sierra. A good time to "take the temperature" of the staff and gain an understanding of what current goals and philosophies prevail amongst the game designers. Will 1994 products be tainted by the "Hollywood thinking" that puts so much emphasis on animation and music that sometimes the presentation seems to come at the expense of the game play? Will it be a year where the words "mass market" hang heavy in the air, which can inevitably lead to games that are so easy as to alienate veteran adventure

game players by pandering to the needs of beginning adventurer? Will the spirit of creative freedom and "trying something new" that launched the development of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers and the soon-to-be-released Outpost prevail? Kach January, I and others around the company start the designer watch, putting our figurative wet fingers in the air to see exactly which way the creative winds will blow in the year ahead.

Admittedly, this was a tougher year than most to gauge designer opinion. Roberta Williams, always a major influence in designer doings, is now located in Seattle, Washington and her two games in development (King's Quest VII and Phantasmagoria) are both being done on a "closed set." Her influence in game design was somewhat muted this year, and it is likely that her games will have a very different look and feel than others from Sierra in 1994. The rumors abound that not only is Roberta going to full-motion video and a dark, mature theme with Phantasmagoria (which will make it a unique game already) but that both King's Quest VII and Phantas- magoria will do away with the Icon Bar interface and other trademarks of the Sierra Adventure game that she herself worked to pioneer. Any other in- formation regarding Roberta's activities remains a mystery to this reporter, but I can tell you about what's going on here in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Meanwhile, Back in Oakhurst...