Heck of a way to get back in the game.
It’s entirely possible that there are people reading this who have no idea who Ken and Roberta Williams are. But back in the day, they were Adventure Game royalty, back when that was an actual thin. Their company, Sierra On-Line, had some serious IP; King’s Quest (of which the first game was drawn out on paper at the kitchen table), Gabriel Knight, Leisure Suit Larry, just to name a few. Hell, Sierra published Half-Life for Valve. Yes, that Half-Life, by that Valve.
Anyway, the Williams’ were bored out of their skulls during the virus lockdowns. So, they essentially went back to where it all began: Colossal Cave Adventure. Essentially, the game that inspired Roberta Williams to start creating games. And, playing through the game for the first time in likely 40 years, combined with Ken deciding to learn Unity and make a game, they decided to remake it in a more modern style. Thus, Colossal Cave 3D Adventure. As Roberta explains it all to PC Gamer:
Ken and I were locked down like everyone. Ken was bored and I suggested he write a book about Sierra. The process of writing the book brought back long forgotten memories resulting in Ken deciding to learn Unity and deciding to make a game.
We had no interest in starting another company. We were just looking for something fun to build and I had the idea of paying homage to the game that inspired our company and changed our lives.
The game is certainly an adventure game, but also has action elements, humor, cute and fun characters, is scary in places, has a point system, and is incredibly challenging.It’s a far better game than they first realized! There is far more to it than they would ever have believed when they started.
Roberta Williams
If you wanted to peek in on their progress, you could find it at kensgame.com Cygnus Entertainment. As to the previous URL being in Ken’s name despite Roberta’s lauded public face, she explains: “Since Ken is the one who has been running the blog he quickly created the URL, but this is indeed a joint effort!”
Naturally, they seem to have changed things around since the story gained traction. You can now get a good look at Colossal Cave 3D on its official page. The game is to be shown off at GDC this year (possibly as you’re reading this), though the build is still in the pre-alpha stage. But if you’d like to see all the hubbub about this remake of a mid-70’s text adventure is, you can actually play it on rickadams.org.
Source: PC Gamer
About Author
