Adventure Gamer interviews Adam D. Bormann
Conducted by Angella Mooney - January 2000
With the supply of third-person adventures
dwindling to nearly nothing last year, many
placed much of their hopes and anticipation on
Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of
the Damned. Gabriel Knight fans all over the
world rejoiced over its release late last year.
Gabriel Knight 3 is the latest installment in Jane
Jensen's award winning mystery-adventure
series, and is the first Gabriel Knight to utilize
real-time rendered, 3D graphics.
We recently had the pleasure of interviewing the Adam D. Bormann, Design Assistant on GK3. Here is what he had to tell us about the making of the game, the public reaction, and the possibility of another installment of Gabriel Knight.
What were your responsibilities as Design Assistant on Gabriel Knight 3?
I started at Sierra as the Sierra Studios webmaster (okay, it was Sierra
Northwest at the time, but basically the same thing) and I was sitting with
the GK team. I memorized the design backwards and forwards, and knew
GK1 and 2 very well. So when someone on the team needed info about
the design, or the previous games, or needed to find out what French
currency looked like, or whatever, they would come to me. This part of my
job continued throughout development. After a few months, I get a chance
to move full-time onto the team as production assistant. I was originally
hired to do "data wrangling," so I was setting up the room code, setting up
cameras, hooking up messages to items in the rooms, etc. When we had
most of that squared away, Jane was ready to start going through the
dialogue and looking for things that were missing or places where
dialogue was needed. So I moved into more of a design position and
helped her with this. I wrote dialogue for a lot of the things that Gabriel or
Grace "looked at" or "thought about." Jane later reviewed the dialogue
and made changes, or left it if it worked. When that was done, Scott Bilas
had the basics of his scripting language in place, so I started scripting
sequences in the game, and hooking up more of the rooms as they were
finished. I spent most of the rest of the production process scripting, or
dealing with the different data files. I ended up coding (or recoding) all the
HTML files for the SIDNEY search, writing the manual, assisting with one
of the voice-over recording sessions, hooking up the points system, and
hundreds of other tasks of this nature. Also, from my days as the
webmaster, I knew all of the marketing people pretty well, so they would
come to me for info on the game, or screenshots, or whatever they
needed.
Gabriel Knight 3 is finally on the store shelves, so how does it feel? What
do you plan to do the coming weeks?
It's a strange feeling. For me, everything was in the building of the game.
The last two years have been the best years, and the hardest years, of
my life. All I can really say is that I hope that people are enjoying the
game. In the coming weeks, I'll be working on projects in my new position
as Associate Producer with Sierra Attractions. Currently, I'm designing a
new game and working on a few other projects.
What has the public response been to the controversial storyline involving
Jesus Christ?
I have been surprised that the controversial subjects haven't really been
brought up in many of the reviews. I have seen some mention of it on the
message boards, but most people have been very accepting of the
plotline. It's a work of fiction, and people seem to be accepting that and
not dwelling the "controversy" of it. One person on the development team
left the project, and another chose not to join the project, because of the
plot. But as most people who have played the game have discovered, we
treat the controversial elements with respect and care. GK3 is not meant
to be shockingly objectionable or offensive, it's just meant to be an
engaging and exciting story. Jane took an incredible real-life mystery and
turned it into a brilliant work of fiction in the same way she did with The
Beast Within and Millennium Rising.
Gabriel Knight 3 carries an enormous amount of
pressure, as many critics point it as the last, best
hope for the adventure genre. Will Gabriel Knight
3 really unleash a new wave of adventure
games?
I really wish they wouldn't do that. When we
started this project, no one was saying that
adventure games were dead. We set out to make the best mystery game
that we could. Mystery games are a sub-genre, just like mystery books.
Not everyone is going to be interested in mystery adventure games. So
why is the salvation of the genre forced onto a game that is not really
meant for *everyone*? I'd love it if everyone enjoyed GK3, but it's like
asking a movie like Barton Fink to save independent film. I love the
movie, a lot of people love the movie. But it's not something that everyone
across the board is going to enjoy, even if they are big fans of
independent film.
One of the most striking characteristics of the game is its real-time 3D
engine. Are you satisfied with the results graphics-wise?
I really like the look of the game. I also love the free-floating camera. It
really gives the player the opportunity to see everything in a room. I was
able to see the game at every point in it's production, so I saw the
advances, fixes and changes. I think it looks great, because it's so much
better than what we originally started with. It's hard for me to look at
another real-time 3D game and compare the graphics to GK3, because I
know what we went through, and all the issues that we tackled. The other
games probably did the same thing, but with different priorities. Most
real-time 3D games, like SWAT 3 or Quake, have a set of standard
animations that are used everywhere in the game. We had thousands of
unique animations, many that used only once in the entire game. It's the
nature of telling a progressing story.
How have people responded to this 3D incarnation of Gabriel Knight?
Reviews (professional and player) have been mixed, but I think that the
majority of people really enjoyed the game. Even some of the die-hard
FMV/Dean Erickson fans have told me how much they loved GK3, and
how surprised they were by how well we managed to make a great game
in 3D. There are people who still wish we had done FMV, but they've
been saying that for years now, so I didn't expect that we'd convert large
numbers of that group. As long as they play the game, and enjoy it, I'm
happy. At this point, if it were up to me (and it isn't), GK4 would probably
be in 3D as well. Maybe we could do something similar to SWAT 3, where
they have actual faces mapped onto 3D characters, and then we'd have
FMV cutscenes or something. We'll talk more about this when Jane
finishes Dante's Equation.
Were you forced to cut anything, or give up certain features?
There were a few things cut, but most of them were cut fairly early on.
There was one room cut out of the end sequences, due to engine
restrictions (it was just too big!). There was also one scene, which would
have required two extra characters, that Jane rewrote so that the artists
wouldn't have to build them.
Tell us more about the scripting language used to create the Gabriel
Knight 3.
Scott Bilas joined the project in February of 98 as the Engine Architect. At
that point, all the game was being hard-coded, which would have meant
that to test something you would have had to reprogram it, recompile the
whole program, test it, and then try again. The programmers looked at
that and decided we really needed a scripting language if we were going
to finish the game in a reasonable amount of time. So, Scott rewrote a lot
of the front-end to the game, which included many incredible features,
including the scripting language "Sheep." Scott and I worked together on
many of the original features that would be included in the language, and
later, Jessica Tams joined the team and led the scripting effort. We had a
few other scripters on the project at various times, but most of the final
game was scripted by Jessica and myself.
The language is similar to JavaScript, but with many functions specific to
games of this type. Each scene where you have two characters talking
back and forth, or a character performing an action, has been carefully
scripted (and rescripted). The other place that the scripting language was
used was in all the logic of the game (what topics are available when,
what characters are in which rooms, etc). With it, we were able to script
when a character said lines, what expression they had on their faces,
what they were physically doing, what the other people in the room were
doing, whether Larry was wearing his hat, what props were visible, when
the music changed, cut to different cinematic cameras, change the score,
walk characters around, set flags, etc.
What went into the design of the soundtrack for
the latest Gabriel Knight?
David Henry did some incredible work on the
soundtrack. Robert Holmes supplied David with
some really great themes, and David wrote much
of the music himself. Most of it is broken into
chunks, a minute long or shorter. These chunks
work together anyway you play them, so instead of endlessly looping the
same music over and over, the soundtrack is always changing, always
different. The soundtrack changes when specific things happen, and is all
timed to the length of the action.
How did you feel when you found out you were to work on Gabriel Knight
3?
I was elated! The chance to work on a Gabriel Knight game was literally a
dream come true, in many ways. Not only was I helping with design and
writing on a computer game (my life's mission), I got to work on my
favorite series of games, and I got to work with my favorite game
designer. And I got a chance to work on a game with my college
roommate (which we had been planning to do for years).
What was it like to work with Jane Jensen?
Jane was wonderful! I respected her a lot as a designer and writer before
I worked with her, and I have even more respect for her now. She's
intelligent, entertaining, and the gears of her mind are always turning.
She's very detail oriented, and very energetic. I was always amazed at
how she could keep all of the parts of her projects organized in her head.
We didn't always see eye-to-eye on design issues or dialogue, but it's her
game, and I understand the stress and responsibility of having your name
on a product. I would work with her again in an instant.
Was Gabriel Knight 3 your first project?
Before I started on GK3, I was the webmaster for Sierra Studios, so I was
working on the websites for projects that were currently in development
such as Mask of Eternity, Leisure Suit Larry's Casino, and a few others
that were canceled. I was working with the people working on those
projects, and created/updated sites for them, but I wasn't really working
on the games. Before that, like most aspiring designers, I spent much of
my time working on game designs in my free time. I spent over three solid
years designing my pride and joy. It was sitting on my shelf at work for 2
years, and actually helped get me a job as a writer on a game...two
weeks before the project was canceled. But in answer to your question:
Gabriel Knight 3 was my first published game project.
So how did you become interested in game design?
I started fairly young. When I was ..oh, say 9 years old, I used to redesign
all of the arcade games I was played. I loved Zaxxon, and really wanted to
design a sequel for it. So I would sit down and draw out levels and bad
guys for my sequel to Zaxxon. When I was a little older I started, literally,
dreaming computer games, and designing those. My parents brought
home an Apple II when I was 11. A few weeks later, I started
programming my own text adventure games in Apple Basic, most of my
work concentrated on my masterpiece, "The Lost Unicorn." Of course, I'd
get a little bit done, look around, and there was no one to show it to. So I
stopped programming, and just started writing/sketching out designs in
notebooks. This continued until high school, when I decided I was going
to have to do it professionally, or go insane. During high school, I formed
a "company" called "Morphware Associates," which consisted of around
10 other like-minded kids. Of course, we were missing one of the key
components, a programmer. So, we would sit around discussing different
game ideas, and then ended up playing games for "research." When I
went to college, I formed a second company,"Black Tulip Entertainment,"
this time it was just me designing games . After college, my roommate
and I actually started developing a game. We had a fairly detailed design,
and he had started programming the tool set for the game. Of course, we
both got jobs at game companies, bringing the BTE chapter to an end.
Gabriel Knight 3 has just been released and there is already talk of a
Gabriel Knight 4 on the message boards. Will the fans ever be satisfied?
When you're dealing with an on-going story, like Jane is with Gabriel
Knight, it's hard to satisfy people for long. If we do our job correctly, the
fans will always want to know what happens next. In many ways, the end
of GK3 sets up the beginning of the next story. It isn't surprising to me that
people who have finished the game want to know what happens next; I
want to know what happens next!
Last update: October 29, 2007