GK3 Designer Diaries - by Jane Jensen
August 21, 1998
We just returned today from our second recording session for the voice-overs. We had about 3000 lines of dialogue total, about the same as our first session. The week went great. It has to be one of the peaks of game development to get to meet and work with actors of the kind of caliber we've gotten to use on several of the Gabriel Knight games. The sessions went brilliantly and quickly. Tim Curry, who plays Gabriel Knight, whipped through about 1400 lines of dialogue in five to six hours (nailing each line, despite the usual lack of context in a game script). Of course, the chance to sit out on break and chat is worth the experience in itself. We had many talented voices, including the voices of Ren and Stimpy (Billy West) and Minnie Mouse (Russie Taylor), to name just a few. We got some great stuff for a gag reel - if and when we get a chance to put it together. Check out the cast list on the GK3 page if you haven't had the chance.
On the home front, things are still in the dense thicket of production, something like the "Forest of Pandemonium" (as Milton might have put it), where progress is made haltingly - Sword of Determination in hand, technological dragons lurking. The rework of the engine was completed around the middle of June, but we're still ironing out bugs as we start rebuilding the room code. The smallest things take time - making Gabriel's walker turn smoothly, for example, or getting him to walk around instead of through other people.
As of today, we have four new "scripters" on the project. Much of our animation sequences will be put together in a special text language, which the game engine parses. The scripters will be doing this work. Camera angles, approaches, positioning of the characters, expressions on the characters, and the sequencing of the fidgets and animations are all fine points that require both programming logic and artistic finesse. The world in 3D requires much more polishing work than it did in 2D. I've said that before, but every day I'm assaulted with that fact anew.
GK3 to release in 1999
Several of the animators (the team had eight) have been loaned out to other projects. The game is taking longer than expected, and the burn rate had to be trimmed. Fortunately, most of the game animations have been done. The animators will return when the game is together and they can do the polish work efficiently. Among other team changes, we have a new producer, Steven Hill. Steven worked on Rama at Dynamix and has the strong programming background we needed. He seems to have a good understanding of what GK is about and a commitment to quality that I think you'll appreciate when you see the final product.
So for now, it's down to the wire on pumping out the game. We have 13 time blocks and some of the most difficult puzzle implementation yet in a GK (the laptop, SIDNEY, is a major piece of work). We've been officially shifted off the '98 timeline and put into early '99. Sales pointed out that unless you can go gold (have a final build) by mid-October, shipping at Christmas can do more harm than good. Certainly, on GK2, arriving in stores Christmas Eve only hurt our sales figures. At this point, we could not commit to having the game as perfect as we'd like by mid-October, so it looks like we'll wait for the next train from the station. For those of you who were anticipating a Christmas ship, I can only assure you that I sympathize with your frustration. But we also must ensure that the game is the best GK yet. That goal remains the bottom line and the basis from which all decisions are made.
We also had our first ads come out, and they have generated a bit of controversy. (It's amazing that anything could be considered shocking amidst all the splattered blood in the other ads.) So look for them if you haven't seen one yet. Until next time....
Last update: October 24, 2007
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