GameStar Magazine Interview

by Gunnar Lott, Editor

NOTE: All of GameStar's interviews begin with a kind of "Playmate Fact Sheet" first. The real questions start here.

Facts

First PC game?

Dragon’s Keep for the Apple ][ (48k of memory required!)

3 games for the island?

Monkey Island trilogy. If that counts as one game, then also: my latest favorite auto racing game (which one varies from month-to-month) and a good backgammon game.

Favorite multiplayer game?

Currently Half-Life.

Which game do you personally wait for?

Gabriel Knight 3

Fave Band?

Mingus Big Band. Bill Holman.

Fave Food?

Anything with excessively high fat content

Fave book?

Do What You Love (the money will follow) worked for me.

Fave website?

Al Lowe’s Humor Site www.allowe.com

Your best decision?

To teach myself computer programming. Then, to leave my stable teaching job for the wacky world of entertainment software.

Favourite film?

Casablanca, of course. You know I’m an incurable romantic.

Your finest day?

Three: the births of my son and daughter and my wedding day.

Non computer hobby?

Reading, scuba diving, skiing, golf, humor, playing saxophone in a big band, managing my daughter’s fast-pitch softball team.

Dream-profession (non-computer)?

Symphony orchestra conductor.

What's in your fridge?

Pastrami, Jarlsburg swiss cheese, spicy mustard, Coca-Cola classic

Biggest disappointment (in games)

That Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist didn’t sell well enough for Sierra to produce a sequel.

Fave tv-series?

HBO’s The Larry Sanders Show starring Gary Shandling

Data Milestones

Age:

Nationalty:

USA

Residence:

Bellevue, Washington (state, not D. C.!)

Profession/title:

retired lecher

Education:

Master’s Degree +100 credits

Motto:

Two: “Everything takes longer than you think!” and “If it was easy, everybody would do it!”

Interview Questions

How did you get into gaming?

I convinced my wife that if she allowed me to purchase an early Apple II computer I would somehow make it pay for itself. (I guess I succeeded, didn’t I?)

Do you have some kind of game design philosophy?

Yes.

Did you mean to ask what it is?

Okay, I’ll tell you, and in one sentence, too: Make people laugh while making them think!

What do you do since Sierra closed its doors?

I’m working on a new book to come out this fall called, “You’ve Got Laughs—the Big Book of Internet Humor.” It’s a compilation of the best of the thousands of humorous emails I’ve received during the 13 years I’ve been on-line.

I’m also working on Al Lowe’s Humor Site which I invite all your readers to visit at www.allowe.com . If I can’t make you laugh through adventure games, at least I can make you laugh on-line.

What was biggest bug you ever missed in one of your games?

The very end of Leisure Suit Larry 2 is damned near unplayable because we were so busy testing the parser with complete sentences that no one noticed it wouldn’t accept the typical adventure game shorthand that most players actually typed: “Put the bag in the bottle” worked. But most people typed “put bag bottle” and that gave an error. The final irony was that I discovered the bug immediately, made a tiny patch, gave it to Sierra, and they never bothered to update the master disks. Later, when we made the Larry Collection, the patch was never found, and since no one had the compiler and other tools necessary to make games that old, the CD-ROM version contained that same damn bug! UGH!!

What's your dream-project?

Shooting par. Seriously, I’d like to create one more adventure game combining the Internet with 3-D graphics technology. I would integrate a web site, ICQ, chat, email and much more into the puzzle-solving. The game would require people to look behind, under and over things. And, of course, it would be funny. Here is my two word pitch for LSL8: “shoe cam!”

What are your plans for the future?

Enjoy life while I wait for gamers to rediscover story games, as that’s what I’m good at creating.

Which part of your work as a designer do you like most?

When everything “falls into place” and the game seems like it couldn’t possibly be anyway else. There comes a time in every development project when that moment occurs. Hopefully it comes sooner, rather than later!

Will we ever see Larry again?

I certainly hope so. I’ve still got lots of story ideas, bad jokes, and embarrassing situations I’d love to put him in…and it 3-D too!

Will adventures ever get popular again?

I believe they will. Look at RPGs. They were declared dead in the early 90’s and they’ve coming roaring back with a vengeance. I believe the same thing will happen with “story games.” And I know people will never out-grow my sophomoric sense of humor!

Does sex belong in computer games?

No, it belongs in the bedroom! Laughs belong in computer games. Laughing at sex seems to me the essence of humor.

Does humor belong in games?

Absolutely. And where is it these days? I was so sorry to see Monkey Island 3 and Grim Fandango sell so poorly. They were great games. Their poor showing is one reason Sierra cancelled development of Larry 8.

What will, in your opinion, be the next big trends in gaming?

Making the game player’s image into the protagonist. Voice recognition. Internet integration.

Is there something you ever wanted to say to the gaming audience?