Colossal Cave Adventure remake from Ken & Roberta Williams

[Grauken]

Personally, I stand in the skeptical department a bit, but only because I've been involved with my own projects and privvy to others. 10 years ago, I would have been excited but I've often found there is a great disconnect between older developers and what they think they should do vs. what their audience would want.

Kickstarter was a great teaching moment in that regard to me, even when they say the right things the final product feels utterly disconnected from what I wanted

 

[Blackthorne]

Yeah, with the kickstarters for my games, I feel the games we released at the end were the ones we pitched and promised. The physical rewards side tripped us up harder than anything - if I had to do it all over again, I'd skip them entirely or do a separate one for such things after the game was produced. You live and learn.

But many games I backed in the hay-day of Kickstarter.... well, a lot of them either never happened or turned out vastly different products to what I was pitched.

 

[negator2vc]

Maybe they should start managing the projects of the other Sierra vets.

They should definitively do this since it's quite obvious by now that most of the Sierra vets know nothing about management (judging by the state of their own projects).
Especially the Coles who are about to crap all over their own legacy!
I mean Hero-U wasn't a masterpiece and definitively not a Quest for Glory game, not to mention judging by their posts in their Kickstarter & discord server it wasn't a success financially (forcing them to do 2? kickstarter to they can actually finish it + quite a few of their own money).
but the new one (the visual novel styled one) look so weird that it will probably drive off any QfG fan left.

Or Jane Jensen....

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Maybe they should start managing the projects of the other Sierra vets.

They should definitively do this since it's quite obvious by now that most of the Sierra vets know nothing about management (judging by the state of their own projects).
Especially the Coles who are about to crap all over their own legacy!
I mean Hero-U wasn't a masterpiece and definitively not a Quest for Glory game, not to mention judging by their posts in their Kickstarter & discord server it wasn't a success financially (forcing them to do 2? kickstarter to they can actually finish it + quite a few of their own money).
but the new one (the visual novel styled one) look so weird that it will probably drive off any QfG fan left.

Or Jane Jensen....

I actually think the money move for the Coles now is to do a spiritual successor to Castle of Dr. Brain. I think the QfG fanbase is too burned by Hero-U (which I actually overall liked despite it not being a QfG game) to give them any more money. Keep it intensely tightly scoped (just puzzles and puns) to 30 or so "rooms", put it up on Kickstarter with a demo of two or three "rooms" , and I bet it would do alright. But that's obviously dependent on their ability to keep it in scope which... ah... doesn't seem to be in their primary skillset.

As for Jensen I don't think she's interested; she's apparently doing quite well for herself as an erotica ghost-writer.

 

[AndyS]

Personally, I stand in the skeptical department a bit, but only because I've been involved with my own projects and privvy to others. 10 years ago, I would have been excited but I've often found there is a great disconnect between older developers and what they think they should do vs. what their audience would want.

Seems like many of them get caught up in thinking they have to do something modern, when a lot of their original fans just want the old stuff. I think Ron Gilbert figured it out when he did Thimbleweed Park in that he basically made a new SCUMM-like game with maybe just a little bit of extra added to it.

One minor trend I really like is "new games on very old systems". A lot of them are done by enthusiasts who maybe want a programming challenge or who find something aesthetically appealing about Apple II or Spectrum graphics, but sometimes an old-timer will spit something out. The Oliver twins released a brand new Dizzy game for the Spectrum last year that by many accounts is the best Dizzy game ever. They just cranked out something and released it for free because they could and when you get down to it Dizzy is a series that's most at home on the Spectrum. David Crane made a brand new Atari 2600 game and people who like David Crane because he made classic Atari games are pretty damn happy with it. When you say the Williamses are making a brand new game, I can't help it if the first thing my mind imagines is something like classic AGI King's Quest. I think I would be happy if that's what they ended up making, although there probably wouldn't be a large amount of money in it for them.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

AGS is much better now that it has been in the past, as far as availability for porting to other systems besides PC - but it definitely doesn't handle higher resolutions or 3D dev well, and I assume they're making this game using 3D models.

Don't you still have to use a third-party plugin to use 3D in AGS? I remember it being like that years ago, so I never really saw much point in doing that with the engine.

 

[Boleskine]

The game's big reveal is coming at GDC on March 21.

https://cygnusentertainment.com/2022/03/06/showtime/

Our team continues to expand. We now have 15 people working on the game!

There’s a side of me that really didn’t want that. The original vision for the game was that I’d do 100% of everything myself. I wanted it to be a nice, small, simple project that would be something I could work on in my spare time. Unfortunately, or fortunately, things didn’t work out that way.

Roberta has a very high quality standard. She was the one who gave me the idea for what I should code, and when she saw what I was producing it was well below her minimum standard. She jumped into the game with both feet and basically said, “If I’m putting my name on it, it’s going to be something we can be proud of.” Many of the buyers will be buying the game because of our reputation from the old Sierra days and they will expect the same quality that made Sierra so successful. That meant hiring artists, professional voice talent, animators, more engineers, etc. etc.

Anyway, we’ve been secretive about what we’re working on. The biggest reason is that we haven’t wanted anyone to see anything until we had something we’re proud of. On March 21st, just a little over two weeks from now, we’re going to announce the game and show the first scenes from it. The entire team is working tirelessly to make sure that all of you won’t be disappointed with what you see. I’m typing this at 7:39am on a Sunday morning and there are other team members working. Roberta and I were at our computers from 6am until 11pm on Thursday night with the last few hours just agonizing over some sound effects.

The game is really coming together! Both the virtual reality and computer versions are looking amazing. There are some scenes in the VR version that still blow me away.

Our big announcement will be at the Game Developers conference on March 21st in San Francisco. Both Roberta and I will be there to show the game to the conference attendees as well as the press. On that date I’ll send an email to everyone who has registered on this site with details about the game. We’ll also open up a website which is dedicated to the game. I’ve been working with some video guys to put together a “launch video” that shows off the game. I saw the first draft yesterday and the video is a lot of fun.

Anyway, stay tuned, and make sure you register on this site. I can’t say much today, but LOTs of info is coming very soon.

PS All we’ll be doing on March 21st is announcing what we’re working on and showing some of the graphics and animation. The actual game won’t be complete until sometime this summer.

 

[El Presidente]

I'll be very pissed off if they're making a game in the vein of those that embody the very fall of Sierra. Like a game that's too afraid to be simply an honest point and click adventure and try to appeal to the action crowds or some shit. Looking at you KQ8 - or, ironically, the KQ remake which also wanted to be action-y and as far as I know nobody liked it. Let's wait and see, I just think it would be incredibly stupid to return to this industry and make these same mistakes. If it's to "please the larger audiences", hell, why even bother coming back?

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I'll be very pissed off if they're making a game in the vein of those that embody the very fall of Sierra. Like a game that's too afraid to be simply an honest point and click adventure and try to appeal to the action crowds or some shit. Looking at you KQ8 - or, ironically, the KQ remake which also wanted to be action-y and as far as I know nobody liked it. Let's wait and see, I just think it would be incredibly stupid to return to this industry and make these same mistakes. If it's to "please the larger audiences", hell, why even bother coming back?

Agreed, but thus far it definitely seems like Ken is trying to market it as a classic Point and Click. Ken has always kept his cards pretty close to his chest, but I’m pretty sure he was not onboard with the direction Sierra took following the buyout.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Plus Ken is probably aware that the way things went for the final Sierra adventure titles, was not a good thing. Chances are the title he's working on is more conservative (game dev-wise) than we might be thinking.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

I have very little expectations in these kind of projects. Furthermore, if in the description of the project the words "unity" and "vr" are mentioned, the expectations go straight to zero.

I find much more interesting the efforts made by the Oliver twins, or by David Crane, mentioned above, as far as old devs are concerned.

Or projects like this:

 

[Zizka]

Roberta Williams: “We can pop the budget a little”

Roberta Williams has her dogs taken care of in Quebec (Canada) (where I live). She would fly her private jet back and forth for her dogs.

So, yes, they probably can invest a bit more.

 

[Boleskine]

https://cygnusentertainment.com/2022/03/15/and-so-it-begins/

And So It Begins

This weekend we had our first-ever interview about the new game. The gentleman in the center of the picture above used to work at Roberta’s and my company Sierra On-Line.

Since that time, he has gone on to great success creating “Meta Jesus Rocks,” his own highly successful YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MetalJesusRocks

Our big product announcement is only a week away! Metal Jesus (not his real name) asked to interview us about the game, and after swearing him to secrecy, we showed him what we’re working on.

We spent a whole day filming with Metal Jesus and his sidekick (who also worked at Sierra long ago) who said his name was “Drunken Master Paul” (I can’t make this stuff up).

They did two interviews; one about the early days of Sierra and a second one featuring the new game. I don’t want to give away any of his secrets but I think his viewers are going to be super happy with the interviews he did. I’m not sure when they will be on his site. I’m guessing he is scrambling now to have the video about our new game ready to go when the game is released.

Anyway, this is the first of many interviews. There are days I think that the coding and building of a game is much simpler than all of the “stuff” required to get it onto the market. That said, as you can tell, we weren’t suffering too bad!

-Ken Williams
March 15, 2022

PS — Here’s some proof positive that Roberta and I are willing to occasionally “take one for the team.”

 

[Morgoth]

Old people with no incentive to exceed rarely make good games.

 

[Boleskine]

 

[jfrisby]

https://www.ign.com/articles/ken-roberta-williams-colossal-cave-3d

Ken And Roberta Williams Are Remaking Colossal Cave Adventure
Pioneering adventure game developers are working on a revival of Colossal Cave Adventure.

After officially announcing their return to games last year, Sierra On-Line founders Ken and Roberta Williams are ready to show off their new project. Previously referred to as The Secret, it will be a "reimagining" of Colossal Cave Adventure — the seminal 1970's text adventure game credited with inspiring Zork, Rogue, and other formative PC games, as well as for laying the groundwork for the PC role-playing genre as a whole.

Titled Colossal Cave 3D Adventure, it is a first-person adventured designed in Unity for VR and PC. Like the original, the underlying concept is relatively simple: players explore a cave seeking treasure, encountering characters along the way including a troll, a bear, a snake and a pirate. The quest, apparently, is to "find all the treasure." The reimagined adventure will be challenging and will feature a "wide variety of puzzles to overcome" in a "completely immersive 3D world" with more than 143 locations.


The first teaser image for Colossal Cave 3D.

According to Ken Williams, the creation of Colossal Cave 3D was spurred by the boredom of quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"While locked down by the pandemic I wrote a book about the old Sierra days. Its success surprised me and brought back many memories of our days making games. This led me to investigating how modern games are made and I just started coding using the Unity game engine for fun," Ken Williams said in a statement.

"I was looking for something interesting to code when Roberta suggested Colossal Cave. Roberta started to work adapting it to 3D, and I assembled a team. As we dug deeper and deeper into the game we discovered layers of complexity that explain why the game became such an industry phenomena. It has action elements, humor, a scoring system, adventure elements, interesting characters, a huge world to explore and more. This is truly a game that will delight a new generation, and 100% different than anything I've seen in the market today."


Ken and Roberta Williams were pioneering adventure game developers in Sierra On-Line. They retired in 1999 but are now returning to games for the first time in more than 20 years.

Colossal Cave 3D Adventure will support VR via the standalone Quest 2 headset, which was suggested by one of the team's artists.

"At first, we thought it would be a simple effort but quickly realized that VR is not as simple as just running the same old game on a new platform. Major design changes were required, and all graphics had to be thrown away and started over. Was it worth it? YES! Anyone who plays the VR version will be blown away. It is really staggering when you enter the cave," the pair wrote.

It has been more than two decades since Ken and Roberta Williams last made a game, but their reputations remain legendary in the games industry. The couple married at 19 and went on to pioneering careers at Sierra On-line, where they were famous for their work on the King's Quest series and a host of other classic games, most of them point-and-click adventures. IGN ranked the pair among the 25 greatest game developers ever in 2009.

The pair announced their return to gaming last year, where they said they would be working on a "Sierra-flavored" game. Titled Cygnus Entertainment, the new studio is entirely self-funded.

Cygnus is planning to release Colossal Cave 3D this summer. It will be available on the Quest 2, PC, and Mac, with additional platforms also in consideration.

 

[jfrisby]

Website: https://www.colossalcave3d.com

more images:

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

An interesting choice, and not what I was expecting. The website was clearly a bit rushed though:

Bit amateur.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I'm not sure I trust them to turn one of the most influential and arguably greatest games of all time into a worthy 3d graphic adventure. I'm not sure if anyone even could do that. It'll probably be at least okay.

Though quality aside, I see more concern in your average reviewer playing this and acting like the old game is completely outclassed by this remake. That is a distinct possibility, even though I'm also 100% sure this is going to have a vastly different design philosophy than the original. Far too much has changed between now and then for that to be true.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Finally the new Ultima Underworld we were all expecting!

Edit: corrected.

 

[Darkozric]

Even with only 3 pics it's already better than the strangeland abomination

 

[Nifft Batuff]

 

[LostHisMarbles]

...

Can understand going slow and careful at your old age, but this sounds like shit waiting to happen.

Zero real plan or anything, but old fart number one was bored, so started fooling around with what he's left behind for decades now. How long can you look at your back yard plants before going bananas anyway.
Old fart number two goes /supportive (maybe this way he'll start exercising/walking/become less depressed again!), says why not honey.
Back to ye oldie number one remembering he actually had it once and going all serious(tm); still with nothing concrete, be it in tools or design.
Onwards to a pitfall you'd have to be a junior not to be aware of, internet hiring; of randoms at that. Amazing stuff. Guaranteed success right from the getgo.
And -for now that is- culminating to old fart number two's majestically (ain't she grand! Such largesse!) allowing for some extra sheckels of budget! Wooow! Am guessing private jet fuel costs ain't what they used to be huh.

...

Presuming even an ounce of remaining talent, why oh why.
Hire someone to draw some 2D assets, nice and sweet as they once were; you can definitely afford it. And you know people will drool over them. Fake "retro" pixels and plastic UE-like gfx abound.
Sit the fuck down and finish the game in paper, rather than announcing intentions like some juvenile coffee serving IT wannabe.
And then talk engine; privately.
Announce when you're ready to show the world the pair still has what it takes.

Am sorry but this is ludicrous.
And very fucking sad 'cause i sure miss the old Sierra, bugs and idiosyncracies notwithstanding.

 

[Viata]

I don't expect anything from this. No current devs can make a good 3D Colossal Cave Adventure.

 

[Darkozric]

Can understand going slow and careful at your old age, but this sounds like shit waiting to happen.

Zero real plan or anything, but old fart number one was bored, so started fooling around with what he's left behind for decades now. How long can you look at your back yard plants before going bananas anyway.
Old fart number two goes /supportive (maybe this way he'll start exercising/walking/become less depressed again!), says why not honey.
Back to ye oldie number one remembering he actually had it once and going all serious(tm); still with nothing concrete, be it in tools or design.
Onwards to a pitfall you'd have to be a junior not to be aware of, internet hiring; of randoms at that. Amazing stuff. Guaranteed success right from the getgo.
And -for now that is- culminating to old fart number two's majestically (ain't she grand! Such largesse!) allowing for some extra sheckels of budget! Wooow! Am guessing private jet fuel costs ain't what they used to be huh.

...

Presuming even an ounce of remaining talent, why oh why.
Hire someone to draw some 2D assets, nice and sweet as they once were; you can definitely afford it. And you know people will drool over them. Fake "retro" pixels and plastic UE-like gfx abound.
Sit the fuck down and finish the game in paper, rather than announcing intentions like some juvenile coffee serving IT wannabe.
And then talk engine; privately.
Announce when you're ready to show the world the pair still has what it takes.

Am sorry but this is ludicrous.
And very fucking sad 'cause i sure miss the old Sierra, bugs and idiosyncracies notwithstanding.

Retards like you don't understand that the Coles have left a legacy behind them. You were either unborn or a poor little fag when they affected the industry. After all these years they have earned the right to make 10 abominations in a row if they want to, without giving a fuck of what you think.

All retards in this thread who play the role of the Cole advisors are pathetic poor faggots expecting from 67 year old people to bring the incline (again) in adventures without being capable to make 1 fucking good adventure game.

Take MRY for example, he writes paragraphs upon paragraphs of advices (like his latest casual guessing abomination game of allegory) without knowing how to deliver an actual good adventure.

MRY and his attention whore team have made 1 mediocre adventure and 1 bad one and he fantasized that he is allowed to write paragraphs of advices to 67 year old people. The rest of the fags here follow his example. This is embarrassing, disrespectful and pathetic, like his games.

In the end, it doesn't matter what we want or if they are capable to deliver a good game.