After all, he used computer software to craft rings, not interactive adventures. He just happened to be presenting at VCFEast, where he was giving a talk on the original 1984 “King’s Quest.” For his part, Mera had no designs on working in the game industry. He is a jeweler by trade and a collector of retro computer wares. This is when he met an unlikely collaborator. Ken was on a retirement circuit of speaking engagements at online events such as the Vintage Computer Federation East Festival, or VCFEast, to help promote his book, which he self-published and which he says sold approximately 30,000 copies in its first month. When Ken started working on what would become “Colossal Cave 3D Adventure,” it was something of a return to an early pastime - learning newer technologies and experimenting with game making for the sake of game making. We sold a tiny portion of our company to bring in a great deal of money, allowing us even faster growth.” I don’t remember why or how much, but it was more money at a significantly higher valuation. We brought in a second round of venture capital. “Once we had accepted venture capital, it became like any other drug,” Ken writes in the book.
Well, perhaps she could have, if early renditions of “Colossal Cave 3D Adventure” had been up to her standard. It involves the collectible game circuit, a die-hard Sierra fan and a game designer who ultimately discovered she just can’t quit the medium. And a passion for games? Replaced with another hobby.īut the story of how “Colossal Cave 3D Adventure” came to be is almost as improbable as the outlandish yarns in a Sierra game. “By the time it expired,” he says, “we had gotten deeply into our cruising around the world and were not interested in going back into the business.” Today, he says it “may have been 10" but adds the length was irrelevant. Ken has written that the noncompete clause was in force for five years. As they became boating aficionados and minor celebrities in that world - Ken has authored a few books on the subject of long-distance sailing - their return to gaming seemed increasingly unlikely.
“Colossal Cave 3D Adventure” is still a ways away from release, but it will mark their return to an industry that they left amid professional heartbreak, lots of frustration and a multiyear noncompete agreement that led them away from the game business. They’re readying their first new game in about 25 years. Sierra in the ’80s and ’90s was a household name, to computer game players what Nintendo was to console users.Īnd now, Roberta and Ken are making a comeback.
Consider Roberta’s games - “Mystery House,” “Mixed-up Mother Goose,” “Phantasmagoria” and eight core “King’s Quest” titles among them - plus other works published by Sierra, some of which have aged better than others, including the “Space Quest,” “Police Quest” and “Leisure Suit Larry” brands. Roberta and Ken Williams, the founders of Sierra On-Line, helped mainstream the idea of narrative-driven games. The Williams brand, after all, is one of legend. Roberta Williams, creator of the franchise “King’s Quest,” a breakthrough in interactive storytelling and one of the first major graphic-driven adventure games, has a reputation as being a bit enigmatic, perhaps a tad shy.Īnd at this moment, with her husband sitting beside her, she’s calmly explaining how she wasn’t going to let him sully the family name with a subpar game. One of the most revered American game designers is sitting in the lower level of a yacht somewhere off the coast of Canada, discussing how she was unexpectedly dragged back into the life she left behind.