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It’s been a while since we’ve had a special interviewee on GOG.com, but whenever opportunity arises, we love to sit down with people behind classic PC games and ask them some of your questions. Today, you have a chance to delve into the process of creating an amazing adventure game like the gripping, captivating, supernatural detective series Gabriel Knight because we have Jane Jensen, series designer and writer, ready to answer 6 questions from the GOG.com community.

Jane Jensen began her career in the gaming industry in Sierra Online, co-writing and co-designing Police Quest III and King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers was her first solo game and it was a debut worth the Computer Gaming World's "Adventure Game of the Year" title. The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery and Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned followed later and established her position as an acclaimed designer and writer. In 2012, Jane, along with her husband (composer Robert Holmes, who wrote the music for the Gabriel Knight series) formed a new game development studio Pinkerton Road.

What do you want to know about Gabriel Knight series?
Are you interested in the creative process behind creating PC adventure games?
Maybe you want to know more about Jane’s future plans?

Whatever questions you want to ask, now is the time to do so! We’ll select 6 questions to send to Jane along with a few of our own, and the authors of the selected questions will be rewarded with any free classic $5.99 or $9.99 GOG game of their choice. You can submit as many questions as you want until Wednesday, April 18 at 11:59 p.m. EDT.
Are there any plans for a Gabriel Knight 4??
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Iostars: Do we post the questions here, GOG?
Yes please
Could you PUH-LEEEEZE get Gray Matter released on more digital platforms, like, picked at random, gog.com ?
Would it be possible to sometime see Gabriel and Grace as father and mother ?Maybe an older,more mature Gabriel introducing his teenage son/daughter to the duties of the Schattenjagers, before the next big case lands on their heads. The potential for the development of the dynamics between the characters would be extraordinary!
Don't u want to do another Gabriel Knight, and if not, why?
I would like to know how did you decide to go with such a strong, serious, story line like the one in Sins of the Fathers is and were you afraid that this concept mignt not be received so well?
p.s. Thank you for many beautifull hours i spent playing and reading about my favourite Schattenjaeger of them all :).
1. I would love to hear about how you maintain emotional content when designing adventure games.

2. What are the major differences in creative freedom between your past games, and the games currently in development with your new crowd funding project on Kickstarter?

3. Everybody knows bad voice acting can kill all the good stuff in an adventure game. If you end up with a lower budget for your new games, how will you deal with voice elements?

4. Considering that adventure gamers like to make choices which change the plot (and even break the game, to see all the different ways to die, etc) how do you keep a game story solid and compelling without it feeling like an "on rails" game?
More than any other time in gaming history, it seems that the early Sierra days were supportive of women with a prominent role in gaming design/development. I can't really think of another company that made its women designers "rock stars" the way Sierra did. Can you talk about the role and freedom you felt you had with Sierra. Was there a recognition internally of the role women were playing in development, or was it all a happy accident?

Thanks
Fairly awesome event. Good job, GOG!
Now, I think an interesting question would be something along these lines.

What are the relations between the "big famous guys" in PC gaming industry? For instance, we know movie stars or musicians (especially long-haired beer-drinking rock guys) like to fire critics at each other sometimes (or rather, quite often). Obviously, in this world everyone competes with each other. But how about the actual human relations? Of course, there are teams who formerly worked together in a studio and since than have some kind of relationships. But what, if "biggies" do not share such a common past? Do they still say "we are of one blood" or just go "I am better than you anyway whatever you do"?
The reason I am asking this is because after Double Fine's ultra-successful Kickstarter program I have seen many people (Al Lowe, Brian Fargo etc.) make humorous hints in their videos that Tim Shaffer explicitly gave them the idea of doing their own Kickstarter project. Al actually even explicitly stated they contacted Double Fine for specifying some details.
Now Jane Jensen has a Kickstarter project too. So what I would like to know is - does it really work like one friend calling another (e.g. "Hey Jane, that's Tim here, we never really worked together, but you know my Kickstarter is so awesome - why don't you do one too?"). How much game industry people share with each other their success and encourage their kin to try new ways and making us gamers even happier?

P.S. A bit long one, but you can edit out whatever you deem not-so-important. Also, I guess I managed to squeeze in here more than one question.
What is the main reason you decided you wanted to become a developer of PC games and what did you think was missing from adventures that were available at the time of the Gabriel Night era that spurred you on ?

Really cool that you guys are doing this kudos :)
What is your advice for a wannabe game designer ?
Post edited April 16, 2012 by kur4ido
You've started a new studio at home where you live with your family. Is Pinkerton Road more of a home where you also work, or a place of work that you live in?
What was it like being such a prominent female game maker in those days? Given the social stigma that games had during the time, do you consider yourself a bit of a pioneer or was it just no big deal?
I asked this on facebook first then I realised you could respond here too, but I'll stick it on here anyways.

I would love to see a return of Gabriel Knight (I loved The Beast Within) or King's Quest. What would you find more fun, if you were to make another of either in the series with unlimited funds and you had your choice, would you opt for 2D animation, full motion video with real actors/backgrounds or a 3D graphics engine?
Post edited April 16, 2012 by Honelith
You must have come across many male game creators. Does a female game creator and work and think differently than male game creators ? If yes then how ?