Interview BakeSale: Bill Garrett

Tonight, we feature poc301 or Bill Garrett. You must of course be aware that lately the articles quality has increased. And I'm still writing the same crap.

GO TO THE GAME TOPIC

1) Why and how did you join the AGS Bake Sale ?

It was Neil, my artist's suggestion. He saw the thread on it and pitched the idea that we do a game for the sale. We had just finished Murran 3 and had only begun some very early work on Murran 4, so it was the perfect time to begin. We weren't stopping any real momentum on a current game.

2) Talk a bit about your game (what is it about, how you came up with it).

Abner the Amazing is about a boistrous, obnoxious and self aggrandizing warrior who is thrust into a devilish task. It seems some nefarious person or persons stole all the color from the world. Abner must discover who stole the colors, where they took them, why they took them, and then get them back. Along his quest he meets a thief and a mage who join him in his quest. The three characters are playable by switching between them at any time. Each has his own special ability they can perform. The game uses a 2-click interface, looking and using (which includes talking, special abilities, or manipulating items). The real goal for the game should have been to get through it without wanting to stab a screwdriver through your computer monitor into Abner to keep him from talking about how amazing he is the entire time.

3) Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got yourself into game making in the first place.

I'm in my early 30s, work in the IT industry, live in Maryland, USA and am married. Neil, the character artist and musician for the game is a professional art teacher living in West Virginia, USA. He is around the same age as me, and we've both been playing games since the early 80s when we were young children. I discovered the Sierra and then Lucasarts games, and fell in love with the adventure genre. I found the AGS engine in 2004 or so, and have been tinkering ever since. My first game was Murran Chronicles 1, which came out in 2009. It was more a learning experience than anything else really. Episode 2 came out a few months later, and was a bit more developed, complex, or what have you. Murran 3 took a lot longer to make, and this was where Neil came on board. His character art with my more careful scripting, background art and just overall better attention to detail made the game over 2 years in development, but it came out right before the Bake Sale. I guess it boils down to Neil and I getting into game making because we're both big fans of the genre and are a bit creative at heart. I think if you asked anyone who makes games, those would be big reasons for them to do so.