If you could design a Sierra Quest game...

[Tawmis]

What would it be? What would be the general theme? Maybe some puzzles? Discuss whatever you want.

The reason I asked this here is because I have been going through my photo albums and scanning all my pictures to digital format (so that I always have them - and also can send them to friends and family where I only have the original copy)... And came across where my (then) best friend Shawn and I were developing a game to send to Sierra called "B.C. Quest" (which stood for "Before Civilizaton Quest"). It takes place during prehistoric times with the main character being "Duh Ugg" (Doug).

We even wrote down puzzles, designed a box cover, the whole 9 yards. We sent in to Sierra asking about a proposal and everything - and they actually sent us paper work back with a letter about how they do things.

I no longer have the letter or paperwork (I really wish I kept so much of that stuff back then) - but just came across the pictures of us dressed up as Cavemen holding a banner with the Sierra Logo we had done on a white sheet with the words "B.C. Quest" above it drawn like stone - as well as pictures of the box and everything.

I am at work right now - but when I get home I will upload some of it and link it here. Some pretty silly stuff.

[AndreaDraco]

Definitely something set in the Victorian Times, sleuth-type but not Holmes-y, more like first days of United States of America, with a mood similar to Gangs of New York, with multiple races and religions clashing together.

[Datadog]

Ages ago (when I was 10 or 11,) I wrote a series of quest games called "The Wildside," which followed the adventures of a boy and his pet squirrel as they traveled the globe and saved the world in different ecosystems. It was in the vein of "Ecoquest," except without the eco-friendly subject matter and a lot more car chases and explosions. I think I wrote about ten games in all (using Word for DOS) before I lost them in a computer crash.

But that's okay. They weren't very good.

[Tawmis]

See there's old stuff I know I did that sucked (even stuff these days, but that's another story) - but I still wish I had it. Like I remember in the 7th grade having to read "The Killing of Mr. Griffth" - and writing my own version called "The Killing of Mrs. Krammer" - which was so horrible and so over the top (and based on a real teacher, that found it, I got in trouble, etc etc) - but my typing teacher used to snap at me because I type mainly with the two middle fingers - and I typed faster than anyone in that class and she hated it.

I remember also writing a book called "S.O.S. - Sons of Satan" (between my killing book and the title of this one - what a wonderful impression I have started) - but it's about these kids who sell their souls to the devil to make it big in the music world - but in the end realize the error of their ways when it starts destroying them (fame leads to partying, partying leads to drugs, drugs leads to destruction, etc) - so it turns out to be a story of retribution in the end (and thus the S.O.S. - which later means Songs of Salvation or something).

Completely horribly written stories - but stuff I wish I still had.

[Datadog]

I'm the exact same way with the typing. Using the two main fingers on each hand with faster and more accurate results. What's the deal with normal typing anyway?

I sort of wish I had my old work back as well. I'm sure there was some good stuff in there I could probably salvage.

[the_doctor]

my typing teacher used to snap at me because I type mainly with the two middle fingers - and I typed faster than anyone in that class and she hated it.

I had the same problem! I usually only type with the three center on one hand, two on the other. Never pinkies, and I never stay on home row, i'm all over the place. but i clear 80+wpm and the teachers always used to get so ticked off at me for it in all my typing classes.

of course now after 11 years as an IT tech dealing with computers day in, day out -- i've got carpal tunnel starting ... but maybe THAT'S why Sierra went point-and-click, they were trying to save our wrists! HAHAHA

[Tawmis]

Like you - I clear 80 wpm. I can't recall my speed in the 7th Grade - but we'd get the test where we'd have to type those things where you type the very random sentences (that more often than not - don't make sense - it's all about the typing speed so they make the sentences illogical) - and I'd still clear it before just about anyone in the class. Mrs. Krammer strongly disliked me...

Like you I do the IT Field work also... no carpel yet (thank the gods!)

[Akril]

I like old science fiction stories a lot, so I might like to design a series that takes place on future Earth as envisioned by the sci-fi authors of the 40's and 50's -- robots are commonplace, interplanetary travel has been established, aliens live on Mars and Venus, stuff like that. It would be a bit more "close-to-home" than Space Quest, since it typically would be confined to the Earth and its solar system, and a lot of the plot complications would be pretty small scale, nothing as grandiose as saving the galaxy from certain destruction.

In fact, I've sometimes thought of part of a retro sci-fi story I've already read and think, "Hey, that would make a good adventure game puzzle." For example, in one story, a man is on an arid, almost lifeless alien planet and has to figure out how to get into the (currently vacant) base camp that his exploration team has set up. He has to get past a robot that refuses to let him by unless he gives it the correct password (which he has no means of getting). However, the robot's programming is so basic that it merely percieves any sentient being that knows the password as a human and any sentient being that doesn't know the password as an alien trying to get into the camp.

The man's solution to this problem? Crawl past the robot like an animal, and growl unintelligibly when asked for the password by the robot. The simple robot then percieves him as an unintelligent beast and lets him by.

A series where sci-fi and fantasy intermingle (like Clifford D. Simak's The Goblin Reservation or Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series) might be fun as well.