I'm Jane Jensen, game designer and author. AMA!

Also, my bestest bud and composer extraordinaire, Robert Holmes, is here too. So feel free to post questions for him.

Hello, Jane. I am eagerly counting down the days until the release of the remastered version of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. What are the plans for the franchise after this? Are we more likely to see updated versions of GK2 and GK3 or are you leaning more towards a completely new story?

Hello! The GK franchise is owned by Activision, and currently we (Pinkerton Road) just have the rights to remake the first one. However, now that Activision is starting up the new Sierra line, I think there's a good chance they'll want to work with us on more GK games--assuming the GK1 remake does well. My preference would be to do a whole new story. In fact, if I had my way I'd do a new trilogy. :-) But we'll have to see what they want to do.

What did you think of the Blackwell games, if you played through them?

I hate to say this, but I've been so busy I haven't gotten far with them. But I really liked what I played of the first one and I recommend them to anyone! I love the retro style and they're well-written.

Hello Jane. I played the Gabriel Knight games only recently, and absolutely loved them. The King's Quest series, though, was the one that marked my childhood, and KQ6 is my absolute favourite.

So I would like to ask: Is there a possibility that you participate in a future King's Quest game, since Activision has stated that they have plans for the franchise?

I absolutely would, given the chance. I did a replay of KQ VI recently for a video interview and I'd forgotten how much fun it was to work on that.

Greetings Jane! Congrats on 20 years of GK, your studio and your continued success. I am sincerely looking forward to the new edition.

What was your overall experience when it came to establishing Pinkerton Road Studio? Are there any positive, or negative, events that you could talk about?

The positive was that Robert and I both work from the farm on various projects and I love having our own little brand. It's also been very rewarding to work directly with the fans and meet some of them face to face at our open house. The beta process has been very cool with our own (trapped) audience.

The negative has been that, honestly, either Robert nor I are business people and never will be. The past few years have required a lot of comfort-zone-stretching in that regard and a lot of financial worry. There's so much more involved in shipping a game (much less 2) than you think about when you do a kickstarter. So right now, my goal would be to remain a small creative studio and work with bigger partners on things like publishing and other business support.

As a veteran woman in the games industry, how have things changed since the 90s in terms of diversity and equality? Do you have any advice for younger women in the field now or for those who might want to get into game development?

I get a lot of questions about the broader gaming industry and I can only say, honestly, I don't have much of a clue. I have been lucky to work with companies where my gender wasn't an issue. Yes, I do see misogyny in reviews and online forum at times--and I run the other way as fast as I can.

Advice for younger women--I say just do what you're super passionate about and don't let anyone dissuade you from it. There's a saying I've always held close and that's "the cream always rises to the top". If you really are good at something, and want to do something badly enough, you'll get your opportunities. Just stick with it.

Is it possible to have the GK and Moebius short stories as Kindle docs?

Sure.

Hi Jane and Robert, What are your favorite recently released adventure games?

The Walking Dead.

Are you satisfied with your output since leaving Sierra after GK3? Which games are you most proud of? Least proud of?

I think all fans of classic adventures recognize that KQ6 and GK1 are masterpieces, and that GK2 and GK3 are very well-written, if extraordinarily clunky, games. Their awkwardness is perhaps due to their timing and use of experimental technology, but the core remains strong.

However, although classic adventure gamers will always love you due to your pedigree, your post-Sierra output has certainly inspired controversy.

Do you feel that a measure of disappointment is justified? Which games, if any, do you personally feel to be on the level of quality of GK1 or GK2?

Well, it's definitely been eye-opening to realize how solid and stable Sierra was, and how supportive. I don't think we appreciated it enough at the time (even though I loved working there). It was challenging working on Gray Matter because it changed publishers twice and dev teams 3 times. With Moebius the challenge was the budget we had to work with ($390K vs $1 mill for Gk1 in 1993). I'm very proud of both of those games and also some of the hidden object games I did (I particularly like Dr. Lynch: Grave Secrets and Dying for Daylight). I think the story in Gray Matter and Moebius is as good as the GK games.

Here is my question: can you tell us how the original Gabriel Knight project got started? How did you first get involved in it and where the idea for Gabriel Knight came from?

Also want to say: thanks for being a huge part of my childhood, one of the reasons that motivated me to learn the English language was to be able to complete GK. It brought my friends together trying to solve the many puzzles throughout the game.
Also I still love the city of New Orleans to this day, and every time I'm there, it brings back good memories.

Hi. :-) Thank you. I love to hear that people think about GK when they travel.

I co-designed KQVI with Roberta Williams, and after that game was done, I was asked to propose my own game series. So that was really exciting and terrifying. I've always been interested in the supernatural and grew up reading Stephen King and Anne Rice, so I knew it would be some kind of paranormal mystery storyline. The New Orleans setting of GK1 was definitely inspired by Anne Rice's vampire series.

What is next for Pinkerton Road after the release of GK1 remastered ?

Shipping lots of boxes! Seriously, we have the big project coming up of getting physical copies made of Moebius and GK and getting over 1000 boxes shipped. So that's an entire release cycle in itself. lol

I currently have 2 different game proposals out and about, so we'll see what shakes out. My ideal would be to work with Activision's new Sierra brand on either a GK game or even a KQ or Laura Bow.

Actually, I've been wondering about the Sierra movement myself. As to why not just have GK1 20th be a first entry in it? Or was that going to clash business model-wise due to the Kickstarter GK1 20th is part of?

Hi, Wayens. The reason why GK 20th is not on the Sierra label is because our licensing deal with Activision was done well before the Sierra brand became a reality there, and we are publishers on the game. So GK 20th really isn't under enough Activision control for it to belong on their brand. But they've been very supportive of the game and super helpful in final sign-offs, etc.

How big was the team that developed the original Gabriel Knight, and how that compares to the team that is working on the remake now? I'm wondering how adventure game development has changed over the years, and this could give us an insight into the differences now and then.

The biggest difference is that the team is virtual now. The original GK team was probably around 16 core people and we were in two adjacent rooms. Now Robert and I work from the farm and everyone on the team lives in a different state or country. Everything is done through the cloud and ftp. I'm not sure what the exact size is of the Phoenix team though I can name a dozen off the top of my head. Katie or Cez, care to answer?

Hi! I’m a big fan of the GK series and can’t wait for the remastered edition of Sins of the Fathers! Thank you so much for creating the best games I’ve ever played!

My question, however, will be about Moebius. It’s the only game I’ve played in one sitting for years. The deduction mechanics were a lot of fun but more importantly the characters and the story were captivating. I loved Malachi and his relationship with David. Is there a chance we’ll see more of those two? It’d definitely be a treat to see their relationship grow.

I'm glad to hear that! I love the Malachi/David storyline too. I always intended to continue it, but at this point I'm not sure there'll be another game. If not, maybe I'll do a couple of books in the Moebius universe. They would be fun to write (and I could probably get kinkier too. lol)

Hello Jane. Gabriel Knight has been a major influence in my life. Although I'm not a Shattenjager, I'm now an English and History teacher, which I attribute to the stories I love such as yours. I often teach through the art of storytelling. Thanks for capturing my imagination. My question is about a GK2 rerelease or remake. If the Gk remake is successful can we expect one? Was the fmv footage saved by Sierra? Thanks.

Hi there, and thank you. :-)

I have asked Bill Crow about that original footage. He ran the blue screen studio at Sierra. He says he doesn't think it still exists.

I think it would be difficult to remake GK2 because either it would be FMV -- which is a really hard idea to sell to a publisher these days, and a ton of work to make. Or it wouldn't be FMV and then it would be 'why isn't this FMV!' :-) I think it would be challenging to make GK2 in the art style we used for GK1 just because it would be SO different from the original. But of course, now that I've said that, it'll happen.

Were Lady Howard and Estelle.... more than just good friends...?

"one bed. why am I not surprised? Not that there's anything wrong with that..." - Gabe

Thanks for the quote, Joseph. lol.

Yes, that was the general idea.

I was fortunate enough to visit New Orleans for the first time last June and was able to do a self-guided Gabriel Knight tour of the city. I was struck by how the actual city was reminiscent of the sights and sounds that I remembered from the game (in all its VGA 256-color glory). I'd say the game really captured the soul of the city. I was able to visit the Jackson Square, the cathedral, St. Louis Cemetery #1, Napoleon House, and the Historical Voodoo Museum, which was actually run by an old man going by the name of Dr. John! (Well, he was Caucasian, but close enough.) He had a snake around his neck and everything. What surprised me, though, was how his attitude changed when I brought up the subject of Gabriel Knight, the game. When I brought up the name of the game, he didn't seem all too happy. I believe his exact words were, "They put us in the game 'illegally.' We didn't see a dime." Whatever "illegal" means since as far as I know, he can't stop anyone from depicting a fictional version of the museum in a video game. I immediately dropped the subject and didn't push the issue anymore.

So here's my question. Have you ever visited the Voodoo Museum on Dumaine St. prior to or after you made GK1 to do research, etc. and did you get to meet Dr. John? And if not, do you have any plans to visit the museum in the future and possibly talk with him to resolve any misunderstandings? (And will you maybe send him a copy of GK20 when it's released? ;) )

I just thought it was unfortunate that Dr. John didn't have a positive opinion about the game especially when the game probably did nothing but good for him and his museum.

Hmm. That's interesting! The voodoo museum wasn't based on any real life location, nor was the voodoo shop. In fact, at the time I wrote GK1 I had never been to New Orleans IRL. (I have since, and loved it) Dr. John is a fairly common name for men involved in voodoo and I ran across it in my research.

But now that you say that, it could explain the rain cloud that's been sitting above our house for the past two years.

The infamous GK3 cat hair puzzle is often cited as an example of everything that was wrong with the 90s point and click genre. I'm told that it was a hastily-conceived replacement for another puzzle that, it transpired, was not possible to implement in the game engine. Can you give us any details about what the original puzzle was, please?

Honestly, I don't remember what it was before. It's been scorched from my brain by the subsequent fireball.

The short story you released yesterday... Is that a taste of what we can expect in a possible GK4?

I did write hints in that short story about things I'd like to do with a GK4, should the opportunity arise. I wonder if people found them all? :-)

Hello Jane. I just wanted to say the Gabriel Knight SotF is to this day my all time favorite game/story. The story line, graphical artwork, music....all perfect. Did you get much chance to work closely with Tim Curry, Mark Hamill, or the rest of the voice actors?

I did get to be in the studio when the voices were recorded, so I got to meet all of those actors and watch them work. They were brilliant, and Tim Curry is the sweetest guy you ever met. I personally love the VO process and its one of the best parts of making a game to me is to be at those sessions. (I was in London when we recorded Gray Matter and that was a BLAST.) It's just a joy to hear good actors read my words. Like, I can't even believe it's real. :-)

In the new GK Remake can I still try to "open Grace"? ;)

Yes. :-)

Actually, almost all the dialogue was left in. We did cut some verb/responses but mostly of the "Gabriel can't do dat!" variety. Anything remotely interesting was left in.

Hi, a big fan of yours from South Korea here.

This may be a little personal, but may I ask how you and Robert (Holmes) met? I remember thinking it was really awesome when I found out that Jane Jensen and Robert Holmes, who were two of Sierra's powerhouses not to mention people I admired immensely, were actually a couple. Can you share any interesting stories about your courtship during the Sierra days?

Hello! Thanks for coming all this way. :-)

We first met when he was assigned as producer on Pepper's Adventures in Time and I was designer. He asked me out to lunch, but I wasn't interested in getting involved with him because he had a young child. Ha! Famous last words. A gorgeous 25-year-old step-daughter later....

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Thank you!!

Hi, Eliza --

David's scar -- SPOILER ALERT

Yes, when Sam finally sees the scar, she's sees that it hardly exists, that what David sees when he looks in the mirror is mostly in his mind (body dysmorphia) due to his needing to believe he was badly burned trying to rescue his wife. *********************************

Glad I could clear that up! lol

I would like to go more with Gray Matter, if I'm unlikely to be able to get funding for a new game so maybe a book.

I didn't know that about Mary DeMarle. That's AWESOME!

Are we ever going to get part 2 to Dying for Daylight and/or a sequel to Gray Matter?

Gray Matter is one of my all-time favorite games, by the way. Thanks for making it!

Hello! Thanks for the kind words about Gray Matter. :-) It seems to have a small but dedicated following!

I'd love to do more Gray Matter games, but I think it would be dificult to find funding for a sequel, unfortunately. I have thought about do it as a book series, but not sure that will really give people what they want!

I've been wondering about this question for many years: How did you feel about all the hype around the "Da Vinci Code"?
The first time I read anything about it, I immediately thought: Jane Jensen did the same story years ago for GK III, how come everybody thinks this is original! :)

Da Vinci Code was based on the same research material I used, yes, Holy Blood, Holy Grail and a whole bunch of similar books. I doubt he ever played GK3. I do envy Dan Brown's success though. The bastard.

j/k

He would have sold more books if he had incorporated vampires!

I know! Right?

User @ASimitcioglu asks from twitter: "is there a real-life equivalent of Gabriel Knight character, more than an inspiration? friend maybe? (:"

No. I wish! I'd invite him over for Thanksgiving.

If anything, Gabe was inspired by the rogues in romance novels and Sandman and John Constantine all smooshed together.

GK-series tackles many religious themes thru out, without making it seem forced or attention seeking "oh my gosh" -style. Is religion to you both more of a personal matter or do you seek to question and understand it more by making it viewed from a different angle?

I think it's ingrained in me both by nature and nurture. My family tree has a lot of preachers in it. I guess there's just a part of me that is fascinated by the meta questions--what happens when we die, why does evil exist, etc, just like my ancestors. But instead of that leading me to a religious belief, though, I've always been more interested in philosophy and the paranormal. I grew up as a minister's daughter and so I saw a lot of hypocrisy and bigotry in the church. And that made me question religion itself. It generally doesn't fare too well in my stories. I guess it's a love/hate relationship. Sorry for the weird answer!

What graphic style do you like the most of the 3 Gabriel Knight games? And why?

Hmmm. Can I say the current on in GK20? Besides that, I'd have to say GK2.

Hi jane, what would you recommend to those who want to start making a game aventure?

Hi, Ariel. Besides finding and marrying a composer (who is not cheap, BTW), I'd say choose a publisher whose work you really love, become very familiar with their games, and then see if you can get your foot in the door--in QA or any other way. If you can get a degree in programming or art or writing (depending on your interest), that will help you get started in the gaming field. Most designers are promoted from within--at least they used to be.

Hey Jane !! I haven't really played or watched any of your games yet :P So i wanted to know is Gabriel Knights Sins of the Father's 20th a good begin to start Gabriel Knights series. or do you recommend to play another first from the Gabriel Knight series ?

You should definitely start with GK1! It sets up the universe.

Hi Jane!

What would be your advise for someone who wants to get into writing but has trouble finishing projects?

I love your books!

There are some interesting tools now. I did http://nanowrimo.org/ last year, and it helped me plow through most of a book. Basically, aim to write 2000, 3000 or whatever your goal is daily and don't get distracted until you have (I use anti-social). Even if it's shite, just get it down. It's easier to fix it later than to just be blocked.

And thank you! :-)

Hello Jane! :D Big fan of yours and your husband as well! I was wondering if you're planning to adapt Millennium Rising or Dante's Equation to videogame format?

Hi, Leandro. When I first came up with Millennium Rising it was after GK2 and I wanted to do it as a game. But when that didn't pan out, I wrote it as a book. I think either of those would be a challenge to adapt because they both have a ton of locations. But it would be a fun thing to try to Millennium Rising as a game--if I had the budget to do it! I think it would be better suited to that than Dante's Equation.

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Hello! Thank you for the kind words. :-)

Yes, we did go over there. Robert and I took a trip to Germany while I was writing GK2. We visited a lot of locations that ended up being in the game. One was AltOtting. I read one line in a Ludwig biography about the fact that his heart was in an urn at AltOtting. So we found it on the map and decided to go there. I was so impressed with the atmosphere of that place, that it became a game location. The same thing with the lake shore where he died. And I have been to Neuschwanstein several times. Unfortunately, I'm not always able to afford to travel like that, but it makes a huge difference when I can.

User @CraigheadPro asks from twitter: "Why the focus on games over books? Do you prefer the visual medium over the written one?"

I really love writing books and I've been doing more of that in the past few years. There's another reply in here where I talk about that. :-) The games are fun to do because yes, it is fun to see them come to life with art and VO and music and all that.

How it was to work with the Williams?

Yes, it was great. I loved that Ken really gave the designers a lot of freedom and support. I miss that!

Hello! I'm currently working on an adventure game called Read Only Memories that was inspired by Gabriel Knight - which to me, is the perfect adventure game, as well as games like Snatcher and Rise of The Dragon with their intricate, cyberpunk storylines.

My question is - in your experience, what are the biggest pitfalls that you've experienced and learned to avoid?

Thank you and good luck!

It's hard to say. It depends on your natural strengths. For example, you might have a tendency to over-complicate the plot -- or maybe your plot isn't deep enough. So it's hard to answer in general.

I'd say it's important to not be too sensitive about your work and learn to take criticism and feedback. I really struggled with that when I was younger, though I've grown a pretty thick skin by now. Ultimately, what matters is that the game is the best it can be, and if someone else has an idea that will make it better I'm all for stealing, er I mean using, that.

Love your games - GK1 is one of my all time favorite adventure games, so I'm very excited for the remaster. Anyway, my question is about game mechanics:

Do you feel that death (or more accurately: frequent/easy/unexpected death) makes for a good mechanic in adventure games?

I loved games like KQVI and GK, but it was so easy to die in them that it often felt like I had to either save before I did anything, or avoid exploring the environment fully/thoroughly, which would either lead to missing game content or actually getting progress-blocked because I failed to find a key item earlier. I didn't play adventure games that lacked death (Lucasarts, etc) until many years after playing every Sierra game I could get my hands on, and it really changed the way I approached them when I couldn't die, and I'm curious whether or not you feel it's a good mechanic for adventure games or just a thing that Sierra refused to experiment with.

I started out as a fan of Sierra adventure games myself, and I liked the challenge that dying brought to the table. I saved a lot!

As for whether it's a good thing to have NOW, I can say that you can die in Moebius and in GK 20th, but we have an auto-reset. That seems to be the best compromise. Story wise, there are some situations where it just makes sense that you CAN die, and you'd have to go to strange lengths to make that not happen no matter what the player does.

Given its ending and the SIDNEY "GK4" Easter egg, was GK3 produced with the intent of making a sequel? If so, how much of it was worked on and what ideas were conceived for it?

Yes, the end of GK3 was supposed to lead in to GK4. I had a basic idea for the storyline, but not much work had been done on it yet.

User Lars Grissell Christensen asks from Facebook: "Will the remake come to both iPad and iPhone or is it only tablet? And when is release?"

Hi, Lars! No iphone, but yes for iPad. Not sure of the release date yet, but hopefully not too much after our pc/mac launch.

If you could do the whole Kickstarter campaign again from scratch, what would you have done differently? Or knowing what you know now, would you have done a Kickstarter fundraiser to begin with?

Man, these are tough questions!

It's hard to say right now, because we still have to ship our 2nd game and boxes, etc. So we won't really know the final result of our kickstarter for a number of months more (financially). I can say that, yes, I would have done the campaign differently (gone in with 1 game and a very defined one). And if we ever did another one, I'd be much more precise with what we were and weren't offering. Also, as I've mentioned elsewhere, kickstarter is a good way to supplement a game budget but it really is unrealistic to count on it for the whole thing. So I wouldn't do that again.

If budget constraints weren't an issue, is there an art style or type of engine you would like to see your future games employ? I really admired the ambition of GK pushing technical boundaries in each iteration to certain degrees of success.

I see the games that have budgets of $20 mill and more and yes, I'd love to have that kind of technology! I would love to play around with VR and more live actors/face recognition technology if money were no object.

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Hello!

I usually spend about 4-6 weeks on the initial story outline. That details the story completely and is about 120 pages. After that, the design doc (adding in the puzzles, interactivity, scenes etc) takes maybe another 3 months.

There's definitely revision between story doc and design doc, to get the interactivity to work. But after that it doesn't really change that much.

I fell in love with Sierra adventure games in the late 80's and wrote to them begging them to let me work for them. Somehow, that worked.

Hi, Jane! What was your favorite part of working at Sierra?

I was just such a huge, huge fan, it was like working in a candy factory. Or a porn studio. Something like that. :-)

Hello Jane, replaying the games waiting for the remastered version, That made me wonder. The lion fighting the snake on Gabriel's Amulet, is that just good fighting evil or is it more linked to the resolution of Gabriel's ancestry in GK3?

It was definitely a good-vs-evil thing but yes, both the lion and the snake have associations with, specifically, Jesus and Lucifer.

Hey Jane! I just got here and have a lot of reading to do but I have a few questions.

1) Is there any chance of the first two Gabriel Knight books being released in ebook format? I'd love to purchase them on Kindle.

2) Any chance of an HD remake of parts 2 and 3 as well?

3) Any possibility of having Gray Matter ported to Mac? There's a way to do it with wrappers and whatnot but I'd rather not be bothered with all of that work for something that may or may not work.

Hi, Merrilyn

1) I'd like to see them re-released as ebooks. I would need to get approval from Activision to do that. We'll see!

2) My first choice would be to hop to a GK4 -- assuming I get the chance to do any more GK. I wouldn't be adverse to working on a GK2 and GK3 HD remake if the first game does well and there's funding support for them.

3) Gray Matter is published by dtp and I don't think they plan to do anything more with it (other versions etc). Unfortunately. It is on Steam though! Yay for that.

Hi Jane, you mentioned in several interviews how Hellblazer was one of your inspirations for Gabriel Knight.

Does that mean that Gabe's coat was inspired by John Constantine's?

Hi, Sai! Nice to see you here.

Yes, I guess it was, though it's leather rather than a trench. Also Sandman had a long black coat, which was awesome.

Hi Jane, First, I just have to say that I think you've been doing a fantastic job with Pinkerton Road! I was so happy when you were able to have your own company! Just a few things-

1. I think Moebius was an awesome game and you should be very proud of it (I actually love Malachi :D). I know you're very busy with Gabriel Knight, and obviously I would love to see the series continued, but what do you think the chances of a sequel for Moebius are? I think that story has a lot of potential.

2. Where do you see Gabriel going as a character? After reading the short story, I'm wondering if we will see some new character development with him, since he is obviously feeling guilty and worrying about continuing the family line. Do you think he'll ever settle down?

Regardless of the answers, I look forward to whatever you make and wish you nothing but luck in the future. Your games are the reason I've been making it through college lol. Thank you for your time on here today!

Hi, Emmy!

Thanks so much. :-)

1. I don't think there will be another Moebius game, unfortunately, but I might do some books in that world.

2. Yes, I think a GK4 would be pretty dark and Gabriel would be struggling with some very heavy issues. But I don't want to get too ahead of myself and talk about it yet.

lol. So I'm not actually distracting you from college? Guess I need to try harder.

Hi Jane, I am also wondering what is next for Pinkerton Road and the likelihood that we will see another cycle of the CSG?

Robert and I are not planning to run another CSG/kickstarter season right away. We'll see how GK1 does and how things fall out with Activision and the possibility of a GK4.

Hi Jane, Thank you for your wonderful contribution to multiple forms of entertainment media. I have had many hours enjoying all of your work and can't wait to spend my week off playing the GK re-release. I would like to know if you are working on any more novels? I've read them all at least twice and have recently finished re-reading the GK2 novel. Thanks again

Hi there! Thanks. I'm so glad you liked the books.

Yes, I am writing fiction again. I have a number of romance books out under Eli Easton and I have an Amish murder mystery novel (set right were we live in PA) coming out from Berkeley next year. I'll post more on that book on my facebook page once I have a release date and cover. I think people who liked my first books will really like that one. It's creepy!

Any plans on bringing the game to mobile platforms?
It seems like that's a big opportunity for all the original great adventure games, I'd love to be able to play GK on a phone or tablet.

We do plan to publish Moebius: Empire Rising and GK 20th on iPad and Android. No plans for phone.

Hiya Jane! Longtime fan, bought GK1 off the CompUSA shelf in '93, so natch am very excited about this re-do. I was a little disappointed that you guys didn't go with the way Gabe looked in the original GK (that wild short hair!). Any particular reason why you chose to go with the Dean-inspired look instead? Also, it has to be asked -- will we ever see a GK4?

Actually, the GK 20th Gabe is sort of an amalgam of GK1, 2 and 3. I think his hair looks the most like #3 to me.

GK4 -- I hope so. With Activision's new Sierra brand I hope we have a strong change to work with them on bringing Gabe back.

I'm a huge fan of the series and I first want to thank you for them. I have a couple of questions. What do you think of Broken Sword and the Last Express? and what was the reason to do a remake rather than a new game?

I have Broken Sword on my iPad and it looks great. So yes, it was like -- damn it! I wish we could remake GK! lol

Hi Jane! It's been great following the development of GK1 Remastered and loved reading The Temptation! You've said in interviews you hadn't revisited GK1 in a long time; what were the biggest surprises for you 20 years later, both positive and not-so-positive, as you replayed the original game?

It's true that after a game ships, I've never replayed that game. It's like being forced to eat 3 tons of chocolate pudding in the space of a few months, you know? No matter how much you like chocolate pudding....

Actually that was the joy of working on this project, was rediscovering the game and dialgoue. (Oh, YEAH! That was funny.) I really fell in love with it all over again, though yes, the vast number of topics and verb options did seem very 90s!

What's the most unexpected country you've been contacted about your games?

I guesss I was most surprised (for some reason) to hear from players in Russia and Israel.

What has been your most challenging moment as a game designer?

Wow. Interesting question.

The hardest moments for me, emotionally, have been those moments when the producer comes to me as says "Jane, we really have to cut 20% of this design". And you'd better believe, you don't want to be that producer! Lots of crying. lol

I remember that clearly from GK2, when Sabine Duvall took me out for a little stroll around the Oakhurst parking lot and told me oh-so gently that we had to cut a whole chapter of the gk2 script (due to budget and time). That was not a good day. It's just painful in a way that's hard to explain.

There was also a time on one project where the publisher and dev team were at each other's throats and I had to try to mediate. It was tough.

So... there are always challenges because games are a business and there's a large team involved and real money, etc etc. That stuff can be stressful, but there are huge rewards too.