Today we are talking with Francisco Gonzalez as we go in depth on the genre of video game that I have been playing longer than any other in my life: point and click adventure games. I have been a fan of Francisco's games ever since I stumbled upon Lamplight City. I then had the pleasure of playing back retrospectively through his earlier work, which includes A Golden Wake and Shardlight, before eagerly anticipating the release of Rosewater, an epic western point and click adventure.
We talk about our shared love of Jane Jensen's Gabriel Knight series, and the fact that we both made pilgrimages to New Orleans primarily because of the first game in the series. Francisco has some fantastic insight on what it takes to create a standout point and click adventure in an age where one is balancing modernising the classic format while borrowing what worked so well from a genre that has been around for nearly half a century.
We of course cover the classics: Monkey Island, Broken Sword, King's Quest V, Police Quest III, and, as mentioned, the Gabriel Knight series.
I've been waiting to talk with Francisco for a while now. I think point and click adventure games are a tough genre to market and sell, and much like the classic point and click games of my youth, I believe the reason he has been so successful in what he does is because of the attention to detail he pays to character, story, and creating what always feels like a rich, lived-in world.
0:00 Why People Remember Adventure Games
1:13 Meeting Francisco Gonzalez
4:04 First Adventure Game Memories
9:35 Historical Fiction in Games
15:23 Discovering Adventure Game Studio
23:09 Creating the Ben Jordan Series
29:49 Passion vs Nostalgia
42:35 What Players Respond To
44:24 Why Point-and-Click Games Matter
46:10 The Problem with Adventure Game Puzzles
56:27 Modern Adventure Game Design
59:17 What's Next After Rosewater?
1:05:02 Going Professional
#monkeyisland #brokensword #rosewater #pointandclick #adventuregame #adventuregamestudio #kingsquest #sierra #lucasarts