Approximately how much time do you spend on the project per week?

AGD#1: We take our jobs very seriously, as if we were working for a professional game company being compensated with a nice salary. I personally work every possible second I can on making games. Every spare second I DON'T have, I try to help other people out who are making games! I personally put in several hours a day. If we all didn't do this, no games would be done. You have to think realistically. Why put in two hours a week, if it would take 50 years to create one game? Nobody can stay motivated that long, technology won't stay put for that long, and fans would kick "you know what" if you made them wait that long!

So, we firmly believe that if you are serious about completing a game, and advertise it as something that will be released, you have the obligation to dedicate a large amount of your time to that game, even if you would prefer to go and do something a little less intensive at times.

CW: I spent three months using my (cough, cough) spare time to write the revised storyline. An additional month was dedicated to converting it to a screenplay. Early in the new year, I decided to stop altering the screenplay and allow it to stand up to the rigors of scripting. Now, every so often, I find "small" things to write for the game like the game manual, for example.

TOM LEWANDOWSKI: If I could, I'd spend all my waking hours working on the music for King’s Quest 2. But a full-time job and my family prevent that from happening. I do manage to put in a good 25-30 hours a week at composing, recording, editing, and providing samples and ideas to the Wookie and AGDs, though. And when I'm not physically recording music, I'm often composing in my head and taking notes for later.

Do you find working on remakes creatively rewarding?

AGD#1: Yes, very much so! Many people have made snide remarks about our work being uncreative. But this is simply not the case. It's such an incredible experience, being able to recreate something that you've come to love, and have so much good feelings for, in your own way, and through your own eyes. You feel the need to keep it faithful to the original, yet you can add all the things that you've always felt would be really neat to be in the game. I personally find nothing more rewarding than working on dialogue pictures of characters that I've come to know from the previous games. It gives you just a slight glimpse into what the feeling might have been like working alongside the original Sierra crew!

Most artists I know paint pictures from a photograph. Most people still consider that making art. I feel as if we are painting, but based on an experience. We were all there, in the various lands of the King’s Quest games, during our childhood. And now as adults, we get to recreate them as we once saw them. It's really a rewarding feeling.

AGD#2: I find it personally rewarding in the sense that it's a great feeling to see the project all coming together and seeing it actually resemble a classic Sierra game—progressing through the stages of its development towards completion! It's also rewarding getting so many emails from fans who really enjoyed the game and are ecstatic that they will finally get to play remakes of classic games that they never thought they'd have the chance of playing in VGA.

CW: Immensely rewarding! I haven't had this much fun writing since I wrote the "Future's History" Space Quest fan novel.

TL: King’s Quest 2 has been the most exciting project I've ever worked on! There's so much to it, such a variety of emotional twists, that I've had a chance to challenge my own musical limitations to the max. Though I have to say, working alongside such talented and dedicated people has been the catalyst for my excitement. I've worked with many teams in my life, but the Wookie and AGDs have kept this project alive and exciting from the start.

Do you see your remakes as a way to build a name and a following before turning to an original project?

AGD#1: We'd actually never thought of this. Our original goal was to make one game: [A King’s Quest parody called] Royal Quest. Along the way, we realized how much we loved these adventure games, and wanted to make our ultimate goal to bring them back. We didn't feel it was right that we were told to take a hike and forget game playing altogether if we didn't want to play the most popular 3D shooter games that are made by most "jump on the bandwagon" companies today.

From the immense success of King’s Quest VGA, we realized, there were tons of other people out there who loved these games as much as we did, and we decided to continue with our campaign to bring back adventure games. Over time, we've gotten massive amounts of emails from people asking about original games. Although we have our hands full with other projects right now, it is a potential option, as it would allow us to continue making games into the distant future. (It's actually cost us thousands of dollars to keep everything running, and although we're glad to support our cause, it does become difficult at times!) Also, it would allow players to play entirely original, yet nostalgic, adventure games.

Next: So you want to remake a hero?