AG: The new game stars 30-year-old Jess Silloway, but we don't know much about her beyond that. Players try to help her rediscover her recent memories in Three Cards, so we don't want you to give away any spoilers, but what can you tell us about Jess?

Aaron: The thing about Jess is that she’s no Lara Croft. She’s not even a Nancy Drew. She’s just a normal, smart, attractive (though not a bombshell) young woman who’s lived a good, though not exceptional life to this point. She has a long-term boyfriend who wants to marry her, and a loving relationship with her parents. Then her parents mysteriously disappear and everything gets really crazy. Like Tex Murphy, she’s a regular person – who we can relate to – caught up in extraordinary circumstances. She’s not as clumsy or as reliant on dumb luck as Tex, though. [smile]

AG: You've said that you'd like your new game to launch another ongoing franchise. Will Three Cards be a completely standalone story, or like Tex, will it hint at a larger story arc that you can continue on in future installments?

Aaron: There are definitely some big themes introduced that we’d like to explore in future sequels. And I know what lies ahead, but this is also a self-contained story…no ridiculous “Overseer-style” cliffhangers here! We learned our lesson!

AG: There seems to be a influx of "old school" adventure designers returning to the genre these days — more and more LucasArts spinoff studios, Jane Jensen, Hal Barwood, now you guys. You can only speak for yourselves, of course, but why do you think that is? Just coincidence, or something a little more meaningful?

Aaron: Everything goes in cycles, right? The videogame industry has been around just long enough to start seeing some cycles coming full circle. A lot of the old school game-makers were really talented, but when consoles came along they were either unable or unwilling to adapt – or maybe were just caught flat-footed by the sudden change and missed the train.

We had the PC Age and then the Console Age. Now we’re moving into the Age of Wii, hand-helds, and downloadable PC games. We still have the big console titles (and probably always will), but now there’s a lot more opportunity out there for those of us who never really embraced the console game mentality.

AG: The genre has a reputation of being behind the times already, largely stagnating since the mid-'90s or so. While it's a great thing for so many acclaimed designers to be back making games again, is there a danger that "the more things change, the more they stay the same?"

Aaron: Speaking for myself, I’ve learned a lot about what worked and didn’t work the first time around. By the late ‘90s, many adventure games had become notorious for being obscure, frustrating and frequently tedious. Gameplay and story often had little or nothing to do with each other. Cut scenes were badly written, poorly produced and forced down players’ throats. Gameplay became clichéd and repetitive. The novelty of early adventure games had gone away, the audience was more sophisticated, and kids who played games in the early ‘90s were growing up and no longer had hours and hours to waste searching vast 3D environments.

People glorify the old days, but very few of the “classic” adventure games hold up today. The fact is, users have changed and the games need to change with them. It’s kind of like fashion: old trends come back, but they’re always updated in some way.

Another thing is that most users only have an hour or two free to play, so they want something that’s punchy, gets to the point, is entertaining, and doesn’t drag on and frustrate them. If the old designers recognize this and adapt their designs accordingly, I think they can have great success.

AG: My last question may have been misdirected, come to think of it. After all, the Tex Murphy games were remarkably forward-thinking in their day. Even today they blow many new adventures out of the water in terms of progressive technology and design. What motivated you to take such an approach when many of your contemporaries were playing it safe?

Chris: We were always interested in staying on the cutting edge technologically. At Access, we did that with the Links golf game and it carried over to the adventure games.

Aaron: At the time, we really wanted to create a true “Interactive Movie” in the sense that the look and feel would be like a classic film noir movie, but would have as much interactivity as possible. It was a very exciting concept at the time. And one thing that we focused on – that many other games didn’t – was pacing. Our design, featuring the hint system, was intended to keep the game and story chugging along and avoid some of the pitfalls of other adventure games.

AG: Have you kept up with adventures since you've been away from them (as designers)? How would you describe the state of the genre during those years?

Aaron: We take a look around periodically. Overall, I would say the adventure genre is evolving in order to survive. Hardcore adventure gamers aren’t a big enough audience to justify the old massive budgets, so a lot of new games are being designed to be more accessible, faster-paced, and less frustrating in order to attract other kinds of users, especially casual gamers… and I think it’s not only a good idea, it’s essential to the survival of these types of games.

AG: What do you think has changed in story-based gaming in the past ten years, and how has this influenced your approach for the new game?

Aaron: Telling compelling stories is tough in any medium – movies, TV, books – but I’ve always said that good game stories are the hardest of all. It’s the balance with interactivity that makes it so tricky and, honestly, there are only a handful of games that did anything for me story-wise. I haven’t seen anything in the past ten years that’s revolutionized story-based gaming. It’s a hard thing to pull off and it’s almost totally subjective. For my part, I just try to tell a story that I would enjoy and try to integrate it with the gameplay in a way that makes sense to me… and hope for the best!

Chris: It seems to me that people are starting to clamor for more and better stories in games, and it’s nice to see. Storytelling is what we’ve always been most focused on.

AG: How do you think you've grown as writers and designers over the years?

Chris: Well, we’ve grown disappointed. [smile] Honestly, when you first do something, it’s all trial and error. At this point we’ve learned a lot of lessons and gotten a sense of what people like and don’t like. We’ve had to create templates in the past and now we’ve created a new one. Our big advantage is that many games – especially casual – are really just starting to experiment with storytelling and that’s territory we’ve already covered and are comfortable with.

Aaron: I’m better at getting to the core of something and not being distracted by the fluff. My dialogue tended to get a little “rambly” back in the day; now, I’m pretty good at self-editing. As a designer, working on a wide variety of games and platforms has definitely opened me up to new styles of gameplay and given me a better understanding of what resonates with gamers.

AG: Well, we're all certainly looking forward to seeing the results in the next month or so. But those deadlines won't meet themselves, so we won't keep you any longer. Thanks for taking the time to satisfy inquiring minds.

Aaron: Our pleasure.

Chris: You bet.