David Gray
An interview with the creator of the Hugo adventure games. [2001]
One of the point and click adventure genre's finest contributors, David Gray, worked on several nifty adventure games. The Hugo adventures are just as popular as LucasArt's games - and have been selling exceedingly well ever since their initial release. We managed to catch up with David Gray, the creator of the Hugo games!
Thanks very much for letting us interview you for the AGDzine! How old were you when you first started programming, and what languages did you learn, and get good at?
Age 18 I learned Assembler and Fortran at my first job in a scientific field. I didn't have much opportunity to work with computers at school - they weren't an integral part of studies back then. My very first program was a laughable attempt at the game of pool, written in assembler. It was pretty awful and slowed to a crawl if too many balls collided at once but it was very colorful, a real hoot and I was hooked forever.
Did you prefer making applications or games, or did you only ever do games?
I suffered many years writing boring scientific applications knowing I'd be able to program games in my spare time (sometimes not so "spare"). The computers and displays at work were great for writing games. I got caught on numerous occasions but my boss was so impressed at the Asteroids clone I'd created he was happy to turn a blind eye.
What was your first success? Did it sell well or was business slow?
The first game I created to sell was called "Hugo's House of Horrors" circa 1990 and financially was a great success. The inspiration partly came from a game called "Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards". The program name was LLL.EXE so I called mine HHH.EXE and that's partly how the Hugo title came about - to get the three H's and also based on the opening picture of the haunted house. The story was then written around that. The game sold brilliantly and I continue to get sales to this day.
You made three point and click style games, the Hugo series, what was your inspiration for making them?
The point and click interface actually only appeared when I ported these games from their native DOS to Windows. The original games only accepted text commands as input.
And why did you choose to use a point and click style?
Basically point and click is a lot more fun to play. The original command-based games were frustrating in places if you didn't hit on the right phrase. I kept the command input as an option when I ported the game - so players could choose to use the point and click interface, or the text, or both at once.
What programming language did you use to make Hugo's House Of Horrors (which everyone has played!), and how long did it take to program/develop?
I originally used Microsoft's QuickC and a paint program. So the language was 'C'. The Windows point and click versions used Microsoft's Visual C++. I recall the original DOS Hugo 1 game was quite quick, a few months. This was spare time only as I still had a day job then.
Are you a point and click adventure fan? If so, what point and click games have you enjoyed, and if you're not, why not!!?? :)
Of course! My all time favorites would be Monkey Island and Myst, two very different games.
You say it was a long time ago since you made the Hugo games (and by looking at them that's obvious), but would you ever consider making another point and click adventure?
I get asked this a lot. My standard reply is I'd love to do one but the cost of creating one suitable for today's market is prohibitive. Adventure games now require celebrity voice-overs, a Hollywood studio, special effects team and a cast of thousands. Well not quite, but you get the idea.
What other games or programs are you working on at the moment?
Still doing puzzle games but not adventures. I just released Jigsaws Galore v4 which lets you play, create and e-mail jigsaws. Sounds an easy thing to write but allowing for 10,000+ moveable, rotatable and overlapping jigsaw piece sprites on the screen at one time was an interesting challenge. This game was written using Delphi and has been highly successful.
What do you think is the benefit of releasing things as shareware?
The reason I release as Shareware is to get evaluation products distributed to a wide audience for minimum cost. It's effectively advertising. You also get instant feedback and sales as soon as the product is created, thanks to the immediacy of the Internet.
Do you have any tips or comments to tell the adventure game makers of today?
If you mean an independent game developer then I'd say put together the best team you can - you can't do it on your own any more - then look at everything that's available and either copy the best bits of what you see or create a new genre. Also it's important to like what you are doing. If you are having a ball creating the game it will show and be better for it. Seriously consider shareware rather than a publishing deal - it's a lot less stress and you get rewards immediately. If the game is successful you can leverage it to create another for retail.
Thanks very much for your time, it is greatly apreciated :)
You're welcome!
|
|
