An Interview With Jane Jensen
Adventure Gamer recently had the opportunity to interview writer and designer Jane Jensen. Jane Jensen has worked on several titles for Sierra, and most recently with Oberon on the James Patterson Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet PC Game. Gray Matter, a highly anticipated title designed by Jane, and adventure themed games in general was the focus of the interview.
Excerpt of the Interview
AG: How do you address the concern of people who think this more accessible approach represents a "dumbing down" of the genre?
JJ: I just don’t think “good” equates to “hard”, whether it’s literature or games or movies. As a writer, it’s my job to reach an audience. Look at someone like Spielberg. He’s as approachable as they come, that doesn’t mean he’s not good. Or take a look at ‘difficult’ writers like Thomas Pynchon (Gravity’s Rainbow) or Umberto Eco. How many people have actually made it through their books? Do you have to be obtuse and hard to read to be respected as literature? That’s just not my goal. I want to grab people by the throats and give them a thrill. Similarly, I just don’t buy that a game has to be hard to play or that you need to wander around for hours without knowing what to do or have to resort to a cheat sheet in order for a game to be “good”. GK2 was one of the most popular games I did and that game had a very simple interface and puzzles because of the live action.
AG: Is there such a thing as a happy medium on the issue of difficulty?
JJ: To me the game needs to have a great, rich story, fun puzzles, it needs to flow smoothly from start to end and at no time be confusing so that you stay wrapped up in the experience rather than the process. You need to get to the end and cheer – or cry. If a hard-core gamer can’t enjoy a game like that, so be it.
[Find The Entire Interview Here]
