Ever since the eighties, and continuining in the nineties, it was normal for many novelists to be directly involved in the process of developing a story for videogames. And not just simply hired to mentor the then-real writers, but to help along the process of converting their original books in gaming form. Indeed, this is…
It is a well known fact that, originally, Electronic Arts was not the evil colossus that would become, later, in the 00s, but a very different kind of company that attracted all kinds of talented designers, managing to release some of the more interesting titles of the 80s. Still, even after the departure of Trip…
This Interview with Jim DuBois on Majesty (Fantasy Kingdom Sim) is to go along with the main article on the game, which I recommend reading before diving into this. – Hello Jim and thanks for being available for this short interview! I have read on a website that you got the mail idea for Majesty…
Johnny Castaway is not a game. It’s a roguelike-like-like(unlike) screensaver with procedurally generated events during a day and night cycle. Indeed, Johnny is a screensaver, developed by Dynamix and distributed by Sierra in 1992, probably one of the best examples of a software designed like a game. Screensavers used to be pretty…
In 2000 Majesty came parading out of the gates, sceptre in hand, screaming to the world: “I am the Fantasy Kingdom sim”. It did indeed kept its promise, since the overall character roster and rules come straight out of a Dungeons’n’Dragons rulebook of the nineties. Rangers, rogues, warriors, wizards, trolls, goblins, spiders, etc. Still, this…