Bringing back the original Gabriel Knight doesn’t seem like a bad idea, considering the success of Monkey Island or Broken Sword and the resurgence of the point-and-click genre. Is it something you’ve wanted to do for a long time? The first time I saw an iPad I thought about how cool it would be to see GK on it, and yes, seeing a lot of classics being redone it was a bit heartbreaking that I wouldn’t have a chance to see an updated GK. But fortunately, Activision was interested in doing it after all. A lot of things have changed since Gabriel Knight came out. What are the main challenges you’re facing when trying to stay true to the original while adapting the remake to today’s standards? For the most part, I wanted the game to be true to the classic. I knew fans would not be happy if we messed with too much. But we had a chance to add in a few new puzzles and scenes that could enhance the feeling of being immersed in New Orleans—specifically some exterior shots that weren’t in the old game. Also, I wanted to make it a little scarier, if possible, so there were a few new things added around that. We kept almost all the original dialogue, but as soon as I started playing it I felt it would be overwhelming for a modern audience. They wouldn’t have the patience to listen to 25 questions with each person, so we added in the highlighting of the important topics, and also instead of having every single verb on every item, we cut the ones that didn’t yield an interesting response. So yes, we tried to cut down on the amount of un-productive point-and-click but keep all the important stuff. Do you feel you need to make the game «easier» in order to appeal to a certain audience in 2014? Can hardcore point-and-click adventures still be successful, as they were back in the day? If you want to appeal to a modern audience, it isn’t going to be exactly like an old point-and-click. I don’t think people have patience anymore for serious pixel-hunting or really long dialogue sequences. But that said, I think adventure games can be very successful in this market, as we’ve seen with some recent titles like The Walkign Dead. It’s the first time a Gabriel Knight game gets a mobile version. Are you excited about it? What role do you think tablets will play in the future of the classic adventure genre? Yes, I am excited about it! I love my iPad and I’m on it constantly. Tablets are also as popular with women and with men, and I think that’s a strong uptapped market for adventure games, if we can just figure out how to reach them. 
This 20th Anniversary Edition isn’t trying to do anything new in terms of gameplay, but you’ve said you have ideas for a fourth Gabriel Knight —I actually love the idea of a GK game about witchcraft. Would you try to evolve adventure games if you had the opportunity to make Gabriel Knight 4, as you did in Gabriel Knight 3? Yes, if we get the opportunity to do an entirely new GK from scratch, then that’s a chance to do something different, take a look at what’s popular now, and try to make a great modern game. You actually licensed the GK IP from Activion to develop the game independently with your studio, Pinkerton Road. Will you be working with the new Sierra brand to publish the game? Our licensing deal for GK occurred before Activision developed the new Sierra brand internally, so we’re not exactly part of that label, though they are very supportive of GK and really like the game. We are already discussing ways we can collaborate after GK1 is released. How was licensing your own game from another company? Was it easier or harder than you thought it would be? Well, it’s hard (laughs). I’ve been trying to do it for the past 20 years or so. I pitched a GK game to the license holder several times, but it never went anywhere. The reason why this time it worked is that there were some (blessed, wonderful, amazing) people inside the company that really wanted to see it happen and championed it. So I’m in their debt.
Do you think longtime fans of the series will be happy with the new voice cast for this Gabriel Knight remake? Are you happy with how the new voices are going? I think so. We’ve gotten good response on it from beta and from the press reviewers who have played the preview build. I think it sounds great and is very true to the original in spirit. Even though Gabriel Knight is a «charming womanizer», you also wrote Grace Nakimura, a powerful female character, back in 1993. As a veteran woman in the games industry, how have things changed since the 90s in terms of diversity and equality? There was an article the other day that said that older women were now a larger demographic in terms of buying games than young men, mostly thanks to tablets and phone apps. That’s amazing. I think there’s still a huge amount of opportunity for gaming companies to make games that appeal to women gamers, and that means more opportunity for female designers (I hope). We still have a long way to go.
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