Al Lowe on Adventure Game Studio

[Simple]

I recently had the opportunity to interview Al Lowe (a personal hero of mine, if that wasn't obvious enough from my games and the name of my main character) for noisetosignal.org, a general media site I've been writing for over the past few years.

I asked him specifically if he was aware of AGS, and he surprisingly responded that yes, and he'd actually peeked in on us from time to time!

That's about the extent of it...but still exciting.  The complete interview is here:
http://noisetosignal.org/2008/10/the-nts-interview-al-lowe

I think there's actually a lot to glean from this, including some indirect advice on game design.  Have a look.

[Trent R]

Excellent interview, loved reading it.

~Trent

[creatorlars]

Ditto -- Great interview.

[Ryan Timothy]

Once I read that he was responsible for Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, the best adventure game I've ever played, I had to read it.

Very interesting too.

[Andail]

That's cool, Al Lowe certainly is an important figure for all retro adventure gamers

[Tuomas]

It  was a very nice interview. I thought I'd check out what's going on, and ended up reading it through. Nice questions, and I love it when the one who's interviewed answers them with laid back enthusiasm. Nice job

[Simple]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

Yeah, Al was wonderful, and I loved his approach to the interview.  He was really chatty and open.  If I asked him a question he had no problem answering it and then using it as a springboard to some other interesting topic that I hadn't even thought to ask about.  He was great. 

And he preferred doing it over Skype, which was both pretty cool (I got to see him face to face!) and really helpful.  He could see that I was interested in what he had to say from my body language, and I was also able to tell, the same way, which topics interested him most.  I've done phone interviews before, and they are good fun, but being able to see the other person--and have them see you--makes it a lot more warm.

I actually had a load of questions for him and only got to ask about 1/3 of them--I didn't want to keep him too long.  But that's only because he was giving me such substantial answers that I didn't want to interrupt him.

Anyway, look for Scott Murphy next.  (Fingers crossed...)

[Stumblebum]

Great interview.  It's a little depressing thinking of how much of the soul has been sucked from the gaming industry since Al's day, but I'm glad to know the man who got me into adventure games is relaxing in the sun and enjoying his life.

[Trent R]

I actually had a load of questions for him and only got to ask about 1/3 of them--I didn't want to keep him too long.  But that's only because he was giving me such substantial answers that I didn't want to interrupt him.

Do you think he'd be willing to answer them if you sent the remainder by email? Even if they aren't as enthusiastic, I'd still like to read his answers and he can answer them at his own pace.

~Trent

[Simple]

Do you think he'd be willing to answer them if you sent the remainder by email? Even if they aren't as enthusiastic, I'd still like to read his answers and he can answer them at his own pace.

~Trent

It's possible.  We've shot a few emails back and forth since and he's always friendly.  Maybe this weekend I'll go back through the questions I had prepared and see if any of them are particularly worth asking about. 

[ProgZmax]

Al's experience has been echoed by most of the top designers of his day.  It's pretty sad really to see the game design field become so grabby for profits over truly interesting titles, but it's only following the pattern set by Hollywood.  The only way you can make the kind of game you want these days is either to be independent and fund it yourself or make it freeware.

[Phemar]

Al Lowe = god. (along with Tim Schafer).

Thanks for that interview it was interesting.

[cat]

Nice interview!
If you check out his website (mentioned at the end of the interview) there are also some design documents you can download.

[Stupot]

Yeh I bookmarked the Torin's Passage DD a while ago (think someone posted it on here) and I look at it from time to time... haven't actually played that game yet, though.  Is it worth tracking down a copy?