Talking Adventure Games with Dave Gilbert

Game designer and publisher Dave Gilbert founded Wadjet Eye Games in 2006. This interview features conversation about point and click adventure games; digital game development, marketing and publishing; and the relationship between art, passion and real world commerce.

Jeffery Klaehn: How did you first become interested in point and click adventure games?

Dave Gilbert: I played Kings Quest at a very impressionable age! I typed the word jump and I saw Graham actually jump, and I was so blown away that Ive been playing them ever since.

JK: You founded Wadjet Eye Games in 2006 to sell your game, The Shivah, commercially, then moved to pursue game design on a full-time basis and released The Blackwell Legacy, the first in what would become a series of five games. What are your thoughts on these games and on the market then compared to now?

Dave Gilbert: I am Blackwell Legacys biggest critic. It was the first game I wrote with the intention of selling commercially The Shivah was originally freeware, so I dont count it and it shows every inch of my inexperience. The gameplay is clunky, the story is told in three giant infodumps, and the main characters werent very likable. But that said, I know with absolute certainty that it was the very best game I could have made with the experience, resources and time I had available. So I stand by it.

As for the market, everything is different. Back in 2006, indie games in general were a very new thing. Read the rest