The Adventure Company to Work with Legendary Game-Storyteller, Jane Jensen

World-Renowned Writer to Guest at E3



Toronto, Ontario, May 13th 2003 – The Adventure Company today announced it has an agreement with Jane Jensen and the company she co-founded, Odyssey Digital Entertainment, to write and produce an exclusive new title. Terms of the deal were not discussed.



Jane Jensen has made a massive name for herself amongst gamers, especially the legions of fans that adored her Gabriel Knight Mystery Series. Renowned for writing some of the most story-intensive games of all time, Jane has the ability to capture the gamer’s imagination.



“I’m truly delighted to be working with Jane, we’re all massive fans here,’ commented CEO, Richard Wah Kan. “She brings an amazing level of intensity to adventure games.”



Jane is currently in the midst of the design process of this next game, and although untitled, ‘Project Jane-J’ will be a mystery that takes the paranormal very seriously. Based on mind-altering experiments of a reclusive doctor, the story throws a young female student deep into a world telepathy and clairvoyance, where nothing is as it seems. Like CSI’s use of forensic science, the game and story-line will be based on real neurobiology and psi research.



The game-play will be a combination of investigative, third-person adventure game play, Myst-style logic puzzles interspersed with some arcade-style sequences. The title is expected to be on shelves in Q4 2004.

About The Adventure Company

The Adventure Company is North America's number one publisher of adventure games, publishing award-winning adventure games primarily for the PC. Visit www.AdventureCompanyGames.com for further details.

Wow!!
Thanks Witchen!

One to anxiously wait for!

This sounds sooo good! And she tells such great stories through her games!

Great news, and nice to see The Adventure Company working with Jane! Good to hear a bit more about the story too, since that had not been revealed before.

Now the hard part, waiting until late next year to get a hold of it!

Louis

P.S. Um, Jane... if you need beta testers, just give me a call!

Awesome news!!

Great deal for Adventure Co to be sure.

Laura

That is quite a feather in the Adventure Company's cap. It will be great getting to play a Jane Jensen game again.

Wonderful new Witchen!!!!!

OMG, pick me up, I've fainted. I've been waiting for years to play a new Jane Jensen game - it's a dream come true.

Louis,
You must have been reading me mind concerning beta testing . I second that EMOTION.

The Adventure Company really looks as though it's going places.

WOW........that is terrific news!!! I can't wait!!! ohmy ohmy ohmy!! Thanks, Witchen........that is fantastic!!!!!!!!

This is something that I've known about for almost a year... ever since I posted Jane's request for emails to the richfx.com address. I've waited all this time for this announcement, keeping this a secret, so as not to jinx or disappoint anyone or any hopeful news on a signed contract. I can only wish for the best, for Jane and the team she picks, to design and develope this new game and/or series.

As for the Mods here.... HI!

What great news !!

That's really great news Witchen. Thanks.

Thanks for all your efforts too HerrBearen

Thanx Burpee.

I wonder ... could her new game have anything to do with her newest book being released in Aug. 2003 "Dante's Equation"???

Jane Jensen's Web Page

Thanks for the post. Very interesting. I wonder how this will work . To the best of my knowledge AC has never produced a game on its own. They only publish games produced by others. And Jane has, again to the best of my knowledge, never developed/produced a game while working on her own. I wonder who is providing the front money for this venture, which I imagine will be substantial.

Probably ten years ago Josh Mandel and I estimated the cost of developing and marketing a sequel to Freddy Pharkus Frontier Pharmacist to be in the $2-2.5 million range. (Assuming we could get the rights to the title from Sierra, which we couldn't.) The costs have to have gone up since then.

And the margins have gone down I bet. If you figure production/marketing costs (overhead) at $2.5 million, and gross profit (pre-tax) percentage at ten percent, then the standard business calculation, overhead divided by gross profit percentage equals the break even point, says that a selling price of $29/unit would require sales of slightly over 862,000 units to break even. That's an almost unheard-of figure in PC adventure games.

While I think the news is great, I just wonder how they're going to pull this off. And if it is unsuccessful, what does that say about similar ventures in the future?

A high end game is pricy these days - but there has been an offset with time/cost saving terchnical advances so it appears that costs have stayed somewhat stable over time.

An article published last year about Syberia noted their production costs. [quote]Syberia was created by Microids Canada at their Montr

PATHETICALLY SHAMELESS NAMEDROPPING: Had dinner with Jane on Thursday night; saw a lot of her at E3; she and The Adventure Company are a perfect match I think. It was fun seeing the big fuss being made over her (cover of the convention newspaper, GameSpot interviewing her, etc.). It's nice when the deserving ones get the attention they deserve, isn't it? And she's but ONE of the venerable adventure game gurus who are cooking up new stuff.

Yes it is. Be as shameless as you want, uhmmm - well maybe not But I love hearing all the buzz that Jane created and the well deserved love that was thrown her way.

Laura

Hope the game they are working on will be great! i personally hope they go more story wise other than flash graphics and cutting the game story to half size.. but knowing Jane we wont be dissapointed great news!!

~Polo

Are there any adventure game gurus working on new stuff that we don't know about yet? If there are, can you give us a hint?

Do you think that Jane Jensen represents a trend in adventure gaming -- that people who got out of the adventure business for awhile will now be coming back? If so, any idea as to why this is happening now?

My heart fairly soars, Ray!

Love, Witchen =O)

Which is why you need world-wide and cross-platform publication to maximise sales. And to make sure that development costs are minimised you also need to ensure that the platforms have as much commonality as possible, which in turn leads to interface decisions that some may prefer didn't happen.

Steve, I think I speak for most people when I say that we would rather see Revolution make a few concessions on the interface with the aim of saving costs and making more games in the future, rather than being inflexible and running itself out of business.

Thanks.

The interface was actually a pretty big hit at E3.

Oops! That didn't work as planned. (Perhaps the above message can be deleted)

>>Which is why you need world-wide and cross-platform publication to maximise sales.

Anyway. What you have said is a given. Another old business cliche... There are three ways to increase profit. Reduce costs. Increase sales. A combination of the two.

Obviously, porting the game to as many platforms as possible is a way to increase sales. I don't know if that is possible with one of Jane's games. I wouldn't think that games with as complex a story line as those Jane produces would port well to a console. Whether concessions will be made in order to enable porting, and thus increase sales, is a marketing question Jane and AC will have to make.

Jane's games fetch a premium price. And while AC's games generally retail in the $19-29 (USD) range, $49-$59 is not out of the question. Which certainly would cut down on the number of units that would have to be sold before they start earning a profit.

Karen

If you've come up with a keyboard interface that's almost as easy to use as the mouse, you will have added significantly to the gaming enjoyment of millions. Well, maybe not millions. Still, lots and lots and lots of gamers will thank you.

Hi all,
Here's the blurb from Gamespot. Read it quick as they put their content in the "you have to pay" part, after a few days.

From Gamespot - Jane Jensen's new game

This was quite fascinating. I'm interested to know how they will develop the game in a year (from September) when they don't even have a team pulled together let alone an engine and tools. We'd find it tight and we have all that already in place.