Jane Jensen Talks about Moebius, Gray Matter, and More

A new game studio: Pinkerton Road. A new adventure game in the making: Moebius. Designer Jane Jensen talks about games from her past and her current project.

On the Pinkerton Road to Adventure -- An Interview with Jane Jensen

Thanks, Becky!

Enjoyed that, Becky !! Thank you

Thanks

How many of you have funded the new project's of jane via kickstarter btw ?

MrMentalD -- we don't actually keep track of the numbers. I know many of us voted early on in order to choose between Gray Matter 2, Moebius and Anglophile Adventure.

Great Interview! Thanks Becky!

Ana

Great interview, Becky!

Jenny100 -- it wasn't just me asking questions, as you know.

I had a great time reading Ms. Jensen's responses too.

Thanks Becky for such an interesting interview!
I hope JJ gets to make all 3 games & pleased to know that Gray Matter 2 is in the plan! - I couldn't resist peeking at the spoiler but it's kind of what I guessed & I'll have forgotten by the time GM 2 arrives anyway!

Very, very interesting! Thanks becky!

You all know of the GK marathon happening live with Jane in the background, right?

http://de.twitch.tv/laurakat07

Thanks for the link. It's so multi-tasking-ish! At this moment, Laura is playing the game, Jane Jensen is commenting on the game both via audio and text, and the fans are texting comments as the game is played.

Never seen anything quite like it before.

It is really great and interesting to watch :-)

I've got to hand it to Laura. Playing a game online while the game's designer(!) and hundreds (thousands) of people watch? She looks so calm and collected.

She's going to be playing these games non-stop until she's finished!

I've got to hand it to her.

Thanks for the interview. Always enjoyable to read something from Jane!

I had to refrain from GK1 because I want to play again soon. I remembered how purely New Orleans' Irish Channel the old Catholic lady sounded but I had forgotten Gabriel ever even visited Tulane so I clicked off. A few years ago, I really thought that a GK4 would have been a shot in the arm for post Katrina New Orleans as well as a boon to adventure gamers.

I guess I'll go over and check if GK3 is still going on because I've played that more recently. Oops, can't watch now because GK2 is still going on.

Becky, thanks for the interview.

Fantastic interview, thanks Becky! I also hope all three games get made and am looking forward to more news about Mystery Game X.

I'm enjoying Laura's playthrough; been watching periodically. I missed all the best parts with von Glower in game 2, though. I was sleeping.

I hope this kick starter get its well deserved 450K$.
This means fully cinematic scenes, a longer game, and... an orchestra for the music!
We've got 5 days left, and Jane's been treatin' us with much information and presents.

Great interview and thank you, Becky. Much to look forward to.

A very cool update:
"
Hi, all! I promised you a special treat for the end of our Kickstarter campaign and I think this qualifies! I got on skype with some of the team from Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within -- Will Binder (film director), Dean Erickson (played Gabriel) and Peter Lucas (played von Glower)
"

They're really fun to hear and see!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1005365109/jane-jensens-pinkerton-road-2012-2013-csg/posts

I just listened to the recording. It's fun to hear them all together again. I think it's interesting that the actors couldn't finish their own game because the puzzles were so tough!

I love the story about Peter Lucas gaming late into the night to try to get to the von Glower parts so he could show his parents his latest gig.

Becky, I'm sorry I'm spamming your thread with commercials. I figured it's slightly relevant

By posting links and by mentioning Jane's cool kickstarter again and again and again I am in no way whatsoever trying to pressure you good people to pledge! No pressure, no pressure... (only 46 hours left OMG)

No, I'm kidding, come on, don't kick me out of the forums, I'm a good person all in all.

"By posting links and by mentioning Jane's cool kickstarter again and again and again I am in no way whatsoever trying to pressure you good people to pledge! No pressure, no pressure... (only 46 hours left OMG)"

I'm glad YOU said that and not me, Tomer, !!

I just found out about Pinkerton Road Studio/Jane Jensen new company while searching for wallpapers for Gray Matter and looking for the music of Scarlet Furies (Robert Holmes soundtrack, Jensen's husband), with only 39 hours to go! What luck that I did a search today. I am just going to splash 50 dollars on this right now (helped by the conversion to pounds I'm only spending £31.61) and it will be the best investment I ever made. Never felt so great about spending money in years, there should be a box telling us about this on the main page of Gameboomers. We'll get two great adventures, yes, but oh my! we will be testers! I can't wait...

rmt, the kickstarter was announced here and was stickied on the top of the forum for a week.

It is also on our homepage.

Ana

I am a regular visitor to Gameboomers, but somehow I missed it. I don't know how. I usually arrive straight on the walkthrough or the page I wanted by doing a search in Google adding Gameboomers, or visit straight the latest games page. I must pay more attention in the future.

So, I just joined Pinkerton but I did not get any special email giving me special access yet. Will it arrive soon or do we have to wait until the Kickstart campaign is over? The "only 39 hours left" suddenly seem very long!

I just read the great interview with Jane Jensen on Gameboomers and read most of their website, but somehow I don't want to go to bed just yet...

Rmt -- you should receive a "Thanks for becoming a baker" -- I mean, "Thanks for becoming a backer" email from Kickstarter soon -- you don't have to wait until the campaign has finished.

Grr, rmt, who knows how many more there are such as yourself!
Welcome in, glad you pledged... our goal is theoretically 450K (an orchestra for the game's music, 1000 extra dialog lines etc...) and practically 400K (fully cinematic intro and trailer, linux support etc...)

Anyway, welcome!

Edit: by joing pinkerton, you mean the forums or the kickstarter?

I joined the $50 pledge group, I still have not received an email except confirmation of payment. They must be busy right now. In the meantime I will read the updates on kickstart, that should keep me occupied for some time. I have already watched two parts of the interview with the people involved in creating Gabriel Knight 2, fascinating. I have not joined the forum yet, I am awaiting their email first, just in case...

I used the PayPal button on the Pinkerton website, I hope it counts not just as donation?

RMT -- if you used PayPal on the Pinkerton website, then you haven't contributed to Kickstarter as far as I know -- you've given directly to Pinkerton. So that's why you haven't received a Kickstarter email.

I bet casual gamers would be very interested- if aware of this fundraising attempt. Especially since new game will have "cartoony" graphics and casual/easy with hints game playing mode. Dying for Daylight and other Jane Jensen casual games have been popular.

It is on this page that I clicked to pay:

http://pinkertonroad.com/join-csg/

And it states to enter the amount of our desired reward tier. And I reached that page following a link from the kickstart website stating we can now pay using PayPal and to follow the link. That link is almost at the beginning:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1005365109/jane-jensens-pinkerton-road-2012-2013-csg

So I would think my pledge counts or do you think I should contact them?

Rmt -- I don't know all the ins-and-outs, and I'm sure your pledge counts in the sense that you have become a member of Pinkerton Road Community Supported Gaming, and you'll get the rewards at the tier you designated. But if you wanted to pledge via Kickstarter, rather than directly to Pinkerton Road, you may want to contact Pinkerton Road and see if the difference is meaningful in any way.

Thanks Becky, yes, it does not matter to me whether my pledge is reflected on Kickstarter or not, as long as I am actually registered in the tier and part of what they offer. Like you I do think I have joined. I did tried to see if my pledge had been taken into account on Kickstarter but the pledges went up by more than one in that few minutes, so I could not tell if mine was taken into account.

I did wonder at the time if it would not be preferable to make sure I paid from clicking on Kickstarter, but this organisation I think only takes the money if the goal is reached and only once the time has elapsed. I thought if I paid directly from the Pinkerton Road website at least they might have the money directly and instantly, and the goal was already reached anyway. If it had not, I would have paid via Kickstarter for sure.

I don’t know how this works either, but what a great way to ensure in the future that great quality adventure games are made, and we have seen less and less of them lately. I would not mind contributing the same way for Culpa Innata 2 and The Longest Journey 3 to be made. Who would have thought that Jane Jensen could raise almost instantly $400,000 (and perhaps $450,000 before this is over) to start up a company dedicated to creating the very type of adventure games we love? This changes everything.

Well, no one now can say that the adventure game genre is dying, look at how many pledged for something they might only get next year. What they really meant was that adventures just do not make the millions required now by top game publishers to be worth investing into, but it does appear there is quite a demand. Unless of course, as usual, Jane Jensen is an oddity, the exception rather than the rule.

It will be interesting to see if other adventure game creators try the same financing tactics, like Benoît Sokal and his defunct White Birds Productions company, and see how successful they could be at it. Someone should tell Benoît Sokal about this way of financing new adventures. I bet he could be successful too.

After DTP, all we need now is for Microïds to go bust… I hope they are not in any financial difficulties, because I would not mind pledging there too.

Basically for us it just means paying upfront to make sure these great games are made. Let’s face it, my £32 is probably less money than what it will cost me to buy these two adventures once they come out, and that way we are almost sure they will come out.

rmt, Microids did go bust and was bought by Anuman. Beloit is working on an adventure game for them but so far the details have been sketchy as to if it will be a Syberia 3 or another game.

Dear me! BrownEyedTigre, I had no idea. I must keep up with the news. Recently I virtually bought every single adventure from Microïds on iTunes for my iPad, it never occurred to me they might have gone bust. They're all going bust, we should mobilise to save them by pointing out to them this new way of financing themselves. The recession is only getting worse, there will be nothing left of the adventure game industry by the time capitalism has re-invented itself and markets are striving again. Such good news that Benoît Sokal is preparing us another great adventure, and perhaps Syberia 3!, how can we make sure he finishes it before Anuman goes bust?

I do not think that Anuman is going bust, they have many partnerships going to keep them fluid. THey are also into making lots of mobile games and staying current with market trends.

So I have Anuman to thank for all my favourite adventures now being transferred to the iPad. I never thought I would be playing Versailles, Egypt and Amerzone again wherever I want on my retina screen. I just hope they will transfer Sinking Island soon, I just love that game, but that was White Birds Productions. However Benoît Sokal is now with them… there is hope. Thank you BrownEyedTigre for the news.

And more urgent is to transfer Atlantis 1 and 2 to the iPad, I am unable to get them to work on Windows 8.

Yes, those games were indeed transferred by Anuman. I am glad you are enjoying them.

Ana

Ana, I just feel like dancing with your dancing banana, it made my day.

Such a nightmare of a day, I'm not sure which adventure game could help make me forget it. I'm almost at the point of considering moving to the dark side, as long as I can find all the hacks and cheats to turn them into normal adventures where no stress is required, only evasion from reality without having to wreak havoc my overworking brain.

The PayPal donations (through the Pinkerton Road website) are separate from Kickstarter. You probably should have received an email confirmation from PayPal that the money was deducted from your account (if not, check your PayPal history to see if it was taken out).

Jane is keeping the PayPal donations (with access to the same rewards as Kickstarter) open through May 25, and I'm pretty sure you can put in another $50 to reach the $100 tier if you want it. You should send her a message (there's a link on the Kickstarter page to contact her). If you have trouble getting an answer, feel free to send me a PM and I will help you get in touch with her. (I have been helping out with PR for the campaign.)

I'm sure you could, rmt. And it'll really help us reach our (new) goal, which is currently the orchestra, in 6 hours. :-)