FAQ
Q: When will the book be published?
A: As soon as possible! I am currently working with a publisher of high-end video game books, and we’re in the process of working out a licensing agreement with Activision Blizzard. Once that goes through, we’ll kick things into high gear!
Q: How far along is the book?
A: The text is done and in a place where I’m happy with it as a solid draft to hand in to an editor. A handful of details may change—references to new games that have updated since I wrote the draft, and some new bits of research that have come to light over the last few months—but 99.99% of the text is complete. Once I work out publishing details, either the publisher or myself will bring in a professional editor and QA person. The current, unedited word count, minus footnotes and image captions, is about 217,000 words.
Q: Will the book’s length change?
A: It might. There’s very little to add at this point, but things may hit the cutting room floor in the publishing process. If that happens I will prioritize cutting non-essential content such as the “inspired by Quest for Glory” essays, and trimming some of the longer interviews with fans.
Q: How involved were Lori and Corey with the project?
A: Very! I ran the idea by them before beginning, and they graciously agreed to meet with me on a weekly basis to answer questions about the games. We met weekly for almost two years, during which we discussed all of the Quest for Glory games, Hero-U, Summer Daze: Tilly’s Tale, and various related fan projects.
Lori and Corey also provided copies of pre-Sierra design notes for video games, digital copies of internal Sierra emails and memos, and scans of photographs.
Q: Why isn’t [PERSON] listed among the interviewees?
A: While I made every effort to contact each person involved with every Quest for Glory game (and the Coles’ Transolar games), I wasn’t able to interview everyone. Some people never responded, or provided no way to get in touch with them. A few folks declined to be interviewed, and a few more were interested but never responded to the interview itself. Unfortunately, a couple of folks have also passed away since the games were made.
Q: Will the book be illustrated?
A: Oh yes! The idea is to richly illustrate the book with a combination of screenshots, photographs, and scans of original concept art and design sketches. The only caveat is that some of the original documents and art were lost on February 22, 1999— AKA “Chainsaw Monday,” when Sierra’s Oakhurst office was closed and its staff laid off. Documents and art for Quest for Glory (and other Sierra titles) were tossed into dumpsters. Some of it has been saved, but the majority was not. Lori and Corey also provided art from their personal archives.
Q: How are you capturing screenshots?
A: For Quest for Glory I-IV (and Quest for Glory II VGA), I’m using ScummVM with the graphics settings adjusted to mimic as closely as possible how the games would appear on a VGA monitor in the early 1990s. Before removing the top menu bar, the unscaled resolution is 320x200 with a pixel width to height ratio of 5:6.
I’m capturing screenshots from Quest for Glory V and other Windows-native games like Hero-U with Windows’ on-board screencap tool.
Q: How long have you been working on the book?
A: I got the initial idea in August of 2020, and started the project not long after that. I completed the first draft in summer of 2022, and spent the next several months revising and self-editing. I began working with the publisher in early 2023, and the majority of that year was spent on licensing.
Q: What have you written before?
A: I work as a professional copywriter and creative director at an advertising agency. In addition I’ve freelanced in the tabletop roleplaying game and board game industries for decades, where my credits include work on The Expanse RPG, Eclipse Phase, Star Wars: Force and Destiny, and more. My video game writing includes work on the Making History expansion for Kerbal Space Program.
Q: Will you use any AI art or text?
A: No.