The Reposssesor, your first adventure game, was part of the Reality-on-the-Norm (RON) series. Folks like her started making games that were so retro in gameplay and style – and were meeting with such success! – that I felt that I could do it too. As for jumping into game development, I was mostly inspired by indie developers like Amanda Fitch of Aveyond fame. Blackwell is basically me trying to do Gabriel Knight.
Jane Jensen, with her focus on research, was a huge inspiration. Fun times! As I grew older, I got into the Sierra/Lucas-Arts games and I fell in love with the stories and gameplay so much that I knew I wanted to make them someday.Īs for role models? There are several. This was back in the 80s, so I coded them in BASIC on an Apple IIC.
I was constantly plotting out games and trying to code them. My mother made the mistake of buying me "Wishbringer" when I was 10 years old and that was that. What was the first adventure game you played that inspired you to create your own adventure games? Which game designers served as your role models as a game developer? Why? In the interview, Gilbert speaks of his colorful career as an indie game developer, the connection (or lack of) between his religious faith and his games, what gamers can expect from Emerald City Confidential and The Blackwell Convergence, and what holds in the future for him and his company.Ĭheck out our photos of Gilbert as well as our exclusive gallery of previously unpublished concept art and screenshots from Emerald City Confidential! We are privileged to have an opportunity to interview Dave Gilbert, founder of Wadjet Eye Games. His latest projects, Emerald City Confidential and The Blackwell Convergence, will see him expanding into the causal game market to feed an untapped appetite for adventure games. Self-described as merely a "frizzy-haired and chronically befuddled chap whose past times include spouting obscure quotes", his rapid success as an indie adventure game developer is a rarity in the industry. In 2006, he released The Shivah-a point-and-click adventure game that received unprecedented mainstream media attention in the US because of its connection to the Jewish faith and instantly made him a celebrity among indie game developers.
He is also a newcomer because, in the short span of just a few years, he has risen from a virtual unknown to become the poster child of the underground adventure game development scene.
He is a veteran because he has been developing adventure games and releasing them for free since 2001. As strange as it sounds, Dave Gilbert is both a veteran and a newcomer in the indie game development scene.