#Colossal cave adventure hints full
#Colossal cave adventure hints plus

We were nicely retired here in Palm Desert, California, and sitting out in our cantina one morning having our coffee, looking out over the Coachella Valley… We were thinking about how bored we were and what we wanted to be doing. We talked about it at the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021. And we made the decision to do this with the pandemic and the lockdowns. Roberta: So we were literally 25 years out of the business…. PSB: What made you decide to return to game development? I wanted to keep that sense of exploration in my games. So when I first started designing, I thought “ I need to make it exploratory,” but I added the mystery story elements. I discovered that I loved exploring, and a cave is a perfect place to explore. I wanted to know where it went and how far I could get into this cave. The thing I loved about Colossal Cave was the exploratory nature of it.

I put it together, write the game, and made it more story-like. But how do I turn it into a game? And I thought, well, I’m going to think about how I would play the game Clue. So I thought it would be fun to do a whodunnit, that would be fun to do. And I liked murder mysteries and detective stories and Agatha Christie books. “Who knows?” But I thought, I’ve always liked Clue, the board game. With Mystery House, I had no idea where to start. That was my process for making my first game. I took some of those elements for Mystery House, and I added more of a storytelling element to it. Colossal Cave put in all these elements that had never been done before, and that sort of formed the basis for adventure gaming.

#Colossal cave adventure hints plus

Mazes, getting lost, going down a passage one way, coming in somewhere, but then getting confused.… plus levels, puzzles, and inventory objects, and creatures you can meet that might kill you. It developed the idea of mapping a world. Roberta: Colossal Cave invented most of the things that many of us who do game design, especially in the adventure game genre. PSB: How did the original Colossal Cave Adventure influence the games you made, Roberta? So I was inspired to sit down and design my own game, which ultimately became Mystery House. So I played it, and I loved it, and I wanted to play more, but there weren’t really any more games quite like it at the time.

And it certainly was the first adventure game - I mean, it basically invented the concept of an adventure game. I think Colossal Cave may be the first or, if not, then very very close to the first computer game ever. Roberta: I had never played a computer game ever. PlayStation.Blog: Roberta, can you tell us about your experiences with the original text-based Colossal Cave Adventure back in 1976 or 1977?

This interview has been edited and condensed for brevity and clarity. We sat down with the power duo to discuss their return to the world of game development and what players can expect from their return to game development. The original game was a huge influence on many of the designers of the era, including Ken and Roberta, who are funding this ambitious remake. Originally a pioneering text adventure game released back in 1976 and called Colossal Cave Adventure, Colossal Cave transforms the lime-green-on-black text of the original into a visually captivating graphic adventure.

#Colossal cave adventure hints full

The team’s first outing is a full remake of a true classic: Colossal Cave.

Now, the accomplished tag team is returning to the world of adventure games after 25 years with a new development team, Cygnus Entertainment.