We did the red carpet .. felt very strange

Roberta and I are "presenters" at the Game Awards on Thursday. 85 million live streams in 2021. Decades ago, I predicted the interactive entertainment business would pass the old passive entertainment business. No one believed me, but times have changed!

This video is long - 35 minutes! But, King's Quest fans will be very happy. Roberta wanted to do something special for King's Quest's 40th anniversary. You'll see that half way through the video Roberta thought she was done when I blindsided her with some fun questions. She answered every one of them, including some that I thought she'd make me edit out. Enjoy!

A favor request for those who considering our new game, and who know what Steam is. Steam's willingness to hype a game is partially tied to the number of copies wishlisted. If you are kind of thinking about the game, PLEASE wishlist it and retweet this. store.steampowered.com/app/2…

Building a game is a LOT of work. But when you see a 10 year old, who proudly finished the game on a Nintendo Switch, and his mom sends a note saying he is "obsessed" with the game, suddenly it is all worthwhile. (The pic is him pointing out a mistake in one of our promo videos)

A while back, we were approached by some filmmakers who were interested in producing a documentary about the adventure game genre, but more specifically, the story of myself, Roberta and Sierra On-Line. We refused. Sierra On-Line's story is an amazing one, and it deserves to be told. However, we've been down this road before, on a couple other documentary projects, and nothing ever happened with either of them. One of the producers on the project, Cade Peterson, is a friend of a friend, and is himself in the game industry. Cade kept pushing, after our refusal, and ultimately convinced us his team would deliver. The Sierra story is the thing great movies are made of. There’s highs, lows, good guys and bad guys, and so we are excited to finally see it told in this documentary format. Last week we did the first interview for the documentary. It was a long grueling day. The documentary folk dug in deep and captured some incredible footage. I had thought we might be done, but there's a lot more to cover. We’re delighted to see that some of our beloved Sierra creators like Al Lowe and Lori and Corey Cole are part of the project too… with many more to come, we’re told! You can follow the project for updates at this link: backerkit.com/call_to_action…

We've submitted our game for certification at the console companies. I couldn't resist asking the test lead at one of them how the team liked the game. The response: "Hi Ken! The team are really enjoying the game, it's quite unlike anything any of us have played before." Perfect!

An ex Sierra employee (Craig Denny) sent me back-stage pictures he took while we were doing "blue screen" work on Roberta's Phantasmagoria game. Released in 1995, it was the game industry's first live action adventure game and an instant #1 hit. Here is a link to the photo gallery. Before you click the link I should warn you that Phantasmagoria was a horror game and Craig documented the prosthetics that were used to give various gruesome effects. Anyone with a sensitive stomach should NOT click the link. I had forgotten that some of this is in the game, but ... it was a horror game, definitely not intended for kids, and these pictures show we certainly met that goal. I still close my eyes when watching horror films, but Roberta says that her time working on Phantasmagoria gave her enough experience with mock gore that she can no longer be shocked. photos.app.goo.gl/kJ8XDVNAWk… Roberta was usually behind the camera and appears in only a few of the shots. There is one fun picture of her taking her turn mopping up fake blood. Someday when I have some free time I'll prune the collection of photos, title them, and remove the duplicates. That said, "what's free time?" I never seem to have any.

I posted a new blog entry! It's now on Roberta's and my videogame site and will (hopefully) be posted to my boating site within the next couple days. colossalcave3d.com/2022/07/0…

Roberta and I received an incredible email with a picture of Will Crowther playing our game (colossalcave3d.com) in VR. This meant a huge amount to us. Will is responsible for our careers as well as that of many other people in our industry. Here’s an interesting piece of trivia... Colossal Cave is unique, in that the original text game was published by BOTH Microsoft and Apple. I just checked my original copies, and I can’t find Will Crowther’s name on either of the versions, even though no one disputes its’ heritage. I’m not sure why he was left out, or Don Woods, who made a major contribution to the game. The IBM version has only this comment in the documentation: “Adventure was originally written in FORTRAN at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and serves as a demonstration of artificial intelligence.” It says something about how fast time is moving that the person who published the world's first AI game is playing the game in VR while AI explodes around us. Here’s a couple of fun excerpts from the email I received from Will's daughter who sent this picture: “… I can tell you that his first reaction was "they put the stream on the wrong side," which struck us both as funny - how could you possibly have known the "right" side? “ “… I'm a bit further along with it (and fully intend to finish), and I must say I'm experiencing a fun combo of nostalgia and novelty. I particularly like that the narrator is there to provide the original text, which lets me do this weirdly specific side-by-side comparison of the pictures I made in my head as a kid with the pictures you made in VR. And I also appreciate that I don't have to make my own map this time. :) …” “… really loved the segment on the wellhouse TV - you did a thoughtful job of putting the creation of Adventure in the context of what was going on with my parents around that time, as well as linking it to your story. I'll admit that I was a little star-struck that we got a response from both of you - my dad made Adventure as a fun side project, but you two have made sustained and lasting contributions. You and Sierra are central to the story of gaming and that is SO COOL. …”

You're my first FOLLOW! (and, my only FOLLOW!) Very much looking forward to Return to Monkey Island

Roberta and I have met some amazing people during our career in videogames. Just to go all fanboy for a minute, here's a a video email we just received from a true industry legend, successful entrepreneur, and hero of ours, Gabe Newell (Valve), tinyurl.com/468phjs4

In 1983 the videogame market crashed so hard Atari buried their excess inventory in the desert. I was never sure if it was a rumor or reality, but here's Dan Avidan holding a formerly buried cartridge. Roberta enjoyed recording a video playthrough with him yesterday of our game.

Steve Wozniak is a legend. Somehow, the guys making the documentary about our old company, Sierra On-Line, (backerkit.com/c/projects/leg…) hunted him down to be included in the documentary. This is a teaser he did for the documentary. I'm amazed he agreed, and super-honored that he said such nice things. Thank you Woz!

Roberta and I had a LONG day yesterday. The team doing a documentary about our former company Sierra On-Line were here at our house to film. They were in the Pacific NW to film several former Sierra employees and designers. They seem to be doing a great job. This was our second long session with them and we spent a lot of time talking about Sierra's final days. On a happier note we also spent a lot of time talking about Roberta's games Phantasmagoria and King's Quest.

We were just at a show (MagFest) showing off Colossal Cave. Using a PDP emulator people could play the original game the same way Roberta did 45 years ago. This is the game that started Sierra On-Line, and this is how we played it. I wish I had been there to try it!

I seriously asked Roberta if I should apply to be Twitter's CEO. She said, "Do you really want a job?" I said, "No, but I do love a challenge, and turning Twitter around would be the challenge of a lifetime." Roberta is right. It's fun to think about, but retirement is less work.

I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! Only 6 days until the game releases. Roberta and I are really looking forward to people starting to play the game. I sent a pre-release to Don Woods who worked on the original game. He'll play this weekend. I hope he likes it!

Trying to decide what I thought about the night. Mind blowing realistic graphics. But I kept wondering, "I see the cutscene. Where's the game?" Maybe they are all great games? I had no way of knowing. Overall, I felt more and more excited about our game as the night went on.

Happy New Year's Everyone!!!!!

My favorite Sierra games were always Space Quest and Leisure-Suit Larry. The team behind Space Quest just released a new game called SpaceVenture. They started the game after Sierra was sold and funded it as a KickStarter project. It has taken them over a decade to complete the game, but it is now in early access. It's not Space Quest, but it's as close as we are ever likely to see. More importantly, it has some hilarious scenes! I hope everyone will enjoy it. store.steampowered.com/app/1…

Roberta and I were on a panel with some incredible people - Ron Gilbert (Monkey Island), Al Lowe (Leisure-Suit Larry), Dave Gilbert (Blackwell) and Jane Jensen (Gabriel Knight). Great audience and a good time by all! They made us wear masks. I hope people could understand us.

Apparently it is the 40th year anniversary since the release of King's Quest. It doesn't seem nearly that long! Oh well... Anyway, here's an amazingly well researched article with a history of the game. retro365.blog/2024/04/05/kin…

Tomorrow is the big day! Check out our new launch video! Roberta and I are VERY excited for people to start playing. “Exploring Colossal Cave in first person was fun! It's fast, immersive and just a joy to explore.“ ~ George Broussard, Duke Nukem piped.video/SJQsWuLcLDw

Here's a strange bit of long-forgotten computer industry trivia.... Roberta and I were watching an old movie on TV last night called "Weekend At Bernie's." It's not a great movie, but we were in the mood for something funny. One of the stars of the movie was an actress named Catherine Mary Stewart. When I saw her name in the credits I thought I recognized the name. I didn't know why I remembered it, but when I saw her the memory flooded back. I stopped the movie and said to Roberta, "I met her!" Forty years ago, when videogaming was in its infancy, I was invited to participate in the world's first televised videogame show. The producer's idea was to film videogame programmers playing each other's games in a game show format. I was one of the 12 game programmers selected, and Catherine Mary Stewart was the host. I had serious doubts anyone would ever want to watch someone playing a videogame, but who turns down a chance to fly to Las Vegas and hang out with other game developers playing games, while a Hollywood starlet cheers us on? I don't know if the show was ever televised, but it was a lot of fun to do the shoot. I'm a better game developer than game player. I remember coming in dead last in the competition. The competitors and games we played were: Jim Nitchals: Microwave, Bug Attack, Asteroid Field, Star Thief, Teleport, Ring Raiders (Cavalier) Dan Thompson: Repton, Twerps (Sirius) Mark Turmell: Turmoil, Sneakers, Beer Run, Free Fall. Fast Freddie (Sirius/Fox) Bob Flanagan: Spectre, Thief, Speedway etc. (Datamost) Jay Zipnick: Pig Pen (Datamost) Peter Filberti: Night Raiders (Datamost) Steve Bjork: Canyon Climber (Datamost) Gerry Humphrey: Clowns and Balloons (Datasoft) Russ Wetmore: Preppie, Preppie II, Sea Dragon, Savage Island Pt 2 (Adventure International) Chuck “Chuckles” Bueche: Jawbreaker II, Pacific Coast Freeway, Lunar Leeper, Laff Pak, Caverns of Calisto, Autoduel, 24000 AD (California Pacific, Sierra On-Line, Origin) Ken Williams: Threshold (Sierra On-Line) Joe Hellesen: Wizard of Wor (Roklan)

There aren't a lot of people who have been building games as long as Roberta and I, but this is one of them. Brian Fargo's Wikipedia page lists him as responsible for over 50 games. We haven't seen each other since "the old days" when the game industry was just getting rolling. We stumbled into each other while grabbing dinner before heading to see Bill Burr in Rancho Mirage. A fun evening! I asked Brian if he was still producing games, and he is. Amusingly, when I googled to see what he had been up to, I discovered this quote by him from an article in 2017 where he said he'd soon retire: "Fargo told Eurogamer, “I love this industry, but I’ve been at this since 1981. I’ve been at it with Ken and Roberta Williams [Sierra co-founders], Trip Hawkins [EA founder], the guys from Brøderbund – I look at my friends, they have a lot more spare time than I do. It’s a very intense business. It’s all encompassing. It seems like I should relax for a little bit.” But like us, here we are, many years later, still building games. Roberta and I are in the gap between wrapping up our Colossal Cave game, and getting started on whatever comes next. Do we want to be game developers, or boaters, when we grow up? We've got a foot in each camp and who knows what comes next? We haven't a clue.

Our team is at the Vintage Computer Fest in New Jersey this weekend. It's depressing to think I am old enough to remember how excited I was when each of these devices were released. Whereas it might seem like computers have been around for a very long time, in the great scheme of things, they are a very recent invention. Somehow in my lifetime, we were able to go from these primitive beasts to the popularization of the internet, and now Artificial Intelligence. I'm only in my 60s. Imagine what the world will be like for our children, and their children. The world of technology not only moves fast, the rate of change is accelerating. A good thing? or frightening? PS Thank you to Nicholas Mailloux for the pictures from the show.

All of the hard work to make a game is completely forgotten, and completely worthwhile, when you see someone playing the game. A wonderful feeling!

Ron and Jen Gilbert stopped by to see our game. I hope he liked it! I'm hoping I can convince him to trade for a copy of Return to Monkey Island... PS to my boater blog people -- I am working on a blog entry. Hopefully soon. I haven't forgot you.

I've been looking through old videos and discovered this one. It's like a video game time machine back to ancient history. There's some fun footage of us showing Jim Henson a game based on his film The Dark Crystal. I don't feel old until I see this stuff piped.video/oY_JbTYXVjg

I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate that this young lady was a fan of Roberta's King's Quest series of games. She came to our presentation plus stopped by our booth to get a demo of the game. Roberta took a selfie with her.

We are at the show!

Today is a big day for Roberta and I. We purchased a new (used) boat. It's a 90' Moonen Doggersbank. We bought it in Sweden and loaded it onto a freighter for shipment to the United States. It has taken almost three months but our boat just arrived today in Victoria Canada (near Seattle). It will offload tomorrow and move to Port Angeles where we'll make some upgrades to the boat, hopefully having it ready for cruising sometime this summer.

Thinking of making a game? I wrote a LONG article with everything from tips on choosing a game to rules for coding and marketing guidelines. It's overly long, but hopefully you'll agree there's some good stuff. colossalcave3d.com/2023/03/0…

This IS a very different game than anything out there. Hopefully soon, I'll find time to actually play the game. I feel like a ER surgeon who has only spent time deep inside a patient, and soon will see the whole person for the first time.

Roberta had the extreme pleasure of hanging out with Danny and Arin, the GameGrumps! They did a playthrough of our game Colossal Cave! piped.video/uKOccxMALbQ

Roberta and I are back on our boat starting tomorrow. Boat blog entries coming soon! In the meantime, here's a computer game development blog entry I just wrote: colossalcave3d.com/2022/05/2…

We're currently on our boat on San Juan Island, in Washington. I'm spending my days coding on a game. This picture shows the sacrifices I am making for the game. Yes - I look silly.

We're in Mexico relaxing after two years working on the game colossalcave3d.com. Our boat was the first in the San Jose Del Cabo marina and the marina was mostly empty for years. There was no electricity in the early days. Times have changed. The marina is packed with boats

I bought an Apple Vision Pro Headset! Here's what happened.... A couple weeks ago - I ordered a Vision Pro on the Apple site and was told it would be delivered in early March. Yesterday - I heard the Apple store was going to have headsets in stock, so I called Apple and asked if I could cancel my order if I could find one locally. I was impressed I was able to talk to a real person and get a straight answer. No problem they said. I called the local Apple store. The guy who answered the phone said, "Get here early tomorrow. We're opening at 8am." I asked how many headsets they'd have and if there'd be a line around the block or something. He said, "I don't know." Today - 7am - I arrived at the store and was able to park right in front. All quiet, no one around. 7:30am - Activity in the store. Lots of sales people. I counted 12, but suspect there were more. It was obvious they were training the team on how to sell the Vision Pro. 7:40am - A guy approaches me, and asks why I'm there. He was in jeans and a black t-shirt with an Apple logo. I confirm he works for Apple. He asks why I am there. One other lady has arrived and is listening. I say I want to buy a headset. The Apple guy says I need a fitting, and a demo. I say I need neither. I just want to pick up a headset and go. He insists and I agree to the fitting, but not the demo. He says I will be first up and to wait for 8am. The lady says, "I need fast help. I'm a medical professional and my iphone won't receive or send calls." The apple guy puts her into his iPhone and says, "Wait for 8am." 7:45am - the medical lady gets in her car and leaves. No idea why. I feel guilty that I hadn't let her go ahead of me, but how was I to know? Lots of activity inside the store now. 7:50am - The line has grown. About 10 people show up. The Apple guy greets them one by one. I'm not sure if they are here for headsets or ??? 8am - I am called into the store. Very friendly guy says, "I see you want a headset and don't want a demo." I agree. He gives a talk about why I really should do a demo. I explain I'm a software developer and already have a quest 2, a quest 3, and more. He says I should still do the demo. I generally have less patience than most two year old infants, but he talks me into the demo. 8:10am - It's the store clerks first demo. I ask if he has ever worn the headset. He says he might not be able to say, and asks a nearby supervisor who says he can admit having worn the headset. I find it amusing. We are brought a "demo unit". The clerk has an app that is used to size my face. I already did this from at home when I ordered the original headset. The app says I am a Small. I show him my online order which says my head is a Medium. I agree to try the Small and see what happens. I try it on and it fits fine. Later we discover I'm wearing a Medium, but for now we assume it is a Small. For the next 45 minutes I run through the demo being guided by the clerk. He is seeing what I see on an iPad mini. Even though I own a Quest 3 that allegedly does eye and hand tracking, I've never used either feature. The Vision Pro has no controllers, so the only game in town is hand tracking. An array of dots appears and the idea is for me to stare at each of the dots and click my fingers together when I want to click a dot. I do confess to being amazed. The computer nails it. I look at a dot, I touch my thumb and right index finger to each other, and the dot lights up. Amazing! With the Meta Quest 2 I am most familiar with being in a fully immersive environment. With the Vision Pro I can see the world around me. The Quest 3 does offer this same ability, but not to this extent. What I see is a screen and icons floating in space in front of me. It's like looking at a floating computer screen. There is a way to flip into full immersion, like on other headsets, but the problem with full immersion is that many people, myself included, can get nauseous. After learning how to do the eye and hand tracking, I was taught the various fundamentals, for example, how to scroll the screen up and down via hand motions. I was also taught how to reposition the virtual screen and open multiples of them. I could also replace the real world with an imaginary world if I wanted. Fun stuff! We then watched a movie from Apple TV. As promised, it felt like I had my own movie theater with a huge movie screen in front of me. I have doubts I'd ever actually watch a movie while wearing the headset, unless I was on a plane or something. The headset is comfortable, but would I voluntarily wear it for two hours to watch a movie instead of on a TV? No. We are coming to the end of the demo when he wants to show me photo galleries. I'm prepared to say, "Next please" when I suddenly see a 3d picture of a family sitting in front of me. It blew me away. It was crystal clear and looked as though the family was right there. He then guided me to a 360 video. It was a 3d movie being played back and looked incredible. I asked how it was recorded. He said it was done via the headset, but that my iPhone 15 could also shoot 3d photos and movies. I'm pretty spoiled when it comes to technology but this did blow me away. The last demo was of a 180 degree immersive movie playing in 8K. It was good, but not much better than I've seen on the Quest 2. I thought the 3d photos and video in the photo gallery app were of higher quality. With the demo complete, I used Apple Pay on my phone and settled up. It's an expensive little device. I bought the 512k unit, a carrying case, and the two year warranty. $4,700! Ouch. 9am - I was back in my car headed home. I thought a little about Apple's selling costs. An hour with a tech for a demo, and sale, costs Apple money. I'm going to guess $100 or more in real out of pocket cost for Apple, and not everyone who gets a demo is going to buy. I also suspect I was a much faster demo than the regular shopper. I've spent many hours in headsets and moved through the demo as fast as the clerk could talk. I can imagine a newbie taking twice as long or more. At home - 9:15am. It's time for me to unbox my unit and start having fun!!! Setting up the headset was time consuming. I had to train the hand tracking and eye tracking again, and this time it added something new. It wanted to build a little avatar of me! (An AI generated likeness of me, which it will use for something. I'm not sure what yet). It recorded my face doing various gyrations, nodding, turning, smiling, etc. And then it showed me a little 3d replica of my face that looked terrible. It was me, but definitely me on a bad day. I thought about trying to find a way of removing the weird looking clone of me, but was eager to experiment with the headset and accepted the scary looking cloned me. I experimented with shooting 3d pictures and video. To my surprise, it worked just as good as in the demo. Wow! I then tried working at my computer while wearing the headset. I could do it, but the real-world view via the headset is not perfect. It's good, and works, and is infinitely better than I've seen before, but would it be practical to use my real-world windows desktop computer with a real world keyboard while wearing the headset. No. I do see though that a Mac user could use Airplay to a virtual screen in the headset and do it with a real world keyboard. But would it be better than using a real monitor at a real desk? No. I had to try a mixed reality game, and found a cute mini golf game. I have to admit that it was fun, and a very unique experience. Next up, I wanted to try Youtube. However, I searched the app store. No YouTube. Boo! I assume it will appear soon. Or at least I hope it will appear soon. I then wanted to do Airplay, so that I could beam what I was seeing to a TV. I considered this necessary to being able to demo the unit for Roberta, my wife. This led me to googling the instruction manual for the headset. No luck. There's nothing out there, as I type this, that I could find, that is a manual. We are at the beginning. So, I went to Reddit and found a Vision Pro forum and asked the question. Another user answered in minutes and told me where to look. Yay! Airplay was there and worked on the first try. And then it was time to quit playing and go back to real life for a bit. I'll experiment more later. My overall reaction: It's awesome, but not as awesome as expected. Is it worth $3,000 more than a Quest 3? My guess is that it will be, but only after a lot more software is written that takes advantage of the hardware. Short term, it's an expensive device that doesn't do much, and is in need of some apps that justify the purchase. It's Apple hardware, and Apple is Apple, and they have a huge following, and it really is one heck of a device. It has incredible potential. Luckily there are enough "early adopters" out there, that software will be written. It's just a matter of time...

Roberta and I are in Tacoma for an Adventure Game Fan Fare, which is being held in conjunction with a Sierra On-line reunion. The guys doing the Sierra documentary are also in town. It will be a busy weekend! store.steampowered.com/curat… @thecolossalcave

Our game just launched on GOG. They posted an interview with us today that I thought turned out great. Thank you GOG! tinyurl.com/colossalcaveinte…

After a couple of years of working on a video game (ColossalCave3d.com), we are finally able to think about boating again. We have a small 25' former coast guard boat (Safeboat 25 Defender) we use for running out to the island where we have a slip for the big boat. We store the Safeboat indoors during the offseason. Here you see it being lowered into the water and a short bit of running the boat. It's a blast to drive and capable of speeds over 35kts! My favorite feature: They print the instructions for opening the windows upside down so that, if you accidentally flip the boat, you can read to escape. I hope to never discover if it comes in handy...

By any chance -- is there a gamer who is following me who speaks Japanese fluently? and wants to help us edit the Japanese text in our game? We're releasing it in Japan and I've gotten feedback that the Japanese translation isn't great.

Do you know the history of the original Colossal Cave text game? Here's a short documentary that I bet will surprise you:

Our game being displayed on a giant screen at the “Day of the Devs” show in San Francisco. Yes. I’m a proud game-daddy

Strangest question I've received today. This question just came in from one of our QA people. They don't tell you about these things in software development school...

PS Since this post seems to be going viral, I need to do a blatant plug for Roberta's latest game -- colossalcave3d.com Thank you everyone!

Roberta and I have a new boat. I started a YouTube channel (piped.video/@mvnorthstar) dedicated to the new boat and just published a video which is announces the boat, and recaps our various cruising adventures for those who haven't been following our blog over the years). PS The new boat is named: NORTH STAR

They say that the happiest two days in a boater's life are the day they buy a boat, and the day that they sell their boat. I am pleased to report that Roberta and I are now doubly happy. We have now sold our Grand Banks 60, Cygnus. It was nice to be able to go fast, and it was a perfect boat in a lot of ways, but we decided we want to return to world cruising and wanted a boat that could cross oceans. We are just wrapping up the purchase of our next boat. It's currently outside the U.S. but on its way to Seattle. I'll say more once the boat arrives. We thought about buying a new boat, but we're in a hurry to go cruising, so we purchased a previously-owned boat. Once it arrives in the U.S. it will go straight to a shipyard for some updating and be ready for cruising in time for the summer season.

I just released a new vlog entry on my youtube channel. Roberta and I have been busy gutting and rebuilding a boat. In this vlog entry Roberta shows the extensive work going on in the galley and main salon. And, I show what we're doing with the ship's electronics. If anyone has ever thought about buying an old boat and fixing it up, this vlog entry is for you. It's not as easy to do as we thought it would be. This entry will either scare you away, or inspire you, with both being distinct possibilities. piped.video/zZn47K3yOKg Enjoy! - Ken W

This tweet got to 980,000 views! Only 20,000 short of 1 million -- and then died. Darn. My first ever viral tweet. And, I didn't really say anything interesting...

I'm starting to think about what I might do next as a game. Realistically, the answer is probably "nothing". I'm very happily retired and not sure I'd want to tackle a big project. That said, I'm very curious how AI can change games. I'm early in my research and trying to understand how (from a code perspective) game development in an AI powered world works. Specifically, I'm trying to understand the business model. Anyway .. for those of you who are thinking similar thoughts, this is my conversation with ChatGPT.... chatgpt.com/share/68b067e9-5… Probably the most interesting part of the chat is the comment that 7% of games on Steam are already using some AI. I seriously doubt that, but it does show that things are changing much more rapidly than I had imagined. There are lots of cultural, financial, legal, and other issues here. We are in uncharted territory!

Our company policy is to not comment on unannounced products. Therefore, I shall not identify Mr. Shu Yoshida and his team member, who are visiting our booth. No comment. But I did enjoy meeting them!

Boxed versions of our game are coming! Limited Run Games (LRG) is taking backorders now for the boxed version of Colossal Cave on PS4, PS5, Switch AND PC. The USB stick version is especially awesome because we loaded it up with everything we could think of to fill left over space. LRG is only accepting pre-orders until March 3rd, so if you want the boxed version, put your order in now. limitedrungames.com/collecti…

Both Roberta and I are trying to think of what to do next. I'd like to do something with one of the old Sierra series, but need Microsoft's permission. I'll contact them and see what happens.

If you happen to be in Maryland, we have a team there showing off the game. Meanwhile, this is an ultra stressful week. The game releases in two weeks. We're on overload trying to be ready. PS5/Quest 2 VR/Switch/Steam Deck/PC/Mac and more coming! Making games is a lot of work!

PS I did get permission from him to share this. I hadn't talked to him in decades, and was blindsided by it -- a very nice surprise. Even better: My Steam Deck should be here any day. Impatiently awaiting it.

I almost didn't share this video. I don't really like how I come across in it. In 1983 I would have been 28 years old, and like sometimes happens with people in their 20s, I thought I knew everything. It's painful to watch these old videos.

I don't know if I'll actually finish this project or not, but I've started working on a book about boating. I have nothing more than the table of contents at this point. I'm targeting anyone who is thinking of buying a boat and heading offshore. This picture was generated by AI and the boat in it is not correct. Most of the people who read the book will be buying boats in the 40 to 70 foot range. I spent plenty of time as a rookie myself, and still am in some ways. My goal will be to share everything I've learned thus far, in the hope it will spin other aspiring world cruisers up to speed more quickly. Behind the scenes, most of you know that Roberta and I worked on a videogame (Colossal Cave) for the past two years, which cut into our own world cruising. We're now at the point where the game is behind us, and it is time to decide "what comes next?" Are we boaters, or are we videogame designers? We still don't know the answer to that question, but the fact that I've started on a book probably indicates what I'm dreaming about at night. Do I want another two years of staring at a computer screen? Or, does a blue water anchorage, next to a white sand beach and a Palm Tree, sound more fun? Tough decision!

Roberta and I were interviewed about a game we are working on. Apologies to all the people who follow us for boating only -- we'll be on the boat starting May 1 -- so, expect a mixture of video game and boat tweets from us this year - piped.video/OZVkfeLAFuQ

Want a free game? Are you an Android user? 🤖🎮 We launched Colossal Cave on Android last year—and ran into trouble. The game’s a beast (1.2GB!), and older phones just couldn’t handle it. Result? Buggy installs + 1⭐ reviews, even though players liked the actual game. We’ve now fixed that. A huge update just dropped: ✨ Upgraded graphics 🚫 Removed support for underpowered devices ✅ Only phones that can run it will see it To celebrate, I’ve got 100 free promo codes. No strings—just email Derrick@colossalcave.com and I’ll send one. All I ask? If you enjoy it, leave us an honest review on the Play Store 🙏 Let’s get this game the rating it deserves. – Ken Williams #ColossalCave #AndroidGaming #RetroGaming #GameDev #SierraOnLine

Roberta and I are still working hard to update our new boat. Sadly, we are missing the summer cruising while waiting on all the work to complete, but hope to make up for it once the mechanics finish having their way with our boat. We are already making plans to cruise Hawaii and possibly the Northwest Passage! You can see the latest work-in-progress updates to the boat by clicking this link: piped.video/2Z4N015-LpA It's a race between when the boat will be ready for cruising, and when my bank account is empty.

Roberta and I will be on Twitch tomorrow to talk about a new game we're working on. Our interview will be at 3pm Pacific time. Check out colossalcave3d.com - and watch us live at: twitch.tv/unitytech

Funny! I had no idea that was posted by Ron Gilbert .. I keep meaning to email him and say "hi" .. I assume we met back in the old days, but I'm not sure. He's certainly on my list of all-time greats.

Very cool to hear from you. I hope we get to meet again some day. A very strange coincidence that I’d quote someone anonymously and it turn out to be you. The karma gods must have been in a good mood today.

Here's something you probably haven't seen before. We're getting close to releasing our game, Colossal Cave, on the Meta Quest 3 VR headset. In addition to enhancing the graphics and more, we've been experimenting with Mixed Reality. I confess to having borrowed a couple of ideas from Apple's Vision Pro headset. Have you seen their dinosaur game? In that game you have a reduced size floating screen and the dinosaur pokes his head out to float in front of you. Well .. the Quest 3 is an amazing device, and can't do 100% of everything a Vision Pro can, but it is capable of a lot. I challenged our engineer with trying to do something similar on the Quest 3, and he came up with something that is pretty cool. The fully immersive mode is still there, but now you can toggle at anytime to Mixed Reality mode and see the floating screen. There's no way to really show the effect with a video, but this short video will give you a sense of what we're up to. Personally I love it, as do several other members of the team. We believe it stops, or greatly helps, the nausea some people get in VR. Enjoy this sneak peek!

I am sometimes tweeting as a "boater" and sometimes as a "game developer". Today, I'm posting as a game developer with an update on the game I'm working on: kensgame.com/2021/09/11/robe…

A nice interview with Roberta in Sports Illustrated today! videogames.si.com/features/k…

This was a strange boating season. I didn't really post anything to the blog because things went smoothly, and my one promise to readers of my blog is that if I have nothing interesting to say, I'll say nothing. That said, I'll publish an update soon. There are a couple things I should talk about, including a wild and crazy crossing of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Meanwhile, if anyone has an iPhone or iPad, Roberta and I just released the mobile version of our game. It's free to play for the first three levels, and we could use some reviews. So, if you install the game and like it, a 5 star review would be appreciated and help us get some much desired momentum going! apps.apple.com/us/app/coloss…

FYI -- There's an inadvertent easter egg a couple minutes from the end of the video. I touched the camera in an effort to zoom it and the darn thing flipped around to looking at me. Roberta was in the middle of wrapping up her talk and I didn't want to interrupt her. I appear for a few seconds as I QUICKLY try to get the camera pointed back the right direction. I look bizarre because it was cold and I'd grabbed a blanket to stay warm. I also wasn't planning on being on camera and looked grubby. Oh well...

Roberta was honored with a "Hall of Fame" award last night by the Consumer Technology Association. Congrats to Roberta! kensgame.com/2021/11/12/hall… PS My blog article about it contains a brief update on the game she's developing...

Roberta and I are selling our boat in order to move up to something larger. I shot a quick walkthrough yesterday. In an effort to keep the video a reasonable length, there is a lot that wasn't mentioned in the video. Here are just a few of the things we didn't have time to mention: - Main engines have only 260 hours as of August 2024 - Starlink Maritime is installed with dual dishes - Seakeeper 16 is still under warranty. GB standard is Seakeeper 9. We used it at the dock on crowded weekends, under way and at anchor. - Underwater lights - Salon chairs are recliners and perfect for watching tv - Automated blackout shades of helm windows - Electrical system is US standard but pre-configured to be ready for world cruising. A sister boat cruised Thailand last year, is cruising Turkey and Greece now - Shore power inlets in cockpit and at bow - Extensive Maretron monitoring ]- Chain was upgraded to 125 meters (410') of Cromox CDK electropolished at cost of over $11,000 - HVAC system has dual 36kBTU chillers with VFDs (soft start) Air handlers throughout boat and in lazarette with color controls. System is all Technicold by Northern Lights - Tides dripless shaft seals - Anchor is 60kg Ultra with swivel - Fuel polishing system - Salt water washdown at bow - And more! View the complete listing at: fraseryachts.com/en/yacht-fo… Here's the contact info for the salesman: Captain Scott Whittaker Fraser Yachts O: +1 954 463 0600 M: +1 206 660 9741 Email : scott.whittaker@fraseryachts.com fraseryachts.com whittakermarine.com

A really nice article about Roberta and her games on gameinformer.com today. gameinformer.com/feature/202… Unfortunately, if you aren't a subscriber you can't read it. Darn. Roberta was also in Le Monde a few days ago. lemonde.fr/pixels/article/20… Once again - the article is behind a pay wall, and in french. We are honored by all the recent attention. When we are boating we miss making games, and when we are making games we miss boating. 24 hours in a day is not nearly enough for all we want to do. Oh well...

I just published a blog article talking about AI technology. We've been busy with the game, and I've not been keeping up with AI evolution. Thus I was experimenting with the latest in AI technology and it is really spooky. Check it out! colossalcave3d.com/2023/01/2…

Big companies will always frustrate true entrepreneurs, but you overcame all the obstacles to change the world, even though it might not always seem like it from your perspective. Thank you for all you have done, and I can't wait to see what you do next. Best wishes.

Mark Crowe, who wrote the Space Quest series of games just posted this note about our game, Colossal Cave, on his Instagram. Mark was one of the famous "Two Guys From Andromeda". Sandy, his wife, also worked at Sierra for many years. Hi Mark and Sandy! instagram.com/reel/CoU9P9ODo…

Available April 1st only! colossalcave3d.com

Our summer cruising season starts next Monday. Roberta and I did an overnight test cruise last week that I'll blog about soon. FYI -- After 25 years of happy retirement, I've been working on a game! It feels good to be writing code and creating. kensgame.com

I love watching kids play our game (Colossal Cave).

It is rare for me to read something that I get genuinely excited about. One of those rare events just happened. Before it disappears off the internet, google "download mr beast memo" and read all 36 pages cover to cover. For 99% of you, nothing it says will be directly relevant. Unless you make Youtube videos for a living, much of those 36 pages will have you wondering why you are wasting your time. I don't believe the document was ever meant to be widely distributed. It's just a personal note from Mr. Beast intended to spin new employees up to speed. That said, there is more wisdom buried deep in those 36 pages that you'll find in dozens of better written business books. I'm sure there will be some who attack him for "outdated business practices". I read the Mr. Beast letter just after reading an article in today's Puget Sound Business Journal saying that 73% of Amazon employees were considering looking for a job because Amazon made the outrageous request of asking that their highly paid employees actually show up for work five days a week. Anyway .. Mr. Beast's letter to employees is recommended reading for anyone running a company or who wants to succeed at their current employer.

I keep wanting to blog about boating but all Roberta and I do these days is WORK on the game. The finish line is in site! Here's a peek at a recent trailer for the game: piped.video/Bw5GgYjd4v0 Also, someone turned my book into an anime! It's nicely done: piped.video/G2wICtgtrn0

Just in case there is anyone who hasn't seen this story: livescience.com/animals/orca… Whales are learning to attack boats! It reminded me that, when we were preparing to cross our first ocean, I was doing our research and found a book that was filled with statistics, compiled by a sailor who had polled hundreds of world cruising sailors about their various encounters. I wanted to know our likelihood of running into a floating shipping container while crossing the Atlantic. I had heard rumor of thousands of large steel shipping containers, that had fallen off freighters, out there waiting to sink small boats. No one in that report had hit a shipping container, but a significant percentage (I have long forgotten what percentage) have hit whales. I've never hit a whale, in nearly 50,000 miles of cruising, but we've had several times when our boat was circled by whales, bringing us to a standstill until they were gone. When running the boat at night, I can never really relax. It has never been the weather that worried me most, or even rough seas or mechanical failures, It's the great unknown of wondering what danger might be in front of the boat that keeps me constantly on edge as we slide through the water. And on a different topic... Roberta and I are working on putting together a Reddit AMA. I'll post here once we get it scheduled, but it will be a chance for anyone to ask us anything, from boating to game development, or any topic they are curious about. I'm still trying to sort out the logistics, but will post here once I have a date.

I posted a new blog entry --> colossalcave3d.com/2022/12/0… It has information both for my boating followers and those interested in the game we're building

A very nice article about Sierra (and, interview with me) on the Wired website - wired.com/story/sierra-onlin…

Many of you have noticed that our boat is for sale and have contacted me with questions. fraseryachts.com/en/yacht-fo… You've probably also noticed that I haven't posted any blog entries this year. We are, and will always be, world cruisers. We spent three months or more on the boat each of the last few seasons, and just returned from a couple weeks of cruising. Cygnus has been exactly what we wanted in a boat. It's fast, simple, reliable, seaworthy, and overall perfect for Roberta and I. Unfortunately, a combination of Covid and going back to work (building a video game) kept us from world cruising the past few years. I haven't been blogging because my #1 promise to my readers has always been that, if I had nothing interesting to say, I wouldn't post anything. We've been cruising within a 300 mile radius of Seattle, like thousands of other boats, whereas my blog is focused more on world cruising to off-grid places. The bottom line: we are thinking about going back to a heavier ocean-crossing explorer boat, and venturing to places like Polynesia where it is difficult to ship a boat. We are selling now, because the boat is still "like new", and we don't want to get caught owning multiple boats. It has been a tough decision and Roberta and I will be quite sad when Cygnus sells. As to what we'll buy, I'm not sure. We are likely to buy a used boat. It can take two to three years to build a new boat, plus the first year on a new boat can often be dicey as you put it to the test. Now that our lives have returned somewhat to normal, we're eager to start venturing into the unknown again. We will see what is available when it comes time for us to buy something, and if Cygnus doesn't sell this summer we might just ship it to the Med or the Caribbean and cruise there. Anyway ..if anyone reading this wants to learn more about Cygnus, contact Scott Whittaker at 206-660-9741

Boating season is about to start! Roberta and I will be back on the boat starting at the end of April. Meanwhile, we were interviewed last week about our old game Company, Sierra --> piped.video/watch?v=LAemLila…

Wow! I wish I had a picture from back then .. no live YouTube streaming in those days

Roberta and I will be back on the boat and our cruising season will begin. I'll do a boat blog update sometime in the next couple weeks. Meanwhile, here's a small update on the videogame we're building: colossalcave3d.com/2022/05/1…

I did like and respect him. And for a long time I didn’t believe he was a crook. It’s hard to completely change your perception of someone you thought you knew. But, that was then, and this is now.

Thank you!

If anyone has questions, post them here. I'll talk Roberta into signing in later today to answer everyone's questions.

I just posted a new blog entry! kensblog.com/sun-and-fun-cru…

I just posted my first boat-blog entry in almost a year. In addition to catching everyone up on our cruising over the last year, I give a look at all that happens to the boat when we're NOT on it. As you'll see, there is more to boating than just having fun.... kensblog.com/kensblog-a-new-…

An interesting (LONG) article about the sale of our company, Sierra On-Line, and the mess that came after. Somewhat redundant to the last third of my book, but worth reading vice.com/en/article/z3vem8/i…

I hadn't thought about that tagline in ages. We did such great boxes in those days. I miss them!

Apologies everyone. I posted this before but then had to delete it and repost.