Interview with Dan Kueng

By Orb

Dan Kueng is creator of the Macintosh game, The Castle, which was developed and published by Blueline Studios.

How did you get into making adventure games?

Well, I always wanted to create a game, and adventure seemed just to be the right genre. I wanted a game that has content. Substance. And excitement arising from it.

Where did you get your training/experience in doing this?

I used to be a graphic artist and illustrator. Acquiring all the software development skills was done purely autodidactic. I never attended any school or academy or had any training. Concerning the programming, I started with HyperCard, but soon dismissed it due to its limitations, and moved on to more sophisticated tools. The other huge challenges were learning the 3D stuff and composing the music. Retouching the images was by far the easiest part.

How did you come up with the story and theme of The Castle? What was your inspiration for the game?

Strangely enough, I didn't have a real concept in the beginning, just a very vague idea. I started to construct a virtual world, extremely detailed to the point of madness. I wanted a castle, but not necessarily an ancient one. We have a lot of medieval castles in Europe, so that has certainly influenced me. A source of inspiration was also my wife, who gave me unlimited moral support during the two years of development. She was also the one who censored The Castle's content, especially the mildly erotic part, and saved me many times from losing my grip on reality.

The game is very much plot-driven. Why did you decide to design it this way?

There was not much design, but rather a great deal of intuition. In the middle of all the virtual 3D modeling, I knew I needed a story. And a good one. It caused me some headaches in the beginning, but in the end, everything just fell into place. It was like magic, like a jigsaw puzzle you try to assemble; the more you progress, the easier it gets.

For the plot I was inspired from the great ideas of Dame Agatha Christie. I wanted the player to take on an active role, to become the culprit, to see and do and feel the things as the people in the castle had, before they mysteriously vanished. I wanted to guide the player through this immersive environment, but in a way that it seemed to happen at his or her own will.

How did you come across SuperCard, and what gameplay elements did you factor into your decision to create a HyperCard-style adventure game?

It was kind of an evolution from HyperCard. There is just nothing that SuperCard wouldn't be doing better. Then, content, like the graphics and the story, I consider the most important elements in an adventure game. Needless to say, I'm an admirer of the Miller brothers and their Myst.

I found the user interface for The Castle to be pleasantly minimal, with a low learning curve. Do you feel less inventory creates more of an immersive environment?

Yes, I do think so. Personally, I hate consulting a manual before playing a game. With The Castle, you won't need to read a single line. The very little I had to say finds place on the double spread page of the CD-ROM booklet. There is just nothing else to say. Point, click, drag. Just play the game. It's that simple.

Any plans to port The Castle over to the PC? (And by the way, what a pleasant change to ask this, rather than the usual other way around—PC to Mac!)

The reason for starting this on a Mac was that I like the Mac as much as I'm ignorant of PCs, and secondly, a version of SuperCard for Windows seemed to be in the pipeline two years back. Unfortunately, this player that would be able to run on Windows never saw the light of day. When we realized that we would be left stranded on the Macintosh island, it was already too late. It's a beautiful island, though, but somewhat frustrating. I'd certainly love to see The Castle on PC.

Have you done any other games?

No, The Castle is our debut game.

Are there plans for another adventure game?

It is an open secret that it took us close to six thousand production hours, while investing a significant amount of hard costs. The problem is that the game has eaten up all our resources, so we really can't start any new ventures. Whether we ever do a game again will depend on the revenues. Only time will tell. And our bookkeeping department.

How is the game selling?

Well, we can't complain. Could be a bit more perhaps.

What kind of Mac was The Castle made on?

It was made on three Macs: one a Quadra, a PPC_Performa, and a fast PowerMac.

What kind of Mac do you use yourself?

I'm still using a 200MHz PowerMac, I'm afraid.

Okay, last question—what are your favorite games personally and why?

Personally, I hardly have time to play any games, but when I do I have to relax from all the thinking and programming. I don't have the patience for any thinking games ... Guess what? It's Carmageddon ...