What better way to kick off Women in Gaming Month than with the legacy of one of gaming's greats, Roberta Williams?
Roberta William's career in game development began the way any career in such a field should: with a passion for playing games. Specifically, Roberta played text adventure games on her teleprinter. Her husband, Ken Williams, was a computer programmer who worked on IBM computers. Ever the imaginative woman, Roberta began to imagine what an adventure game could be if they were graphical. She began to draw ideas on her Macintosh computer, showing her husband what they could do together.
They began working together on a game called Mystery House for the Apple II computer. It was a black and white game, but it was revolutionary for combining the story element of text adventure games with graphical presentation. Released in 1980, the game sold ten thousand copies, a modest success considering it was an Indie game developed by two then-unknowns. In fact, Ken Williams himself had to distribute the game copies to computer stores, while Roberta herself handled the packaging!
From 1980 to 1983, the Williams pair founded their company, Sierra On-Line. With the success of their games, they hired more people and expanded the company. Roberta was unstoppable. She kept creating more ambitious games, with one being the 12-disc "Time Zone," the longest and most expensive adventure game ever made. It sold poorly due to the fact that it cost $99, which in 2023 money would be around $271.
But the year 1984 was when Roberta Williams and Sierra On-Line struck GOLD with their latest game, King Quest 1! It was like nothing the gaming world had seen before: a game where your character could not only move in front of or beside objects, but BEHIND them too! And it was all presented in beautiful 16-bit color, making it the most gorgeous adventure game yet made. It very quickly became a bestseller.
The King's Quest series continued to sell fantastically, with each installment improving on the previous one, with one of the most influential games of all times being King's Quest 4: The Perils of Rosella. Why was it influential? Because it was one of the first franchise games to star a woman! Roberta herself INSISTED on doing this, in spite of the warnings given to her by many of her peers, telling her a game starring a woman would never sell well. She sure showed them! In fact, the success of the game led to the revelation that most male gamers DON'T CARE about playing a female character, whilst female gamers PREFER it!
The King's Quest series is recognize for being one of the few, if not the ONLY game series that was fully created and developed by a female designer. With eight official installments, all helmed by Roberta herself, the series has become a pillar of the Adventure Game genre, still influencing Adventure games to this day. The series is SO beloved, in fact, that many independent developers have created many fan-made remakes of the games, with one of my personal favorites being Kings Quest 2: Romancing the Stones. A later blog will be dedicated to talking about it.
Roberta William's legacy and career is nothing short of inspiring, mainly because it's what many gamers dream of. Who DOESN'T dream about making their own games and being super successful at it? Who doesn't dream about starting their own companies and earning mad money doing it? Roberta Williams did BOTH!
Know what? This is where I gush a little. Roberta Williams is one of my gaming idols, I'll be honest. She's top tier material, and she's everything I want to be: a creative who is fully in charge of their projects, which leads to success. She's one of the absolute GREATEST game developers of all time. OF ALL TIME!!!
Roberta Williams: QUEEN of the Adventure Games!
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