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Roberta Williams

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Roberta Williams
Born (1953-02-16) February 16, 1953 (age 71)
Occupation(s)Writer, Game designer
SpouseKen Williams
ChildrenDJ Williams, Chris Williams

Roberta Williams (born February 16, 1953) is an American video game designer. She is most famous for her pioneering work in graphical adventure games, particularly the King's Quest series.

Career

In the eighties and nineties, Roberta and her husband, Ken Williams, were leading figures in the development of graphical adventure games. They founded the company On-Line Systems, which later became Sierra On-Line. Their contributions to gaming were partially chronicled in the book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution.

Williams was instrumental in writing and designing several popular games for Sierra, including the entire King's Quest series, The Colonel's Bequest, Mixed-Up Mother Goose, and "Phantasmagoria". Though Sierra was sold in 1996, Williams' production credits date to 1998.

Roberta posed for the cover of the game Softporn Adventure by Chuck Benton, published by On-line Systems. She also posed much later with her children as Mother Goose for the cover photograph of Mixed-Up Mother Goose. The end sequence of Leisure Suit Larry 3 features her as an in-game character.

Roberta and Ken married on November 4, 1972 when she was 19, and Ken just turned 18. They have two children, D.J. (b. 1973) and Chris (b. 1979). The Williams family have homes in Seattle and Mexico.

Since her retirement in 1998, she has stayed away from the public eye and rarely gives interviews to talk about her past with Sierra On-Line. However, in a 2006 interview,[1] she admitted that her favorite game she created was Phantasmagoria and not King's Quest, "If I could only pick one game, I would pick Phantasmagoria, as I enjoyed working on it immensely and it was so very challenging (and I love to be challenged!). However, in my heart, I will always love the King’s Quest series and, especially, King’s Quest I, since it was the game that really 'made' Sierra On-Line."

Williams has often stated that her games are explicitly targeted toward a more affluent and educated audience than other games, raising criticisms of elitism. In a 1999 Gamer's Depot interview, she summed up her feelings:

Back when I got started, which sounds like ancient history, back then the demographics of people who were into computer games, was totally different, in my opinion, than they are today. Back then, computers were more expensive, which made them more exclusive to people who were maybe at a certain income level, or education level. So the people that played computer games 15 years ago were that type of person. They probably didn't watch television as much, and the instant gratification era hadn't quite grown the way it has lately. I think in the last 5 or 6 years, the demographics have really changed, now this is my opinion, because computers are less expensive so more people can afford them. More "average" people now feel they should own one.[2]

In a 2006 interview, Williams said that designing computer games is in the past for her now and that she intends to write a historical novel.[1]

Works

File:Softporn Adventure box cover.jpg
The cover of Softporn Adventure. Williams appears inside the hot tub on the right.
File:MixedUpMotherGoose cover 1987.jpg
The cover of Mixed-Up Mother Goose with Roberta Williams (seated) as Mother Goose

References

  1. ^ a b Adventure Classic Gaming (2006). "Roberta Williams Interview". Retrieved 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. ^ Gamer's Depot (1999). "Roberta Williams Interview". Retrieved 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |1=, |2=, |3=, |4=, |5=, |6=, and |7= (help)
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