Ken and Roberta Williams are making their comeback to the games industry after being retired for two decades. Co-founders of Sierra On-Line, known for some of the most iconic quests of the 80’s and 90’s, are working on their new game.
Their new title is called The Secret and described as “Sierra flavored.” The spouses opened up about the upcoming project in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz.
According to Ken Williams, they have been declining offers to produce a new game for decades, but now they finally said “yes.” “This changed when Roberta had a clever idea for a game, at the same time I am having fun learning the Unity 3D development environment, and I happened to be chatting with a talented 3D artist,” he said.
This artist happens to be Marcus Maximus Mera, a jewelry designer-turned-developer. It is worth noting that he wrote about The Secret to an author of the small YouTube channel Space Quest Historian in May. Ken Williams himself later confirmed the information to the video blogger.
Roberta and Ken Williams founded Sierra On-Line in 1979. They made a name for themselves thanks to series like Space Quest, King’s Quest, Gabriel Knight и Leisure Suit Larry. The company went public in 1989, becoming one of the most successful game developers of the 80’s and early 90’s.
Things got worse when e-commerce firm CUC International acquired Sierra On-Line for $1.5 billion in 1996. The company continued to work on their game and even helped publish the first Half-Life two years later. However, CUC International and its founder were accused of fraud, and Sierra On-Line was restructured, with Ken and Roberta Williams eventually leaving the company.