[November 25, 1998] - GK III Progress Report Being asked to help out with Gabriel Knight 3 was a mixed blessing. Taking over a project in mid-development is tough especially when it is 4 months from shipping, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to work with Jane. Needless to say, I am a big Gabriel Knight/Jane Jensen fan. Every project has its own challenges, and Gabriel Knight 3 has its share. Taking the traditional 2D adventure game formula into 3D has created a plethora of work. Something as simple as moving ego around the screen would be taken for granted in our old SCI game system, but with our new engine, we have spent a couple of months working on path algorithms and collision detection code to intelligently move the character around the game environments. Making the characters move naturally and act intelligently has been a high priority. The engine re-write that started last spring was the first step to creating a flexible engine that could be fined tuned to effectively tell Jane's story. The redesign was completed at the beginning of August, and the first few time blocks were ported to the new system. This was a great test. It showed how flexible the new engine was, but it also showed areas where it was lacking. For the last 3 ½ months, new features have been added to engine to improve the look of the character animations, add better facial expression/emotions, and to speed up the scripting the process. Within the next month, these efforts will be completed, and our four scripters can really start cranking away at "polishing" the content. Even with all of the engine changes, we have been making great progress. By Christmas the logic for the entire game should be scripted (with a lot of programmer art and text boxes for puzzles), and the first day completely polished. Steven Hill Producer, Gabriel Knight 3