Chip Sandresky Chip Sandresky

I'm a Visual Basic Contractor here at Sierra. I used to be a Magazine Photographer before I realized I was spending all my extra time playing with computer code. I work on some of the tools Sierra uses behind the scenes to piece their games together; tools for writing, recording and previewing certain resources. It can get pretty tough writing software tools for software developers but I get a kick out of it because I'm making people's jobs easier and letting them concentrate on making a great game.

What a challenge to write the screenplay for an interactive game where the storyline will unfold differently every time! We have a writing tool developed here at Sierra just for that sort of problem called Message Editor. I've done a total rewrite of Message Editor with the Gabriel Knight™ team in order to accommodate GK3's expanded characteristics.

I'm coding in Visual Basic and the GK3 pieces live in back-end databases. Jane does her writing/designing directly into Message Editor and out pops the markers, references, etc that are used to bring the game together. The Sound Engineers prepare actorsí scripts and foreign translations, the Game Programmers pack runtime files, and the Artists check each time block and location for required illustrations and animations with Message Editor.

I've also upgraded one of Sierra's audio tools called Dreams. We take all the actors' lines from Message Editor, wrap them into a Dreams file format, load them onto a laptop and fly down to Hollywood. Dreams interfaces with a DAT machine in the recording studio and keeps track of all the audio takes for each line; This saves the Sound Engineers hundreds of hours when they create the final audio lines for the game.

I have a lot of fun applying the technology to theatre. I think we're going to be seeing much more innovation here.