Krondor Confidential - Part XIV

Another Meeting With the Master of Magician

As the story and the new design features for Thief of Dreams began to pull together, it was hard not to be optimistic. Betrayal at Krondor had been well received, and physically I was feeling much better than I had in months. I’d begun to spend more time with friends outside the office...and with one person in particular who I was hoping might become something more than that. I took time off to go back home to Oklahoma to check on my father who’d been diagnosed and treated for cancer while we were in crunch (though I wouldn’t know the severity of his case until years later). On the road back to Oregon I’d accidentally discover the Dinosaur National Monument near Vernal, Utah where I’d not only get to glory in my lifelong love of dinosaurs, but I’d also develop a new fascination for petroglyphs that lingers with me to this day. And between there and Eugene, I’d pull over somewhere on a deserted two-lane road in northwestern Nevada to answer a call of nature only be awestruck by the most amazing, non-light-polluted view of the Milky Way I’ve ever seen. 

THEM BONES, THEM BONES, THEM DINO BONES - Me being a very happy dinophile in the Dinosaur National Monument just outside of Vernal, Utah in the summer of 1993. The park was hopping since Jurassic Park had debuted just two weeks before Betrayal at Krondor’s debut.

Back at Dynamix, the team was hard at work transitioning from Betrayal to Thief. Nels Bruckner, Steve Cordon, and Timothy Strelchun were working on optimizing the engine and creating new tools. Two temporary BAK team members, Chris Medinger and Joseph Muennich, were both being promoted up from QA to start helping with map designs so that Tim McClure could concentrate on gathering feedback from Compuserve and Genie, and so that John and I could focus on the development of new features. Our little development family was growing quickly, but one change in the staff would lead to a dramatically new feeling for the project, specifically for me.