Adventure Gamers Interview - 2 Sept 2004

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Emily Morganti on adventuregamers.com interviewed The Brothers Chaps and Jonathan Howe to learn about Peasant's Quest.

Transcript

Peasant's Quest caught us all by surprise. In July, what appeared to be a promo for a new adventure game started floating around the Internet. The 90-second ad showed screens reminiscent of the old Sierra AGI games and ended with a promise: This game would be released in August, 2004. Was this just a gag, or the real thing? Sure enough, a few weeks later Peasant's Quest appeared on Homestarrunner.com. For those of us with a weakness for text-parsers, mono-speaker sound, and heroes in short pants, Peasant's Quest was the most exciting release of the summer. Who are the masterminds behind this blast from the past? Read on and find out.

EMILY: Please introduce yourselves and explain your roles in the Peasant's Quest project.

MIKE: I am called Mike Chapman. I did most of the background graphics and helped come up with the storyline.

MATT: I'm Matt Chapman and I co-wrote Peasant's Quest and "drew" and animated most of the characters, monsters, animals and "sprites" if you will.

JONATHAN: I'm Jonathan Howe and I wrote most of what Matt didn't, and did all the Flash programming. It was also my responsibility to second-guess Matt's jokes as spelling or grammar mistakes.

EMILY: A lot of our readers had never visited your website before the release of Peasant's Quest. Could you tell us a bit about the site and how it got started?

MIKE: Homestarrunner.com has been alive and sometimes kicking since January of 2000. It features lots of cartoons and not quite as many games. It is made mostly entirely by brothers Matt and Mike Chapman. Their pal Jonathan Howe helps make the games.

EMILY: Most adventure gamers are very nostalgic about the "good old days." Do you remember the first adventure game you ever played? Any fond memories you'd like to share?

MIKE: King's Quest 1. King's Quest 2 was already out when I was introduced to the Sierra games in 1986 maybe, so after we won King's Quest 1, we jumped right into King's Quest 2. Then I think we played Black Cauldron. Man, those were some good games.

MATT: Outside of text adventures, the first adventure game I ever played on PC was King's Quest 1. It taught me the word 'crotchety.' Later, when we played King's Quest 2, I remember being legitimately terrified while inside Dracula's castle. Like, I had nightmares in 16 color EGA.

JONATHAN: I remember Space Quest a lot because the humor was really important. Unfortunately I was a little too young to appreciate Maniac Mansion, lacking the essential patience for something that wasn't Yie Ar Kung-Fu. I think the first adventure game that really had me going was Indiana Jones — that it so closely followed the movie plot was, like, mind-blowingly cool. And I have black and white nightmares of Matt having nightmares.

EMILY: Peasant's Quest is obviously rooted in the tradition of the old Sierra games. Do you have a favorite Sierra game?

MATT: I think Space Quest 2 is my all-time favorite. And I have a soft spot for Hero's Quest 2 a.k.a. Quest for Glory 2.

MIKE: I liked Space Quest 1 best. I liked the room with the 3 big shiny red buttons on the floor. I don't know if they were buttons... maybe just lights. Anyway, they were some good graphics.