Brian Moriarty

Posted by Erik-André Vik Mamen, Philip Jong.
First posted on 15 September 2006. Last updated on 10 July 2011.
Articles  »  Interviews
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To adventure game fans, Brian Moriarty is a legend who needs no introduction. He is best known as the creator of Loom, a graphical adventure game released by Lucasfilm Games in 1990. Fans of interactive fiction, however, may better remember him as the author of Trinity, Wishbringer, and Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor. To his fans, he is also known as "Professor" Moriarty—a nickname given to…

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Previous Comments

Excellent

Great great read, also makes you see why current game industry is sequel galore instead success based of quality and oraginality. And Telltale seems to have done a great job reviving the classic point and click adventures judging by them releasing on the xbox360 now as well.

Netherlands By David • On 28 July 2009 • From Haarlem, The Netherlands

Excellent

I was just pointed towards "the point" by Brain Moriarty. I didn't think I would be able to stomach a 45 minute only audio presentation in mp3 format... But I found myself intrigued and finally, my mind bursting with brain semen several times as I listened closely to a presentation made at GDC nearly 11 years ago that had a majority of the "audience" leave in disgust.

One very interesting thing, that I have been paying more and more attention to... is the framework that is now "necessary" to create the current games we play today. Their scope and size is much larger, so lost is the more informal approach Brian Describes.

"...small teams of two or three programmers and a handful of artists, who sketched out a vague story at the beginning and basically made up the rest as they went along."

Something about that simple statement, and the quality and forward thinking ideas that were presented in early adventure games especially, is very revealing to me.

Very revealing indeed.

United States By Poots • On 06 March 2007 • From NYC

He never answered the question: what IS he doing now? Does he have a boiled peanut stand somewhere? Is he retired? A goat farmer? What?

And, yes, he needs to finish that game and release it. I think modern games are horrible compared to text-only and classics like 'Elite'.

Ah, well...

United States By Matt • On 28 October 2006 • From St Augustine, FL

Excellent

I had the rare honor of working with Brian Moriarty during the dark days of Mpath (as it were). Still, his insights into design, creativity, and the aspirations of the players of games continue to be inspiring to me. Much of what Brian was doing and talking about are still revolutionary, and important. Thanks for publishing this!

United States By ron • On 27 September 2006 • From Somewhere

Excellent

I second the previous comment. I would GLADLY play anything written by our dear "Professor", production values notwithstanding!

United States By beavinator • On 15 September 2006 • From Albany, NY

Very Good

"I’ve been privately working on prose-based interactive fiction on and off for over ten years now. I doubt if I’ll ever post any of it. Few people care to read or type anymore, and it takes a lot of experienced playtesting to polish a game to presentable standards."

Still, "few" is several hundred. You will find as many volunteer beta testers as you require, in the interactive fiction community (start at www [dot] ifwiki [dot] org and newsgroups rec [dot] arts [dot] int-fiction and rec [dot] games [dot] int-fiction). I know the community would welcome interactive fiction from you!

United States By Merk • On 15 September 2006 • From Somewhere