Year's 2 and 3 Games Art and Design Blog: Additional Zork Research

Zork was not simply a game but rather a franchise that had spawned many sequels:

GAME TIMELINE (PRODUCTION ORDER)

Dungeon	1977~1979	Dave Lebling, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, Tim Anderson
Zork I	1980-11-XX	Dave Lebling, Marc Blank
Zork II	1981-11-XX	Dave Lebling, Marc Blank
Zork III	1982-08-18	Dave Lebling, Marc Blank
Enchanter	1983-08-10	Dave Lebling, Marc Blank
The Forces of Krill	1983-08-XX	Steve Meretzky
Malifestro Quest	1983-09-XX	Steve Meretsky
Cavern of Doom	1983-09-XX	Steve Meretsky
Sorcerer	1984-01-31	Steve Meretsky
Conquest of Quendor	1984-10-XX	Steve Meretsky
Wishbringer	1985-05-01	Brian Moriarty
Spellbreaker	1985-09-16	Dave Lebling
Lurking Horror	1987-05-06	Dave Lebling
Beyond Zork	1987-09-15	Brian Moriarty
Zork Quest I	1988-04-XX	Elizabeth Langosy
Zork Quest II	1988-08-XX	Elizabeth Langosy
Wishbringer (novel)	1988-08-XX	Craig Shaw Gardner
Zork Zero	1989-03-23	Steve Meretzky
Enchanter (novel)	1989-04-XX	Robin W. Bailey
The Zork Chronicles	1990-06-XX	George Alec Effinger
The Lost City of Zork	1991-01-XX	Robin W. Bailey
Return to Zork	1993-08-20	Eddie Dombrower
The Philosopher's Stone	UNFINISHED	Nino Ruffini
Zork: Nemesis	1996-02-29	Cecilia Barajas
Zork: The Undiscovered Underground	1997-08-28	Marc Blank, Mike Berlyn
Zork: Grand Inquisitor	1997-10-31	Laird Malamed
Legends of Zork	2009-04-01	Jolt Online Gaming

Zork Trilogy	1986	COMPILATION (Zork 1, Zork 2, Zork 3)
Enchanter Trilogy	1986	COMPILATION (Enchanter, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker)
Zork Anthology	1994	COMPILATION (Zork 1, Zork 2, Zork 3, Beyond Zork, Zork Zero)
Zork Collection		COMPILATION

I wondered looking at these how Zork had evolved throughout the years – how the basic premise had been taken and moulded – if at all.

Beginning as “Dungeon”, due to legal issues over naming infringement with “Dungeons and Dragons” it was reborn as Zork – and for the subsequent games it retained the text based adventure nature of its gameplay. In Beyond Zork traditional roleplaying elements were an addition to the gameplay, allowing for character creation and skills for the player to learn and utilise.

Zork Zero, a release nine years after the original, removes the RPG elements of Beyond Zork but instead offers players full colour images of a number of puzzles that adorn the game – a first for the series. The game itself involves collecting over twenty items for a magician’s cauldron by solving the mentioned puzzles, keeping to the tradition of having a well written but otherwise slim narrative feature.

Beyond Zork was the next release and this time completely switched genres – moving into the point and click genre. Whereas the previous games focus around mazes and dungeons (with navigation proving to be sometimes inaccurate (ie: Move North, Move South – you will not be in the same place)) Beyond Zork removed this, with the games designer Mark Long stating in an interview: "navigation is always correct; if you move north then south, you are always in the same place. Solving mazes was overdone, dull, and annoying." The game also boasted multiple methods of completing the game and solving the puzzles. Unlike the previous Zork games, the player was not necessarily restricted in what they could accomplish with certain items and character – to the point where they could destroy crucial quest items or non-playable characters, making the game “unwinnable”.

Zork Nemesis and the subsequent games; Zork; the Undiscovered Underground and Zork: The Grand Inquisitor continued down the point and click route set in Beyond Zork, making improvements with each game. The graphics were much more advanced, offering realistic 3D looking environments for the player to explore with their arrow, a full three hundred and sixty degree camera (called “Z-Vision”), for the time State of the art motion capture and much clearer sound – both through the voice acting and soundtrack. The games furthermore maintained the focus of puzzles and solid choices for the player to make. If they chose to trust particular characters it could lead them to ruin or success.

The final game on the list (not including the Compilations) was Legends of Zork – which took the series into a completely new direction – the Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Genre. The game itself ran from 2009 until May 2011 where it was shut down without warning. It began as free to play – allowing the casual gamer 30 “action points” a day, while for small payments, the player could purchase more, prolonging their play experience. This in itself is a very common strategy for a Free to Play MMO – with other such titles as Spiral Knights adopting similar strategies to raise funds. However, due to the lack of quality in the game, Alec Meer in a “rock, paper, shotgun” review stated:

“It’s honestly as though someone designed a micropayment system then awkwardly shoved a very crude game on top of it”

So from the initial 1977 game to the ill-fated Legends of Zork in 2009, the franchise evolved from a text based adventure game, to a detailed point and click, to an internet based MMO – which if what was popular around the time is considerers then makes sense. At the initial switch to point and click, Myst had became massively popular, and likewise with MMO’s and Kingdom of Lothering.

But though the reinventions and reiteration of the brand, was there any stand out points to the series?

-Humorous and well written story

- Choices and consideration of elements such as NPC’s

- Freedom to explore and experiment with items due to the acceptance of a wide variety of words and actions (perhaps overdone with beyond zork but nevertheless an intriguing option)

- Well executed puzzles for the player to explore

I think all of the above points would make for excellent goals for my own reinvention of Zork, but my thoughts at the moment are to move away entirely from the Zork mythology built up by the franchise and take those points – what made the games good, and apply them in a much more modern method. As forementioned with the Zork 1 playthrough I felt that narrative is an important structure but at the same time having a basic scenario and allowing the players to make their own choices is an invigorating element that could also be considered given the joys (and sometimes sorrows) of the adventure game books.

Points of future research: The Point and Click Genre – modern games which have gained success from this: (Ace Attorney Series, 9 Doors 9 Persons 9 Hours, Hotel Dusk).

(Alec Meer review sourced from) http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/04/02/grue-some-zork-remake-live-horrible/ (accessed 05/10/2011)

(Timeline sourced from) http://www.thezorklibrary.com/history/00-timeline.html (Accessed 04/10/2011)

(Other useful information) http://www.thezorklibrary.com/history/00-resources.html (Accessed 04/10/2011)