Jim Walls

Last updated

Jim Walls
Video game designer Jim Walls.png
Walls in 1989
Born
California, U.S.
Occupation Video game designer
Known for Police Quest
Website www.jimwallsreloaded.com

Jim Walls is an American video game designer. He is notable for having designed the successful Police Quest series of adventure games for Sierra On-Line.

Contents

After working as a California Highway Patrol officer from 1971 to 1986, Walls met Sierra president Ken Williams, who wished to create an adventure game in the police procedural genre. Walls, though inexperienced with computers, offered his policing experience. During his career at Sierra, Walls designed the first three Police Quest entries and Codename: ICEMAN .

After leaving Sierra in the early 1990s, Walls joined several other game developers, including Tsunami Media in 1992 and Westwood Studios in 1996, before retiring in 2003. In 2013, Walls planned to develop Precinct, a spiritual successor to Police Quest, but the crowdfunding campaign failed.

Early life

Walls was born and raised in California. [1] He worked as an optician for seven years before graduating from the California Highway Patrol police academy in December 1971. [1] [2] In January 1984, while conducting a traffic stop, Walls was involved in a shootout. Though he survived the incident, he began to experience post-traumatic stress symptoms, and in 1985, was placed on administrative leave to evaluate his condition. [1] [3] He officially retired from the CHP in 1986, after 15 years of service. [1] [4]

Video game career

Sierra On-Line

While still on administrative leave in 1985, Walls' then-wife Donna, who was a hairdresser in Oakhurst, introduced him to Ken Williams, co-founder and then-president of Sierra On-Line. Williams would frequently visit Donna's salon for a haircut, and he would converse with Donna and Walls. During one such conversation, Williams discussed how he wanted to produce a police procedural adventure game, particularly one with a genuine police officer involved in its development to ensure realism and authenticity. At the time, Sierra had produced numerous adventure games across a variety of genres—such as the King's Quest fantasy series, the Space Quest science fiction series, and the Leisure Suit Larry sex comedy series—but not many games following police or particularly modern settings. After the conversation, he gave Donna his business card and asked Walls to call him. [3]

In 1987, after retiring from the CHP, Williams invited Walls over for racquetball, which Walls was inexperienced in. After a few matches, they went for drinks, where they discussed Williams' idea of a police adventure game. Williams asked Walls to condense his experiences in the CHP into a short story, preferably around two pages long. Walls wrote the story and showed it to Williams several days later; Williams was impressed, and asked Walls to detail it into four or five pages. This process continued until Walls' short story developed into the plot of the first Police Quest game, at which point the story was converted into a design document and broken into game components for development. [1]

At the time, Walls was unfamiliar with computers, and was unsure if video game design was a viable career. Describing his experience writing the initial story concept, Walls reminisced: "When I first sat down in front of a computer to begin the design story of the original Police Quest, I had to be shown where the on/off switch was. I typed the entire story with two fingers (after all, the only skills I had at the time were chasing people down and throwing them in jail)." [5] However, he soon overcame his concerns, and his computer skills developed with help from fellow Sierra designers Ken Williams, Roberta Williams, Mark Crowe, Scott Murphy, and Al Lowe. [1] Many aspects of Police Quest were based on aspects of Walls' life: the series protagonist, Sonny Bonds, was loosely based on Walls' son (also named Sonny), and many incidents encountered in the game (and the next two Police Quest installments) were inspired by actual incidents encountered by Walls over the course of his CHP career.

In 1987, Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel was released. The game placed heavy focus on realism and proper police procedure to succeed. Walls considered fan mail sent in by players, ranging from active police officers to children that wanted to become police officers because of the game, as the "ultimate reward". [1] Walls' career in Sierra continued with the development of Police Quest II: The Vengeance in 1988, Codename: ICEMAN in 1989, and Police Quest III: The Kindred in 1991. Walls also made self-insert cameos in the Police Quest games; he appears in name only in each game's police database as an officer or criminal, his mugshot appears in the intro cutscene of Police Quest II, and he physically appears in Police Quest III's intro and game over sequences.

After the release of Police Quest III, circumstances developed that led to his resignation from Sierra. [1] Following Walls' resignation, the Police Quest series continued, but under the direction of former Los Angeles Police Department chief Daryl F. Gates, who changed the setting of the series from the fictional city of Lytton, California to his more familiar setting of Los Angeles.

Post-Sierra

In 1992, Walls joined Tsunami Media, which largely consisted of former Sierra employees and was also housed in Oakhurst. Walls' time with Tsunami Media was brief, and he only worked on one game for Tsunami, 1993's Blue Force , a spiritual successor to the original Police Quest trilogy. After leaving Tsunami Media, Walls contracted with two other companies—Tachyon Studios and Philips Interactive Media—for games that would ultimately never see release. [1]

In 1996, Walls was contracted by Las Vegas-based Westwood Studios to work on 1997's Blade Runner . He was subsequently offered a full-time design position, working on Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat and Earth & Beyond , both released in 2002. In 2003, Westwood Studios was bought out by Electronic Arts and merged into EA Los Angeles, with most employees, including Walls, let go as part of the company's acquisition. [1]

Precinct

On February 2, 2013, during a podcast hosted by Chris Pope, Walls announced he had plans to develop a successor to Police Quest, using Kickstarter for funding. [6] On July 16, 2013, the new game proposal was finally announced as Precinct, a 3D adventure game serving as a modern spiritual successor to Police Quest. The game, following police officer Maxwell Jones in the city of Fraser Canyon, California, would be developed by Jim Walls Reloaded, led by Walls and Sierra developer Robert Lindsley. [7] [8] A fundraising campaign was held from July 16 to August 16 with a maximum goal of $500,000, but it was unsuccessful, and Walls prematurely canceled the campaign on August 6. [9] An alternate fundraising campaign was held without the time restriction, but it was also unsuccessful and was shut down due to a lack of momentum. Ultimately, the fundraising campaign did not surpass $7,000. [8]

Games

YearGame titleDeveloper/publisherRole(s)
1987 Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel Sierra On-Line Designer, writer
1988 Police Quest II: The Vengeance Sierra On-Line Designer, writer
1989 Codename: ICEMAN Sierra On-Line Designer
1991 Police Quest III: The Kindred Sierra On-Line Designer
1993 Blue Force Tsunami Media Designer
1997 Blade Runner Westwood Studios/Virgin Interactive Designer, programmer, voice actor
2002 Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat Westwood Studios/Electronic Arts Designer
2002 Earth & Beyond Westwood Studios/Electronic Arts Designer

Related Research Articles

<i>Quest for Glory</i> Video game series

Quest for Glory is a series of hybrid adventure/role-playing video games, which were designed by Corey and Lori Ann Cole. The series was created in the Sierra Creative Interpreter, a toolset developed at Sierra specifically to assist with adventure game development. The series combines humor, puzzle elements, themes and characters borrowed from various legends, puns, and memorable characters, creating a 5-part series in the Sierra stable.

<i>Space Quest</i>

Space Quest is a series of six comic science fiction adventure games released between 1986 and 1995. The games follow the adventures of a hopeless janitor named Roger Wilco, who campaigns through the galaxy for "truth, justice, and really clean floors".

Sierra Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, including the first such game, Mystery House. It is known for its graphical adventure game series King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Gabriel Knight, Leisure Suit Larry, and Quest for Glory, and as the original publisher of Valve's Half-Life series.

<i>Kings Quest</i> Video game series

King's Quest is a graphic adventure game series, released between 1980 and 2016 and created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following the success of its first installments, the series was primarily responsible for building the reputation of Sierra. Roberta Williams, co-founder and former co-owner of Sierra, designed all of the King's Quest games until the series' reboot in 2015.

Police Quest is a series of police simulation video games produced and published by Sierra On-Line between 1987 and 1998. The first five were adventure simulation games, the first three of which were designed by former police officer Jim Walls. The fourth to sixth titles were designed by former LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates. Both SWAT and the real-time tactics game SWAT 2 still carried the Police Quest name and were numbered V and VI in the series, respectively, although subsequent titles in the series would drop the Police Quest title altogether and were rebranded as SWAT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberta Williams</span> American video game designer (born 1953)

Roberta Lynn Williams is an American video game designer and writer, who co-founded Sierra On-Line with her husband, game developer Ken Williams. In 1980, her first game, Mystery House, became a modest commercial success; it is credited as the first graphic adventure game. She is also known for creating and maintaining the King's Quest series, as well as designing the full motion video game Phantasmagoria in 1995.

Jane Jensen is an American video game designer and author. She is mostly known as the creator of the Gabriel Knight series of adventure games, and also co-founded Oberon Media and Pinkerton Road video game development companies. Jensen also writes under the name Eli Easton.

<i>Codename: ICEMAN</i> 1989 video game

Codename: ICEMAN is a graphical adventure game made with the SCI engine and published by the American computer game company Sierra On-Line in 1989. The lead designer was Jim Walls, who also created several Police Quest games. Mention of a "Codename: PHOENIX" in Sierra promotional material suggests that ICEMAN was meant to be the first part of a Codename series, but disappointing sales ended the would-be franchise after one game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Crowe</span> American video game designer

Mark Crowe is an American video game designer, artist, and writer who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line and its subsidiary Dynamix. He later worked at Pipeworks Software as Studio Design Director. Crowe is best known for creating the Space Quest series, mostly with his fellow "Guy from Andromeda", Scott Murphy.

Simon the Sorcerer is a series of point-and-click adventure games created by British developer Adventure Soft. The series follows the adventures of an unwilling hero of the same name and has a strong fantasy setting similar to Sierra's King's Quest and Westwood's The Legend of Kyrandia series. The game varies in style, however, as it is more poised to be a parody of the fantasy genre than a member of the genre itself, with many renowned folklore characters appearing differently from what they are generally presumed to be.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Coles</span> Video game designers

The Coles is a colloquial term referring to Corey Cole and Lori Ann Cole, a husband and wife team who are both video game designers. Working together they designed the Quest for Glory. They have also each designed games independently.

<i>Police Quest: Open Season</i> 1993 video game

Police Quest: Open Season is a 1993 police procedural point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Sierra On-Line. It is the fourth installment in the Police Quest series. Departing from the setting of the first three installments, Open Season follows police detective John Carey as he investigates a series of brutal murders in Los Angeles.

<i>Blue Force</i> 1993 video game

Blue Force is an adventure game for MS-DOS released in 1993 by former Police Quest designer Jim Walls.

Tsunami Games was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1991 by former employees of Sierra Entertainment. The company was based in Oakhurst, California, which at the time was also the home of Sierra. Between 1992 and 1996 Tsunami published several games, most notably adventure games and interactive movies, before becoming defunct.

<i>Police Quest II: The Vengeance</i> 1988 video game

Police Quest II: The Vengeance is a 1988 police procedural adventure video game developed and published by Jim Walls and Sierra On-Line. It is the second installment in the Police Quest series. The game continues the story of police officer Sonny Bonds as he attempts to apprehend an escaped convict.

<i>Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel</i> 1987 video game

Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel is a 1987 police procedural adventure video game developed and published by Jim Walls and Sierra On-Line. Police Quest follows police officer Sonny Bonds as he investigates a drug cartel in the town of Lytton, California.

<i>Police Quest III: The Kindred</i> 1991 video game

Police Quest III: The Kindred is a 1991 police procedural point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Jim Walls and Sierra On-Line. It is the third installment in the Police Quest series. The game finishes the story of police officer Sonny Bonds, who seeks revenge after his wife is attacked by an unknown assailant.

<i>Insecticide</i> (video game) 2008 video game

Insecticide is a story-driven action-adventure game by Crackpot Entertainment and published by Gamecock Media Group for the Nintendo DS and Microsoft Windows.

<i>Police Quest: SWAT</i> 1995 video game

Police Quest: SWAT, alternatively known as Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT or Police Quest 5: SWAT, is a 1995 graphic adventure educational video game developed and published by Sierra On-Line for DOS, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS. It is the fifth installment in the Police Quest series and the first installment in the SWAT subseries. The game follows a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Metropolitan Division SWAT team as they train to handle high-risk criminal incidents across Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Murphy (video game designer)</span> American video game designer

Scott Murphy is an American video game designer, programmer, and writer who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line. He is best known for creating the Space Quest series, mostly with his fellow "Guy from Andromeda", Mark Crowe.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Walls, James. "Rap Sheet - Jim Walls Reloaded". Archived from the original on February 16, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  2. ↑ McKenna, Bridget (Summer 1991). "Jim Walls Q&A". Sierra/Dynamix News Magazine. pp. 10–12. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Police Quest 1". Sierra Gamers. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
  4. ↑ Templin, Brendon (August 26, 2013). "Walking the Beat with Jim Walls". Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Jim Walls". Archived from the original on July 31, 2009. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  6. ↑ Booker, Logan (February 3, 2013). "Jim Walls announces live with Chris Pope his return to adventure game creation!". Kotaku . Retrieved February 14, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Precinct - from the creators of "Police Quest" (Canceled)". Kickstarter. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  8. 1 2 "Archived copy". fund.precinctgame.com. Archived from the original on August 7, 2013. Retrieved May 22, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. ↑ "Update 7: Precinct and staged funding · Precinct - from the creators of "Police Quest" (Canceled)". Kickstarter. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.