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+--- Thread: AMA About Sierra! (/showthread.php?tid=38)
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Estória - 01-15-2026
(01-15-2026, 04:32 AM)Josh_Mandel Wrote: Estória,Thank you so much for the reply!
Thank you so much for all the kind words. The thought that they were such a positive and formative influence is really (for me at least, and I hope for other Sierra alums) the icing on the cake. And the gratitude people are expressing is so unexpected, it's so heartfelt and it feels like it all went down so long ago. It's...okay, I've backed myself into a corner with the cake analogy. The edible glitter on top of the icing?
I hope we can continue to find ways to make games that entertain and educate and surprise and delight. In another 35 years, it would be great to have people coming up to me and saying, "Hey, I remember playing your games back when I was in my second childhood!"
Warm regards,
Josh
Don't worry, I'm in my 2nd childhood (actually I never left my original childhood, which explains why I have no money), and I still replay Sierra games all the time. Earlier today I posted in the "what games do you replay" forum that King's Quest and Quest for Glory, and basically all the Sierra games, are my go-to comfort blankets.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that you, and everyone at Sierra's life's work has had a very positive impact on a large number of people. You've truly spread "good" into this world, and it's appreciated.
I'm trying to get my 6 year old niece hooked while she's young, too.
-Jonathan
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Estória - 01-23-2026
I'd like to ask what your best memory of working at Sierra is? Also, did you have a favorite designer to work with?
I was in college when the company fell apart, but it had always been my dream up to that point to work there. Interaction magazine made it seem like a fun, creative, family-run dream job. Obviously that's a "rose colored" view, especially towards the end, but it still seems like a case of "when it was good it was really good..."
Thanks!
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Josh_Mandel - 01-23-2026
I think my single favorite memory is probably when Freddy Pharkas first went into production. There was a window you could stand up, on the second floor of the main building, and look out over the entire warehouse/assembly line part of the facility. For whatever reason, I happened by this window. At that point, I was completely and utterly exhausted -- the whole team was, we had just finished a several-weeks'-long "crunch week" on the project, and some of us (primarily Steve Conrad and Bill Shockley and I) were sleeping in our office and putting in 20-hour days. So as I looked out and saw Freddy boxes being assembled with this mixture of relief (it's done!), dread (what DIDN'T we find that breaks the game, that players will find INSTANTLY?), pride (my first real game!) and all sorts of things, with this overlay of too-tired-to-think-straight...it was just a very hypnotic and overwhelming moment for me.
Second favorite? When I pulled up in a rented car to interview there, and Ken came out and introduced himself!
--Josh
RE: AMA About Sierra! - PrincessPearl - 01-31-2026
(01-23-2026, 08:44 PM)Josh_Mandel Wrote: Second favorite? When I pulled up in a rented car to interview there, and Ken came out and introduced himself!
--Josh
So basically this scene?
![[Image: Space-Quest-III-IGN_611.jpg]](https://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2014/08/Space-Quest-III-IGN_611.jpg)
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Josh_Mandel - 01-31-2026
(01-31-2026, 06:27 AM)PrincessPearl Wrote:Eerily similar, yes!!(01-23-2026, 08:44 PM)Josh_Mandel Wrote: Second favorite? When I pulled up in a rented car to interview there, and Ken came out and introduced himself!
--Josh
So basically this scene?
RE: AMA About Sierra! - BobVP - 01-31-2026
(01-31-2026, 06:27 AM)PrincessPearl Wrote:(01-23-2026, 08:44 PM)Josh_Mandel Wrote: Second favorite? When I pulled up in a rented car to interview there, and Ken came out and introduced himself!
--Josh
So basically this scene?
RE: AMA About Sierra! - srnickolas - 01-31-2026
That scene was one of the coolest funniest endings in all the video games I ever played Lol. Space Quest 2 and 3 are on my top adventure List
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Josh_Mandel - 02-01-2026
(01-31-2026, 11:25 PM)srnickolas Wrote: That scene was one of the coolest funniest endings in all the video games I ever played Lol. Space Quest 2 and 3 are on my top adventure List
I loved it when Sierra designers would break the fourth wall...in this scene, and at the end of LSL3, when Larry gets to walk by the Whale's tongue set from KQ4, and the driving set from PQ.
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Zweisy1 - 03-18-2026
Thank you for doing this AMA Josh. Some very fascinating info on here.
Did you enjoy working more on the writing side of adventure game design or the puzzle/mechanics side of it?
Which Sierra puzzle are you particularly proud of?
I personally really love how rich and detailed your games in particular are with flavour text and hotspots and things to examine and explore.
I would say this was a strenght of Sierra in general over the Lucasarts stuff, the first Monkey Island for example is really low on hotspots and flavor text in general as absolutely brilliant as that game is.
Gotta say I really loved Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. It was my favourite adventure game of 1997 and that was one of the last truly great years of big budget mainstream adventure games with things like Curse of Monkey Island, Blade Runner, Riven etc..
Callahan's just has so much heart.
Great writing with puns galore, likeable characters, really varied settings and puzzles. Plus those songs by Spider Robinson are just wonderful.. And who can hate a game where you get to make a bar of chocolate as one of puzzles?
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Josh_Mandel - 03-18-2026
(03-18-2026, 12:14 AM)Zweisy1 Wrote: Thank you for doing this AMA Josh. Some very fascinating info on here.
Did you enjoy working more on the writing side of adventure game design or the puzzle/mechanics side of it?
Which Sierra puzzle are you particularly proud of?
I personally really love how rich and detailed your games in particular are with flavour text and hotspots and things to examine and explore.
I would say this was a strenght of Sierra in general over the Lucasarts stuff, the first Monkey Island for example is really low on hotspots and flavor text in general as absolutely brilliant as that game is.
Gotta say I really loved Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. It was my favourite adventure game of 1997 and that was one of the last truly great years of big budget mainstream adventure games with things like Curse of Monkey Island, Blade Runner, Riven etc..
Callahan's just has so much heart.
Great writing with puns galore, likeable characters, really varied settings and puzzles. Plus those songs by Spider Robinson are just wonderful.. And who can hate a game where you get to make a bar of chocolate as one of puzzles?
Hiya, Zweisy1!
First, I want to thank you for saying such nice things about Callahan's. All the qualities you ascribe to the game were exactly what attracted me to the source material, Spider's books, in the first place. And I found the majority of other ga m especially at the time to be basically depressing. But I also knew that a game that was very affirming, and about friendship, was swimming against the tide.
It has been a revelation, to a lot of developers, how much of an influence these old games have turned out to be for so many people.
I have always enjoyed the writing side more. It runs in the family; my father, Loring, was a Golden Age TV writer (primaily, although he had movies and plays as well) and we so m times wrote dialogue together...sometimes inadvertently! In the mid-70s, he actually spent a few years "relaxing" by writing for a soap opera ("Love of Life"), and occasionally real-life dialogue we had -- including arguments! -- would turn up verbatim on Lhe show.
My favorite puzzle...YOWCH, that's a tough one. Although it's simple, the one puzzle I developed for Heart of China is sort of near and dear to my heart because I was trying to illustrate to them the concept of combining inventory objects (in this case, the boy's wagon) to make something creative but strictly logical.
In Callahan's, I have several favorites, but a very soft spot for opening Pyotr's front door.
At Sierra, I adored working with a lot of people, too many to name. Standouts were probably Lorelei Shannon, Bruce Balfour, Ken Allen, Mark Hood, and of course AL Lowe (gotta use all caps for his first name now, otherwise it looks like AI). Al and I started collaborating in 1990, on LSL1-VGA and LSL5, and went on to work together on Freddy Pharkas, The Laffer Utilities, LSL6, Larry Reloaded, and even NOW we're collaborating on a non-software project! I was extremely lucky to find a kindred soul there. Also special love to Neal Grandstaff, Bob Ballew, Bob Heitman, Gano Haine, and even more.
What did I forget to answer?
Josh