An Interview with Leslie Balfour: Co-Designer of SQ7

Wilco's Web Space: How did you get involved with Space Quest 7?

Leslie Balfour: Here at Sierra, we grade projects just like in school. There's the A team, the B team, all the way to the detention recidivists consisting of the people voted most likely to end up on death row. Well, opportunity comes in some pretty special packages sometimes, and here on the island of misfit toys, we're trying to view working on a team with Scott Murphy as an opportunity rather than the last stop to Unemploymentville.

The answer to your question is that the General Manager took the bottom 5% of the bottom 5% of performers, and created the Space Quest Squad.

WWS: Have you ever worked on any other projects at Sierra?

LB: I played on Space Quest 6, toiled on Collier's Multimedia Encyclopedia, worked on Outpost, and wrote for The Realm. Collect all 4!

WWS: How much of SQ7 is done?

LB: We've designed the prototype, which is about 1/12 of the game. Nothing is programmed; Rich Powell is designing the characters now.

WWS: When will SQ7 be released?

LB: We like to think it will be more "unleashed". We're hoping for Christmas of 1998.

WWS: What is your favorite Space Quest?

LB: 6,3,4,1,2,5.

WWS: Will Gary Owens be the narrator in SQ7?

LB: We're going to try like the dickens to get him to do yet another one.

WWS: Will Roger still be a janitor?

LB: Once a janitor ...

WWS: Is SQ7 going to be the final Space Quest?

That'll be up to corporate, but I think that 7 will be so successful that the suits will drop dead from the shock.

WWS: How did you get involved with Sierra?

LB: I was writing and producing plays locally, and a thespian friend of mine told me about voice auditions that were being held at Sierra On-Line for The Dagger of Amon Ra. I came in and auditioned for Bruce Balfour, and he was such a good writer and director that I married him. Wait, that's how I got involved with Bruce. I had my MBA in Marketing and was a professional writer, so I did some freelance writing for Sierra's marketing department, and once you're sucked into the vortex that's it. You're there for good. They hired me, and here I am four years later, looking for the door.

WWS: What operating system is SQ7 going to be on?

LB: Win95.

WWS: How is the SQ7 project going?

LB: It's not. We're waiting for resources, but you really have to watch people every minute once you put them on a Space Quest game, and unfortunately we have neither the security force nor the artillery necessary to force programmers and artists to work on it. We're hoping that once QFG5 and SWAT2 ship, we'll be able to use those people to watch the high school student trainees we bring in.