Warcraft Adventures

What's a Warcraft Adventure?

What kind of game was Warcraft Adventures? It was a classic point-and-click adventure game, in the style of Monkey Island and the old Sierra adventure games. It took place on Azeroth, the surviving continent of Warcraft II, in the aftermath of the war between orcs and humans. The noble humans had ended the war by closing the portal between the orc world of Draenor and the human world of Azeroth. However, what that meant was that a whole army of orcs was stranded on Azeroth. Warcraft Adventures took this concept and expanded it into a game. You played one of these trapped orcs, Thrall, and in the course of the game, you discovered that the orcs had been enslaved and pacified. You were to reclaim your lost heritage as an honorable but vicious warrior, and reunite the clans, hopefully rising up against your human oppressors and creating a new, more prosperous life for orcs in this human world.

While the game sounded good, its look was less than cutting edge and was not nearly as polished as LucasArts' Monkey Island III, which was competing directly with Warcraft Adventures. Monkey III was the next in the Monkey Island franchise, which was a hilarious and well-respected adventure game series originated by Ron Gilbert and continued by capable LucasArts designers after Gilbert left the company. Although Monkey Island III was announced after Warcraft Adventures, it already looked better. However, Blizzard was still working on Lord of the Clans, and it did have personality, humor, and good gameplay. More important to the project than the impressive-looking Monkey Island III, though, were Blizzard's own exacting standards, which demanded the best.

When Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans was canceled, it had been in development for over a year and was almost complete. Nearly all features, puzzles, and areas were in place, and the voice acting had been recorded. Another round of development, involving the implementation of new puzzles, tweaked areas, and more recording, was about to start before E3, in May of 1998, but before that could happen the game was canceled.

We talked to Bill Roper, the producer of Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, and he talked candidly with us about how Warcraft Adventures started and how it ended. He discussed the difficulties of communicating with a third-party developer halfway across the globe, the exigencies of the adventure game genre, the thoughts that go into decision making at Blizzard, and the work that went into the adventure game. He told us why Warcraft Adventures was canceled and what its chances are of being resurrected (don't hold your breath).

Interview with Bill Roper