Roberta Williams
American video game designer and writerWikipedia
21
MENTIONS
11
EPISODES
9
PODCASTS
Search complete. 21 mentions across 11 episodes found for "Roberta Williams".
Sep 22, 2026
Robbie BensonGUEST
Yeah.
Robbie BensonGUEST
This is a magnum opus of Roberta Williams.
Robbie BensonGUEST
And it got to a point where I was like, OK, I don't want to end this.
Robbie BensonGUEST
You know, I want it to just keep going.
17 MINS LATER
PaulHOST
And the camera angle work in those games is just beautiful.
Kyra HaddixGUEST
I love pixel art in games too.
Kyra HaddixGUEST
That was when I was telling you I wrote a paper on Roberta Williams.
Kyra HaddixGUEST
I got paired up with somebody else and we had to pick a topic in animation because this person chose pixel art and I was like women in animation so we crossed it together and landed on roberta williams right and we talked a lot about um i forget what king's quest it is but the one where it's literally the mom and the daughter and they're in like the land
Sir RandallGUEST
I'll even send you Josh Mendel's which is really cool I'm actually working with him on a special project I can't say right now that will be announced sometime soon but it's really cool I've been working with some of the people I've admired when I was growing up as a teenager and working with them is
Breakman XHOST
freaking cool how did you get hooked up with Ken and Roberta Williams?
Sir RandallGUEST
See, now that's the thing.
Sir RandallGUEST
So the Space Quest Collector's Edition I made, because it was like the biggest one I made.
Sir RandallGUEST
Josh Mandel, who knows Ken and Roberta Williams and Marcus.
Sir RandallGUEST
So like when he got his, he's like, dude, you got to hire this guy because they were looking for someone to do the PC edition of Colossal Cave.
Sir RandallGUEST
And like Josh was like, you need to check this guy out.
Sir RandallGUEST
People want me to commission me to do stuff, and I can't do it because I always turn them down because, you know, I don't own the IP, and I just don't want to go down that road of litigation.
PushingUpRosesHOST
So Colonel's Bequest was a kind of whodunit based on Agatha Christie story style game.
PushingUpRosesHOST
It says it's written by Roberta Williams, but there have been some controversial statements on who was the main writer.
PushingUpRosesHOST
But like for the sake of this video, we're going to say Roberta Williams.
Matt AukampHOST
OK, OK.
PushingUpRosesHOST
It's one of those stories kind of like and then there were none where there are like This is not the correct number, but there's like 10 characters and they're all wanting to get the colonels.
Ross StevensonHOST
Wardrobe.
Ross StevensonHOST
Or Roberta Williams' version, The Lion, the Snitch and the Wardrobe.
Ross StevensonHOST
Scorch has done a list of ten novellas.
Ross StevensonHOST
That's a good idea.
Peter FordGUEST
I've always thought if I suddenly had no work on radio and television, I would either become a psychic – I think that would be a good one – or I would write country music songs – Or I would write children's books.
Peter FordGUEST
And that indeed is what Roberta Williams is reinventing herself as, a children's book author.
Peter FordGUEST
Now, this looks great, what she's announced.
Peter FordGUEST
It's called Welcome to Bubbleton.
Peter FordGUEST
And it's about two characters.
Peter FordGUEST
I guess they look to me maybe a little bit like kind of Smurf dolls.
Peter FordGUEST
And would you like me to read you a little bit? If I could have some music, I'll read you a little bit of Roberta Williams' work.
Peter FordGUEST
in the colourful town of Bubbleton, where the bubble trees grow.
PushingUpRosesHOST
Yes, she helped on King's Quest 6.
PushingUpRosesHOST
I think that was a collaborative effort between, I think, her and Roberta Williams.
PushingUpRosesHOST
Her and Roberta
Matt AukampHOST
Williams.
38 MINS LATER
Matt AukampHOST
Right.
Matt AukampHOST
And writes a bunch of good puzzles.
Matt AukampHOST
And then somebody that's a shitty puzzle designer, like maybe a Roberta Williams or something comes in and it's like, actually, we need a little a few more harder puzzles and then adds a bunch of shit that you're like, what the fuck?
PushingUpRosesHOST
That makes sense, though, because Roberta Williams, her entire inspiration for being a designer was a colossal cave adventure.
Carrie PatelGUEST
Yeah, so games and writing for games had been in kind of the back of my mind for a long time as one of those ideas of like, wow, people do this, and that sounds amazing.
Carrie PatelGUEST
Um, but there are a lot of things people do that seem, you know, very, very hard to get into, and where does one start? Um, you know, again, as a, a Sierra adventure gamer growing up, um, Roberta Williams was one of the people that I, I kinda grew up having a, having a name and an identity and kind of a person associated with of like, wow, she makes these things.
Carrie PatelGUEST
That's so cool.
Carrie PatelGUEST
Um, and you know, so I, I d- I wanna say probably when I was, uh, you know, maybe late in college, kinda early starting out, um, you know, after college, I, I was starting to read maybe a little bit more and more about narrative design and games writing and, um, you know, kind of blogs from some of the people who were, uh, I, you know, like the David Gaiders, um, and oh my gosh, uh, there's a Jillian who used to work for, uh, Ubisoft who, who was-
Ben VigeantHOST
yeah like this has so much money behind it and you just don't see something this sophisticated get this much money
Jess MorrissetteHOST
and you know it's a credit to ken williams on that case because as i understand it you know jane had just come off of successfully working on king's quest 6 alongside roberta williams and As I understand it, this was sort of that mentor-based junior designer system they were really working with at the time.
Jess MorrissetteHOST
You kind of apprentice under one of the big names of Sierra Design, like Josh did with Al Lowe, and then eventually you're given your own game to develop.
Jess MorrissetteHOST
And this was her, you served with Roberta on King's Quest VI, it's your turn.
Susan LammersGUEST
And I wish we could have taken some time and gone back and redone some things, but that's the way it works sometimes.
Christopher WhiteHOST
One of the people that comes to mind since you like video games and work in video games is Roberta Williams from Sierra Online, from the King's Quest series.
Susan LammersGUEST
Yeah, there were a few.
Susan LammersGUEST
It was Carol Shaw, Roberta Williams.
Susan LammersGUEST
There were a number of women working in that area.
Elecia WhiteHOST
One of the reasons I bring it up, and it was a different time and I don't know everything that surrounds it, of course.
Brett DouvilleHOST
Right.
Brett DouvilleHOST
It reminds me of another sort of lead designer and storyteller of the time, because Roberta Williams would... would deliberately not know what was possible so that she wouldn't be constrained.
Brett DouvilleHOST
Right.
Brett DouvilleHOST
So that she would just like think big, right.
1 more episode mentions Roberta Williams.
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