Ancient Art of War Development
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Game Design Document
Game Transcript
Exploring Game Resources
Developer Notes
The Murrays did the first two Manhunters, and then starting working on a game called "Ancient Art of War". I had them planned for Manhunter 3, but when they spoke about their idea for Ancient Art of War, it sounded great - so I encouraged them to work on it.
Unfortunately, during development, Broderbund somehow got into the loop, and convinced Dave and Barry to publish War through them. One of my "rules" was to never be the "high bidder" on anything (it's a long story). They never returned to Sierra.
Here's an interesting side story:
Broderbund's initial box for Ancient Art of War had a picture of an ancient vase on the front. The vase had a lot of oriental writing on it - that no one knew what said. Oops - the writing was in chinese (or, Japanese) and to those who could read it, it was x-rated. Broderbund had to recall all the copies of the game that had been shipped to retail.
-Ken W
My recollection is of having tremendous respect for the Murray's, and wishing we could work with them forever. I think they left for Broderbund primarily because Broderbund offered them a materially higher royalty than Sierra for Ancient Art of War. I remember being hurt by this because I had been involved at the beginning of Art of War, and always assumed we'd publish it - but that when we started discussing contract, we were beaten out by Broderbund.
Over the years I had a series of what I used to call "Kens Rules" that served me well. One of these was "I never want to win a bidding war." As soon as it became obvious that the Murray's wanted both Sierra and Broderbund to compete for the publishing rights, I walked from the deal. I loved the product, but rules are rules. I wished the Murray's success, but did not enter the bidding. Here's the issue, and another "Ken Rule" - I always believe in playing poker with my cards face up. In most deals, if there were ongoing negotiations, the deal got worse for the other side, not better. I usually lead with my best offer. Sierra's economics were no secret. I knew what percentage of revenue I could afford for product development, marketing, manufacturing, etc. I also knew what level of profits I needed. If there were a way that a product could fit Sierra's business model, and succeed, that was awesome - but, if it didn't, we were better off to pass. -Ken W
