Review Fix Exclusive: Shawn Mills Talks ‘Quest For Infamy’

Review Fix chats with “Quest for Infamy” co-creator Shawn Mills, who discusses the sense of humor and creative influences behind the nifty new PC dungeon crawler. A fan of dungeon crawling classics the likes of “Quest for Glory,” as well as TV show such as “Futurama,” “Quest for Infamy” is drenched in nostalgia while maintaining enough modern humor and gameplay innovation to attract new gamers.

For more information on the game, head to the “Quest For Infamy” official site, here.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for the game?

Shawn Mills: Adventure games in the late ’80s and early ’90s. “Quest for Glory” in particular was an inspiration for the way it melded adventure games with RPG’s, so that’s what we’ve tried to emulate.

Review Fix: What games did you play growing up?

Mills: Anything from Sierra, plus a few LucasArts games thrown in there too! I loved the Space Quest games in particular and the original Quest for Glory is as close to a perfect game as you can get, it just does everything right! Outside of the PC, I had a classic Atari 2600 (the original black with wooden trim version) and I had all the classics on that, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Ghostbusters, Pitfall and about a million others.

Review Fix: How did they influence this game in any way?

Mills: The adventure games were a huge influence of course, the marriage of RPG and adventure game elements in the Quest for Glory series would top that list, but then the humour of Space Quest games is a big influence too. There’s something amazingly funny about the narrator in Space Quest IV who is self-deprecating but also charming, and of course he gives Roger Wilco a hard time if the player screws things up.

Review Fix: Why do you think Dungeon Crawlers have endured for so long?

Mills: Because they’re fun.

Review Fix: How long do you expect this game to keep the average gamer busy?

Mills: It’s hard to give a playtime on this game because there’s so much stuff they simply don’t have to do to finish the game, so let’s just say “many many hours.”

Review Fix: How do the characters play differently from one another?

Mills: Most puzzles or plot points in the game have a different way to deal with it, depending on your class. As an example if you wanted to get over a locked gate, the rogue might grappling hook and get himself over that way, the brigand might just bash that gate down but the sorcerer might cast his “Float on a Cloud” spell and just float over the gate. Plus of course all the characters would simply climb the gate too. So while the main story is the same for all three classes, the way you do things changes.

Review Fix: Where do you guys get your sense of humor from?

Mills: My dad! And books! I’m majorly influenced by Douglas Adams (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) and all that off-beat humour that he did so well. Things like Monty Python, Red Dwarf, Futurama – all of that sort of anti-establishment, quirky stuff. Plus I’m always partial to a good fart joke!

Review Fix: What do you think stands out the most about this game?

Mills: That it’s fun. People will remember that these sorts of games were fun and younger players will learn why there’s still so many people who love them.

Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy this game the most?

Mills: People around my age (mid-30s) who grew up when adventure games were King.

Review Fix: How do you want it to be remembered?

Mills: As a sexy, very old man who was loved by everyone.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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