Not an adventure game, but it is Sierra related. It's an action-adventure game at least.

I saw a Youtube video mentioning you'd done some work on the English language version of Zeliard? Zeliard was my jam when i was 7 years old, and I just wanted to say thanks. Its a game I had on the first PC that ever entered my house, and is probably among the first games I ever played. As I'm sure a lot of the titles you worked on were that for kids. And I just happened to stumble into some deep cut. Anyway, the point is, cheers for that.

That's also not a question. Oh well.

Thank you for doing this AMA Josh. Some very fascinating info on here.

Did you enjoy working more on the writing side of adventure game design or the puzzle/mechanics side of it?

Which Sierra puzzle are you particularly proud of?

I personally really love how rich and detailed your games in particular are with flavour text and hotspots and things to examine and explore.
I would say this was a strenght of Sierra in general over the Lucasarts stuff, the first Monkey Island for example is really low on hotspots and flavor text in general as absolutely brilliant as that game is.

Gotta say I really loved Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. It was my favourite adventure game of 1997 and that was one of the last truly great years of big budget mainstream adventure games with things like Curse of Monkey Island, Blade Runner, Riven etc..

Callahan's just has so much heart.
Great writing with puns galore, likeable characters, really varied settings and puzzles. Plus those songs by Spider Robinson are just wonderful.. And who can hate a game where you get to make a bar of chocolate as one of puzzles?

Hiya, Zweisy1!

First, I want to thank you for saying such nice things about Callahan's. All the qualities you ascribe to the game were exactly what attracted me to the source material, Spider's books, in the first place. And I found the majority of other ga m especially at the time to be basically depressing. But I also knew that a game that was very affirming, and about friendship, was swimming against the tide.

It has been a revelation, to a lot of developers, how much of an influence these old games have turned out to be for so many people. 

I have always enjoyed the writing side more. It runs in the family; my father, Loring, was a Golden Age TV writer (primaily, although he had movies and plays as well) and we so m times wrote dialogue together...sometimes inadvertently! In the mid-70s, he actually spent a few years "relaxing" by writing for a soap opera ("Love of Life"), and occasionally real-life dialogue we had -- including arguments! -- would turn up verbatim on Lhe show.

My favorite puzzle...YOWCH, that's a tough one. Although it's simple, the one puzzle I developed for Heart of China is sort of near and dear to my heart because I was trying to illustrate to them the concept of combining inventory objects (in this case, the boy's wagon) to make something creative but strictly logical.

In Callahan's, I have several favorites, but a very soft spot for opening Pyotr's front door.

At Sierra, I adored working with a lot of people, too many to name. Standouts were probably Lorelei Shannon, Bruce Balfour, Ken Allen, Mark Hood, and of course AL Lowe (gotta use all caps for his first name now, otherwise it looks like AI). Al and I started collaborating in 1990, on LSL1-VGA and LSL5, and went on to work together on Freddy Pharkas, The Laffer Utilities, LSL6, Larry Reloaded, and even NOW we're collaborating on a non-software project! I was extremely lucky to find a kindred soul there. Also special love to Neal Grandstaff, Bob Ballew, Bob Heitman, Gano Haine, and even more. 

What did I forget to answer?

Josh

Thank you for detailed and interesting answers to my questions. Especially interesting to hear writing runs in the family. 

I wouldn't feel too bad about Digital Antiquarians critique of Callahan's.. Jimmy Maher is a brilliant writer and I love reading through his articles, but I do semi-often find myself disagreeing with him about games too. He admits he's not a fan of the source material as well which makes a big difference. 
Personally, I loved your game so much it made me read the books too. Top 5 adventure game of all time for me. 

I had one or two more questions if Im  allowed:

Did you play through the later Sierra adventure games after you'd left such as the amazing LSL7 Love for Sail? Did you have a particular favourite among them? 

How different was it working for Legend Entertainment compared to working for Sierra?