The Making of Wizardry - Robert Woodhead Interview

USGamer has a history of RPG series. This months entry explores the creation of Wizardry with Robert Woodhead.

Why do role-playing video games work the way they do? The answer to that question often boils down to, "Because Wizardry did it." But why did Wizardry do those things in the first place? To hear Wizardry programmer Robert Woodhead tell it, that answer amounts to, "Because of PLATO."

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord debuted in the fall of 1981, the second wildly influential computer role-playing game to debut that year on Apple II. Richard Garriott's Ultima had shipped a few months earlier with its grab-bag approach to the genre. Ultima combined first-person dungeon exploration with outdoor travel from town to town presented with a god’s-eye viewpoint. Ultima also included all kinds of odd anachronisms, including time travel and an outer space shooting sequence brazenly lifted from the finale of Star Wars, but its biggest influence was undoubtedly Garriott’s time spent shaking dice in Dungeons & Dragons.

Wizardry took a different approach. Designed and programmed by Robert Woodhead and Andrew Greenberg, it consisted of nothing but dungeon-diving. The game was viewed entirely through the first-person wireframes seen in Ultima’s dungeons (and Akalabeth before that). It had no overworld. A town at the mouth of the dungeon—navigated entirely through menus—allowed players to shop for gear, rest at inns, and save their progress. There was no wandering around to gather clues from random townsfolk. There definitely was no space combat. There was only the dungeon, consisting of 10 floors of monsters, tricks, and traps, each level spread across a labyrinthine 20x20-space grid.

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The three series of my youth: Ultima, Wizardry and Might and Magic. Always waiting for getting my paws on the next installment in any of them. All dead now (i wouldn't count the japanese spin-offs for Wizardry as proper games in the series).

Would be nice to see a sequel to any of them, but i doubt that there are many people today that would like to see those series revived.

And with the whole legal problems that Wizardry now entails, that is the least likely series to make a comeback.

Ubi continues its mistreatment of the Might and Magic universe, while EA killed Ultima and swept it under the carpet (i wonder if it's a magic one?!)

I'll never forget that time I was attacked by a stack of coins…

Yup, all three gone and we're not likely to ever see anything quite like them again. Which is really too bad, these teams really knew how to put out worthy products, games that you could keep going back to time and time again. By comparison, current schemes for gaming look poor and unworthy, for the most part. Fortunately, some of the independents are doing a good job of stepping up to get a slice of the computer gaming pie.

Wiz 8 best game ever. Pity they sold the rights to a Japanese company that will never make another true Wiz game

Aren't you guys forgetting Grimoire?

Perhaps because it is a game best forgotten ?

Originally Posted by Darth Tagnan
Aren't you guys forgetting Grimoire?

Oh I've not forgotten Grimoire, it was a good game and well worth playing. However, as a franchise goes, if Grimoire ever puts out a sequel I'm not sure I'd still be alive to play it.

Dude is a fucking retard for saying the japanese Wizardry games are bad when in reality they're the best, and he obviously is ignorant of Elminage as well.

What a clown that guy is… let him know in the comments.

Originally Posted by aweigh
Dude is a fucking retard for saying the japanese Wizardry games are bad when in reality they're the best, and he obviously is ignorant of Elminage as well.

What a clown that guy is… let him know in the comments.

Internet, the magic place where you are never actually 100% sure whether this guy is being sarcastic or not because there are literal people saying this kind of shit every day.

The Internet, where everyone who disagrees is a retard!

Well in defense the Japanese Wizardry games they are extremely popular in Japan

As for Elminage - well i haven't forgotten it but wished I had.

Originally Posted by aweigh
Dude is a fucking retard for saying the japanese Wizardry games are bad when in reality they're the best, and he obviously is ignorant of Elminage as well.

What a clown that guy is… let him know in the comments.

I thought Elminage was pretty good, and quite similar to Wizardry, although certainly tastes might vary. I don't think I've played any of the Japanese Wizardry games, but I'd surely at least give them a shot before dumping on them.

Of course I'm 100% serious. I'm always serious about Wizardry. It's the single most important RPG series ever.

Believe in Charles-cgr at least for a classic M&M successor at long last with Sovereign---maybe also The Quest 2 since apparently that one is swinging for the fences with a full party as well.

There's probably a grand article in and of itself waiting out there in the mists of time for yet more Jp Wizardry progeny and side games once further fan translations are done at long last---one thing is for certain, now is the best time in ages for all these classics to have a chance to breathe again one way or another.

Wizardry was incredible. Todays RPGs could learn a lot from it!!

1) Great voices with personality and a lot of choices! I loved hearing some of the comments from the other party members! They did it so well!!
2) 1st person! Really give immersion!! (getting sick of the lack of immersion in PoE2 for example in isometric views (but that is just me))
3) great class and combat mechanisms and felt different and real (Again PoE2 for example, the classes feel so contrived!!)
5) levels didn't make your character OP… well not as quick as the current games do!
6) Items were not obsolete as soon as you leveled up 2 levels!! (Looking at you DOS2!!)
7) interesting world, with interesting interactive NPCs!!; Great Open world, that directed to some extent where you went if you could handle an area, but often you could go to areas that outleveled you if you were smart or tricky! Really good stuff!!

Anyway I am at work, but I LOVED wizardry 8, and current RPGs have a lot to learn from that old simple game!

Wow, that's some rabid Internet support for the game. I feel like Wizardry 8 might come up in the Nov. elections here in the States. The way things are going, I'll be complaining to my new congressman right after feeding time…

I wish someone will take Wizardry 8 and update just the visuals and leave everything else alone! Thats kickstarter I will back!

What is funny, is that a lot of people forgot how those old series were actually a mix between fantasy and science-fiction. Wizardry and M&M would have aliens and spaceships in the stories, while Ultima's Avatar would breach the space and time to get in the Britannia.

Sadly, you don't see that combination in the western RPG's in our days. But it would be fun to see that mix again, especially if it would be implemented properly.

As far as obsessing over archaic games goes, this isn't the worst you could pick