Roberta Williams' Family Circus game

[jhd]

Family Computing magazine (#4, December 1983) published an interview with game designer Roberta Williams.

 

She discusses, in some detail, a children's game that she was then designing based on the syndicated comic strip Family Circus.

https://archive.org/stream/family-computing-04/Family_Computing_Issue_04_1983_Dec#page/n69/mode/2up

This game was presumably never finished/released.

There was a Family Circus game released in 1992, but the description does not match William's comments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_Circus#Video_game

Has anyone ever heard of this title? Is any additional information available? It is unclear from the article even what platform it was intended for.

[Jess Ragan]

They should have called it Family Circus: The Search for Humor! It would be the most challenging game ever made!

[pacman000]

I like Family Circus...

[Tempest]

I like Family Circus...

That's ok, nobody's perfect.

[+Cafeman]

Who likes Family Circus?

 

Not me!

[Dutchman2000]

Ida know.....

[pacman000]

Here's the bit about Family Circus, OCR'd:

 

 

ICI How do you approach the problem of rules complexity in designing your games?

 

WIlllasosi 1 decide who the genes for and take it from there. All the games I've done be-fore have been for adults. so the rules were tailored for them. Children have been in the back of my mind. however. with the wish that
they could grasp everything. The game I'm de-signing now is called Family Circus. based on the cartoon strip of that name. tea for children 1010 17. so I have to think of simplicity. les really three separate games. each in. Yoking one of three kids In the strip: Dolly. Jtekile. and hilly. The roles are the same for all three games. but they're on different difficulty levels. depending on the age and skills of the player. For example. with Dolly. the game teaches you how to go through the house. hid your things. pick them up. and figure out where they should be put away in the right place.

 

PCs Is it is fantasy game?

 

1,1111mwst No. each of the games revolves around the house and the back or the front yard. So if you're Dolly you can: I ) jump on your parents' bed: 21 look under the bed: 31 leave the room: or 4) look out the window. IN-pending on the number chosen. different things will happen.

 

liCt Is there a point system?

 

WIllIaless No. the payoff is a happy face for the right plate and sad faces for the wrong places. If you're Jessie. you have to learn right from wrong. and if you're Billy. it gives you chores to do. and you have to do them correctly with the right items. There's very simple puzzle saving in the game. but ifs more or less given to them on a silver platter.

 

And, since the OCR mangled a bunch of text:

 

 

[7800Lover]

I like the Family Circus. The mom was quite a fox.

 

I never heard of this Family Circus game; if I had been responsible for the making such a game, I'd have made it a platformer.