Lori Ann Cole
Encyclopedia
Lori Ann Cole is a game designer, often in cooperation with her husband, professional game programmer
Corey Cole. Their team was later named Transolar Games. Lori also maintains a photography and Web design studio known as FAR Studio.
Cole's varied background includes elementary education, film animation, and writing. She is a fanatic RPG player, who is uninterested in adventure games. Because of her husband's involvement in Sierra On-line, she decided to create a hybrid role-playing/adventure game
. The result was Quest for Glory
series.
In a 2003 interview, Cole said, "My favorite game is Shadows of Darkness
. It had the proper moods of sombre and silly, scary and magical. It brought back Ad Avis to plague the hero, and introduced the tragic villain of Katrina. It even had the tragic sacrifice of the monster Toby that foreshadows the ending. The game had the strongest of the stories, and put the player in the greatest of dangers without friends or allies." For many fans of the series, however, Shadow of Darkness received many criticisms due to large number of bugs in the game, making it nearly unplayable—a fact which she also acknowledged, "If you could make it past the thousands of bugs, it was a great game." (Patches are available for most of the bugs at this point.)
Other works in Sierra include a voicing role in the CD-ROM
version of King's Quest V and designing Mixed-Up Fairy Tales
.
During those years Lori was a freelance contractor with Sierra working for royalties. When the fifth game of the Quest for Glory series was about to be cancelled, Lori and Corey formed FAR Productions and created Shannara
for Legend Entertainment
.
Finally, when hired as an employee for Sierra, she joined the development team for Dragon Fire
, which was released in 1998.
Lori had a cameo headshot in SWAT 2. She has also worked on a text adventure game featuring the Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School, from which the hero in the Quest for Glory games graduated.
Game programmer
A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebase for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines all of which fall under the umbrella term of "game programmer"...
Corey Cole. Their team was later named Transolar Games. Lori also maintains a photography and Web design studio known as FAR Studio.
Cole's varied background includes elementary education, film animation, and writing. She is a fanatic RPG player, who is uninterested in adventure games. Because of her husband's involvement in Sierra On-line, she decided to create a hybrid role-playing/adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
. The result was Quest for Glory
Quest for Glory
Quest for Glory is a series of hybrid role-playing/adventure computer games designed by Corey and Lori Ann Cole. The series combined humor, puzzle elements, themes and characters borrowed from various legends, puns, and memorable characters, creating a 5-part series of the Sierra stable.Although...
series.
In a 2003 interview, Cole said, "My favorite game is Shadows of Darkness
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness
Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness is an adventure game/role-playing video game hybrid. It is the fourth installment of the Quest for Glory computer game series by Sierra Entertainment.- Release :...
. It had the proper moods of sombre and silly, scary and magical. It brought back Ad Avis to plague the hero, and introduced the tragic villain of Katrina. It even had the tragic sacrifice of the monster Toby that foreshadows the ending. The game had the strongest of the stories, and put the player in the greatest of dangers without friends or allies." For many fans of the series, however, Shadow of Darkness received many criticisms due to large number of bugs in the game, making it nearly unplayable—a fact which she also acknowledged, "If you could make it past the thousands of bugs, it was a great game." (Patches are available for most of the bugs at this point.)
Other works in Sierra include a voicing role in the CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
version of King's Quest V and designing Mixed-Up Fairy Tales
Mixed-Up Fairy Tales
Mixed-Up Fairy Tales was a graphic adventure game released by Sierra On-Line in 1991. It was made for younger players than those of Sierra's King's Quest or Space Quest series...
.
During those years Lori was a freelance contractor with Sierra working for royalties. When the fifth game of the Quest for Glory series was about to be cancelled, Lori and Corey formed FAR Productions and created Shannara
Shannara (game)
Shannara is a computer game released in 1995 for DOS and Microsoft Windows. It is based on the Shannara series of books by Terry Brooks.-Plot synopsis:...
for Legend Entertainment
Legend Entertainment
Legend Entertainment was an American developer of computer games, best known for their complex, distinctive adventure titles throughout the 1990s....
.
Finally, when hired as an employee for Sierra, she joined the development team for Dragon Fire
Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire
Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire is the fifth and final game in the Quest for Glory computer game series by Sierra Entertainment. Unlike the first four games, Dragon Fire is an Action/RPG with few elements of Adventure.-Story:...
, which was released in 1998.
Lori had a cameo headshot in SWAT 2. She has also worked on a text adventure game featuring the Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School, from which the hero in the Quest for Glory games graduated.