More delays followed, but the game started to make steady progress and in November 2010 finally saw its release. With an adventure portfolio consisting solely of So Blonde, WizarBox didn’t inspire confidence. After another period of uncertainty, the French developer WizarBox was hired to complete Jensen’s vision. The actual development was outsourced to Tonuzaba in Hungary, but after several delays the publisher decided that they didn’t have what it took to deliver what was possibly becoming the most anticipated adventure game of the decade. It would take three more years before the game resurfaced as Gray Matter, now under the wing of German publisher dtp Entertainment, who had made a name for themselves by releasing many prestigious adventures from all over Europe. According to Jensen most of the story was already finished. Her new game was codenamed “Project Jane-J”, but after being announced at E3 2003 through The Adventure Company, it was suddenly left hanging. Despite her casual gaming venture, a number of well-received mystery novels she wrote in the meantime served as proof that Jensen never lost her touch. Jensen’s year-long work in casual games, however, instilled worries in those who valued the Gabriel Knight series for its well researched plots, believable characters and challenging puzzles. Her classic trio of Gabriel Knight mystery thrillers stands as one of the most outstanding examples of storytelling in video games. Understandably then, gamers’ feelings towards Jane Jensen’s big new game shifted between hype and fear. For example the return of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis creators Noah Falstein and Hal Barwood, with Mata Hari, received a lukewarm reception from fans and critics thanks to plot holes and light puzzles. Yet when previously popular adventure series also made a comeback, disappointment often followed. Then the second half of the 2000s came and the global video game market regained its ability to sustain niches beyond all that ever-so-marketable slaughtering. The desire to destroy was greater than ever before, while solving problems using one’s brain was out of fashion. Most adventure games are identified with definitive auteurs, names that mean much to fans even today. More than any other genre in video game history, the graphic adventure has always been carried by significant personalities, the fictional characters on screen as well as the creative heads that brought them to life.
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