Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb
Two developers walk into a convention in the late 80s and are tabling together, it's an old story. One of them is a fellow who goes by Talin, and the other is Jon van Canegham. Talin is there to promote his game Faery Tale Adventure: Book I and Jon is there to promote the beginnings of the acclaimed Might and Magic series. They hit it off and they become friends.[1] Around this same time, Robert 'Wolf' McNally is working as an independent software developer. [2] The other piece of this puzzle is a man named Joe Pearce. Since 1986, Joe had been working as an independent contractor on several games for different companies such as Microillusions and Commodore Business Machines.[3] While it would not be officially founded at this point in time, two games are listed as being developed by The Dreamers Guild for Microillusions: Ebonstar and The Jetsons: George Jetson and the Legend of Robotopia. Both games involved Wolf and Michael McNally as the head developers (Ebonstar also had Steven McNally as playtester, Talin (listed as David Joiner) as technical assistant and Ed Kline as illustrator)[4] In the case of The Jetsons, the DreamWorld Adventure Environment used for the game was programmed in 1989 by Wolf and Michael McNally, who also handled design and story duties.[5] While these games are being released, Pearce's work with game companies would eventually land him a job at New World Computing Inc., a company co-founded by Jon van Canegham [6], and would see him doing the port of Faery Tale Adventure: Book I for the Amiga, putting him in touch with Talin.
The Dreamers Guild
With all the pieces assembled, a plan for a new kind of game dev studio started to take form. From Joe Pearce on his website The Bit Zone:[7]
"Our hope was to create a new kind of computer game company -- one where the employees would have a say in the evolution of the company. Unfortunately, the company was not a financial success, but still it was a worthy attempt. (I do not attribute its failure to the goals we originally set.)"
Joe and Wolf would found The Dreamers Guild on June 1st, 1991. From the head count in the aformentioned quoted website, the company had at least 69 employees as of May 19th, 1995. They are all crucial components of what made The Dreamers Guild work, but for the purposes of this story, only a handful of them were personally involved on Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb. In particular: Walt Hockbrueckner, Ed Lacabanne, Allison Hershey, Glen Price, April Lee, Robert Wiggins, Michael and Steven McNally, Joe Burks, Mark Iennaco and John Clarke. Hershey, Clarke and Lacabanne would become central to the game's legacy but for reasons that won't become clear until long after the dust had settled. The others involved in the game were either independent contractors, brought in from New World Computing, or part of the furry fandom in California brought in to help lift the game to new heights.
Make Mine Music
The period of time between 1991 and 1993 would see The Dreamers Guild mainly doing ports of games for the Amiga and Macintosh. While the guild clearly had several seasoned pros in their midst, New World Computing didn't seem to believe that the company as a whole, as new and relatively green as it was, would be able to make games that could turn a profit. It wouldn't be until 1993 that the company would develop games proper, but one specific port would be important to Inherit the Earth, and that was a port of Deluxe Music Construction Set 2.0 for the Amiga.[8] Talin would be in charge of that specific port, and it was through that work that New World Computing agreed to let The Dreamers Guild work on an original project.[1] It was at this point that the game proper would begin developement.
Project Sun-dried
Joe, Wolf, and Talin would spend some time brainstorming the possible directions the game could take. New World Computing was already well-known for high and low fantasy RPGs at this point, and The Secret of Monkey Island was on Talin's mind at the time. From Talin:
"Robert McNally, Joe Pearce, and myself spent a lot of time brainstorming the game concept. It was at one of our early sessions, after many false starts, that Joe suggested, “What if the hero was, like, a rabbit?" It was like a lightbulb went off in my head — I instantly remembered the novel Watership Down and how moved I had been reading it as a teenager. And I realized that, just as Richard Adams’ novel had spoken to adults as well as children, we could do the same thing in an adventure game."[1]
After further discussion, which involved establishing the main character as a fox and the community of characters being grouped into tribal units, the nameless project was offically dubbed 'Project Sun-dried' based off of a naming protocol invented by the group's chief operating officer, Charles Wilson.[1]
We, The Animals, Squeak
The time came to call in help from people well versed in drawing furry art. Thankfully for the team, there was a vibrant furry fandom in California. Of specific note are Mark Iennaco and his (then) wife Lisa Sample, who were invited to some of the guild's brainstorming sessions to offer input.[1] In addition, Monika Livingstone and Ken Sample are also involved on the game, while also being members of the amateur press association Rowrbrazzle.[9]