Jane Jensen

Jane Jensen has worked as a writer on a wide range of video games and is also an accomplished designer and director in this field.

She is chiefly famous for creating the Gabriel Knight series of point-and-click adventure video games in the 1990s, and for co-founding the game companies Oberon Media and Pinkerton Road.

As a writer, Jensen has published many works of gay romance fiction under the pen name Eli Easton.

About Jane Jensen

• Name: Jane Elizabeth Jensen, née Smith
• Birth: 28 January, 1963 in Palmerton, Pennsylvania, USA
• Nationality: USA
• Education: BA in computer science from Anderson University in Indiana, USA
• Occupation: video game writer, video game designer, video game director, novelist
• Spouse: Robert Holmes

Trivia

• She is the youngest of seven siblings.
• Early in her career, she worked as a systems programmer for Hewlett-Packard.
• Her husband is a composer and he made the music for the Gabriel Knight series and Gray Matter.
• Jensen and Holmes live on a farm in Pennsylvania.

Career

Jane Jensen started her video game career as a writer, writing Police Quest III: The Kindered (1991) and EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus (1991) for the video game developer and publisher Sierra OnLine.

She quickly branched into video game design as well, co-designing King´s Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (1992) alongside the experienced game designer Roberta Williams.

Gabriel Knight

After King´s Quest, Jensen worked with the first game in what would become her most famous game series; the point-and-click adventure games about the “shadow hunter” Gabriel Knight who fights evil supernatural forces. Writen, designed and directed by Jensen, the game Gabriel Knight: Sings of the Fathers was released by Sierra OnLine in 1993. After becoming a commercial and critical success, this game was followed by The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery in 1995 and Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned in 1999.

After Gabriel Knight

A few tidbits from Jensen´s career after Gabriel Knight:

• Her first non-adpted novel, Millennium Rising, was published in 1999. The name was later changed to Judgment Day.
• Her book Dante´s Equation, published in 2003, was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.
• She co-founded the multi-platform casual games company Oberon Media in 2003, with backing from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Oak Investment Partners.
• After leaving Oberon Media in 2011, Jensen worked at Zynga.
• In 2012, Jensen co-founded the game development studio Pinkerton Road together with her husband, the composer Robert Holmes. Pinkerton´s first game, Moebius: Empire Rising, was released in 2014. That was also the year of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition.
• Since 2013, Jensen has been writing gay romance finction using the pen name Eli Easton.

Games

Writer or co-writer

• EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus (1991) (writer)
• Police Quest III: The Kindred (1991) (writer)
• Hidden Chronicles (2012) (co-writer)

Designer

• Pepper’s Adventures in Time (1993) (designer)
• Inspector Parker (2003) (designer)
• BeTrapped! (2004) (designer)

Creative director

• Agatha Christie: Dead Man’s Folly (2009) (creative director)

Story consultant

• Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller (2012–13) (story consultant)

Voice actor

• The Dagger of Amon Ra (1992) (voice actor)

Multiple roles

• King’s Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (1992) (co-designer, co-writer)
• Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (1993) (designer, director, writer)
• The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery (1995) (designer, writer)
• Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned (1999) (designer, writer)
• Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile (2007) (designer, director)
• Agatha Christie: Peril at End House (2007) (designer, director)
• Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet (2007) (designer, director)
• Dr. Lynch: Grave Secrets (2008) (designer, director)
• Women’s Murder Club: A Darker Shade of Grey (2008) (designer, director)
• Women’s Murder Club: Twice in a Blue Moon (2009) (designer, director)
• Deadtime Stories (2009) (creator, designer, director)
• Gray Matter (2010) (designer, writer)
• Dying for Daylight (2011) (designer, director)
• Moebius: Empire Rising (2014) (creator, designer, director, writer)
• Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition (2014) (creative director, designer)

Novels

• Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (Roc, 1997)
• The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery (Roc, 1998)
• Millennium Rising (Judgment Day) (Del Rey, 1999)
• Dante’s Equation (Del Rey, 2003)
• Kingdom Come – An Elizabeth Harris Novel (Berkley, 2016)
• In the Land of Milk and Honey – An Elizabeth Harris Novel (Berkley, 2016)

Graphic novels

• Gabriel Knight: The Temptation (Phoenix Online Publishing, 2014–15)

Works published under the pen name Eli Easton

• A Kiss in the Dark (2013) (a part of the Closet Capers anthology)
• Before I Wake (2013)
• The Lion and the Crow (2013)
• Superhero (2013)
• The Trouble with Tony (2013)
• Puzzle Me This (2013)
• Caress (2013) (a part of the Steamed Up anthology)
• Blame it on the Mistletoe (2013)
• A Prairie Dog’s Love Song (2013)
• The Enlightenment of Daniel (2013)
• Reparation (2014) (a part of the Stitch anthology)
• Heaven Can’t Wait (2014)
• The Mating of Michael (2014)
• The Bird (2014) (a part of the Bones anthology)
• Unwrapping Hank (2014)
• A Midwinter Night’s Dream (2015)
• How to Howl at the Moon (2015)
• How to Walk like a Man (2015)
• Among the Dead (2015) (a part of the Spirit anthology)
• The Stolen Suitor (2016)
• A Second Harvest (2016)
• Falling Down (2016)
• Merry Christmas, Mr. Miggles (2016)
• How to Howl at the Moon (2015)
• How to Walk Like a Man (2015)
• How to Wish Upon a Star (2016)
• How to Save a Life (2017)
• A Second Harvest (2016)
• Tender Mercies (2017)
• Desperately Seeking Santa (2017)
• Five Dares (2017)
• Robby Riverton: Mail Order Bride (2018)
• Boy Shattered (2018)