What's up with King's Quest these days?

[Stabwound]

According to the wiki, Silicone Knights (shudder, would have been console shit worse than KQ8) were working on a King's Quest 9 prototype a couple of years ago (2011) before the questionable Telltale Games acquired the license.

Are they doing anything with it at all? I haven't heard anything other than it was going to be episodic (shit) and like Tales of Monkey Island (double shit).

If there's any series that should have a proper kickstarter reboot it's King's Quest, and now it seems to be either dormant or in the incompetent hands of Telltale Games.

 

[Jaesun]

Telltale Games is going to make one as far as I know. But they have not said anything about it in a LONG time.

They are probably scrambling to make it like the Emotionally Engaging QTE success the walking dead was. Or the deal with Activision fell through.

 

[Stabwound]

I've been looking around. Found this thread: http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43746

• February 17, 2013: Two year anniversary of when Telltale's King's Quest was first announced (nine months from the previous major announcement).
• March 1, 2013: Dan Connors states that they aren't ready to say anything about the King's Quest project yet, but will say something when they are ready to talk about it. Rock Paper Shotgun asked if there were anything beyond Fables and King's Quest down the pipeline, and Connors mentions that they have a couple of unannounced projects being sorted out.[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013...to-the-punch/] Fables and Walking Dead Season 2 are projected for 2013 releases.

So 2 years have gone by since announcement and they have nothing to share. It sounds like this is a backburner thing if anything. There's a huge thread of speculation there that they're having legal trouble and that this game is dead in the water, too. It's hard to tell.

It would be kind of cool if Jane Jensen's "Mystery Game X" was KQ9; she did have a hand in at least 1-2 of the games that I recall.

 

[Jaesun]

Oh yeah. If Jane is possibly on this that could be pretty fucking cool (depending on what her exact input is).

I wonder what the fuck the delay is though. Probably still working on the budget or scope or both with Activision.

 

[Aeschylus]

The way Telltale's games have been lately, I really hope they end up just not doing a KQ game. I'm not really sure who I would want to make it (probably Jane Jensen, of the people who still work in games), but unless they pull a complete 180 with their design philosophy, it's not them.

I don't know that it will ever get a "Proper" Kickstarter reboot, as Roberta Williams is retired and has repeatedly said she has no interest in returning to game development.

 

[Stabwound]

I would be amazed if someone didn't pick up on this and launch a KS. As long as it was someone relevant (Jane Jensen...) it would get pledged toward with great fury.

 

[RK47]

I don't think there's even a need for anyone to resurrect this franchise.
The whole brand recognition thing is the only thing that might be of any value - as for the setting - anyone can just dump anything in the adventure game.

 

[Jaesun]

The truly fucking sad thing to me, is that we have actual development teams that get and LOVE the very fucking thing that made the old Sierra games so great (Quest for infamy and Mage's Initiation guys) but will be sadly developed by Telltale and with Activision's budget , goals and scope.

 

[RK47]

Awaiting Gabriel Knight RPG

 

[Curious_Tongue]

The truly fucking sad thing to me, is that we have actual development teams that get and LOVE the very fucking thing that made the old Sierra games so great (Quest for infamy and Mage's Initiation guys) but will be sadly developed by Telltale and with Activision's budget , goals and scope.

Using a talented studio to make a game that would sell in the hundreds of thousands?

It's promises of blockbuster profits that get investors salivating.

 

[Xavier0889]

Whatever they do, It will be better than kq8. That game... gave me cancer, really. It had the most broken controls I'm able to remember (and I've played a lot of Ultima 8) and the story and characters were so bland and not inspiring.

 

[RK47]

Wasn't that the best Action RPG that Sierra ever made in the KQ universe?

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Couldn't care one bit about King's Quest. IMO it was always Sierra's weakest franchise and Mask of Eternity is far from the worst game in the series.

 

[Stabwound]

King's Quest 6 is an absolute classic: one of the best adventure games ever, IMO. I'm not such a huge fan of most of the other games besides KQ5. And yeah, KQ8 was Roberta Williams not just raping the franchise but chopping the corpse up and dumping it in the ocean. It shouldn't have been a mainline KQ title. I don't even know what's going on as far as lore in the KQ world but I'd hope any future KQ would star King Graham or even Prince Alexander.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

King's Quest 6 is an absolute classic: one of the best adventure games ever, IMO. I'm not such a huge fan of most of the other games besides KQ5. And yeah, KQ8 was Roberta Williams not just raping the franchise but chopping the corpse up and dumping it in the ocean. I don't even know what's going on as far as lore in the KQ world but I'd hope any future KQ would star King Graham or even Prince Alexander.

3 and 6 are my favorites but I wouldn't call either one of them "the best adventure games ever". 6 is gloriously cheesy romance novel schlock (I fucking loved romance novels when I was a kid, true story, update your "andyman.txt"). 3 comes pretty close though. Alexander is best protagonist. Fuck King Graham.

 

[Blackthorne]

Telltale's deal with Activision expired; the license is being held by Activision, as are all the Sierra IPs. They're "doing something of their own" with them, as far as I know. The only reason the Larry remake happened is that Codemasters bought the IP years ago, and now licensed it to Replay game.

Activision has their own plans, evidently, so look out for whatever that lump of shit might be.


Bt

 

[Jaesun]

Thanks BT. If Activision is going to so something with it by themselves, DO NOT WANT.

 

[Stabwound]

They lost the license? Well, that's interesting. Because of the timing I doubt "Mystery Game X" is KQ related. So I guess Activision are going to keep all the Sierra IPs hostage, so much for any kickstarted sequels. I guess clones like "Spaceventure" are better than nothing.

 

[taxalot]

While the King's Quest series is an attractive license, there is nothing really special about it. It a generic fairy tale universe without much depth. While I do agree this is all very nice, it also means that you can let the King's Quest license die and just do something similar.

 

[Sceptic]

King's Quest 6 is an absolute classic: one of the best adventure games ever

Yes it is. And fuck the story (playing KQ for story, Andyman? really?), it had some glorious puzzles, multiple endings and quite a bit of extra content for those who fully explore. It was great.

And yeah, KQ8 was Roberta Williams not just raping the franchise but chopping the corpse up and dumping it in the ocean. It shouldn't have been a mainline KQ title.

I always thought KQ8 was a really good game. The levels were superbly designed and it was actually a lot of fun to play. But they really, really should've made it as its own IP, because it gets almost all the flak just because it is KQ in name only.

 

[Aeschylus]

I think King's Quest is an attractive license because it's the sort of thing that can be continued in perpetuity if done right (Activision will not do it right).

And disparaging KQ for its story is sort of like disparaging a painting for its poor dialogue. It's just not the point of the series. The point was always exploration, interesting puzzles (well, aside from a few designed to force calls to their hint line...), and ripping off fairy tales. Also to showcase the new technology that Sierra was developing, as it was their flagship series.

 

[Stabwound]

I actually played and enjoyed KQ8 for what it was at the time. It was a pretty clunky RPG/adventure but I had fun with it. I agree that making it a King's Quest title was a fatal mistake, but it would have been pretty unremarkable and forgotten by now if it wasn't.

The thing is, it murdered the franchise. Then again, I guess Sierra was all but done with adventure games by then, or even using any of their classic IPs for whatever reason.

 

[Aeschylus]

KQ8 didn't murder the franchise exactly, any more than QFG5, LSL7, SQ6, or any other of the final series entries did.

What killed the franchise was a comically (also infuriatingly) inept series of business decisions and mismanagement that began with Ken Williams selling the company to CUC, who were promptly caught in a huge accounting fraud scandal, while simultaneously forcing their corporate metrics upon the designers. Basically, the series was killed by the company being sold to a bunch of suits who didn't give a shit about games. You know, how the entire mainstream games industry is today. You can read an interesting retrospective on Al Lowe's site.

 

[Blackthorne]

Yeah - what really killed the franchise was the absolute corporate muck that Sierra became. Honestly, that place died when Ken Williams sold it. It happens - there are those of us who still love the old aesthetic of their games, and we're doing our best to fill that niche!

Bt

 

[Infinitron]

KQ8 didn't murder the franchise exactly, any more than QFG5, LSL7, SQ6, or any other of the final series entries did.

What killed the franchise was a comically (also infuriatingly) inept series of business decisions and mismanagement that began with Ken Williams selling the company to CUC, who were promptly caught in a huge accounting fraud scandal, while simultaneously forcing their corporate metrics upon the designers. Basically, the series was killed by the company being sold to a bunch of suits who didn't give a shit about games. You know, how the entire mainstream games industry is today. You can read an interesting retrospective on Al Lowe's site.

I was under the impression that the sale to CUC was something of a hostile takeover.