King's Quest: Adventures of Graham



King's Quest IX (tentively titled King's Quest) is the ninth game in the King's Quest series in development by The Odd Gentlemen for the new Sierra Entertainment (an Activision subsidiary, after Activision pulled the license from Telltale Games).

Confirmed as of 8/12/14. It is one of the new games along with Geometry Wars to be produced by the newly revived Sierra On-line.

Press release
In development by the beloved and quirky studio The Odd Gentlemen (The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom), "King's Quest" is a fully reimagined version of the fan-favorite Sierra game fit for both the old and new generation of "King's Quest" players. Huge fans of the original King's Quest series, The Odd Gentlemen are crafting a charming new adventure with an awe-inspiring art style, engaging puzzles, and a wondrous interactive narrative brimming with humor. In the new story, King Graham � revered as the greatest adventurer to ever live � shares his life's adventures with his curious granddaughter, Gwendolyn. It is through these tales that Gwendolyn discovers the true greatness of her grandfather. "King's Quest" is expected to make its heralded return in 2015.

Behind the scenes
The Odd Gentlemen, the developers of The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom, will handle King's Quest development. The "reimagined" King's Quest will be comparable to other chapters in the series, with a similar narrative and puzzles that need to be solved throughout. It will launch in 2015. Platforms weren't names, but PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 seem very likely.

“Then I talked to the guys at Activision and they were like, ‘No, we’re pulling it because we’re going to do it ourselves,’” Trowe revealed. He doesn’t know what the publisher’s plans are for*King’s Quest, but they don’t seem to include either Telltale or Replay. We’ve reached out to Activision for comment and will update this post accordingly when we hear back.

It's not clear what 'reimagining' means in the context of the press release. If it means a partial reboot (telling Graham's story from scratch), or even changing the series gameplay to fit into modern casual gaming market (simplifying game controls, add action sequences, etc, side-scrolling 2-D adventure rather than a 3-D adventure a la Valiant Hearts or some other recent 'puzzle'/'adventure' series, or any number of directions). The previous game by Odd Gentleman was a 2D puzzle-platform game.

The framing story seems reminiscent of the the framing story for Aragorn's Quest which had Sam Gamgee telling the story of Aragorn to his young son, and other children.

The game will be 'adventure' but won't be a point and click game like the later games in the series. (note depending on the system KQ1-4 are partial point and click and partial parser games, while KQ5-8 are point and click). The team has gotten some feedback from Roberta and the Williams' family.


 * To Matt and Lindsey, Bill and Scott,


 * I, too, wish to thank you for a lovely morning yesterday reliving – to some extent – my old life as a Sierra game designer. I admit that I was a bit skeptical at first, and also somewhat nervous because I haven’t been in the computer game industry (notice I call it computer game industry rather that the video game industry; that shows how far back I go!) in too many years to contemplate! But you guys blew me away with your ideas, your creativity and the beauty of the newest King Quest game. But best of all, I could see that you truly are the ones to take King’s Quest into the 21st century and reintroduce it to a whole new generation. You totally have it down!


 * I can’t wait to see how it develops, I can’t wait to play it myself – and I truly can’t wait to see how it blows away the competition!!


 * Best to you –


 * Roberta