King's Quest: Adventures of Graham



King's Quest: Your Legacy Awaits  (King's Quest Episodes/King's Quest Chapters, tentative title ) is episodic reimagining of 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). The game is divided into five chapters ('episodes') and choices made in each one will pass to the next released chapter. The first chapter is to be released in late July 2015, with plans for each part to be sent a few months apart.

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. This is the first game in the series to have no input from Roberta Williams, as she is retired.

Background
Developed by The Odd Gentlemen, the new King’s Quest™ reimagines all the charm, humor, puzzles, exploration and sense of wonder that made the franchise so magical when it first arrived thirty years ago. Old and grey, King Graham – the hero made legend in the original King’s Quest games – shares the extraordinary stories of his youth with his curious granddaughter, Gwendolyn, taking players back to the feats that shaped a kingdom.

And so begins an episodic saga that honors the core characters and familiar storylines of King Graham’s early adventures, setting up new chapters tied to – but independent of – the series that helped define Sierra and the adventure genre. Through these tales, a whole new generation can finally experience one of gaming’s most beloved journeys.

It's not intended to be 'retelling' Graham's old adventures but 'previously' untold ones (with the old games considered part new series 'canon');


 * "This isn't a reboot, and its not necessarily a sequel. It's a reimagining. Everything that exists in the past games is still canon." These stories exist between those stories. Over the course of the game players will experience Graham's previously unknown adventures. "We're definitely not retelling the old games...we're nodding to them and respecting them, but this isn't King's Quest 1 HD. The new scenarios deal with some of the blank spots in the King's Quest timeline. How did Graham become a knight in King Edward's Court? How did his young love with Valanice develop?


 * These tales from the past are framed by Graham's present; he is now a very old man, and he is recounting his adventures to his granddaughter, Gwendolyn. She's an energetic youngster who eats up the stories of Graham's exploits, and she is eager to have her own exciting stories to tell...

However the game as an episodic series is not strictly the next full size game in the series (but a series of smaller adventure games):
 * The game is completely reimagined; it’s not King’s Quest IX or anything like that,” Korba explains. “Think about it like when someone reimagines The Wizard of Oz, or Peter Pan. That’s how I see King’s Quest, [as one of] those classic fairy tales that keep being retold and reimagined.”

Note: This wiki currently uses ("KQ9" for main categorization, but if a true full-length King's Quest IX is ever released the categories will be changed to reflect the difference. But there may be additional episode specific categories to make it easier to categorize episode specific content)

Chapters
The story begins with Graham telling about the time he fought a dragon during his quest to find the Three Treasures and save Daventry. At the end Graham has to escape the Dragon's Lair, and has three choices to make either using bravery to blind the dragon with an arrow, free the dragon out of compassion, or using his wisdom and distracting the dragon by shooting its food bell. In the present Gwendolyn (daughter of Alexander and Cassima)is about to have a fencing tournament with her cousin Gart (son of Rosella and Edgar) to prove who is the most fit to rule the kingdom. Gart has been trying to convince Gwen she is a failure. She goes to her Grandfather to get more advice. This leads him to tell the story of a time before he was a knight, and the jousting tournament he joined to prove himself, and join the knights of Daventry, and his competition with a strong knight, fast knight, and intelligent knight (Manny). Graham must meet the requirements for applying for the tournament. Graham's choices based on his wisdom, compassion, or bravery will have future consquences such as the blind dragon returning to attack Daventry, or the freed dragon helping him at some point. They also influence Gwendolyn in her own choices on how to best her cousin Gart.
 * Chapter I: A Knight to Remember

Name
Some news are reporting the name of the game as King's Quest: Your Legacy Awaits. However this may not be the game's subtitle, but actually a 'marketing' catchphrase (it is unclear as of yet). The trailer as uploaded by Sierra Games on Youtube does seem to support that it is a subtitle. However this is a tentative title at best, and it may receive a more classic pun filled title closer to release. Multiple websites still call it by King's Quest: Your Legacy Awaits in their previews.

Gameplay
The game appears to have sections of 3D action and platforming. But in most cases these will be done with interactive prompts via the onscreen menu changes.

The game with a mix of Disney-style artwork, and cel-shaded graphics. Some 2-d side scrolling elements, but is said to have similar puzzles and characters to the original game. Some of the material appears to cover elements at various points in Graham's life including a retelling of his hunt for the three sacred treasures. It is not a point-and-click game and there is no use of the mouse (instead interface will show which button to push, depending on the situation).

Currently there is knowledge of a hand (pickup prompt), a speech prompt, and an action prompt (for the case of unique actions that can be made such as pushing a tree, or jumping across rocks). There is presumably a look icon as well.

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.

Reception
The game is not yet released, but is currently receiving quite a bit of reception from the independent gaming mags and gaming aggregators. It is currently the number one game on the Adventuregamers.com's Hype-O-Meter (as of June, 2015). It has earned the CVG: Best of E3 Winner, Gameinformer, Best in Show Nominee, Unreal E3 Award Nominee, Twinfinite Best of E3 2015 Award, Metaleater Best of E3 2015 Winner.

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 (though they have nothing to do with the actual development of the game)' 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