KQ7 development

This article is about the development of King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride.

Development
Lorelei: "I think King's Quest VII is so special because of it's quirky, lively characters. We had an incredible amount of time creating them, and Mark Hudgins' animation brought them fully to life. Roberta and I were actually sad when the plotting process for the game was over. We were on a role, and I think we could have dreamed things up for another two years."

Background
King’s Quest VII featured an innovative chapter-based design, an intelligent bookmarking system for saving games, and an easy pointand- click interface, making the game more intuitive for the novice gamer, while still being challenging for those who had enjoyed the series for the past 10 years. This was the first King’s Quest game which could not be released on diskette, as the number of disks which would be required to hold the files would never fit in a game box, or even multiple game boxes! The graphics were breathtaking in scope, created by a team of animators who drew individual images, cel-style, and then digitally added color and sequenced the images to produce motion. The resulting animation not only set new standards for game graphics, but also rivaled or surpassed the animation available on TV or film.

Changes and cuts
When the game in early production, there were plans to have six lands. At least one of the lands never made it into the game.

"In King's Quest VII, the player will travel to six lands, including Nonsense Land, the Rubber Jungle, Cloud Land, and Ooga Booga Land (home of the dreaded Boogeyman)." -Interaction Magazine, Fall 1994

Not much is known what the Rubber Jungle would have included, nor if any assests from it made it into the game files, perhaps it was a section of "Nonesense Land" beyond the city of Falderal.

The dialogue with Valanice and Rosella in the introduction was much longer.

The "Land Beyond Dreams" song had an extra verse;


 * They tell me it's my duty, a princess must be wed,
 * You'll learn to love the handsome prince, there's nothing you should dread
 * But I'm not prepared to set my freedom on the shelf
 * How can I trust with someone what I don't understand myself?"

The temple would have been a pyramid, but the top was cut off due to scaling issues with Valanice and the entrance.

Quite a bit of material was cut from the final released game including background stories for various characters One portion of the design documents were edited into a proper article in the officila King's Quest: Hint Guide by Lorelei Shannon, Backstories and Legends. A copy of the original undedited design document can be found in the King's Quest Companion (4th edition) and King's Quest VII: The Authorized Guide by Peter Spear. In early design documents, Etheria was referred to as Cloudland (or Land of the Clouds), and Falderal is referred to as mainly Nonsense Land (although this name made it into later published material as well). According to an unused sound file The Desert's name would have been "Huitzilipopuatlateknahualimoatlicue Desert".

Valanice apparently would have been able to interact with the pile of sticks near the bridge in Bountiful Woods. She would mention she already had a stick and didn't need another.

There are alot of extra animations, graphics and sound files hidden in the game files that that didn't make it into the finalized game, including a sound file for ending sequence with King Graham (after Rosella and Valanice's return to Daventry).

Included are many alternate or additional lines for item trades with the Kangeroo Rat found throughout the game, including things only found and used in Vulcanix Underground. These include being able to trade Baked Beetles, the Moon, Count Tsepish's Skull, and the bone from Ghoul Kids' home.

There is a scene between Rosella and Attis set not long after her escape from the Were-Woods, and Valanice's journey into the Were-Woods (the scene was adapted into the novel in the King's Quest Companion and Authorized Guide). Attis discusses how Rosella just missed Valanice in the woods.

Credits
Designed by Lorelei Shannon, Roberta Williams

Written by Lorelei Shannon

Directors Andy Hoyos, Lorelei Shannon, Roberta Williams

Producer Mark Seibert

Art Director Andy Hoyos

Director of Animation Marc Hudgins

Lead Programmers Oliver Brelsford, Tom DeSalvo

Musicians Neal Grandstaf, Dan Kehler, Mark Seibert, Jay Usher

Voice Director Lorelei Shannon

Quality Assurance Lead Dan Woolard

In-House Animation - Chapter 6 Steven Gregory, Sherry Wheeler, Jason Zayas