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The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom developer The Odd Gentlemen are producing the new King’s Quest game. It is a fully “reimagined” take on the original series, according to Activision. The publisher promises that The Odd Gentlemen comprises a number of fans of the King’s Quest franchise. The studio intends to capture the same combination of difficult puzzles and engaging narrative as the originals. The adventure title is due out in 2015 for unspecified platforms — although the company notes it will release its software on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Steam.

“Sierra’s goal is to find and work with gifted up-and-coming indie developers working on their own amazing projects or who are passionate about working on great Sierra IP,” Sierra director of external development said. “We’re in talks with a large number of other indie devs, and we can’t wait to share more details with fans in the near future.”

So Sierra is an Indie platform which is a decent move by Activision IMO.
Good alternative than sounding like B-tier.

I agree, good move. Now show the screenshots, everybody wants to see what a “re-imagination” is

Roger, the time for a return is now

I hope they don’t take too much artistic liberty, either though. I don’t think some quirky “indie” style would work for the series. Of course it would work as a game, but it would be a waste of the licence, in my opinion.

Re-imagination huh? $20 they will give it a modern day realistic setting.

It was quoted in Eurogamer that the game would revolve around King Graham telling stories of his adventures to his grand-daughter.  From a narrative standpoint, that sounds about perfect—I could see them doing the game as a kind of narrated flashback, with “embellished” parts of the story that make it seem even more fantastical.  It could be a very fitting approach if done right.

Oscar - 12 August 2014 10:45 AM

Re-imagination huh? $20 they will give it a modern day realistic setting.

Odd Gentlemen’s pitch to Activision:
“You are King Graham of Daventree, leader of a hacker group based in New York targeting corporations harming the environment. The evil cyberwizard Mordack of DestructCorp has kidnapped your daughter Princess Rosella’s facebook profile and threatens the destruction of Daventree’s central park under the public guise of Rosella herself! Can you stop him? Find out in King’s Quest IX: To Bluesnarf is FUBAR”

The official press release is out on joystiq.com

Here’s an excerpt:

“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.”

The phrase “interactive narrative” terrifies me.  Let’s hope “engaging puzzles” trumps it.

Lambonius - 12 August 2014 10:55 AM

It was quoted in Eurogamer that the game would revolve around King Graham telling stories of his adventures to his grand-daughter.

Nice.

Back when Telltale had the KQ license, I thought that the period of time between KQ2 and KQ3 would be a great setting for new games. There’s 17 empty years there where you could come up with new stories without encroaching on the existing games or getting fans’ panties in a bunch over canon.

I really hope these wont be episodic games but the way it is set up it sounds like it might be. Telling stories to a granddaughter sounds like a way to make 5 episodic small chunks of a game in 5 different settings. I almost wish they would have let infamous quests do their kingdom of sorrow game but oh well guess we will have to wait and see. Hopefully the telling stories is just a way to get a young king graham adventuring in a full game again.

zazzaro - 12 August 2014 12:09 PM

Hopefully the telling stories is just a way to get a young king graham adventuring in a full game again.

I suspect this is the driving reason behind that narrative choice.  If it was going to be an episodic series, they’d have likely said so in the press release.  They’d reveal that before they revealed what the narrative was going to be like.

thejobloshow - 12 August 2014 12:31 PM

This is a series whose fanbase trashed King’s Quest VII for being too accessible!

Also for its horribly written story and terrible, irritating characters. 

YAHOOOOOO!!!!! King’s Quest is back baby!!!!

re-imagining = it wont be a traditional point and click game, id wager.