Telltale announces King's Quest reboot

[Lambonius]

Telltale has been really hit and miss for me.  I LOVED Tales of Monkey Island.  Flat out LOVED it.  I thought it captured the spirit of the series perfectly and I enjoyed the new story quite a bit (though the ending was a slight letdown--only slight, though.)  But the puzzles were great, the writing hilarious and exactly in the tone of the earlier Monkey Island games, and the game looked really good, too (for a Telltale game .)

I also LOVED Sam and Max Season 3.  Sam and Max 1 and 2 were misses for me though.  I actually lost interest in Season 2 enough to stop playing it completely after a few episodes.

I like the feel of Back to the Future so far, but I don't like the dumbed down gameplay and overly easy puzzles.  I'm willing to give it a little leeway because it's a movie game and because it's trying to appeal to a casual audience.

That said, King's Quest most certainly would be appealing to a very specific audience of people who are familiar with the classic Sierra style.  Diverting too heavily from that style would be a mistake, in my opinion, that would probably alienate more people than it would draw.  I will absolutely play it though.  I'm stoked at the thought of a new professional quality King's Quest game.  (No offense to those of us in the fangame world.)

[Sslaxx]

Exciting news, huh!



http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/18/kings-quest-reboot-coming-courtesy-of-telltale

What are you not telling us?

[Baggins]

What I don't want to hear is, "now you have played first half of TSL", now you have to pay for the last half from Telltale

If that turned out to be the case, I might actually turn it down.

[Sslaxx]

What I don't want to hear is, "now you have played first half of TSL", now you have to pay for the last half from Telltale

If that turned out to be the case, I might actually turn it down.

Extremely unlikely.

But I must admit, this move appears to make no sense from a company that, in terms of style, follows LucasArts much more closely than Sierra - not, of course, that Activision would care, so long as it makes them money! That said, unlike some here (who I feel are also being unnecessarily hostile on the TTG forums), I am at least willing to give them a chance.

[Baggins]

Well to be fair, didn't Telltalle games start selling Sierra quests packages on their site recently? Or am I mixing them up with another company?

Note, I'm not referring to GOG, who also has released various sierra game packs.

[Sslaxx]

Well to be fair, didn't Telltalle games start selling Sierra quests packages on their site recently? Or am I mixing them up with another company?

Note, I'm not referring to GOG, who also has released various sierra game packs.

I don't see it on their store.

[Baggins]

Maybe it was only for a limited time? or made the deal with some other group...

As I recall it basically was some kind of pack/deal that included a couple of tale-tale adventures, king's quest or space quest packs (more or less activision version), and another third party company. I think they were giving some of the proceeds to some charity or some such.

[Sslaxx]

Maybe it was only for a limited time? or made the deal with some other group...

As I recall it basically was some kind of pack/deal that included a couple of tale-tale adventures, king's quest or space quest packs (more or less activision version), and another third party company. I think they were giving some of the proceeds to some charity or some such.

You're definitely getting confused. That's the Indie Bundle, which was 0% to do with Activision, Sierra, or any of the Quest games.

[Sousuke]

I wonder how Telltale buying the IP affects the license between Phoenix and activision? Remember what happened the last time the IP changed hands..

[Baggins]

Ahh, I see. I didn't pay attention to it, as it didn't interest me.

[Sslaxx]

I wonder how Telltale buying the IP affects the license between Phoenix and activision? Remember what happened the last time the IP changed hands..

As far as I am aware, Activision still own the IP, it's just been licensed to Telltale. In fact, this latest move makes it much more unlikely they will sell the remaining Sierra adventure IPs that they own - certainly the ones they feel they can monetise, such as King's Quest.

[Baggins]

Could Space Quest be far behind?

[KatieHal]

Our contract with Activision is still signed, valid and active. So TSL's not going anywhere and we have every intention of finishing our game! If anything changes, we will announce it, but right now, nothing's different.

I agree that KQ isn't KQ without the Royal Family. (MoE proved that doesn't go over well.) That said, whatever they do could still change the primary canon, or give a new version of it. Really, there's only a big question mark right now as to what they'll do. But I personally find it exciting nonetheless.

[Sslaxx]

Our contract with Activision is still signed, valid and active. So TSL's not going anywhere and we have every intention of finishing our game! If anything changes, we will announce it, but right now, nothing's different.

I agree that KQ isn't KQ without the Royal Family. (MoE proved that doesn't go over well.) That said, whatever they do could still change the primary canon, or give a new version of it. Really, there's only a big question mark right now as to what they'll do. But I personally find it exciting nonetheless.

TSL is likely safe, but there are concerns for the other KQ remakes in production, notably Kingdom of Sorrow.

[Lambonius]

Yeah, Activision definitely only licensed the IP to Telltale--they haven't actually bought it.  I'm mostly curious about what implication, this will have, if any, on current fangame groups.  Telltale seems to be closer to the fan community.  They'd be more likely to have fan groups on their radar than Activision.

[Baggins]

"Reboots" don't really change primary canons (except maybe new Star Trek, which tried to tie it into the primary universe). They may create a secondary canon however, or an alternate universe.

If its just a new game in the series continuing where the last left off, its not really a "reboot" at least by the standard definition of reboot. It would be a 'continuation'. Continuations can influence the primary timeline directly (the original game sequels/continuations to the series weren't always consistent with the details from previous games).

If its a game that ignores older games in the series, like say the last Superman ignored Superman 3-4. It's more of an uber alternate continuity.

At least this is how I've been told "reboot" means in the industry, especially film industry.

[KatieHal]

Ah, okay. I see where we kinda talking about slightly different things.

[Sslaxx]

Yeah, Activision definitely only licensed the IP to Telltale--they haven't actually bought it.  I'm mostly curious about what implication, this will have, if any, on current fangame groups.  Telltale seems to be closer to the fan community.  They'd be more likely to have fan groups on their radar than Activision.

Maybe, but they don't have any say over it. It's unlikely they'd have any meaningful influence either.

[MusicallyInspired]

Maybe it was only for a limited time? or made the deal with some other group...

As I recall it basically was some kind of pack/deal that included a couple of tale-tale adventures, king's quest or space quest packs (more or less activision version), and another third party company. I think they were giving some of the proceeds to some charity or some such.

You're definitely getting confused. That's the Indie Bundle, which was 0% to do with Activision, Sierra, or any of the Quest games.

No no. Telltale were selling the King's Quest Collection on their website along with a few other games at one point. Not anymore, though. It was a special deal thing.

A quote by Dave Grossman of Telltale Games which is most of the cause of my alarm:

"Sure, I've played a few old-schoolies. The first adventure game I ever played is the one that the genre is named after, "Adventure", which I came across in the late 1970s. Later, while I was working at LucasArts, I played some of the Sierra titles, and others, you know, checking out the competition. I found those games interesting and challenging, but ultimately very frustrating. They tended to punish curiosity with death, and they had all these puzzles where the solutions were amusing but often arbitrary and more or less impossible to figure out. It was like no one was thinking about what it would actually be like to PLAY the game. I claim no personal innocence on this point, by the way; I did write and design some games at that time which, while somewhat friendlier, are decidedly old school with some of their puzzles. I'm still apologizing to random strangers on the street for expecting them to think of hypnotizing a monkey as a rational way to turn him into a monkey wrench."

"As for where it's going now, I see a shift from puzzle games with story to story games with puzzles, if that makes sense? The story and characters, which were probably always the most compelling part of the experience anyway, take center stage, and the challenge offered to the player is whatever best supports the moment and the scene at hand, instead of whatever makes the designer look clever. The games are also often being made less lengthy and more accessible, to fit with the busy lives of modern players."

[Sousuke]

A quote by Dave Grossman of Telltale Games which is most of the cause of my alarm:

"Sure, I've played a few old-schoolies. The first adventure game I ever played is the one that the genre is named after, "Adventure", which I came across in the late 1970s. Later, while I was working at LucasArts, I played some of the Sierra titles, and others, you know, checking out the competition. I found those games interesting and challenging, but ultimately very frustrating. They tended to punish curiosity with death, and they had all these puzzles where the solutions were amusing but often arbitrary and more or less impossible to figure out. It was like no one was thinking about what it would actually be like to PLAY the game. I claim no personal innocence on this point, by the way; I did write and design some games at that time which, while somewhat friendlier, are decidedly old school with some of their puzzles. I'm still apologizing to random strangers on the street for expecting them to think of hypnotizing a monkey as a rational way to turn him into a monkey wrench."

"As for where it's going now, I see a shift from puzzle games with story to story games with puzzles, if that makes sense? The story and characters, which were probably always the most compelling part of the experience anyway, take center stage, and the challenge offered to the player is whatever best supports the moment and the scene at hand, instead of whatever makes the designer look clever. The games are also often being made less lengthy and more accessible, to fit with the busy lives of modern players."

I seem to recall another article interview with some designer at Telltale as well, recounting his experience of having his computer illiterate mother in law try to play Sam and Max. He wanted the gameplay and puzzles to be understandable to that type of individual. Don't remember the link offhand.

I like the bttf games in terms of story, but agree that the puzzles are too easy. I tried playing their first season of sam and max but I just didn't get into it. I would hope they'd at least get Roberta or someone equally as important to have a hand in design like they did with Gale and bttf.