Rebrand the game!

[Dexiro]

I'm not entirely sure what type of game this is so it may or may not work.

You shouldn't let 8 years go to waste. Activision CD'd it because they owned the rights to the characters and story and whatever.

Would it be possible to just make small alterations to the characters and story?

Not that that would be a 10 minute job exactly. Even small alterations to these things can make massive changes to a game, but you have the bulk of it done so why not give it a shot?

[Tage7]

I'm not going to detract from the suggestion, but to shed light on the type of game this is, let me list off some features the game had that I think would pose a formidable challenge in rebranding:

Fully 3D World based in the King's Quest realm
Several Hours of Gameplay
Intimately-Woven Story
Fully Voice Acted
Animated Faces during Speech Sequences

Difficulty of changing proper nouns would involve, I imagine:
- Repainting several textures
- Possibly Remodelling Certain 3D Models and Environments
- Rewriting the story to not be based in the King's Quest saga
- Recontacting several voice actors to revoice rewritten dialogue / Recasting lost voice actors to revoice rewritten dialogue
- Reworking 3D Face Animations on All Dialogue Sequences

There's other stuff that I am unsure I can mention, but it is truly a difficult path to go down--albeit perhaps a necessary one in the future.

[Joe2]

The thread creator read my mind.

I'm not going to detract from the suggestion, but to shed light on the type of game this is, let me list off some features the game had that I think would pose a formidable challenge in rebranding:

Fully 3D World based in the King's Quest realm
Several Hours of Gameplay
Intimately-Woven Story
Fully Voice Acted
Animated Faces during Speech Sequences

Difficulty of changing proper nouns would involve, I imagine:
- Repainting several textures
- Possibly Remodelling Certain 3D Models and Environments
- Rewriting the story to not be based in the King's Quest saga
- Recontacting several voice actors to revoice rewritten dialogue / Recasting lost voice actors to revoice rewritten dialogue
- Reworking 3D Face Animations on All Dialogue Sequences

There's other stuff that I am unsure I can mention, but it is truly a difficult path to go down--albeit perhaps a necessary one in the future.

I wonder if they really need speech. Also, they would only have to repaint textures if they were textures used in a King's Quest game. The story might not be bad at all.

Once upon a time, a group of guys created a Mario clone on the PC by completely making the first level and tried to sell it to Nintendo. Nintendo wasn't interested, but they used the experience to create another game called Commander Keen. That group founded iD software.

[Tage7]

I wonder if they really need speech.

For a King's Quest game based in the story after 5, it is an absolute must.

[A.R.C.C.]

Even beyond having to redo a lot of work, Erpy's post explains the problem with rebranding better than anything:

As for changes, this one came up a few years ago as well. Seeing that TSL was a game purposely modelled after the KQ franchise, it's not so easy as changing a few names. Not to mention the fact that since Activision already owns TSL in a legal sense, continuing the game without their consent (with or without references to existing IP) would be near impossible without redoing stuff from scratch.

[splat44]

Even beyond having to redo a lot of work, Erpy's post explains the problem with rebranding better than anything:

As for changes, this one came up a few years ago as well. Seeing that TSL was a game purposely modelled after the KQ franchise, it's not so easy as changing a few names. Not to mention the fact that since Activision already owns TSL in a legal sense, continuing the game without their consent (with or without references to existing IP) would be near impossible without redoing stuff from scratch.

Yes, but I am not about activision owning TSL in a legal sense! Activision issues a stop order but do they have rights in stopping TSL create their own games? I think a lawyer will able answering this!