Something Sierra-related is happening at GamesCom

[Gurok]

I don't know whether it's adventure games or not, but check out the teaser site:

http://www.sierra.com/

[Armageddon]

I guess Ken and Roberta ran out of money, or Activision is trying to do something with the brand.

[Sslaxx]

I guess Ken and Roberta ran out of money, or Activision is trying to do something with the brand.

It's the latter, the trailer video has a (very tiny) copyright message for Activision Publishing.

Wonder if they're going to buy back the Infocom trademark they abandoned (and someone else brought) next.

[Babar]

I don't think Ken or Roberta have had any connection to Sierra for many years now.

[Sslaxx]

I don't think Ken or Roberta have had any connection to Sierra for many years now.

No, but Activision have been in contact with them in some capacity, it seems.

[Knox]

Activision may be resurrecting Sierra next week:

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/222890/Activision_may_be_resurrecting_Sierra_next_week.php

[FrankT]

Excellent news!! Hopefully they'll bring back the good titles too!

[JackTastic1000]

Okay, so i have been a Sierra fan for a long time. So most of you know about Sierra closing its doors, with the founders, Ken and Roberta Williams, going into retirement.

WELL I HAVE GAME-BREAKING NEWS TO SHARE WITH YOU!!!

So Sierra's website was taken down a long time ago, right? Well, if you go to their website now, you are greeted with this.
www.sierra.com

OH MY GOD.
So, apparently more news about this will be shown at Gamescom 2014.

....Is the point and click legacy back?....
We shall see.

[David Ostman]

Sierra Games returns with new King's Quest and Geometry Wars titles

New corporate owner Activision is set to reactivate those memories today, reviving the brand as "Sierra Games" and promising new games in the King's Quest and Geometry Wars franchises.

The newest King's Quest entry is being developed for 2015 by The Odd Gentlemen, best known for esoteric puzzle platform game The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom.

“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,” a Sierra representative told GamesBeat. “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.”

"We're very proud of what we created all those years ago with Sierra Online, and today's news about carrying Sierra forward as an indie-specific brand is very encouraging," Sierra founder Ken Williams said in a statement obtained by Eurogamer. "We look forward to seeing Sierra's independent spirit live on, and are especially excited to see what The Odd Gentlemen will do with King's Quest."

[Radiant]

Geometry Wars?!



Cool game, but what on earth does that have to do with Sierra?

[Sslaxx]

Sierra published some of the Geometry Wars titles.

[Cassiebsg]

New King's Quest sounds good!
But I'll be rooting for the return of Roger Wilco!

[Frodo]

Sierra Games returns with new King's Quest and Geometry Wars titles

New corporate owner Activision is set to reactivate those memories today, reviving the brand as "Sierra Games" and promising new games in the King's Quest and Geometry Wars franchises.

The newest King's Quest entry is being developed for 2015 by The Odd Gentlemen, best known for esoteric puzzle platform game The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom.

A new King's Quest?  You don't know how excited that makes me! 

[Gribbler]

A new King's Quest?  You don't know how excited that makes me!

Who said it's gonna be point & click adventure game? Look who's making it.

[David Ostman]

As long as it's a great King's Quest game I'm even okay with it being a first person shooter

But I'm hoping for something along the lines of The Walking Dead, but with perhaps a few more traditional puzzles.

[ThreeOhFour]

Who said it's gonna be point & click adventure game? Look who's making it.

To be fair, King's Quest 8 was made by Sierra - including Roberta working on the design - and wasn't a point and click adventure either.

[Knox]

I wonder if Jim Walls will be able to finally get a new Police Quest game out!

EDIT:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-08-12-sierra-quality-and-passion-will-always-pay-off

[KQ4 Fan]

I hope Sierra's return means remakes for Laura Bow 1, Space Quest 3, and maybe Quest for Glory 3.

[Stupot]

I'm less enthusiastic about remakes. I'd be much more inclined to play some brand new games. An new episodic King's Quest adventure would be interesting. If they're serious about this, they could be some decent competition for TellTale. Either way, it'll be interesting to see what they've got planned.

How long before their first kickstarter campaign, do you reckon?

[FrankT]

Oh, they're bringing King's Quest back! That'll be good!

[Radiant]

Their website says that they're looking for indie designers... I wonder if anyone here has figured out how to contact them about that?

[Ghost]

I wonder if anyone here has figured out how to contact them about that?

A PUZZLE! That's classy

[Blackthorne]

Bob Loya is the guy you want to write.

Bt

[Radiant]

Bob Loya is the guy you want to write.

Sure, but do you have his e-mail address? As far as I can tell it's not on their site.

[BadMemory]

Their website has no information on it whatsoever!

[Cassiebsg]

[rumpus mode on]
It's a puzzle you need to solve...
[/rumpus mode off]

[Gribbler]

Mystery solved... it's a freaking King's Quest platformer... Meh

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=68nrXf5bXFs

[MiteWiseacreLives!]

I'd try it if there is an inventory, and if I had a PlayStation....

[TheBitPriest]

You beat me to the punch, Gribbler.  Here's the article from my morning feed:

http://gamerant.com/kings-quest-reboot-trailer/

When I read it, I thought, "ASGers:  Your jobs are safe." 

Maybe it'll be like Fable III.   Not a bad format...  but...

[Cassiebsg]

I never ever cared much for action-adventure games, so this does not make me think "need to have! need to play!"... Will wait and see, but am not holding my breath in the hopes that it's the type of game I wish to play.

[Radiant]

Well, the Leisure Suit Larry reboot was also an action game, and that one turned out fine...

...wait

[Monsieur OUXX]

Well, the Leisure Suit Larry reboot was also an action game, and that one turned out fine...

...wait

Well if this one is the Heart-of-Darkness kind (with a proper length, that is) it could be cool. Not very King's Quest, though.

[Gribbler]

I mean, what's the point of making a game called King's Quest if not for the nostalgic fans? They chose to make it a colorful platformer - now KQ fans don't care, and their targed audience didn't probably even hear about a game called King's Quest so why calling it that? It's like rebooting a Doom game and make it turn-based strategy. Seems like they're just making a action game that could sell more and calling it KQ to get any media traction. If it's "Wizard-boy and the dragon" nobody cares, right?

[Adeel]

I'll be a part of minority here. I guess it's a good thing that I'm not a traditional adventure game player, then. Because I don't feel nostalgic when it comes to any Sierra or LucasArts titles, except perhaps Leisure Suit Larry.

Without being biased with nostalgia, I can easily tell that the game looks great so far. The art style is definitely an interesting one. I don't mind action adventure games, in fact I really like them. So, whether it turns out to be an action-adventure game or point-and-click adventure game, either way I'm quite pleased with how the things are turning out at the moment.

I sincerely hope it is released for PC too.

[Cassiebsg]

Adeel, frankly I can't see why you mean you are "part of a minority"... I didn't see any posts saying the game looked bad or that the art style is awful... What we said is "It's not type of game KQ is knowns for, not the type of game _we_ are interested in, and might as well have been called something else, cause it would be all the same for the generation that does want to play platforms and/or action-adventure games.

It's like now a days, people don't dare get something done with a brand new name, we just need to reboot everything. It's sooo much easier to just grab a random established name and then just do something completely different to a completely different audience. Instead of just saying "Okay, we're picking up this old concept, update it to today's graphics, get rid of all that boring puzzle solving and walking around, we need to run and jump and be super active, oh but we've kept the name! Surely that must count for 90% of the game already right? Right?"

[Adeel]

Adeel, frankly I can't see why you mean you are "part of a minority"... I didn't see any posts saying the game looked bad or that the art style is awful... What we said is "It's not type of game KQ is knowns for, not the type of game _we_ are interested in, and might as well have been called something else, cause it would be all the same for the generation that does want to play platforms and/or action-adventure games.

The explanation to my post lies in this paragraph itself. I didn't mean to say that you guys hate the game just because it looks bad and/or the art style is awful. Forgive me, if it sounded that way. By being a part of minority, I meant to say that I'm one of those few adventure gamers who wouldn't mind playing the game and are genuinely interested in it (since almost all whom I know have been kinda turned off by the game). Sure, it might be different than the former games but that's not going to stop us from playing it.

It's like now a days, people don't dare get something done with a brand new name, we just need to reboot everything. It's sooo much easier to just grab a random established name and then just do something completely different to a completely different audience. Instead of just saying "Okay, we're picking up this old concept, update it to today's graphics, get rid of all that boring puzzle solving and walking around, we need to run and jump and be super active, oh but we've kept the name! Surely that must count for 90% of the game already right? Right?"

I agree with this part. Games these days greatly lack originality. Nowadays, we see sequels and sequels of the games being released whilst original ideas are rarely worked on. I think it might have also have to do with the current mentality of today's average gamer.

Having said that, I wouldn't mind the reboot of those adventure games into an entirely different genre, if it has got potential. Take 'Police Quest', for example. Now the very concept of this game has got loads of potential and, given the technology we have now, it can be created into a stunning sandbox game like GTA games (I'm aware games like these already exist but they aren't on par with the concept of Police Quest - especially Police Quest 1). Calling that game "Police Quest" wouldn't do injustice to the original game, imho. Because it can be seen as homage to the original game. It can also be seen a pleasant way to introduce "new gamers" to the original adventure game too. Same goes for 'Sam and Max', 'Indiana Jones', 'Monkey Island', etc.

[Radiant]

It's like now a days, people don't dare get something done with a brand new name, we just need to reboot everything. It's sooo much easier to just grab a random established name and then just do something completely different to a completely different audience. Instead of just saying "Okay, we're picking up this old concept, update it to today's graphics, get rid of all that boring puzzle solving and walking around, we need to run and jump and be super active, oh but we've kept the name! Surely that must count for 90% of the game already right? Right?"

Well, it's not exactly new. The earliest example I can think of is PacLand. Released back in 1984, it is a platform game in the style of Super Mario Bros, although it actually predates SMB by a few months. It's cute, it's challenging, it's well built and playable. The problem is, it's not Pac-man. It's a side scrolling platformer and it has absolutely nothing to do with the dot-eating maze runner. The result of that was disappointed fans and negative reviews, and that's probably one reason why everybody knows SMB and most people haven't heard of Pac-Land. If they had picked a different name and a new protagonist, this would likely have been different.

So yeah, it's quite common for bigshot CEOs to reuse a name for pretty much everything. The point is that this rarely works.

Anyway, I enjoy a good platformer and would be happy to play a fairy-tale based platform game. I'd just prefer if they didn't call it King's Quest

[Adeel]

Just for the record, I've had emulated Pac-Land a long time ago when I was a proud owner of a Pentium II machine. I don't know about others but, personally, I really liked that game.

[Snarky]

Platforming isn't inherently opposed to the "essence" of KQ (remember that #&*@! bean stalk in the first game). It's really too early to judge whether it will be a proper KQ game from just this trailer.

Anyway, even if there are examples of series that try to jump genre (or significantly change their style or mechanics) unsuccessfully, there are also plenty of ones that have managed it, from (World of) Warcraft to Paper Mario to Sim City/The Sims to GTA, Metroid and Duke Nukem upon going 3D, to X-Com, to Resident Evil.

A game isn't good just because it sticks with the same mechanics, and isn't bad just because it doesn't.

[Adeel]

Another series which successfully made the transition is Fallout Series. From being turn based, isometric RPG to 3D FPS/Third Person Open World RPG. While some criticized the change, many welcomed the change and it developed a faithful fan following.

[homelightgames]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with Gribbler to a certain extent. By using 3D platformer they completely lost my interest.

It doesn't help that I'm not a huge fan of 3D platformers, and cheap 3D character animation is a painful pet peeve of mine.  Good 3D character animation is great, but because it's so expensive and games like this, and the new Jane Jensen Moebius game, just can't afford it, I'd prefer 2D (even stylized) animation, or in the very least pre-rendered 3D animation, with the same budget.
That said, I love 2D platformers of all kinds (assuming it needs to be a platformer) including ones that use 3D geometry, like Trine 1-2, Giana Sisters and The Cave, which were all beautiful games without huge AAA budgets.  Or even a beautiful game like Fossil Echo, with it's 2D characters and 3D pre-rendered backgrounds. In other words, while I don't need the mechanics to be exactly like the originals (disregarding KQ8, which was probably the game that originally inspired my pet peeve) they/I sort of got unlucky with their current choice of design.
This is, of course, just my own preference, and it seems like other people don't mind that it's a 3D platformer so that's a good thing for them. I do hope they find an audience out there, even if it's not me.

I'll just have to wait another few decades before they reboot it again, in a style that doesn't so conflict with my tastes.

visionmind