Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Don't Dry Coming November 7

Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Don't Dry is the seventh official Leisure Suit Larry game starring Larry Laffer, as Leisure Suit Larry 4 doesn't exist, and this fact is lampooned in the plot of Leisure Suit Larry 5. Magna Cum Laude and Box Office Bust star Larry Laffer's nephew, Larry Lovage.

It is being developed by the German game studio CrazyBunch, and, although it has had no input from series creator Al Lowe, it will be a point-and-click adventure, in the same vein as the classic Sierra series.

It will be released on the 7th of November and is currently available to pre-order for a 15% discount from GOG.com and Steam.

ScummVM 1.9.0 "Myst-ery U.F.O.s Release" Is Here

ScummVM, the project that aims to re-create engines for adventure games, using the original scripts and data files, so that the games run on modern (and some not-so-modern) systems, has received a new release.

This release brings support for six new games: Myst, Myst: Masterpiece Edition, U.F.O.s (also known as Gnap), and Sierra's Hi-Res adventure games #0: Mission Asteroid, #1: Mystery House, and #2: The Wizard and the Princess.

There's also been a lot of bugfixes for Sierra's SCI games, the addition of Hercules rendering and font for the AGI games, an enhanced Sherlock games experience, and the addition of AmiUpdate on the Amiga port.

King's Quest: Snow Place Like Home Is Out In Two Days

The penultimate chapter of the five episode King's Quest by The Odd Gentlemen, Snow Place Like Home, is arriving on the 27th of September.

King's Quest Episode 3 and Michonne Episode 3 Released

I'm back from PAX East. I'll post about my experience at the show in a bit, but for now, I'll catch up on some of the releases that have happened lately.

The Walking Dead: Michonne, the miniseries by Telltale Games that reveals what happened to the character of Michonne during the period when she left the group in the comics after the events of All Out War, is now complete, with yesterday's release of episode 3.

Also receiving its third episode yesterday was King's Quest, the official ninth game in the series, by The Odd Gentlemen.  This episode, Once Upon A Climb, tells the story of how Graham saved his future wife Valanice, who is also Gwyndolyn's grandmother.

King's Quest Chapter Two Is Out Now

Most of you are enjoying the latest resurgence of the LucasArts adventures, courtesy of Double Fine. However, for those of you who are interested in their biggest competitor during their adventure heyday, Sierra has been having a bit of a resurgence of its own.

Today, it finally continues with the release of the second chapter of The Odd Gentlemen's King's Quest, Rubble Without A Cause. The first chapter was inspired by the original King's Quest. This chapter is said to be inspired by King's Quest III.

 Although, the gameplay in King's Quest itself is heavily inspired by Telltale Games. However, it bests their current games as it manages to blend choices and consequences together with traditional inventory based puzzles in a way that we all wish Telltale would manage.

Point and Click Adventure Review: Space Quest V

Space Quest V was a departure from the previous games in many ways.  It was the first game in the series to not be helmed by both creators of the franchise, It was also the first to be developed by a developer other than Sierra, as it was developed by Sierra's Dynamix division.  It also found Roger in a position of power for the first time.  However, despite these changes, or possibly because of them, Space Quest V is one of the best games in the series.

Roger Wilco cheats on his test at Starcon Academy and finds himself as captain of the SCS Eureka, a ship designed to vacuum space debris. He's technically still a janitor but now finds that he's no longer the lowest member of his assigned spacecraft. For the first time, he has power over the members of his crew, even if they aren't particularly enthralled to be assigned to a garbage scow. His simple mission soon gets complicated, as he finds himself in the middle of a toxic conspiracy.

This game doesn't have voice acting, despite the fact that there is voice acting in the two games that bookmark it.  Thankfully, the writing more than makes up for it, as the humor in this game is top-notch.  The previous game had a lot of funny moments, but this game breaks out all the puns and references to Star Trek and other science fiction juggernauts that it can. Thankfully, the humor isn't overbearing on the main plot, as it is rock solid here.  Roger really shines in a leadership position, and the villain that he faces is excellent and quite multifaceted.

The art style is fantastic for its time, which was always one of the strong points of Sierra, and its associated divisions.  The backgrounds have a lot of detail, and the animation of the sprites is great. The puzzles in this game are quite difficult, as is usual in Sierra's games.  Thankfully, there aren't any puzzles that don't make sense logically.  Some stretch real-world logic a bit, but within the context of the game's science fiction world, they fit in fine.  This game is definitely one of those that fit in the Sierra mantra of save early, save often.  It is very possible to die, especially in confrontations with enemies, so it would be wise to save whenever you make progress.  It's also possible to get in a dead end, and some sequences require precise timing, which can be quite infuriating at times. This player-punishing style of Sierra's games didn't age as well as their contemporaries at LucasArts, but if you're willing to play through despite the frustration, the underlying story is worth experiencing.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Choices-and-Consequences Adventure Review: King's Quest Episode 1

It has been a long and bumpy road for fans of the King's Quest series. The eighth official King's Quest game has been known to have been in development at five different studios over the span of more than a decade. Each time, the game was cancelled before it ever had the chance to ever enter full development. Fans need wait no longer, as The Odd Gentlemen has finally brought the series back in the first official official King's Quest game in seventeen years. Luckily, it manages to be worth the wait. It delivers both a worthwhile sequel to the series, while simultaneously working as a reboot, both in story and game play.

After it was announced that Telltale lost the license to make a King's Quest game due to Activision having plans to publish one themselves, it seemed like the next game might go the route of modern Telltale games. The announcement came in 2013, after Telltale had a run away success with The Walking Dead, so that seems to be a market that Activision would want to tap into. The result is a little bit Telltale, a little bit classic Sierra, and a whole lot of fun. The humor in this was said to be inspired by The Princess Bride, and there's definitely a lot of that, as well as other irreverent comedy such as Monty Python.

It actually takes the Telltale formula to the perfect level in my opinion, mixing in the right amount of quick time events and action sequences with classic adventure game puzzles and choices and consequences. That being said, further episodes will be the true test of how the consequences play out in the season to see if it reaches the levels of games like Dreamfall Chapters. The choices and consequences are brought to light as old King Graham, voiced perfectly by Christopher Lloyd, mentions that his younger self had a choice between several options, each of which would have consequences. The quick time events are sparse in this game, as they are relegated to things such as pushing a button rapidly to chop down a tree or row a raft, rather than just arbitrary things like summing up strength. The amount of button pressing repetition is never excessive, and the quick time events mostly only take place in the first part of the game. Once Graham begins his quest to become a knight, the game is mostly a classic inventory based puzzle adventure game. There are a few areas with quick time event action after this, but they aren't as commonplace as they were earlier in the game. The game also has first person shooting sections, with a bow and arrow, that are handled really well. Sometimes these shooting sections even happen in the heat of the action, which adds to the tension in my opinion. The inventory and puzzles makes up the majority of the episode, and the puzzles are not the type where the solution is right next to the object, either. The areas to explore are rather large, and the solution might be location far away from the problem, which bridges classic Sierra with the modern adventure game formula together excellently.

The game is double the current usual five dollar price of episodic adventure games, but it's also about twice the length of a usual episodic adventure. Completing the episode will take approximately four to six hours, depending on how long it takes to solve the puzzles in the game. King's Quest ends up being the type of game that should both please most fans of Sierra's classic adventure games as well as changing things up enough to bring new gamers to the series. The story is exactly what I was hoping, as it's clearly both a sequel, as well as a prequel in parts, and a re-imagining. The set up of old King Graham telling his granddaughter stories of his life works well for the game, as it gets to tell new stories never told before. For the stories that it does revisit, such as Graham's quest to get the magic mirror from the dragon, any changes to the story can be chalked up to Graham embellishing a bit to keep his granddaughter excited.

The presentation is spectacular. In addition to the excellent casting choice of Christopher Lloyd as King Graham, the supporting cast members are excellent as well. King Graham's granddaughter is voiced supurbly, as are the eclectic people that Graham meets in Daventry. The voice of the short knight in particular is wonderful, thanks to the inspired casting choice of Wallace Shawn. The Princess Bride style humor is certainly helped by having his presence in the game. The art style is wonderful as well. It takes a bit of getting used to, especially in the characters, as, along with the shift in tone in regards to the humor, the art style for the series is a huge departure from the most games in the series. It goes for a more cartoonish style, having more exaggerated movements and depictions than even King's Quest VII. However, since this style works with the silly humor of the game, after a while even fans of King's Quest should find themselves immersed in the world. The music certainly helps as well. King's Quest has always had a great soundtrack, that helps set the medieval themed fantasy world of the game quite well. This game is no exception, really helping with this entry's more cinematic style of presentation.

The first episode of King's Quest managed to deliver on it's premise well. It feels both like a sequel and a re-imagining, both in story telling and gameplay. The premise of having old King Graham tell his granddaughter stories of his past adventures works well for a choice based adventure game. Quick time events are present, but they aren't overused. After the prologue, most of the game play consists of classic inventory based puzzles. The puzzles are fun, and offer a bit of a challenge. The voice work is supurb, the music is top notch, and the humor never falls flat. It's a huge change in tone, both in humor, and in art style, which is overly cartoonish, even more so than The Princeless Bride. However, the tone change works well for the series, and the art style compliments the humor excellently. This episode manages to set a grand return for King Graham and his family. Hopefully the upcoming episodes manage to meet the high standards set by The Odd Gentlemen's King's Quest premiere. If it does, this could potentially end up being one of the best entries in the entire series.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

King's Quest Episode 1: A Knight to Remember Is Out Now

The long, tumultuous journey to develop a King's Quest 9 is finally over, as fans can now play the first episode of the five episode King's Quest by The Odd Gentlemen.  It's out now on PSN and for Windows through Steam. It will be out for Xbox 360 and Xbox One tomorrow.

King's Quest Chapter 1: A Knight to Remember Coming In July

The first episode of the upcoming episodic King's Quest game, developed by The Odd Gentlemen and published by Sierra, is going to be released in late July for PC, PlayStation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

King's Quest Voice Cast Announced

The voice cast has been announced for King's Quest, and they've got a great lineup. The voice actors signed on include Christopher Lloyd, Tom Kenny, Wallace Shawn, Josh Keaton, Maggie Elizabeth Jones and Zelda Williams.

The first episode of The Odd Gentlemen's King's Quest is scheduled to be released in Fall 2015.

The Evolution of Adventure Games Part V: Early Mouse Control

As adventures in the west continued to evolve beyond their text adventure roots, developers were looking towards new ways to let the player interact with their games.

In the mid 1980's, developers began making adventure games controlled entirely with a mouse. These early mouse controlled adventures still had the verb and noun structure of text adventures, but actions were done by using the mouse to choose the words or icons on the screen. The earliest mouse controlled adventure game was the 1984 black and white Macintosh adventure, Enchanted Scepters, by Silicon Beach Software. It was very much like the text adventures with static graphics. However, objects would be picked up by directly clicking on them on the screen. Like many keypad controlled graphic adventures of the time, actions were selected by a drop down list. However, the actions were selected from drop down lists from the Macintosh menu bar via mouse cursor rather than through drop down lists displayed on the game screen.

The first adventure game that displayed verbs on the game screen was the 1985 adventure, Déjà Vu, by ICOM Simulations.  It still had the black and white graphics of the early Macintosh systems, and it still used the verb and noun system, but commands were no longer selected through the Macintosh system menu. The game was controlled completely in the game itself. The mouse cursor was used to select a verb from a list, which would then be used with an object which would also be selected with the mouse.  The objects could be selected in the game display or inside of the inventory.  This system of control would be later refined, but Déjà Vu paved the way for mouse control in adventure games, which is still the control method of most adventures today.

Independently of ICOM, Lucasfilm Games was also developing a mouse controlled adventure. Released in 1987, Maniac Mansion introduced SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion), which has been popularized by the fan created virtual machine, ScummVM. Most importantly, Maniac Mansion displayed its verb and inventory bars within the game screen itself. Maniac Mansion also stuck to its text adventure roots, by displaying the verb and noun selection in text above the verb bar. This would set the standard which was used by most adventure games until the late 1990's, and is still used in some adventure games to this day. All of the 2D adventures by LucasArts from this point would use a variant of this engine.

As the mouse was gaining popularity, Sierra began to include optional mouse support in their adventure games. Sierra began porting adventure games created with their AGI (Adventure Game Interpreter) engine to the Amiga in 1986. The Amiga version of this engine allowed for optional mouse control of the player character. This functionality has been extended by some fan created AGI interpreters, such as NAGI and ScummVM. The fan interpreters allow mouse control of characters in most AGI games, as in Sierra's Amiga AGI interpreter, even those that did not originally include that function. When Sierra switched to the more capable SCI (Sierra's Creative Interpreter) engine in 1988, the optional ability to control the playable character with a mouse was present on all platforms. The text parser was originally hidden from view until the player began typing, but as time went on, the SCI engine was improved, the text parser was removed, and games were controlled completely by the mouse. All of the 2D adventures by Sierra from the time SCI was introduced used a variant of that engine.

Mouse-controlled adventure games would become the standard after the release of these games, and continue to be the standard to this day. The adventure games that followed these evolved the presentation, but the method of input has largely stayed the same. Even today's direct-controlled adventure games often have optional mouse controls as well, or a combination of mouse and keyboard controls.

Back to Part IV

Part VI Coming Soon

King's Quest Developer Diary

The Odd Gentlemen has posted the first developer diary that takes a look behind the scenes of the creation of their new episodic King's Quest game, which will see the release of the first episode later this year.

While we're on the subject of the new Sierra, the puzzle platformer Shiftlings was released earlier this year, following the release of Geometry Wars 3 late last year.  The formerly Sony exclusive shooter, Velocity 2X, will be published by Sierra for Xbox One and PC this summer.

Gary Owens and Leonard Nimoy Have Passed Away

We have recently lost two people very familiar to people who were adventure gamers in the 1990's. Gary Owens, the narrator of Space Quest 4 and 6 passed away on February 12th. Leonard Nimoy, who played his most well known character Spock in the adventure games Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Star Trek: Judgment Rites, passed away on February 27th.

Gary Owens was set to reprise his role as narrator in SpaceVenture, but his health declined before he could record his lines.  He did record a humorous "narrator auditions" advertisement for that game, which you can hear here, and did an interview with Chris Pope about the project and his time on Space Quest, which you can hear here.

Both actors were terrific in all of their roles and will both be sorely missed.

King's Quest Reveal Trailer

The reveal trailer for The Odd Gentlemen's upcoming King's Quest game is here. The game, which is set after the events of Mask of Eternity, has King Graham telling his grand daughter about the adventures he had when he was younger. It is scheduled to be published by Activision's newly revived Sierra label in Fall 2015. The other game that was announced to be published by Sierra when the revival of the brand was revealed, Geometry Wars 3, was released late last month.

The Evolution of Adventure Games Part IV: Keypad Control

While Japan's adventures were evolving away from text parsers to menus, adventures in the west were doing something quite similar.

In the early 1980's, Sierra On-line began releasing adventures marketed towards children that were adventures with text narration and static graphics but didn't use a parser.  The first of these was Dragon's Keep in 1982. It was marketed as a hi-res learning game, a children's game extension of their hi-res adventures line.  Rather than having a text parser, there was a menu available which let the player choose which action to take next, in a choose your own adventure style.  This engine would be used in Sierra's other children's adventures, including the first adventure games released under Sierra's contract with Disney, until 1984.

The western market began to evolve in it's own direction with the release of Sierra's King's Quest in 1984.  This game used the Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) engine, which shared some components with the Dragon's Keep engine, but had a parser and added a direct controlled protagonist.  This addition meant that the game presentation was switched to a first person perspective to a third person perspective.  Third person perspective adventures remain the most popular style of adventures today.

George Lucas founded the Lucasfilm Computer Division in 1979.  Computer games continued to grow in popularity, so in 1982 he began hiring people to join the games group within the computer division, which became Lucasfilm Games and then later LucasArts.  Their first adventure game was Labyrinth, based on the film of the same name. It began completely in text, but then as you entered the labyrinth, the game switched to graphics. It had a direct controlled protaganist and it didn't have a text parser. Instead it had two menus, one with a list of verbs, and another with people and objects to interact with.  This verb object interface would later be refined in their later games created with the Script Utility for Maniac Mansion.

These types of adventures went out of popularity by the end of the 1980's, but as with all forms of entertainment, there are still a small group of people who still make games in these styles. The menu based text adventure gameplay is used in some mobile ports of text adventure engines. There is also a group of fans that still make games using tools that have reverse engineered Sierra's AGI engine so that they can create games using that engine themselves.

Back to Part III

On To Part V

The Evolution of Adventure Games Part II: Static Graphics

By the end of the 1970's, adventure games had started to become more than just text, and were displaying static graphics. The first game to do this was Mystery House, developed by the husband and wife team of Roberta and Ken Williams.  Roberta designed the game and drew the simple line graphics required by the program at the time and Ken programmed it and converted the images.  The two founded On-line Systems in 1979 and shipped the game out of their house, originally in a simple bag with a floppy disk containing the game and a sheet of paper describing it. The game was a success, eventually selling 10,000 copies, which was a bonafide hit in the early days of the home computer market.

This led to the formation of the Hi-Res Adventure line, which would continue the concept of Mystery House, with gradually improving graphics, until 1983.  The Williams' On-line Systems would become Sierra On-line and later Sierra Entertainment, becoming one of the leading developers and publishers of computer games until the studio was closed by then-owners Vivendi Universal in 1999.

As I had eluded to in the first part of this article, this style of game was also adapted by other adventure game developers.  Adventure International began the Scott Adams Graphic Adventures line in 1982, re-releasing the original adventures with graphics.  The games published by the studio would continue to be released in both formats, with the text only games released in the Scott Adams Classic Adventures line, until the studio closed in 1985.  All of the Scott Adams Classic Adventures can now be freely downloaded from the Scott Adams Grand Adventures website.

This style of game would also be adapted by the other driving force in text adventures, Infocom. They first started adding graphics capability to their z-code scripting langage in 1987, with the release of Beyond Zork. It was comprised of text, displayed inside a border, and a simple onscreen map displayed unobtrusively in the upper right hand corner of the screen. The company would go the full route of static images in 1988, and would continue releasing games in this style until the studio was closed by Activision in 1989.

This style of adventure game would go out of favor by the end of the 1980's, as games without a parser had begun to gain dominance and adventures had begun to shift towards third person graphic adventure games where the game's protagonist could be controlled by the player. However, as with text adventures, this style of game hasn't been completely abandoned.  There are a still a handful of developers still releasing text adventures with static graphics, both for free and commercially.

Back to Part I

On to Part III

New King's Quest Developers Met Roberta and Ken Williams

The developers of the new King's Quest, The Odd Gentlemen, met Roberta and Ken Williams, founders of Sierra and, in the case of the latter, the creator of the King's Quest series. Matt Korba, the creative director of the new King's Quest, posted about the trip, which you can read by following the link, or by reading below:

"King’s Quest has been part of my life, and the lives of The Odd Gentlemen team since we could type, move a mouse, and discovered the puzzle solving powers of pie. King’s Quest is part of us, now more than ever. Its history and its legacy are something we respect and are mindful of. Roberta and Ken Williams created King’s Quest 30 years ago, and we are blessed and humbled to carry on the Sierra legacy. It was very important to us to get the original creators’ approval. We wanted to make sure our vision aligned to what the core of the classic games were.

Last week we flew to Seattle to meet Roberta and Ken. I was extremely nervous. Would they like it? Did we have the right balance of gameplay and storytelling? Would the art style emotionally resonate? As soon as the Williams stepped into the room my anxiety subsided. It was one of the most magical experiences of my career. Roberta and Ken are wonderful people, full of joy, and true sages of adventure game knowledge. We showed them our concept art, the story progression, and finally presented the game.

The room was filled with smiles, laughs, and wows. I even got to have a very intimate conversation with Roberta about what Sierra was trying to achieve and where The Odd Gentlemen as a company is headed. As a designer it was amazing to hear advice from Roberta who has always been an inspiration. Through the meeting we discovered how aligned our creative ideals are.

We left the meeting very energized about the game we are making and then received this email:

To Matt and Lindsey, Bill and Scott,

I, too, wish to thank you for a lovely morning yesterday reliving – to some extent – my old life as a Sierra game designer. I admit that I was a bit skeptical at first, and also somewhat nervous because I haven’t been in the computer game industry (notice I call it computer game industry rather that the video game industry; that shows how far back I go!) in too many years to contemplate! But you guys blew me away with your ideas, your creativity and the beauty of the newest King Quest game. But best of all, I could see that you truly are the ones to take King’s Quest into the 21st century and reintroduce it to a whole new generation. You totally have it down!

I can’t wait to see how it develops, I can’t wait to play it myself – and I truly can’t wait to see how it blows away the competition!!

Best to you

– Roberta

We can’t wait to show you what you showed Roberta and Ken Williams. Here are some pictures from the day, and you can always follow @theoddgentlemen on twitter for the latest updates.

-Matt Korba Creative Director, King’s Quest"

Gabriel Knight 20th Anniversary Edition Is Out Now

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition, the high definition remake of the original Gabriel Knight by Jane Jensen's Pinkerton Road studio and her regular collaborators, Phoenix Online, has been released.  You can order it now from GOG.com or Steam for $19.99.

Gabriel Knight Anniversary Edition Out October 15

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 25th Anniversary Edition, the high definition remake of the original Gabriel Knight by Jane Jensen's Pinkerton Road studio and her regular collaborators, Phoenix Online, will be released on October 15th.  You can pre-order it now from GOG.com or Steam for the pre-order price of $16.99.

Activision Is Bringing Sierra And King's Quest Back

The Sierra website is back online because Activision is bringing Sierra back as their indie label.  Even better, they have announced that The Odd Gentlemen, the developers of the puzzle game The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, are developing a new King's Quest title.  When Telltale Games announced that their King's Quest title was canceled because Activision revoked the license, they stated that Activision had their own plans for the series.  Hopefully, this time King's Quest IX actually comes into being, as fans have been waiting patiently to discover what the Graham clan have been up to after all these years. We'll soon find out if King Graham and his family will have better luck this time, as the game is scheduled to be released in 2015.