King's Quest by Silicon Knights...

[BagginsKQ]

So apparently Silicon Knights was developing a next generation continuation of King's Quest, at some point before Telltale got the license...

Apparently they got as far as a prototype before it was shut down, and it looks like it was probably built on the Unreal Engine. Hmm... I wonder what their direction would have been? Something that evolved from KQ8's direction of Action adventure, with puzzle solving?

Epic Game's lawsuit against Silicon Knights ended development on the game, and apparently the license shifted over to Telltale instead at that point.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news...-Human-Lawsuit

As to the economic harm to Silicon Knights' reputation in the industry, the papers reveal Silicon Knights was in talks with Vivendi, Capcom, THQ and Namco and was negotiating development plans for King's Quest and Sandmim. Lloyd's methodology for determining the potential value of these projects was similarly unconvincing to the court. Lloyd's estimation of the costs of developing a new game engine were deemed irrelevant because Microsoft and Sega reimbursed the developer for all such costs, which gives Silicon Knights no ground to seek damages under North Carolina law.

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/12/28...the-ritualyst/

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...-projects.aspx

Apparently they Silicon Knights was developing around the time the letter writing campaign started on The Silver Lining (perhaps this is the reason why Activision tried to shut it down in the first place?);
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/28/si...-reveals-past/

[BagginsKQ]

One word of note, I have to say that Eternal Darkness by Silicon Knights was one of my favorite games of all time... Nice mix of action, adventure, and survival horror... Even felt kinda like an RPG... But best of all one of the best stories in a game that I ever experienced...

So it certainly would have been neat to see how they took King's Quest... If it was nearly as dark... or 'time spanning' as Eternal Darkness, maybe its for the best that it was cancelled, as I don't think that fits KQ's style...

[caeska]

I love Eternal Darkness! One of my all-time favorite games for sure. The specific gameplay surely wouldn't fit King's Quest but I'd like to see some more detailed information on the game development Silicon Knights did.

[CKSqua]

From the information provided, it seems that King's Quest negotiations were between Vivendi Games and Silicon Knights. I'd guess that prototyping actually occurred around 2006 or 2007 (the year that SK dropped the Unreal Engine and filed suit against Epic).

[RAnthonyMahan]

Huh. That would've been interesting. ED is sorely underrated.

Whatever happened to Silicon Knights, by the way? I know they went third-party and then made Too Human...have they done anything since then?

[CKSqua]

They developed a poorly received X-Men game and have since laid off the majority of their staff.

Let's just say that the company has become a bit of a laughingstock in recent years. They're routinely mocked for their fights with detractors (president got himself banned on a major discussion forum), lawsuit with Epic Games (ridiculous damage claims, plus it's a bit silly looking when numerous companies have managed to develop Unreal-based products), inability to finish games, and their wasting of grants from the Canadian government.

[joek86]

One of the many MANY silicon nights projects that never came to be. Let's face it, they're probably going down in gaming history as a one hit wonder company. I think they sold off any IP's they had the rights to, except of course Eternal Darkness. However, there really isn't much of a company left. Pretty much what happened the 3D Realms happened here. A slew of over ambitious projects that were never completed, combined with legal fees, pretty much marked the death of it.

[JuntMonkey]

Originally Posted by RAnthonyMahan

Huh. That would've been interesting. ED is sorely underrated.

ED actually could not be more highly rated. It's almost universally lamented by gamers and the gaming press as an amazing game that sadly didn't do well.

I think it's hugely overrated. Everything outside of the mansion (most of the game is outside the mansion) looks the same, and the different time periods are uninteresting because the locations change very little for different eras. A boring game.

What should be lamented is that ED is so highly praised in retrospect whereas the Gamecube Resident Evil Remake of that same timeframe is ignored. REmake is stellar and is just about the apex of survival horror.

[BagginsKQ]

Most of the places look the same, because you visit the same places in different eras...

There are really only five different locations, and you explore them in different eras via different characters (which each unlock the mysteries of each location, and their ties to the overal story)...

The mansion, the underground alien city, the jungle ruins (what was it, Cambodia?), the desert/tower/Forbidden City, and the medieval castle/cathedral in France... Things are a bit more crumbly as the time periods go on... Thus a place one character could walk through, collapses for another character dropping them into tunnels underneath (unless of course it was a place that saw constant use/renovation over time, like the mansion or the cathedral)...

Also calling ED a survival horror is somewhat questionable (although it has some things in common with the classic Alone in the Dark series (H.P. Lovecraft inspiration))... Considering that your melee weapons could kill nearly everything (so there is very little chance of running out of weapons), and the spells made the game super easy (healing, short-term invincibility, or simply stunning the enemies so they can't attack...for the win, or destructive magics that can rip through nearly any enemy). Add to the fact you could use some spells to recharge your mana quickly, meant you were nearly never without a weapon at hand of some sort... The games real charm came from the nightmare effects if you let your sanity seep away for too long... But there was very little in the game that could kill you quickly, that you couldn't kill with your powerful melee weapons or spells... So there was little to worry about conserving or running out of ammo...

It was more hack-and-slash adventure, with a touch of action RPG-like spell casting (mana) than survival horror... Toss in a little bit of the 1930's style adventure serial feel in places (especially for that Indiana Jones like archaeologist character)...

ED is praised more for its deep and epic storyline, than its gameplay... if anything... Disney even thought about turning it into a movie or tv series at one time...

Whereas in Resident Evil, you always had to worry about running out of ammo... Hence the 'survival' aspect.