How can you make a King's Quest game that's not a point-and-click?
The new King's Quest game is not a point and click, which will come as something of a shock to long term fans.
A new King's Quest game is on the way courtesy of The Odd Gentlemen, which brought us The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom and is working on a Homestuck game.
It's one of two announced projects from Sierra, Activision's newly-revived indie and digital publishing arm.
Speaking to GameInformer, Sierra's MacLean Marshall gave a few details on the intriguing project.
"They are doing a contemporary reboot of King's Quest. It's not just an HD port," he said.
"There's not much I can say about King's Quest. All I can say is that I've seen it, and it's not a point-and-click game. But it looks *** awesome."
GameInformer has politely obliterated the swear word here so you are free to imagine your own, and also revel slightly in the fact that we at VG247 laugh hollowly at the idea of excising obscenities.
Old school gamers are likely to react with alarm to the news that the new King's Quest is a different genre, but The Odd Gentlemen reached out to GameInformer on Twitter to reassure fans that it's not going to be, you know, a first person shooter or whatever.
"To clarify the game is very much an adventure game. It doesn't only use the mouse," the developer said.
That's still mysterious but it suggests we may be looking at something pretty traditional but minus the clunkiness of point-and-clicks, which - bless them - can be a bit finicky. We'll see how it goes; modern attempts to reinvent the genre are usually pretty conservative - think The Walking Dead - and I'm not sure how far you can innovate before it stops being an adventure game.
For those hanging out for an HD remake of one of the early games, Marshall said that's something Sierra would consider. The brand's remit seems pretty wide, in fact,
"It could be HD remakes of original Sierra content. It could be contemporary reimaginings of the old Sierra IPs," he said.
"It could be stuff that's new, kick-ass, awesome IP that has nothing to do with the old Sierra brand, but will be a Sierra thing when it launches.
"You could have two different kinds of King's Quest game, or a different kind of Geometry Wars game. It really just comes down to the right developer, the right project, the right passion for each of these ideas from their side and from our side.
"We're really looking at these things. I think any cool idea is open for consideration."
The full article contains plenty of detail on Activision's plans for the Sierra brand, which sounds like quite a new approach for the publisher.