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Hey Ken,
I have a question I hope you’ll be able to answer. Adventure gaming fans have seen many series that they held dear to their heart pass away for one reason or another, and I’m sure you know that business decisions mandated that many games deserving of sequels did not get them (and I don’t fault you for that). My question is, were there any adventure game sequels that actually got into the design stage before being cancelled, that you may be able to share some information about (i.e. what would the setting have been, etc.)? I know Space Quest 7 was cancelled. Was there ever plans for another Conquests, Laura Bow, or Manhunter game? What about Willy Beamish? Did you ever consider another Police Quest adventure?
Also, what was the most personally heartbreaking decision you had to make about not continuing a series?
Thanks for this site and board Ken, it’s wonderful for us old-school fans!
– Evan Dickens, http://www.adventuregamers.com/ -
(re: Adventures That Might Have Been) Hmmm…..
Most of the series were still going when I left Sierra.
Manhunter ended because the Murrays left to do games for Broderbund. To the extent other series ended, it was because they didn’t sell well. For instance, Freddy Pharkus … it sold ok, but not well enough to keep it going. I’m sure I would have put another Space Quest game into development. Also Larry – and, of course a Kings Quest. Phantasmagoria was “killed” when Phantasmagoria 2 didn’t sell (Roberta wasn’t involved in the second game).
As to painful decisions to shut down a series: I can’t remember any – if there was a market for a game, I put it into development. If there wasn’t, the decision was easy.
-Ken W -
(re: Adventures That Might Have Been)
Not wishing to tread on ken’s toes, but I think I know of at least two game which were cancelled: Willy Beamish II was announced to have been put into development in an Interaction magazine, and Capitol Punishment was never released, though I don’t know if it was actually finsihed, after some sort of incident involving men in black suits and dark glasses. Now – is this true, Ken, or have I been playing too much Gobliiins?
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(re: Adventures That Might Have Been) Ken,
Kind of following along with the same line of questioning…. were there any gaming series that were proposed up front, thought maybe to be a potential hit, but didn’t make the cut conceptually, that followed the “Quest” name series like – KQ, SQ, PQ, HQ, EQ, etc. For instance – Kitty Quest, Playground Quest, Job Quest, you know – something like that. Just curious. I always found it interesting that a lot of the early games always had “Quest” in their titles. -
(re: Adventures That Might Have Been) Willie Beamish didn’t make the cut – not enough sales.
As to other series that didn’t make it: I’m sure there were, but I’m blanking on them now. I’ll post something as I remember it.
I liked the Quest designation, but everyone started doing it – and, we lost the rights to the name Heros Quest (it became Quest for Glory). I wish we had stuck with it, but it became kind of a joke in the industry, so we stopped using it.
-Ken W -
(re: Adventures That Might Have Been) I remember from an article in an Interaction or a Sierra Magazine, that there was going to be a sequel to Codename: Iceman. I believe they even mentioned a title for the game.
Also, does anyone here, other than me, remember Mega Math? Did it really sell as badly as it seemed to have? -
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