The Silver Lining (KQ Fan Game).

[Tawmis]

Anyone following this? Someone reminded me about it - and had mentioned the contest I entered there (http://www.tsl-game.com/contest/ - scroll down a bit). I need to read through the site and see where they're at with releasing the game(s). Anyone active there know?

[AndreaDraco]

I'm not active there, but I can tell you that I played the demo and I really liked it: the work they have done on the scenery and the mood is pretty awesome!

[Datadog]

I'm one of their animators, but I can't tell you too much about what's going on back-stage, mostly because I don't want to get in any crap with their PR, but especially since I haven't been active on the project for the last four months. Last I checked, they're still diligently plugging away on it. No clue when it'll be finished, though.

[Tawmis]

So it's still not done? Okay. Because I was going through their site and I saw where they had the cover done and it said "Winter Wish 2006" - so I was thinking they were wanting to be done by 2006. And when I looked around their site I couldn't find anywhere to download it or anything. So I was puzzled at where they were with it.

[Collector]

This is something that I am interested in, but have not been following too closely. I usually drop in a couple of times a year to see if they are getting any closer. Of course this is exactly one of the things that is nice about being away from the official forums. No one to slap wrists for mentioning a fan game.

[Datadog]

When I signed on, they were promising a winter release, and that was two years ago.

But I can honestly say it looks somewhat close to being finished now. That's just from my perspective, however. I don't know what's going on in the programming and beta-testing end of things.

So what happened when somebody mentioned a fan-game in the official forums? I know Vivendi's lawyers aren't exactly chummy with the fan community.

[Collector]

It was just the policy that they were not to be talked about. The AGDI games were approved for release by VU, but they were still not to mentioned on the forums.

[Datadog]

Interesting how they approved fan-games that were remakes of games they're still selling.

They almost brought the hammer down on TSL just because they were referring to it as KQ9. And they already shut down SQ7. I'm guessing if anyone makes a fan-game, they should probably leave the original game's name out of the title (or at least keep numbers out of it.)

[Collector]

Might be a moot point anymore since Sierra is now nothing more than a name that came with VU.

[Tawmis]

But I imagine they will still bring the hammer down on anyone who tries to make fan games - just to protect their property (which they no longer try to profit from - but just in case in the future).

After all, they did the mobile phone game version of Leisure Suit Larry, actually using Larry Laffer (it's somewhat a remake of Love for Sail, to some degree...)

So if I tried to make a Leisure Suit Larry 4 (for example) and got a team together - and got as close as TSL is - I'd bet that VU/Whoever - would place a cease and desist on it. I wonder how, however, that they knocked out SQ7 - but all KQ9 had to do was change the title name, really.

[Datadog]

That's also only if their lawyers get wind of you. And lawyers only ever seem to hear about this stuff when someone mistakes a fan-game for a real game and tries to contact VU about it. So you could make an LSL4, but you'd do best to keep it under wraps instead of promoting it. Or at least make it under a pseudonym.

[JasefWisener]

I check maybe once every 3 months. I had my hopes up, let them down, played the demo and got them back up, and now I'm less concerned as it's just been way too much time. If it comes out, I'll definitely play it. But my life won't end if it doesn't.

On a side note, I was very upset about SQ7. I was extremely looking forward to it.

[Tawmis]

That's what I am saying - I wonder what deal TSL struck that they were still able to proceed and use the characters (clearly from KQ) - all they had to do was drop the "King's Quest" portion out of the name. Like I wonder if I made a Leisure Suit Larry 4: Beautiful Beach Babes in Bikinis - and if the lawyers came after me - if I would be able to strike some kind of deal of just dropping the LSL title and calling it "Beautiful Beach Babes in Bikinis" and yet still use characters like Larry Laffer and Passionate Patti...

[JasefWisener]

I'm thinking the SQ7 team could have worked out a deal, and that they just gave up and needed an excuse.

[Tawmis]

Unfortunate, really. Wasn't what's his name working with them also on SQ7...