Once upon a time, I played King's Quest. About 20 years later, I did it again and made a blog post about it. Recently, news broke that the Sierra games brand is being brought back after 15 years. I think there was something about a new King's Quest game in there somewhere.

The people at Phoenix Online Studios couldn't wait. About 10 years ago, they decided to have a crack at doing a fan-made closure to the series. They have released it as an episodic series, currently on fourth of five episodes. It seems that they've done a good job.

The whole thing takes place in the Land of the Green Isles, the setting of King's Quest 6 (how convenient for me). The first episode opens with Rosella's wedding. Things are great, until a black cloaked man abducts Rosella and her brother, Prince (now King) Alexander into their dreams. After a while, things start to become undone. Things like hatchlings turning to eggs, and the prince from the Isle of the Beast getting re-cursed. Later on, this man is discovered as the villain (or related to) a villain from a previous King's Quest game.

From what I remember from KQ6, there are many more places to explore, like Chessboardland, the Winged One's city, and the hedge maze on the Isle of the Beast. It's strange walking around the Castle of the Crown, because the first thing I learned about it in KQ6 is that you stay the hell away from it. I admire the engineering and creativity that went into some of the puzzles, like that maze, and getting a shell from chess pieces. Like any King's Quest game, this world is practically made of fairy tales, and references to many abound. And there are silly puzzles, like playing four instruments at one time. In the air.

In all, this is a very well thought out and challenging point and click adventure game. It's free, so "buy" it from Phoenix Online. Episodes 1 to 4 came out within a year or so of each other, but it's been about 3 years since the last one. There is even a menu option for the fifth episode. Maybe I can write another blog post before then?

It seems that they've been busy with other games since then, since they had nothing else before The Silver Lining. (Maybe they ran out of money?) Some of them were even written by Jane Jenson, who wrote most of KQ6. PCGamer recently had a commentary session with her, where she explained some of the secrets behind KQ6. I thought it was very cool.