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| 28 FEB 2010 at 10:53pm |
SusanGuild Master
Posts : 5485
Joined: 13 OCT 2002
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Some of you may remember this unofficial sequel that started out as King's Quest IX, then changed their name to The Silver Lining for legal reasons. Unfortunately, they have to stop production on the game altogether. I'm a member of their newsletter mailing list and this arrived in my inbox today:
February 28th, 2010
To Our Fans:
In 2005, Phoenix Online Studios received a Cease & Desist letter from Vivendi Universal, the owners of the King's Quest IP, in regards to our work on The Silver Lining. We complied with the request, and over the months that followed, we were able to work out a non-commercial fan license with Vivendi that allowed us to continue our work on the game.
We have spent a lot of time recently reworking the material of The Silver Lining into episodic releases, with the first out of a planned five episodes completed, and submitted for review, and had hoped we would be able to bring our game to you, the fans, in the Spring of 2010.
Recently, however, ownership of the Sierra IP changed hands and became the property of Activision. After talks and negotiations in the last few months between ourselves and Activision, they have reached the decision that they are not interested in granting a non-commercial license to The Silver Lining, and have asked that we cease production and take down all related materials on our website.
As before, we must and will comply with this decision, as much as we may wish we could do otherwise.
We cannot say enough how much we appreciate the support we have had over these years from our fans. Without you, we would never have gotten this far. There would be no game to develop, and no one to develop it for. You have been amazing and steadfast, and we will always remember that and appreciate it more than we can say.
Sadly, after eight years of dedicated work and even more dedicated fans, The Silver Lining project is closing down.
What the future holds for us, as individuals or a team, we cannot say. We have an amazing development team, however, filled with talented and hard-working individuals, and we hope the teamwork and rapport we’ve developed won’t go to waste. We hope that when we do know what the future holds for us, our fans will be there to enjoy what we can give them still.
Again, thank you all so much for everything. This has been a long and crazy road, full of more twists than we could’ve anticipated, but more triumphs and wonderful memories than we could’ve ever hoped for. And for that, to all of you and to everyone on our team, we will always be grateful.
Thank You,
The Silver Lining Development Team
In compliance with Activision's request, most of our forums are coming down. However, we are keeping a few new, empty forums open so fans can stay in touch with one another and with us. Please visit: http://www.tsl-game.com/forum/index.php?topic=8394.0
--
TSL Newsletter
The Silver Lining
http://www.tsl-game.com
I miss my Bubba: 1986 - 2006.
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| 28 FEB 2010 at 11:48pm |
Steve VeaseySpace Cadet
Posts : 115
Joined: 30 MAY 2009
Status : Online | Unbelievable corporate BS, if they cared so much about their precious franchise they should have kept it going or at least felt honoured that a group of amatuer developers felt strongly enough about it to actually try and keep it alive and supported an unofficial release.
What the Silver Lining team should do is just take the guts of the game and make whatever amendments are necessary so that it isn't obviously a Kings Quest knock off and just release it anyway, screw Activision and their suits...
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| 1 MAR 2010 at 12:21am |
IviniaGuild Master
Posts : 4459
Joined: 7 JUN 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | Who is to say Activision doesn't have plans for the series? Vivendi obviously didn't and let the fan-based game continue. Now that Activision owns it, it's a different story.
Seriously though, this game has a rather large number of people working on it and it's been going on for 8 years with only a single demo released. Had they gotten it out sooner, before Activision bought out the rights, then this would be a moot point.
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| 1 MAR 2010 at 12:43pm |
GonchiSorcerer Apprentice
Posts : 337
Joined: 24 SEP 2007
Status : Online | Pity, but to be perfectly frank I'd long given up waiting and forgotten about it.
But I'm not so complicated as to flee, &&or stand here in silence. &&But I'm not so simple as to not caution, &&that there aren't three minutes, or a hundred words, that could define me.&&&&[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlR-6Tw-5bE]Brief description of my person[/url] - Cuarteto de Nos
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| 2 MAR 2010 at 1:06am |
Jenny100Guild Master
Posts : 3510
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Ivinia (1 MAR 2010 12:21am)
Who is to say Activision doesn't have plans for the series?
If they do, then The Silver Lining is free publicity for their own game.
And if they're afraid The Silver Lining will be better than anything they can come up with, they should put the Silver Lining developers on their payroll and release it as an Activision title.
Antagonizing your potential customers is not the way to make money.
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| 2 MAR 2010 at 1:18am |
IviniaGuild Master
Posts : 4459
Joined: 7 JUN 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Jenny100 (2 MAR 2010 1:05am)
Antagonizing your potential customers is not the way to make money.
Well, having someone potentially butcher your IP or causing potential customers to lose interest in your IP because some fans have been dragging out the the release isn't going to help either.
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| 2 MAR 2010 at 2:20am |
Jenny100Guild Master
Posts : 3510
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Ivinia (2 MAR 2010 1:18am)
Well, having someone potentially butcher your IP or causing potential customers to lose interest in your IP because some fans have been dragging out the the release isn't going to help either.
You think The Silver Lining was butchering the King's Quest IP?
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| 2 MAR 2010 at 3:07am |
IviniaGuild Master
Posts : 4459
Joined: 7 JUN 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Jenny100 (2 MAR 2010 2:20am)
Originally Posted By Ivinia (2 MAR 2010 1:18am)
Well, having someone potentially butcher your IP or causing potential customers to lose interest in your IP because some fans have been dragging out the the release isn't going to help either.
You think The Silver Lining was butchering the King's Quest IP?
"Potentially"
I saw the demo, while it looked pretty good for an indie effort, it falls WAY short of what a company like Activision could put out.
Add to that the fact that they might have taken the story into a different direction and muddied the waters by confusing people or drawing unwanted comparisons.
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| 2 MAR 2010 at 3:30am |
Agustín CordesGuild Master
Posts : 5696
Joined: 23 OCT 2002
Location: AR, Buenos Aires
Status : Offline | I agree with Ivinia on this one, the project had been dragging for too long and a negative reception from fans could have spoiled the franchise. Let's be frank here - even though the project seems epic and well produced, we still have no idea how the game was going to turn out.
They missed their chance to release this a long time ago. They should have limited the scope of the project
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| 2 MAR 2010 at 8:22pm |
Steve VeaseySpace Cadet
Posts : 115
Joined: 30 MAY 2009
Status : Online | Ok, now that I'm not drunk.. I didn't realise this had been dragging on for so long, I guess in that case they kind of brought it on themselves. There's a parallel with a Formula One racing management game that has been TEN Years in development and still in 'Beta'called F1 Championship Manager. All they have released is a few screen shots of the GUI but they are hopelessly screwed anyway because they haven't got the money to buy an FIA licence to use real Team and Driver names, and in sports sims if you can't use the real world 'players' the game is dead in the water..
Pity, because I actually did some work on it 8 years ago!
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| 2 MAR 2010 at 10:16pm |
IviniaGuild Master
Posts : 4459
Joined: 7 JUN 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | Please note that I mean no disrespect to the development team here. As Agustin alluded to, they bit off more than they could chew.
The reality is that they were shut down in 2005 and after an outpouring of fan support, Vivendi allowed them to continue. They also promised the game was nearing completion. Ironically, it's 2010 and the same thing happened, even them saying the game was going to be released in shortly.
They had a HUGE following and lots of press back in 2005 with this game and battle with Vivendi. Free press all over the web at very big sites. Big name developers would kill for that kind of attention and for indies it is unheard of. They didn't capitalize on it and they sure didn't reward the AG community who went to battle for them with petitions by getting the game out.
At best I would think the only thing they'll be able to muster this time is a yawn and an "Oh well..." from the AG community. :-/
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| 3 MAR 2010 at 10:33pm |
SusanGuild Master
Posts : 5485
Joined: 13 OCT 2002
Location: 0
Status : Offline | *ahem*
There is a campaign to continue the game ~
Online Petition:
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/savetsl/
Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=382202612795&ref=mf
MySpace Page:
http://www.myspace.com/savetsl
Form Letter for Contacting Activision:
http://www.tsl-game.com/forum/index.php?topic=8406.0
I miss my Bubba: 1986 - 2006.
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| 4 MAR 2010 at 12:48pm |
markornikovJourneyman
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Posts : 1303
Joined: 28 OCT 2011
Location: BE, Antwerp
Status : Offline | NOT AGAIN?!!!! >
I was going to buy a few activision games on GOG, now they can go to hell !!
They'd better have a real good excuse to waste years spent by the development team >
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| 4 MAR 2010 at 2:11pm |
ArkadiaPrivate Detective
Posts : 558
Joined: 1 JUN 2008
Status : Online | Originally Posted By Ivinia (2 MAR 2010 10:15pm)
Please note that I mean no disrespect to the development team here. As Agustin alluded to, they bit off more than they could chew.
The reality is that they were shut down in 2005 and after an outpouring of fan support, Vivendi allowed them to continue. They also promised the game was nearing completion. Ironically, it's 2010 and the same thing happened, even them saying the game was going to be released in shortly.
They had a HUGE following and lots of press back in 2005 with this game and battle with Vivendi. Free press all over the web at very big sites. Big name developers would kill for that kind of attention and for indies it is unheard of. They didn't capitalize on it and they sure didn't reward the AG community who went to battle for them with petitions by getting the game out.
At best I would think the only thing they'll be able to muster this time is a yawn and an "Oh well..." from the AG community. :-/
Exactly this. I know this was a labor of love that ate up the free time of the developers, but to be honest to produce a semi-professional game - the kind that would do justice to its predecessors - a team working on the game must act professional. Technical skills mean nothing if they are not coupled with organization and dedication. If they could not stick with a small core team then they should have left well enough alone.
To be honest I think it's an insult to the fans who rallied so hard to support them that they would let the project float around so long, telling people 'it won't be long now'. I think a game that has been in production for this long and that has gone through so many team members can't have got it together enough to create a truly good game. The Silver Lining was touted as a truly good game, but no game is truly good if it unfinished. I lost interested in the project years ago when it became clear the team members weren't taking it entirely seriously - why should I hang around waiting for something made by people with empty promises?
Ignoring this rant however, I do think what Activision did was unclassy - but almost everything about Activision business practices is unclassy, so the situation honestly doesn't surprise me. Ordinarily I might take this request as a possible hint that the company might be seriously interested in creating a new KQ game and are protecting their interests, especially given the popularity of the LucasArts re-release and Telltale Games success - but this is Activision we're talking about, so I'll assume this is yet another instance of the big bully in the play-yard pushing down the smaller child for pleasure.
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| 4 MAR 2010 at 8:42pm |
CrisGerSchattenjger
Posts : 2539
Joined: 28 APR 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | Sadly the game production world is showing signs of what happened in the book publishing universe, the largest and sales focused companies ate up all the smaller ones and now grind out pot boilers and duplicate titles over and over..... but i have hopes and always will that the true and good visiion of fine game development will continue and return.
Sorry to hear about this sad end for a long and hard working team. Maybe someday.
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3D Worlds and Game Developers
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http://3dworldandgamedevelopers.blogspot.com
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| 4 MAR 2010 at 10:38pm |
SteveSpace Cadet
Posts : 112
Joined: 3 DEC 2003
Status : Offline | It's a real shame to hear this news, those guys had put a lot of time & effort in to it.
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