| The Silver Lining | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Phoenix Online Studios |
| Series | King's Quest (unofficial) |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | since July 18, 2010 |
| Genre(s) | Action adventure |
| Media/distribution | digital download |
| System requirements
1 GHz Intel or AMD Processor |
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The Silver Lining is an amateur five-chapter episodic fangame based on the King's Quest series, which was developed and released in free download format by Phoenix Online Studios for Microsoft Windows on July 18, 2010.[2]
The game continues the story from previous King's Quest titles left off (particularly KQ6 and KQ7). In a departure from the format of the original games (where the protagonist explored an all new kingdom), it returns to a land previously visited in King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow. The plot revolves around King Graham as he desperately seeks the help of ancient druidic artifacts to undo the evil cast upon his wife Valanice and children Alexander and Rosella.[3] Along the way he learns the dark secret that his wife is actually a member of the Black Cloak Society and also a Druidess, facts that she had tried to suppress. At the same time, Graham uncovers his own secret lineage and reveals his destiny to save the world.
The game had received criticism for its length, lack of puzzles, and quality of narration, but reviews were generally positive, and Phoenix Online Studies continued its development. The most recent release, Episode 4: ‘Tis In My Memory Locked. And You Yourself Shall Hold The Key Of It, was released on 8 November 2011. The final episode is scheduled for released in early 2012.
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Production of TSL began in October 2000. After a long period of limited production and loss of focus, the original TSL team was reorganized under César Bittar, previously one of the project writers, in January 2002. Dividing the production crew into five departments (Art, Design, Audio, Programming, and Public Relations), he made POS into an efficient working unit. Little of the original plot was kept, so its resemblance to the original team's concept is limited.
The game was intended to be released as a trilogy, but later was altered to be released as a single game. The finished game was to contain Chapters 1 and 2. The development team said that "Chapters 3 – 9 will most likely never be released non-commercially, because without funding, it would take us 10 or more years to complete them."[4] They have since stated that they intend to complete the story in five episodes and offer a true ending as opposed to a cliffhanger.
A short demo of Chapter 1 was released on July 30, 2006. A beta testing build containing 3 scenes from Chapter 1 was released on March 9, 2008. On June 1, 2009 the team said that in the next couple of months they would be working to put the finishing touches on the game and submit it to Vivendi Games, Inc for approval.
The initial project was titled 'King's Quest IX: Every Cloak Has A Silver Lining' (or KQ IX for short). Due to legal issues with Vivendi Games, Inc in 2005, and parent company Activision throughout 2009—10, the title has been changed.[5]
From its inception, the TSL project's stated intention was to give closure to the King's Quest series with the belief and assertion that the project was legal under U.S. fair use copyright law, though acknowledging that this was a legal gray area. The developers maintained a notice on their site promising to end the project if confronted by Vivendi Universal, the owner of the King's Quest license. In September 2005, after over four years of development, and immediately after providing their first trailer and announcing a release date, Phoenix Online Studios received a cease and desist e-mail from Vivendi. Phoenix kept their word and immediately halted all development on the project as they entered negotiations with Vivendi. Once the news was made public, fans of the game and the series began a mass mailing and e-mailing campaign organized by the Save King's Quest IX team to persuade Vivendi to allow Phoenix Online Studios to complete the project.
On November 29, 2005, Phoenix Online Studios was granted a Fan License by Vivendi. The license allowed for resumption of project development with the requirement that the title be changed to remove the "King's Quest" reference. All characters, locations, art, story, plot, and script content were permitted to remain unchanged.[6][7]
After Vivendi Games merged with Activision in 2008, Activision became the new owners of the King's Quest franchise. Subsequently, Activision revoked the non-commercial license agreement previously negotiated between Vivendi and Phoenix Online Studios. After several months of negotiations, Activision issued its own cease-and-desist to The Silver Lining team, requesting that they cease production and take down all related materials on the game website.[8] On June 26, 2010, Phoenix Online Studios announced that Activision had changed its mind and decided to allow The Silver Lining to be released.
"Episode 1: What is Decreed Must Be" was released on July 10, 2010 as a free download and served as a "re-introduction" to the world of King's Quest. The chapter focused on setting the stage for the following episodes.
"Episode 2: Two Households" was released on September 18, 2010 as a free download. Marking a return to classic, Sierra-style adventure, Episode 2 sees King Graham investigate the mysterious curse upon his children as he searches for ingredients for an antidote. Taking into account criticism from the gaming community in response to Episode 1, Phoenix Online implemented numerous improvements to The Silver Lining for the release of Episode 2, including an option to toggle between shorter and longer narrations, improved pathfinding, a more realistic walking animation, the addition of a run/walk mode, and widescreen support.[9]
"Episode 3: My Only Love Sprung From My Only Hate" was released on February 18, 2011 as a free download. This chapter contains more puzzles than the last two episodes and features King Graham's continuing quest to free his children. As a return to the classic problem-solving of the older games, note-taking is recommended, as well as returning multiple times to certain areas to see what has changed.
The remaining two episodes will be released as free downloads later in 2011.[3]
The series has garnered generally fair reviews, and criticisms center on the convoluted plot and poor quality of narration.[10]
Reviews for the first episode were generally positive, but with some criticism of the length and the lack of puzzles.[11][12][13][14][15][16] The reaction to the quality of the graphics and music was more mixed in nature.
The game has not been entirely consistent with the continuity of previous King's Quest games. It offers many retcons to the series, but overlooks many of the background details mentioned in the previous games & manuals. The game gets many details wrong (even when compared to King's Quest 6, which much of the content is directly taken from). It offers new back stories for many of the characters, but often these contradict the backstories given in the previous games. For example Ali the owner of Ali's Books was a lifetime bachelor according to KQ6,[17] but in TSL, he is married and has an adult family. Other problems relate to geography of the Land of the Green Isles in relation to KQ6, and the architecture of previously visited locations.[18] Or in another example, the Prince of the Isle of the Beast states in The Silver Lining, that he set up the traps to protect himself from outsiders who would try to kill him.[19] Whereas in KQ6, the same character states specifically that the traps were set up by the Hag that cursed him, to not only imprison the beast, but to protect others from succumbing to the curse themselves, and becoming his slaves.[20] Most of geographic and architectural changes may be due to 'artistic license'.
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