Gabriel Knight: 20th Anniversary Edition - remake by Jane Jensen

[Boleskine]

https://www.postudios.com/company/games/gabrielknight20th/




https://af.gog.com/game/gabriel_knight_sins_of_the_fathers_20th_anniversary_edition?as=1649904300

Spoiler

GK1 remake confirmed.

https://twitter.com/jensen_jane/status/387614969111384065

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Keshik]

Environment image. Sad to hear they don't have the original audio

 

[Blackthorne]

Yeah, exactly - they want to test the waters with a remake.

Which, is cool, I guess.... but I hate that we have to do this fucking dance for those fuckers just to get what we really want - a new fucking game. And, of course, you get the sycophantic fans who are happy that they get any kind of crumb from the great and mighty above... when those companies should be thanking you for wanting products they have!!!!

It's fucking bullshit on Activision's part, and it sucks, but that's business, I suppose. I just hate that the carrot of these beloved Sierra franchises are dangled in front of fans, some of who would pay loads of money for a turd in a box labeled "Sierra Quest Game".

Bt

 

[Infinitron]

Source of that image (one of them, anyway): http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/8/48...ke-2014-jane-jensen-pinkerton-road-activision

Jane Jensen remaking Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers in 2014
By Samit Sarkar on Oct 08, 2013 at 12:58p @SamitSarkar

Game designer Jane Jensen is remaking Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers with a 20th Anniversary Edition scheduled for release in 2014 on Windows PC, Mac and iPad, she announced today on Twitter.

The classic point-and-click adventure game, which Jensen originally developed at Sierra OnLine, was released in December 1993 on Windows, Mac and MS-DOS. She and her indie studio, Pinkerton Road, are partnering with Activision — which, as the former parent company of the now-defunct Sierra, owns the Gabriel Knight rights — for the 20th Anniversary Edition.

"My indie studio, Pinkerton Road, is licensing the game from Activision and developing it ourselves. We're not crowdfunding the project," said Jensen in aninterview with Side Mission. The Sins of the Fathers remake will feature updated art and high-definition graphics but will remain a 2D adventure game, although Pinkerton Road is tweaking the gameplay for the iPad version.

"We really felt Sins of the Fathers needed to stay true to the original story and gameplay, both for reasons of nostalgia but also because it worked," said Jensen. "We are adding in a few new things here and there, but I wanted the original to be fully represented."

Unfortunately, the game's voice acting, which featured Hollywood actors such as Tim Curry, won't appear in the remake — Jensen told Side Mission that the original audio files aren't available, and they were "pretty compressed" anyway. In addition, it would have been too expensive to re-hire the actors 20 years later. The remake's voice acting will be done by Bay Area Sound, and Pinkerton Road is also including a re-recorded version of Sins of the Fathers' original score.

Jensen added that Pinkerton Road's existing agreement with Activision is only for the first Gabriel Knight game, but said she hopes the 20th Anniversary Edition will be successful enough to convince the publisher to "relaunch and rejuvenate the series" and "persuade Activision to allow us to do a new [Gabriel Knight] game."

You can see the first image of the 20th Anniversary Edition of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers below.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Official website: http://www.gabrielknight20th.com/

New interview: http://www.gametrailers.com/side-mission/63162/gabriel-knight-returns-interview-with-jane-jensen

Video announcement (backer-only but seriously, whatever):

 

[VonVentrue]

To be honest, Sins of the Fathers is pretty perfect the way it is, I never felt a remake of any sort was necessary. As Jane pointed out however, it's a mere attempt to evaluate the financial viability of a potential sequel, so crossing fingers it turns out to be a success for Pinkerton Road regardless.

 

[Aeschylus]

Remaking GK1 is like painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa.

 

[Boleskine]

Remaking GK1 is like painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa.

I always thought she was a he.

 

[Kz3r0]

 

[Whisky]

Yeah, kind of a pointless remake, regardless of the stated reasons. Still, we all saw it coming and maybe a real new game will be made ome day.

 

[Crooked Bee]

So I've just noticed this remake is being done by Phoenix Online, the makers of Cognition: http://www.postudios.com/blog/?p=3397

Can't say I'm thrilled about that; here's hoping they can pull it off.

 

[Boleskine]

So I've just noticed this remake is being done by Phoenix Online, the makers of Cognition: http://www.postudios.com/blog/?p=3397

Can't say I'm thrilled about that; here's hoping they can pull it off.

I think Phoenix Online has shown good progress from Cognition to Moebius. I feel confident they'll do a good job!

 

[abnaxus]

Video announcement (backer-only but seriously, whatever):

Did Jane put on weight?

 

[Stabwound]

Fucking diarrhea. I refuse to acknowledge that this remake exists.

Unfortunately, the game's voice acting, which featured Hollywood actors such as Tim Curry, won't appear in the remake — Jensen told Side Mission that the original audio files aren't available, and they were "pretty compressed" anyway. In addition, it would have been too expensive to re-hire the actors 20 years later. The remake's voice acting will be done by Bay Area Sound, and Pinkerton Road is also including a re-recorded version of Sins of the Fathers' original score.

No, just no. Fuck you and fuck this. GK without Tim Curry isn't GK. The guy who played Gabe in GK2 did a passable job, but he was certainly no GK1/3 Gabe.

GK1 is a masterpiece. I would have been elated if they remade GK2 or 3 in GK1 style, and I could have even forgiven the lack of Tim Curry, but no. Fuck this shit. Do not want.

If this lets a GK4 come to fruition, then maybe it will have served some kind of positive purpose, but this is just unneeded. It would be like a Star Wars remake with Justin Bieber playing Luke Skywalker.

 

[Stabwound]

On the (admittedly) plus side, some of the new backgrounds look pretty good, although some look shitty:

 

[Name]

I'm worried because Phoenix Online's Coginition still has a lot of funny animation bugs and frustrating latency from animation, loading, dialogue, etc.

 

[jfrisby]

Can't imagine this remake will revive the series, after POStudios & Caesar Bittar get through with it.

Interesting that the press release characterizes it as "licensed from Activision" -- it had sounded like the publisher was a bit more involved in previous updates.

 

[himmy]

It would be like a Star Wars remake with Justin Bieber playing Luke Skywalker.

Except it's, you know, nothing like that in any way.

 

[Stabwound]

It would be like a Star Wars remake with Justin Bieber playing Luke Skywalker.

Except it's, you know, nothing like that in any way.

Gabriel Knight is Tim Curry. Luke Skywalker is Mark Hamill. Those characters being played by anyone else is bullshit, and I can only give a pass to GK2 because they needed a live action actor to play him.

 

[DalekFlay]

I think "GK IS TIM CURRY" is a statement largely rooted in nostalgia or fear of change. While I appreciated the fun Southern drawl I can also totally see the voice being recast effectively.

 

[Name]

How about the old lady narrator

 

[Jaesun]

Do NOT fuck this up. Especially the music.

 

[Sceptic]

To be honest, Sins of the Fathers is pretty perfect the way it is, I never felt a remake of any sort was necessary. As Jane pointed out however, it's a mere attempt to evaluate the financial viability of a potential sequel

Honestly I'm fucking sick and tired of hearing this all the time. Al Lowe gave the same excuse for remaking the remake of LSL1. This of course completely disregards one very very simple fact: those of us who played the original, who still have the original, have no fucking reason to pay for the remake. And therefore the sales of the remake will be much lower than they would be if it were a new game.... and then of course this can be used as justification for "market is too small no sequel for you", leading to inevitable guilt-tripping owners of the game to buy it again so maybe just maybe we will one day in an alternate future see a proper sequel.

I wish Jane Jensen all the best, but I will have no part in this. Chris Jones didn't need to remake the remake of Mean Streets to test the waters before giving us a porper new Tex Murphy, I don't see why the Sierra folks, who moved more copies than Access could dream of, need to drag us through all this crap before giving us the games we've been begging for for 15 years. At least Crowe & Murphy didn't have to go through all this remake stuff (though I wonder if they would have if they'd gotten the Space Quest rights... maybe it is a good thing they didn't) and are making a brand new game, even if I'm not 100% satisfied with all their decisions.

 

[groke]

Get ready for: