Link to official project site:
http://www.tsl-game.com/
WHAT IS "THE SILVER LINING"?
"The Silver Lining" is the fan-designed ninth episode inspired by the King's Quest series.
WHY ISN'T SIERRA DESIGNING IT?
Since the first episode was released in the early 1980s, the King's Quest series has always been very popular. In fact, more than three million copies of King's Quest games have been sold worldwide. Historically, any new King's Quest has sold about 300,000 to 400,000 copies before it is pulled off store shelves. However, the last "official" game in the series, King's Quest VIII: "Mask of Eternity", had very mediocre sales relative to the norm. When the game was released in December 1998, Sierra had made tentative plans to produce King's Quest IX at some point in the future, but King's Quest VIII's lack of success prompted Sierra to unofficially "scrub" plans for a sequel, thinking that the series had lost its popularity. Worse, Sierra has also said that it has no plans to create another adventure game in the near future, presumably because the genre as a whole is no longer popular in the United States. Also, series creator Roberta Williams is no longer employed by Sierra, making the likelihood of an official ninth episode negligible.
IS THIS LEGAL?
On September 30, 2005, the team was asked to cease production by Vivendi Universal Inc, the owners of the King's Quest franchise. After weeks of negotiations and with the support of our fans, on November 29, 2005, Vivendi granted the team permission to legally continue production on the game.
WHY WAS THIS GAME REFERRED TO AS "KING'S QUEST IX"?
Prior to Vivendi granting permission, the game was called "King's Quest IX: Every Cloak Has A Silver Lining" or "KQIX" for short. As part of the negotiations, we were required to change the game's title. We decided on "The Silver Lining" because in many ways, it represents the spirit that has always represented our project.
WILL THE GAME COST ANYTHING?
ABSOLUTELY NOT! The game will be freeware. That is, it will be posted on our site for all to download, free of charge.
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And some basic facts about developer:
Phoenix Online Studios is a team of over 40 talented and hard working individuals located in various places in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. We are all unpaid and volunteering our time and effort to the creation of TSL.
Currently we are working on TSL. Our team communicates by MSN and e-mail on a daily basis. Assignments are given by directors and assistant directors of departments, and team work is kept privately within our team groups. Since 2001, we have been working very hard on TSL and have completed several milestones in production. With each passing day, we move closer and closer to the game's release.
The team is comprised of several departments, and some of which contain sub-departments. The departments are lead by the directive staff (made up of directors and assistant directors) and also contain the regular staff. For more information, please visit the Team page.
The Main Project Direction department oversees and approves all the team's work and is also involved with project coordination. There are also five other major departments: Public Relations, Design, Art, Programming, and Audio. All staff have weekly deadlines to meet, and a deadline may consist of one or more assignments. Since we're aiming for the highest quality game possible, when an assignment is completed, a director will either approve it or indicate where fixes must be made before it is deemed final.
We are all making this game because we truly enjoy what we do, and want to create a game professional enough to be compared with many of the commercial games out there, even though we are unpaid and the game will be completely free. We have high standards for TSL because it is our first game and we want to set a precedent for all future games developed by Phoenix Online Studios.
If you feel you are talented and motivated enough to join our team, first you must view the available positions on our Join page and apply for the position you are most qualified for. If you are selected, we may ask you for your portfolio or samples of your previous work. Next, we interview you over MSN and you are given a trial assignment. Once you pass the trial, you will officially join the team and get to meet everyone else.
WHOLE TEXT STOLEN FROM OFFICIAL TSL SITE
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That's it. If you'll ever come across bigger freeware project let me know to appease my curiosity.
