Review Fix chats with Richard Flores, Chief Technical Officer of Phoenix Online Studios and director of “The Silver Lining Haunted Castle Experience,†and Katie Hallahan, Phoenix PR Director and Designer, who break down the development process and goals for this cool VR experience.
Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this game?
Richard Flores: The real inspiration for this game were the classic haunted houses found in our neighborhoods and theme parks. It always amazed us how locations that we walked by every day could be turned these intricate and detailed horror experiences during the Halloween season. We wondered what that might be like in the King’s Quest universe so we thought why not find out?
Katie Hallahan: We’ve also been experimenting with VR recently and since the Castle of the Crown was already a a 3D set, it was a great opportunity to use that to take those experiments to the next level, and give a sneak peek at Episode 5 at the same time.
Review Fix: What was the development cycle like?
Flores: The turn around for this project was pretty short. Discussions about the concept started in mid September. We officially started the project on October 5th. It was an ambitious timeline with the goal of testing our development team’s limits under pressure.
Review Fix: With all the competition on the mobile market and in the indies now, how difficult was it for you guys to try and make something that stood out?
Flores: It’s always hard to stand out in such a competitive field so we decided to do so by giving our audience something unexpected yet familiar. The Halloween season allowed us to revisit locations from our previous games and give them a refreshingly different tone and flare.
Review Fix: Bottom line, why must someone play this teaser?
Flores: People want to play this teaser for the immersive experience of walking through classic locations from the original KQ games. We’ve always played those past games as an observer. This is the player’s opportunity to physically step into these places and explore them as if they were really there.
Hallahan: It’s also a fun teaser for Episode 5–we wanted something different to get everyone excited since we also announced that the episode will be coming next year!
Review Fix: How does it tease the future?
Flores: Some of the rooms you explore and the characters you encounter have never been seen before and are unique to TSL Episode 5.
Review Fix: How did it feel to develop for VR?
Flores: VR has been really interesting to develop with and something that we’ve only started doing in the past year. In that short time we’ve already seen the technology make leaps and bounds every few months so we’re really excited to see where its going next.
Review Fix: How do you want this game to be remembered?
Flores: I think we all hope this will be remembered as that weird anomaly in the Silver Lining timeline. Something that you have to play because it’s so radically different from the rest of the series.
Hallahan: It definitely has a unique feel in comparison to the rest of the game–and our other games, for that matter.
Review Fix: What are your goals for this game?
Flores: We have some new members on our team who had never been through a release so we thought this would be a good experience for them and a great team bonding exercise. It also provided us an opportunity to test out adventure game mechanics in a VR environment which is something we feel has a lot of potential.
Hallahan: We also wanted to let people know that yes, we’re working hard on the next episode, and give them something new to see for it. We realize it’s been a long time since the last release, so this was a great  way to reconnect with the fans who’ve been waiting patiently for more news.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Flores: Anybody who’s played the game knows that episode 5 is coming next year.
Hallahan: 2017, the saga concludes.
Flores: Beyond that, a VR adventure game is definitely something we would be interested in doing. Whether that would be a sequel to one of our existing titles or something completely new has yet to be determined. A few of our team members have presented some interesting concepts so we’re still trying to narrow it down.
Review Fix: Anything else you want to say?
Flores: This game is really a love letter to our fans to thank them for their on-going support. We hope it brings back some fond memories for them and gets their imagination going for what’s coming in the final chapter.
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