King's Quest reboot trailer shows platforming, dragons, traps

We already knew that the King's Quest reboot wouldn't be a point and click game, but I'm not sure we were prepared for just how not-a-point-and-click-game it appears to be. Shown last night at The Game Awards, this first trailer for the new King's Quest reveals platforming, action, stealthy bits and traps, all things you mightn't expect from one of the most fondly remembered adventure game series around.

It's certainly nice to look at, though, with a lovely, Gallic cartoon art style, an adorably hapless main character, and a big scary dragon for him to have a bit of a barney with. I'm not a fan of sequences where you have to time jumps over approaching logs, so hopefully there won't be too much of that sort of thing in the game. Not pictured: puzzles, story or conversation, but there will be further trailers detailing all three in due course.

King's Quest is out in Autumn next year, and it's being developed by The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom creators The Odd Gentlemen. You'll remember that Activision recently resurrected the Sierra label to handle publishing duties.

King's Quest creators Roberta and Ken Williams were honored at the event with an Industry Icon award, though they aren't involved with development of the new game.

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.