Easier said than done. Unfortunately the money never would have sufficed for GK4, doing the remake was much cheaper. At least they had story/characters and all that down.

The rest is all answered in their FAQ and every interview they did.

They couldn't reuse the voices from the original because the quality was too low and the original recordings were thrown out like trash, no one archived this stuff. This left them with no other choice but re-record it.

The animations you are talking of weren't in there because of the budget.

They remade it because this is the strongest of all the GK stories and they hoped this game would spark some interest with new players. If enough people would have bought this, they might have had the chance to do a GK4. But their silence on this speaks volumes.

I'm sure they would have added more/better animations if they would have made more money on Kickstarter, but they didn't.

I think thisis nice to read. :-)
It explains some things.
Edit because I didn't get the link right at first try.
Edit 2: There was never a Kickstarter for GK20!

Perhaps I didn't word that correctly. I meant the money spent on the remake would have been better put towards the budget for a GK4, if they could have found additional funding. I'm not naïve enough to think the remake budget would cover a decent GK4 game. Like you said, they already had the script and characters etc.

Again this is understandable, but then why not just cut (for example) the "Get down!" line Grace says as if Gabriel is up the ladder if they couldn't afford to animate him going up there? And why couldn't they afford this, but they could afford to add a pointless different puzzle to getting into Mosely's office along with a zombie-style police officer scene? I'm not pretending to know what a ladder climbing animation costs vs the addictional cut scenes, but this just seems sloppily executed in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong - I fully supported this and paid full price for it in the hopes it would go towards getting GK4. I guess I just feel disappointed, but I still hold on to hope of a new game eventually.

I hope the remake did introduce GK to a new audience who will go on to get the sequels, because they are great stories that deserve to be heard and enjoyed.

They couldn't. As a company, they don't have the option to wait 10 years for someone eventually gifting them the money they need. Besides, the longer they would have waited, the more unrealistic it would have become that anyone still cared. Ultimately they have to sell something to get money. GK 20 seemed to be their best shot to get some revenue and at the same time draw attention to the franchise.

Those are probably easier/faster/cheaper to do than animations. He also doesn't hug grandma Knight anymore, when he enters her house...


There kinda was [1]. I received GK20 as my Kickstarter reward.

[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1005365109/jane-jensens-pinkerton-road-2012-2013-csg/description

You are clearly more informed than I, so I shan't debate this with you further. Thanks for the info.

If you spot a Kickstarter for GK4, please post a link in this forum so we can jump on board.

For a more detailed comparison between the various versions of the Sins of the Fathers storyline, you can find many listed here.

http://gabrielknight.wikia.com/wiki/Gabriel_Knight:_Sins_of_the_Fathers_comparisons

As for the remake, I don't really care what they coulda, shoulda, didn't do... I still think the original is the superior game.

As far as I remember reading somewhere on the net the money they got from that Kickstarter was only used for Moebius. Mystery game X (GK20) was just an extra for the backers. The money for that came from somewhere else.

Oh come on. That's a little naive, don't you think? If they would have had more funds, they would have used them to make a more polished version of the game! What they got instead was starvation wages. ;) http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/22/gabriel-knight-and-starvation-wages-at-pinkerton-road/

Of course it is. No matter what kind of remake they would make it couldn't be possibly be better than the game we played 20 years ago. (And this applies practically to all remakes of the classic adventure games.)

While I dislike that they made the story more linear, I can live with that. Biggest issue I have with the remake is that all Phoenix Online Studios' games look cheap and while new GK looks better than their previous games, it still looks worse than other modern adventure games.

While some might think that graphic and animation quality doesn't matter, those are actually huge selling point when you try to attract new players. Outdated graphics and gameplay* of the original was the main reason behind making the remake.

PS: Despite my constant complaining about the remake, it's still a good game.

*I actually liked the original UI more than the simplified one, because it offered more alternatives for interaction.

The remake was a fun play through. Actually I've played through it twice.

But I've played the original dozens of times., and will play it through many times in the future as well. It will be the version I primarily play.

Yep, it was fun to play when it worked properly. But I experienced way too many occasions when the game became unresponsive (especially on Jackson Square) and managed to walk inside the walls several times. None of those issues prevented me from finishing the game, but I think that POS needs better QA.

It's almost as buggy as many old Sierra classics were. :D

I experienced the 'walk into the sky' issues. As well as artwork that wasn't properly 'cut out'. So that you walk over foreground scenery, when you should be behind it.

Or you can walk behind background elements that you can't actually get to. That is to say the background elements will appear in the foreground, when you stand behind it, instead of actually being in the background. Like "blue/green screen" and wearing a blue/green shirt.

I wouldn't mind seeing a GK3 remake. One that isn't 3D, or at least that ugly polygon. I've always hated games like that.

I guess the graphics haven't aged that well, but back in '99 this game felt revolutionary. I was very impressed that you could move the camera around and examine the locations yourself.

Also my impression about the graphics was very favorable back then. It's funny how these days people are against aged 3D graphics. While back in the day many people considered these new flashy 3D graphics looked very realistic and better than 2D graphics.

For fans of adventure games, 3d adventure games were a downgrade from the older 2d games.