Hear from Ewen Watson, the developer behind the new officially licensed Knightmare point-and-click adventure game due for release next year.
A new officially licensed game is in development, featuring voices from many of the original cast, including Hugo Myatt as Treguard. It will be launched for free on PC next year.
It's the creation of a small two-person team, Ewen Watson and Sathya Schlösser. Ewen kindly agreed to tackle some of our toughest riddles and share a bit more about the project.
Let's start with where the idea came from
I grew up in the 90s and Knightmare was a huge staple of my week. I was really captivated by the world and characters on the show and couldn't wait to watch each week. I had some of David Morris and Tim Child's choose your own adventure books too.
I was really sad when Knightmare just finished and never came back and always wished someone would do something with it. One of the first things I ever did on the internet was sign a petition to bring it back!
Many years later, during the pandemic, I found myself with a lot of time on my hands and decided to spend it learning about coding and designing a point-and-click adventure game.
I was experimenting a lot with characters and stories and just sort of stumbled across the idea of making a version of Knightmare.
I asked Sathya to draw some rough sprites and backgrounds - based on David Rowe's legendary rooms - and it really clicked.
Is that how long it's been in the works?
We started working on the loose idea about 3 years ago. The first year was mainly about researching and pulling ideas together.
We also spent a lot of time trying to work out how best to translate Knightmare into a point-and-click adventure game and pinning down the art direction.
The early stages of making the game were really fun but we didn't even know if Tim would allow us to make the game at that point!
So, what you do think it was about the game that persuaded Tim and the cast to get behind it?
Tim seemed to be really happy with our pitch and the art direction we presented to him. He also really liked the idea that we wanted to make it a 100% free game made for the fans of his great work.
The actors were also thrilled to be back, and I didn't have to persuade any of them to be involved!
I was also really happy to get endorsement from David Rowe and Ed Welch to use the logo and music respectively. I really hope we can get David more involved in some way as we are big fans of his work, and his art goes hand-in-hand with Knightmare.
Speaking of artistic styles, what were the inspirations? (Sensing the Monkey Island series!)
At the same time as I was watching Knightmare as a child, I was also obsessed with classic PC point-and-click LucasArts adventures game like Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max Hit the Road as well as Simon the Sorcerer. Those are the kinds of games we have been influenced by.
We really wanted the game to look like a cross between the iconic original Knightmare opening sequence and The Curse of Monkey Island.
(I can totally see that - KM)
Did you see any of the early games made by fans based on the Games Factory engine?
Yes! I have seen and played some of them. I wasn't aware of them until I started researching our game, but I really enjoyed playing them. There is a lot of charm to them and it's great to see so much work being put into fan projects.
It just shows you how passionate and creative the Knightmare fanbase is.
What were the biggest challenges you've found along the way? (e.g. Recreating puzzles)
I think one of the hardest parts about making the game was deciding what we couldn't include.
There are a few elements of classic Knightmare that don't translate particularly well into this format.
For example, in the show, Life Force was a big gameplay element that encouraged the contestants to push forward quickly. This was obviously great for building tension and adding an element of danger.
However, I feel that it is important in our game to encourage the player to explore and not to punish them for taking their time. Those kinds of decisions were difficult to make as they are such a big part of Knightmare's identity.
We also wanted to make sure that the puzzles could all be solved in-game and that you didn't need real-world knowledge to progress. I think that's especially important in modern times as we didn't want people to have to exit the game to look up answers online.
One more challenge that I'd like to talk about was actually tracking down the actors and others involved in Knightmare - there was a lot of detective work involved!
Totally! And how has it been working with the cast?
It has been surreal but absolutely incredible to work with the original cast.
As a lifelong fan of Knightmare, it was a great honour to be in the studio with Hugo Myatt as he performed as Treguard. I was very nervous about the idea of working with him, but he was such a wonderful gentleman, and we had a great time together.
All the actors were fantastic and jumped right back into their roles.
Working with Mark Knight was a blast. Especially when he and Clifford Barry were together and doing some improv. It was hilarious!
I also want to mention Paul Valentine's efforts as he doesn't currently live in the UK but still took the time to be involved.
We notice there's also a former contestant named among the voices?
Yes, as well as the original cast, we had a couple of original characters to find voices for too.
I had come across mention of Katharine Bennett-Fox on knightmare.com as a former advisor who had found success as an actor.
It seemed like a great fit and Katharine was excited to enter the world of Knightmare again. And this time, she didn't have to be worried about leading her dungeoneer into Ariadne's lair!
Revisit Katharine's Time on Knightmare
Fans are curious about some specific characters. Will we be seeing Lillith, for example?
I would have loved to have included Lillith, Hordriss, Merlin and Mogdred in the game but the original actors are sadly no longer with us so we didn't think it would be right to recast them.
However, there will be references to all of them in the game!
Tell us a bit about the team behind the magic
We are a very small two-person team. Sathya Schlösser is the artist and animator and I handle everything else.
We do have a couple of others involved such as our website designer Dan Druce and my brother Ross who has assisted with voiceover recordings.
Since our trailer launch, we have been inundated with others who want to be involved and are delighted to say that some of them are now on board with the production.
I have to admit that we really did underestimate the impact of the trailer and we weren't prepared for the overwhelming positive response.
I'd like to thank everyone who has shared or commented on our video on social media. I did try and reply to everyone but there were so many that I have lost track!
And what's next, for yourself and the project?
We are currently focussed on finishing the game. We're making great progress but there's still a lot of work to be done.
Meanwhile, we're working on getting the release details sorted and we have a few smaller voice parts still to record.
We hope to have more to share in the coming months, so we'd encourage anyone to follow us on social media if they are interested in the game's development.
- Facebook: @knightmarequest
- Instagram: @knightmarequest
- YouTube: @knightmarequest
- X: @knightmarequest
- Bluesky: @knightmarequest
Our thanks to Ewen for his time, and our best wishes and support for the rest of the journey towards the final release. We'll be here when it lands!
