AGD Interactive, an acclaimed developer of classic adventure game remakes, is proud to present King’s Quest III Redux: To Heir Is Human after eight years of undercover production. This retold and remastered version of the 1986 Sierra On-Line game can be downloaded free of charge from http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/kq3 for PC and Mac. Today’s release brings an end to over a decade of free game production for AGD Interactive, who will now turn their talents to commercial projects.

Unlike the earlier King’s Quest games, which starred King Graham of Daventry in the lead role, King’s Quest III explores the fate of Gwydion, a slave who was snatched by the cruel wizard Manannan as an infant. Knowing nothing of his origin, Gwydion has been forced into a life of servitude and misery — until now. Using brainpower and a bit of ancient magic, it’s up to the player to thwart Manannan, secure Gwydion’s escape, and finally discover the truth about the young man’s identity.

King’s Quest III Redux stays true to Sierra’s 1986 classic while improving on elements that detracted from the original experience. Where the original King’s Quest III had blocky 16-color EGA graphics and a frustrating text parser, AGD Interactive’s remake features hand-painted SVGA graphics and a point and click interface reminiscent of later games in the series. The game has been polished to perfection, with lush storybook-style visuals, professional voice acting with Hollywood actor Robert Adamson in the role of Gwydion, and an original digital soundtrack composed especially for the remake. While the gameplay is largely unchanged, King’s Quest III Redux does include a number of original puzzles and puts a new spin on the story.

“We’re very excited to finally release this game after developing it in secret for so long,” says Chris Warren, who co-founded AGD Interactive as well as its sister company, Himalaya Studios. “We’ve poured a lot of love into this particular project and I think King’s Quest fans will be very pleased at the results, even though reaching the end may be bittersweet. Now we plan to focus on new, original games that retain the same retro charm that made the Sierra games so enduring.”