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Spiritual Successors Catalog

Last updated: May 13, 2026

Overview

The Spiritual Successors catalog is the vault’s umbrella for 18 games that aren’t Sierra-IP but are Sierra-DNA — original adventures created by former Sierra designers continuing their craft outside the company’s IP, plus indie titles that explicitly trade on the Sierra adventure-game design tradition.1 This is one of the most active branches of the Sierra extended catalog: while Sierra IP has been largely dormant under Activision/Microsoft since 2008, the spiritual-successor stream has produced new releases nearly every year from 2010 onward.2

The catalog spans three overlapping production threads:

  1. Alumni studios — Sierra designers founding new companies to make games in their old tradition: Pinkerton Road (Jane Jensen + Robert Holmes), Two Guys From Andromeda (Mark Crowe + Scott Murphy), the Coles’ Hero-U/Transolar Games, Phoenix Online Studios, Pierre Gilhodes’s independent French studio, and Ken & Roberta Williams’s 2023 return.
  2. Fan-developer indie projects — Studios like Infamous Quests (post-AGDI alumni making original IPs), Himalaya Studios (Al Emmo), and various AGS-engine adventure-game indies who grew up on Sierra games.
  3. Sierra-adjacent indie tributes — Original games made by indie developers who openly cite Sierra as inspiration but have no Sierra-staff lineage (e.g., Cluck Yegger, Bolt Riley).

This catalog complements the Sierra-IP series pages (King’s Quest Series, Quest for Glory Series, etc.) by documenting where those design traditions traveled after Sierra’s mothballing.

Catalog (chronological)

YearTitleStudioAlumniNotable
1993Blue ForceTsunami MediaJim Walls (post-Sierra)Police Quest creator’s Tsunami spinoff
2006Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman’s MineHimalaya StudiosIndieSierra-tradition western adventure
2008Ace of Acesindie / XBLA—Sierra Online label digital
2010Gray MatterWizarbox / Pinkerton RoadJane JensenFirst post-Sierra Jensen work
2012Cognition: An Erica Reed ThrillerPhoenix OnlineJensen consultingAdventure thriller
2013Fester Mudd: Curse of the GoldPrelude GamesIndieWild West adventure
2014Moebius: Empire RisingPinkerton RoadJane JensenMystery-conspiracy
2014Quest for InfamyInfamous QuestsInfamous Adventures alumniQuest for Glory spiritual successor
2015Cluck YeggerIndie—Space Quest tribute
2015Order of the Thorne: The King’s ChallengeInfamous Quests—King’s Quest spiritual successor
2018Bolt Riley: A Reggae AdventureCloak and Dagger—Music-themed adventure
2018Hero-U: Rogue to RedemptionTransolar GamesLori & Corey ColeQuest for Glory spiritual successor
2019Mage’s Initiation: Reign of the ElementsHimalaya Studios / Phoenix Online—QFG-style RPG-adventure hybrid
2022SpaceVentureTwo Guys From AndromedaMark Crowe + Scott MurphySpace Quest spiritual successor (Kickstarted 2012, released 2022)
2023Colossal Cave 3D AdventureCygnus EntertainmentKen & Roberta WilliamsWilliams family return after 25 years
2023Summer Daze: Tilly’s TaleTransolar GamesLori & Corey ColeHero-U spinoff
(TBD)Order of the Thorne: Fortress of FireInfamous Quests—OoT sequel
(TBD)Quest for Infamy: Roehm to RuinInfamous Quests—QfI sequel

Alumni studio threads

Pinkerton Road (Jane Jensen + Robert Holmes)

Founded 2012 by Jane Jensen and her composer-husband Robert Holmes, after Jensen’s earlier post-Sierra work at Oberon Media and Mumbo Jumbo. Pinkerton Road’s primary outputs are Gray Matter (2010, co-developed with Wizarbox before Pinkerton was formally established), Moebius: Empire Rising (2014), and the Gabriel Knight 20th Anniversary Edition (2014, a Sierra-IP licensed remake — listed in the Gabriel Knight Series page rather than here).3

The studio also published Phoenix Online’s Cognition through co-development arrangements, and Jensen wrote the 2024 short-story Gabriel Knight 4: Five Hearts (not a game; prose only) under the Pinkerton Road label.4

Two Guys From Andromeda (Mark Crowe + Scott Murphy)

Reunited in 2012 after years of estrangement, Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy formed “Guys From Andromeda LLC” to develop SpaceVenture — a Space Quest spiritual successor Kickstarted in 2012, released 10 years late in 2022 to mixed reviews. The studio also collaborated with indie developer Stone Cutter Bear on Cluck Yegger (2015), a smaller Space Quest tribute featuring the Two Guys’ branding.5

Transolar Games / Hero-U (Lori + Corey Cole)

Lori Ann Cole and Corey Cole founded Transolar Games in 2012 after a successful Kickstarter for Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption (released 2018 after a “lengthy, somewhat troubled development cycle” per PC Gamer’s retrospective). The studio followed with Summer Daze: Tilly’s Tale (2023, a smaller Hero-U-universe visual novel).6

A second Hero-U title is currently in funding-seeking phase as of 2026.

Phoenix Online Studios (Cesar Bittar et al.)

Founded 2003 by Cesar Bittar to develop the fan King’s Quest sequel The Silver Lining (released 2010, listed in King’s Quest Series rather than here as it’s a fan-IP project). Subsequent original works include Cognition (2012, with Jane Jensen consulting) and the Asylum horror adventure (in development).7

Infamous Quests

Founded 2014 by ex-Infamous Adventures members (the studio that made the King’s Quest III Remake and Space Quest II VGA Remake). Their original-IP output: Quest for Infamy (2014, Quest for Glory spiritual successor) and Order of the Thorne: The King’s Challenge (2015). Both have announced sequels (Roehm to Ruin, Fortress of Fire) in development.8

Ken & Roberta Williams (Cygnus Entertainment)

The Williams’ 2023 return to game development with Colossal Cave 3D Adventure — a 3D remake of the 1976 William Crowther / Don Woods text adventure that originally inspired Roberta Williams to create Mystery House in 1980. Built by their newly-formed Cygnus Entertainment after Ken Williams’s 2020 memoir Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings. The game was released for VR, console, and PC platforms.9

Pierre Gilhodes (Wide Screen Games)

Pierre Gilhodes, creator of the Gobliiins puzzle-adventure series at Coktel Vision, independently continued the series after Coktel’s wind-down: Gobliiins 4 (2009), Gobliiins 5: The Morgloton Invasion (2023), and Gobliins 6 (2026). These are listed in the Coktel Adventures Series page rather than here.10

Jim Walls (Precinct — cancelled)

Jim Walls (Police Quest creator) attempted a Kickstarter-funded Police Quest spiritual successor Precinct in 2013. The crowdfunding failed and the project was cancelled — see the Cancelled Game Index entry. Walls’s earlier post-Sierra game Blue Force (1993) at Tsunami Media is included here as the only released Walls successor.

Indie tribute thread

Several games in the catalog are indie tributes rather than alumni projects:

These titles all explicitly trade on the Sierra design tradition without alumni-staff lineage — the design idiom traveling beyond the original creators.

Critical-reception arc

Spiritual successors have had mixed commercial and critical fortunes:

Why spiritual successors keep getting made

Several structural reasons sustain this branch of the catalog:

  1. Sierra IP is dormant — Activision (and now Microsoft) hasn’t pursued new Sierra-IP development since 2015’s King’s Quest. Alumni who want to continue making Sierra-style games have no other path.
  2. Kickstarter / crowdfunding — Most spiritual successors are crowdfunded; the budgets are small but viable.
  3. Adventure-game design renaissance — Indie engines (Adventure Game Studio, Unity, custom engines) have made retro-style adventures economical.
  4. Audience demand — A dedicated adventure-game audience continues to fund and play these titles even as the mainstream gaming press largely ignores the genre.

Legacy

The spiritual successors catalog is, in aggregate, the largest active branch of the Sierra extended catalog post-2010. Sierra-IP releases since 2015 have totaled 1 game (the 2015 King’s Quest reboot); spiritual successors have produced 15+ games over the same period. For continuing the design tradition Sierra established, this catalog matters more than Microsoft’s current stewardship of the original IPs.

See Also

References

Footnotes

  1. Wikipedia — Sierra Entertainment legacy — Successor-studio context ↩

  2. Adventure Game Hotspot — Sierra alumni feature — Alumni-studio coverage ↩

  3. Pinkerton Road official site — Studio history ↩

  4. Wikipedia — Jane Jensen — Career timeline ↩

  5. Guys From Andromeda official site — Two Guys studio ↩

  6. Hero-U official site — Coles studio ↩

  7. Phoenix Online Studios — Studio site ↩

  8. Infamous Quests — Studio site ↩

  9. Kotaku — Williams Colossal Cave interview — Williams return coverage ↩

  10. Wide Screen Games — Pierre Gilhodes studio ↩

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