Written by Roberta Williams and Jane Jensen, King's Quest VI is widely recognized as the high point in the series for its landmark 3D graphic introduction movie (created by Kronos Digital Entertainment) and professional voice acting (Hollywood actor Robby Benson provided the voice for Prince Alexander, the game's protagonist).

A CD-ROM version of the game was released in 1993, including more character voices, a slightly different opening movie and more detailed artwork and animation.

The player is given an icon-based toolbar at the top of the screen of selectable functions: walk, look (provides a description from the narrator of the object targeted), action and talk, respectively.

[6] The game's opening cutscene shows Prince Alexander is haunted by memories of Princess Cassima, whom he met at the end of King's Quest V when they were both rescued from the wizard Mordack.

At the beginning of the game he is shipwrecked on the shore of the Isle of the Crown, where he learns that the vizier Abdul Alhazred (named after the author of the fictional Necronomicon) has assumed control in Cassima's absence, and plans to force her to marry him.

Alexander must explore the Land of the Green Isles in order to find and learn what he needs to rescue Cassima from the vizier.

[7] A significant aspect of the story and gameplay is the option for the player to receive different endings based on choices made during the course of the game.

[2] Almost half of the game's quests are optional, many have multiple solutions, and the open world design allows players to choose the order.

Motion capture transcribed the movement of real-life actors shot on video to the more than 2,000 character actions on computer.

Williams and Skirvin chose the actors and costumes for the shootings, and Michael Hutchinson led the animation team that integrated the footage into Shroades's backgrounds.

[12] The 3D-animated introduction was produced by Stanley Liu of Kronos Digital Entertainment, a company that did special effects for such films as Batman Returns and The Lawnmower Man.

Development wrapped in September, when Sierra's marketing and distribution departments began promoting and releasing the game.

[12] In an interview with The New York Times, Williams estimated the budget to have been about US$700,000 (equivalent to $1,519,848 in 2023) and stated that the crew included more than 20 people working for 14 months.

The song was composed by Mark Seibert with lyrics by Jane Jensen and serves as the game's love theme, playing in the end credits.

[28] The second King's Quest Collection has a number of editions in which the CD with King's Quest VI do not include the "Girl in the Tower" theme song audio CD track, so the Windows version simply crash during the credits and the DOS version plays the credits with no music.

[32] According to Sierra On-Line, combined sales of the King's Quest series surpassed 3.8 million units by the end of March 1996.

It liked the lushly drawn graphics and pleasing sound, but disliked the game for overuse of sudden death and being too limiting.

[44] In April 1994 the magazine said that the CD version's "quality voice talent throughout ... audibly displays that Sierra learned from their previous error", and "a worthy heir to the King's Quest lineage".

One other factor worth noting: though the game is deadly, violence is almost completely absent without detracting one bit from the tension and drama.

[2] King's Quest VI is generally considered the best title in the series and is mentioned as one of the greatest games of all time.