The gameplay in King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow is a third-person puzzle-solving adventure game. Players control Alexander as he navigates the islands, solving puzzles linearly to progress through the game. Poor choices or missteps can be fatal for the Prince. The game features a point-and-click interface with icons that represent verbs ("walk", "examine", "use", "talk", etc.).
The CD-ROM version of the game includes both DOS and Windows versions, full speech, a pre-rendered introduction, and the Girl in the Tower theme song.