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KickStarter Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption - adventure-RPG from the creators of Quest for Glory

Kattze

Andhaira
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I just shelled out $60 for the game, which includes the Artbook, Soundtrack, digital yearbook, and beta access to the game. Admittedly I only made the purchase because I just received a check for my birthday, loved all the Quest for Glory games the Coles created in the past, feel that the collapse of Sierra was a horrible thing to have happened, and I appreciate all the Coles still do for the industry and for indie games (such as their support for Heroine's Quest). Take one of those away and I wouldn't have spent so much. I don't expect this to be the game of the year for 2015 or 2016 or whenever it is released, but I do hope for at least a very good adventure-CRPG hybrid and something that will get enough traction to keep the two in the black and out of bankruptcy.

Anyway, I'll share my impressions as time moves closer to the official release date. Downloading the demo now.

Edit: Loading up the intro and I find it pretty. :)

So how is the demo?

And why is this thread not in Adventure Gaming?
 

Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
I haven't played more than 30 minutes, so I don't feel I'm qualified to say right now. I got pulled into a couple of different projects that have my focus, but I should be able to give it some more attention by the end of the month.
 

Boleskine

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http://www.hero-u.net/leaders/demo-arigato/

Demo Arigato
In May, Transolar Games will start another Kickstarter to raise money to finish the Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption project with extra flair and pizzazz. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will send two demos out to our Kickstarter Backers who wanted to Beta test our game. After initial testing and feedback, we will make both demos available to other backers and the public.

The Break-In House, Redux
Why two demos? The first demo is the opening scene of the game – the Break-in House. We released this same scene originally with different artwork. Now we’ve revamped the artwork and redesigned the interactions in the room to make it more interesting and exciting.

That was then:
BIH_screenshot_old.png

BIH Original Trek

This is now:
BIH_screenshot_new.png

BIH Next Generation

Shawn and the room are now rendered in 3D. We updated many of the original props for the new version, but they are now 3D rather than the 2-1/2 D of the original Demo.

The new Break-in House Demo doesn’t look like some bright and cheery, bland scene with cutout cartoon characters pasted over it. Now we have a mysterious darkened room full of unknown obstacles and puzzles. The emotional appeal of the room has changed dramatically. We’ve gone from an imitation 90’s Sierra wannabe game to something with its own unique style.

Why is this important? This scene is not just for the demo – It is the opening scene that sets the tone for the rest of the game. And Shawn will return later as part of a critical plot revelation. So “ok” wasn’t good enough for this scene… or the rest of Hero-U.

The Combat Prototype
We originally planned to release a combat demo a few months after the adventure game demo. However, as we began work on it, we discovered that this was a much more complicated exercise. To really show off our combat features, we needed 3D monsters, a much more complex 3D environment, and most of the behind-the-scenes RPG features.

CD_sneak_ss.png

Shawn sneaks quietly through the wine cellar

When you play a game, you see the end result of the coordinated effort of all the team members. To make the combat prototype, we needed:

  1. The combat system, including effects of skills, abilities, and equipment
  2. The inventory system with the ability to collect and use items
  3. Animation for doors, Shawn, and monsters
  4. The environment, including lighting, obstacles, and special areas
  5. What happens when Shawn moves behind a wall? How do you see him?
  6. Messages reflecting combat and other actions
  7. Music and sound effects
  8. Much, much more
This was not something we could put together in a month. In fact, we had to put it on hold for many more months until we received character art, hired 3D environment artists, and hired a programmer who understood all the aspects of creating an RPG.

CD_combat_ss.png

Shawn encounters two Dire Rats and fights for his life

We didn’t want to waste any of this art or programming, so we created an important section of the game – the wine cellar – and populated it with monsters and treasure for the prototype. The specifics will change in the game, but everything we built for the prototype will be used somewhere in the game.

We’re calling this a “prototype” rather than a “demo”, as we plan to refine many aspects of the combat system before we release them as part of Hero-U. Your feedback will be very important to us as we create the game you want to play.

So we say, “Demo Arigato” – Thank you for checking out these demonstrations of our ongoing work on the Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption project!
 

Tramboi

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Mmmmh they want 100K$ to go on and will do a new kickstarter.

Why Are We Doing Another Kickstarter?

0uyECYbLtkHByUaHna_t9pARcr0_6h6qxoQfELG3C7muncd2y-Gue5MGfXYyX0lOqrw7DioZQRVNzc4lZ3wP9nOftiTHocMLORUoO7NUY8AyM07Tx9asNnWYKdPjfQX2fhLDLcY
The notes above under “Demo Redux” give part of the reason. We spent many months experimenting with 2D graphics for the game before determining that they were not good enough for Hero-U. Switching to 3D has had a major impact on our development budget as well as the time it takes to create the game.


Besides improving graphics, Lori and I are taking advantage of the extra time to enhance the dialogue and other text in the game. For example, if you compare the new break-in demo to the old one, you’ll find that it has at least twice as many interactions and responses. We want to make the entire game that rich.


Finally, we’ve had significant costs in turnover. We have had 12 developers leave the team for various reasons over the last 2-½ years, as many as we have on the project now. Each time, that has resulted in discarding their work or in turning it over to another developer. That costs us both time and money. It has also resulted in some of our decisions to make major changes to the project - For example, abandoning top-down Rogue-like graphics, and later going from 2D to 3D.


This turnover is inevitable on a long-term, low-budget project - Our developers need to feed their families, and they are talented enough to find higher-paying work. We are immensely grateful to the team members who have stuck with us since early in the project, and to the artist who now has a full-time job, but is still committed to helping us finish Hero-U.


With all of those challenges, we need more funding to finish the project. We also want to attract more fans to the project now that it is so much farther along than when we started. As a result, rather than finding outside investors or taking out more loans, we’re returning to Kickstarter to fund the final year of development.


This time, we will be asking for only $100,000. To put that in perspective, if each of our current backers contributes just $10, we’ll be two-thirds of the way to the goal on day one. Of course, if the campaign is more successful, it will allow us to hire more people and possibly add voice-acting, localization to other languages, and other features. Any such additions will be done in after the initial game release so that they do not affect the project schedule.


We can complete the game without a successful Kickstarter, but it will mean cutting some content as well as hardship to our team members and ourselves. Several of our developers (including Lori and me) have been deferring all pay for more than a year. We would love to get to a point where we can pay them for at least part of their work before then.
 

Western

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Codex 2012 Codex 2014 Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2
The one Kickstarter I really regret backing, and I backed Broken Age, but at least the documentary gave me front row seats to a train wreck.
 

Boleskine

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$100,000 isn't too much to ask for, and as long as the Coles can show some progress and give people confidence that the game will be finished and worthwhile, they should hit the goal. But if people play the updated demo and don't like it any more than the first demo 1.5 years ago, it's going to be hard to overcome negative word of mouth.
 
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As a Kickstarter backer I don't really mind that they failed to deliver, I consider it a payment for all those awesome hours with pirated QfG games in 90s Russia. But, to be honest, I kinda lost faith that they will deliver a good game at all. Playable game - sure, passable one - maybe. A good one? I doubt that. They showed themselves to be too out of touch with both modern gaming landscape, development process and even with basic understanding what their backers wanted from them. So, while I wish them best of luck, I won't participate in their second Kickstarter.
 

Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture


+1

The Coles seem like nice people. But to me the entire development of this game seems like a mess. What makes you guys feel confident they can pull it off even with another kickstarter?

I didn't send them a large donation because I felt for certain that they could pull this off. I gave them my largest kickstarter donation to date because I feel they are deserving of the opportunity. An opportunity they will certainly not have without fan support.
 

DeepOcean

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The Coles were responsable for hours of heart warming fun of the Quest for Glory games, there wasn't this pretentious serious grim darkness that plague nowdays games where writers try to tell something even them are not sure of what. The quest for glory games felt like DnD sections where the DM wanted a light hearted adventure full of humour with simple and straight plots but captured the fairy tale style really damn well. I'm torn, there is only Hero U and Mage's Initiation as adventure/RPG games on the horizon but I dunno... I'm feeling PTSD after Wasteland 2 and PoE and the feeling of ennui towards kickstarter just get stronger.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/transolargames/hero-u-rogue-to-redemption/posts/1221995

Even Better the Second Time Around

32efa04d111ceae0e8b96fe18b71319c_original.png

Starting May 12, we are taking a very unusual step - Two and one-half years after successfully completing the Hero-U Kickstarter, we are coming back to ask for more funding and more support.

We will need your help to succeed, and I want to show you here why supporting our second Kickstarter is both the right thing to do, and why you will benefit from supporting us.

It won’t take much - If every backer from our first Kickstarter pledges just $10, we will be more than halfway to our $100,000 goal. If you all pledge $20, we can reach our goal on the first day.

This game will be amazing! Thanks to you, we’ve made amazing progress over the last two years. Here is an example of what we showed you in late 2012 compared to what the game looks like now:

924d70df159eb0f42e4f19621605acba_original.jpg

We are putting in the time, effort, creativity, and expense to bring this level of quality to every scene and every aspect of Hero-U. This will be a game that each of us - backers and developers - can look on with pride and say, “I helped make that!” Thanks to your support, you are part of our team.

Check Out the New Game Play Demo
We have a great new version of the playable demo for you with all-new art, programming, interface, and dialogue. If you log on to your Humble Bundle account, you will find WIndows, Macintosh, and Linux versions waiting for you to download and enjoy.

We have also just completed our first combat prototype, a playable experience that lets you explore a section of the cellars underneath Hero-U, fight monsters, and collect incredible treasure. We plan to release that to Insider and Beta Test backers today to get their feedback, and to everyone next week.

The rest of the game is also progressing well. We recently added Aaron Martin to the team to work on 3D environments. Most of the castle is now explorable, and we are steadily filling out the text and dialogue. With the demos complete, we expect to make rapid progress on other areas.

There is still a long way to go. Each scene is like a rough gem that needs to be refined, cut, and polished before becoming a jewel worthy of adding to the Hero-U treasure chest.

0c934a357d85f33fbf5e7e02be6b039c_original.jpg

How You Can Help, and What You Will Get
Every dollar contributed the new Kickstarter campaign will make a big difference to the quality of Hero-U.

For those of you who backed us at the $20 level in 2012, we’ve created a special $20 pledge level just for you. For that second $20, you will receive all the benefits of our new $50 tier. That will include a hint book with tips and strategies for reaching different goals in Hero-U. We will give you the complete soundtrack with all of Ryan Grogan’s stunning musical compositions along with any music we add to the game in the coming months.

You will also get the “Making of Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption Art Book”, highlighting many of the stunning portraits, paintings, and background art from the game. It also includes an insider look at the process our artists went through to complete the game art, including the original design notes, early sketches, and “color comps”. It’s a pretty awesome reward level!

More than half of you (3300 of 6100 total) backed at the original $20 level. Check out the math - As a numbers guy, I think it’s pretty cool. 3300 x $20 = $66,000. That leaves about 2800 backers. Each of you kick in just $10, for 2800 x $10 = 28,000. Add those together and you get $94,000, and the new campaign is nearly funded. It doesn’t take a painful amount from anyone - All it takes is a community and a commitment to this game.

Would you like to help more? We have added some great new rewards at the higher levels including a new t-shirt design depicting all of the types of Heroes at Hero-U. A new hat design will feature the awesomely cute Hero-Unicorn.

Then there is the mysterious Rogues Gallery deep in the catacombs beneath Hero-U. If you are one of our Most Wanted Backers, your picture could appear on a Wanted Poster in the Gallery.

Is there a reward you would treasure more than anything else? Contact us at support@hero-u.net with your ideas.

What’s New At Hero-U?
We’ve simplified our main www.hero-u.com web site and made it mobile-device-friendly. The latter is important for Google’s changes to search priority. From the main page, you can get to the Kickstarter, the What’s New blog, our stores, and the discussion forum. The latter are still onhero-u.net for now. Here are the main links:
Let’s Make This Happen Together
We’ve had an amazing and exciting time developing Hero-U so far, full of ups, downs, and sideways. For all the challenges, we wouldn’t trade the experience. We have been thrilled, delighted, and relieved by your continuing support, confidence, and encouragement for this most difficult project.

Check back on Kickstarter on May 12 for the start of “Hero-U Adventure Role-playing Computer Game” by Corey Cole. www.hero-u.com/kickstarter will count down the time left, and then link to the Kickstarter page once it goes live.

Be sure to share the good news with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and real life. We’ll see you there!
 

Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
The demo is an improvement from the last one, graphics-wise, though I did run into a small inventory bug that didn't impede me. Basically the bug created mirror images of a letter cutter I had picked up. The demo is as tough as some of the older Quest for Glory experiences. What I mean is that you really have to try everything in order to advance and it will pleasingly challenge or frustrate you depending on how you feel about adventure games in general. I've found a few nifty things in the demo, but haven't beaten it yet, though I have gotten myself thrown into prison.
 

Name

Cipher
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The demo is an improvement from the last one, graphics-wise, though I did run into a small inventory bug that didn't impede me. Basically the bug created mirror images of a letter cutter I had picked up. The demo is as tough as some of the older Quest for Glory experiences. What I mean is that you really have to try everything in order to advance and it will pleasingly challenge or frustrate you depending on how you feel about adventure games in general. I've found a few nifty things in the demo, but haven't beaten it yet, though I have gotten myself thrown into prison.

...I think the demo can be beaten in half a minute
go to the desk, turn on the lamp, open the drawer, take the letter cutter (the only thing that can be taken), go to the furnace, examine the panel, open, open, and pry, go back out through the window and follow the wizard.
 

Boleskine

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Corey Cole responded to concerns on a Facebook post.

You make good points, but we did feel we had much choice in any of the changes we've made to Hero-U.

Step 1: Decide to work with experienced developer's code base (but developer is very expensive).

Step 2: Said developer quits because our budget won't cover his consulting rate for a year.

Step 3: Art director refuses to make the game like the original concept because it "looks like shit". We happen to agree, and go with it.

Step 4: After six months of work, the team can't get a single scene to look good in 2D. We make the expensive decision to switch to 3D. Lori and I stop paying ourselves and put all the money back into the budget.

Step 5: Two team members come down with debilitating diseases and have to leave the team. The art director burns out and quits. Now Lori Cole is art director as well as lead writer and designer.

Step 6: We find several fabulous new developers and begin to turn around the project... But see steps 1-5 to find out how much is left to pay them.

Step 7: We regroup and do a second Kickstarter.

Every step pretty much inevitable, but also most of them add quality to the game. We did not "decide" to switch from the 2D top-down Rogue-like to a full 3D adventure game. It was forced on us step by step either by team changes or lack of quality in the previous iteration.

This is, by the way, a normal and typical process for most big games: Warcraft Adventures - cancelled. Wildstar: Years late and tens of millions of dollars over budget. Blizzard's "Titan" - Tens of millions of dollars spent, years late, finally cancelled.

Quest for Glory V - Budget reduced from $900K to $600K before we started production. We refused to make a bad game (as it would have been with that budget), and Sierra cancels it. Later fan email causes Sierra to reconsider. They start over with a 1.5 year schedule and $2M budget. By the time the game launched, it actually took 3.5 years and $4.5M. (And it still looked pretty bad, because in the intervening five years, 3D just started being used.)

So yeah, we make mistakes constantly, but the most serious mistake I made on this project was setting the Estimated Delivery date based on the Kickstarter dollar goal and not on how long it would take to make a game, knowing that we would need additional funding to make a strong game. The estimated delivery should have been Oct. 2014, not 2013, and yes we would still be running a year late.
 
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Morkar Left

Guest
It's pure gutfeeling I give them another 20$ because I'm curious about the game.
And you can actually see that they made drastical changes to the engine with a higher quality goal than initially intended. Usually it goes the other way, therefore I have hope a good game will be made.
 

Mustawd

Guest
**From Facebook post above**

So yeah, we make mistakes constantly, but the most serious mistake I made on this project was setting the Estimated Delivery date based on the Kickstarter dollar goal and not on how long it would take to make a game, knowing that we would need additional funding to make a strong game. The estimated delivery should have been Oct. 2014, not 2013, and yes we would still be running a year late.

That is a huge mistake akin to:


-My biggest mistake was having sex with a man instead of a woman. Huge mistake
-My biggest mistake was to add the numbers not subtract them; Man, screwed up on that one
-My biggest mistake was to make an FPS instead of an adventure game/RPG hybrid. Man, still kicking myself over that.


I didn't pledge to their kickstarter back in 2012 or whenever it went live, but it's surprising how much of a pass the Coles are getting for their F up(s); Especially considering how the Codex likes to present themselves as calling out devs on their BS (source: anything related to POE).

Not that I wish them ill will, but at least call a spade a spade.
 

Name

Cipher
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I'm not a fan of second coming and currently not inclined to throw more money their way (well, maybe another $10), but you gotta admit Coles are a different breed from many other kickstarters... Usually the scope of project went down from the promised (e.g. MMO turned into MO, Early Access games sold as 1.0), and a fair amount ended up as vaporwares. They are actually increasing (foolhardily) the scope because of circumstances (e.g. unable to hold on to employees and their tech; unfamiliar with game design and implementation after leaving the game industries and playing WOW instead for a decade).


It's just so hilarious you want to see how long they can keep going...

the sad kind of hilariousness
 
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