Summer Vacation
Remember those halcyon days when we were young and looked forward to a fun Summer vacation after months of schoolwork or a steady job? It was all about taking some time off to relax and recover from the stress. (One of the big reasons I became a school teacher was so I could continue to enjoy my Summer vacation…)
This Summer, after more than five years of development, we launched Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. It was a tumultuous journey from the start. We had to invent and reinvent the technology and the game all along the way. In addition to the game, we created two different t-shirts, a stuffed Meep, two different hats, key chains, posters, screensavers, coins, two manuals, and two different Kickstarters. It’s been a wild ride.
So it’s Summertime, the game has shipped and I can finally sit back and relax, right?
Nope.
We still need to finish work on the Art of Hero-U book and the Yearbook. Then there are the packaged games and the thousands of autographs. We have to make sure all the rewards get out to our backers.
Art Book Cover
And then there’s the next game that needs to be designed and scripted… Hero-U: Wizard’s Way. We’ve already created character designs for the new main characters. They all have their own backstories and their personal goals. Wizard’s Way will have a slightly more serious attitude and tone than Rogue to Redemption. Events from the past will haunt our heroine. Danger surrounds her. She’s in for an exciting adventure at Hero-U.
Some of the Wizard’s Way Cast
Wizard’s Way is every bit as huge and complex as Rogue to Redemption. It’s going to take years of work and testing before we can put on the market. We need to do a lot of writing and design to do in order to make this game.
As if that wasn’t enough to do on my schedule, I decided that we needed to create another game at the same time we’re developing Wizard’s Way. Why am I so crazy as to do two games at once?
Wizard’s Way
Rogue to Redemption took far too long to create. We created a game engine from scratch, we had to go from 2D graphics to 3D, and we made mistakes that we had to fix. We won’t make those same mistakes with Wizard’s Way, but we’re sure to make new ones. We expect the game will take at least two, and probably three years to design, write, develop, and test.
That’s a long time to go between games. We also can’t spend that much time developing a game with income from only one shipped game.
Money is good. It’s a way to pay the artists and the programmers for all the work they do for us. It’s the way we keep food on the table. It keeps our eighteen year old cars running.
We don’t need to get rich. We just want to make enough money to keep doing the things we’re doing. The things we love to do. Things like creating great games…
So we thought – “How about we design a game that is simpler than Wizard’s Way will be? One that focuses on characters, relationships, and stories? How about an Adventure Tale full of Nuts, Dates, and Daring-do?”
Summer Daze Dining Hall
So we came up with one. It’s the distillation of a game down to its basics with simple, elegant artwork and a light, cartoony character style. And it’s set at Hero-U.
“Summer Daze at Hero-U” is a very different game from Rogue to Redemption even though they share many elements. It takes place the Summer before Shawn and his motley band of Disbarred Bards join Hero-U. It’s all about a Disbarred Bard who gets into trouble with Mr. Terk and the Headmaster… or else it’s all about a Wizard who wants to do the best she can.
Summer Daze will let you choose who you want to play. You can be a tricksy mischief-maker like Till Apfelbaum or a serious, Hermione-ish do-gooder like Ifeya Kinah. The character you choose alters the situation, the other characters, and the events that occur in the course of the game.
And it won’t take five years to create it. Well, we’re pretty sure it won’t.
So that’s what I’m doing on my Summer vacation – dreaming of a remote beach on Sardonia in the shadow of an old castle. It’s a good thing I love what I do.
Postcard from Sardonia