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

[ERYFKRAD]

It’s not a real person.

How do you know? Did you ask him?

 

[fantadomat]

It’s not a real person.

How do you know? Did you ask him?

The barbarian stole my line .

 

[ERYFKRAD]

It’s not a real person.

How do you know? Did you ask him?

The barbarian stole my line .

Pfft, we stole your women too.

 

[fantadomat]

It’s not a real person.

How do you know? Did you ask him?

The barbarian stole my line .

Pfft, we stole your women too.

Thank god that barbarians are shit at cartography,you stole from the neighbours,keep the bearded spoils.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

It’s not a real person.

How do you know? Did you ask him?

The barbarian stole my line .

Pfft, we stole your women too.

Thank god that barbarians are shit at cartography,you stole from the neighbours,keep the bearded spoils.

At least they're not storyfags.

 

[fantadomat]

It’s not a real person.

How do you know? Did you ask him?

The barbarian stole my line .

Pfft, we stole your women too.

Thank god that barbarians are shit at cartography,you stole from the neighbours,keep the bearded spoils.

At least they're not storyfags.

Thank god that they are not from the superior race,now go and play warriors with your new acquisitions in the waste pile,combatfag.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Thank god that they are not from the superior race,

Bulgars aren't that superior.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/transolargames/hero-u-rogue-to-redemption/posts/2564636

Where In the World Is Hero-U?

It’s July 2019, exactly one year since we released Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. Since then we’ve updated it with five patches, fixing bugs and adding features. Back in the Quest for Glory days at Sierra, the project would be considered long gone, and we would be close to releasing the next game.

We've recently uploaded part 1 of the Art of Hero-U to BackerKit for premium backers. Once the art book is done, we'll be selling it, along with the soundtrack and bestiary, on Steam and the Hero-U website.

Celebration at Hero-U

A Painful History Lesson - Quest for Glory IV
There was one major exception - Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness. That’s a game we were still working on a year past the original release. One of the reasons for that was that we (at management’s behest) pushed the game out the door long before it was ready, so it needed more than a few patches.

To be fair, that wasn’t strictly Sierra management’s fault. Lori and I were back working together for the first time since Quest for Glory II: Trial By Fire, and we got over-ambitious with QGIV. We wanted to create a richer story, and most challenging puzzles, than in any previous Sierra game. The other major delay is that the systems group was developing a new version of SCI, which left our team unable to test their work for several months. Without, of course, any additional time added to our deadline.

Previously there was an unwritten rule at Sierra that a game project should take under a year, start to finish. When the games were drawn on a computer screen in 16 colors at 320x200 resolution, that was possible and treated as normal. It was still a major challenge every time, especially when we added RPG features to Sierra’s graphic adventure game formula.

With painted full-color artwork and animation at higher resolutions, film-quality soundtracks, and ever more ambitious game designs, one year wasn’t enough time to get a game right. That certainly proved to be the case for QGIV, which went out the door with insufficient testing and many known problems.

To Sierra’s credit, they made up for that launch mistake by assigning a programmer - Kevin Ray - to fix most of the game bugs for a major re-release. Of course, fixing bugs doesn’t make much of a selling point, so we also got the opportunity - for our first time at Sierra - to go into the studio and add professional voice acting to the game. The white box version of Shadows of Darkness went from our buggiest Quest for Glory release to one of the best.

Enough History - What About Hero-U?
We took a number of lessons from the near-disaster of the Quest for Glory IV release. One was that you can’t put a time limit on quality assurance and testing for a game. It will be ready when it’s done. On Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, that meant the alpha and beta testing phases took as long as the entire development and testing of Hero’s Quest. In fact, it took about as much time as I originally estimated developing and testing the game would take together. Oops.

We also decided that “done is not done.” We had to release the game before we ran out of money to pay developers, but we didn’t have to stop development there. The nice thing about today’s connected world is that we can patch and improve a game without worrying about how to get the new versions to players. That’s why we’ve made five updates to the game so far.

Just A Minor Bug?

Where In the World Is This Going?
Everywhere. Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is on every continent and dozens (possibly hundreds) of countries. But so far the game is only available in English.

We are currently working on three language translations and localizations - French, German, and Simplified Chinese. If these are successful, we’ll look into additional translations - Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, and Korean are all possibilities, but are currently well outside our budget.

If you are fluent in German, French, or Chinese, and would like to help us verify and improve the translated versions, please click on “Corey Cole” and use the “Contact Me” button to send us a message with your qualifications and interest. We want to make sure Hero-U is equally fun in any language.

We expect to start testing the localized versions this Fall - late September to early November, most likely.

But Where are Corey and Lori Going?
Next week - July 17-21, 2019 - we’ll be at Comic-con in San Diego along with our publicist, Roberta Vaughan, musician Paul Korman, and our business guy, Michael Cole and his wife. We won’t be showing our games there, but we’ve love to meet any of our backers who are attending SDCC or will just be in the area. Again, use the Contact Me button and provide some contact details if you will be there.

The following month, we’ll all be up at PAX in Seattle. This time we’ll have space in the Indie Megabooth to show off Summer Daze at Hero-U and the latest patch to Rogue to Redemption. We’ll also hand out stickers, postcards, and other swag, and will sell and autograph Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption boxes. The convention runs from August 30 to Sept. 2, 2019. It will feature lots of great indie games in addition to ours.

Then it will be time (late September to October) to Kickstart Summer Daze at Hero-U! This time, we’ll present a game that is well along in production - the first two days of one of the stories are already fully playable. We hope many of you will consider backing Summer Daze to help us finish and market it in style.

Sure, But Where Are You Now?
Corey and Lori are on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/coreyloricole. That’s a great place to learn more about us and our work, and to help us keep doing it. Many posts are open to all visitors; a few require becoming a patron.

We’re active on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheSchoolForHeroes. We also each have a personal Facebook page. Lori’s is https://www.facebook.com/lori.cole.948, and Corey’s is https://www.facebook.com/corey.cole.792. Warning - We can be unabashedly progressive on our personal pages. You might or might not like every opinion we post there. But Lori’s page is the only place she is posting a photograph or artwork every day.

We also have an active Discord server for Transolar Games backers and fans (including Hero-U, Quest for Glory, and our other work). Use this link to join us there: https://discord.gg/WA5navb. Several team members pop in from time to time, but the discussions are great whether or not we’re there.

School Grounds In Summer Daze at Hero-U

 

[Harry Easter]

Hmm, you never stop learning. But after replaying Hero-U, I'm not sure if they shouldn't stay with Visual Novels. Lori likes writing and it should be more managable for them. That said, I want more games like Hero-U. I just love exploring one small, but very deep area and the castle had a lot of cool locations and it felt organic.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/375440/announcements/detail/1603770112078716625

Hero-U Beta 1.6 and Upcoming Prequel - Summer Daze at Hero-U
We're testing a new version of Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, and working on a prequel game!



We've updated the Beta test version of Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption with a candidate for version 1.6. In your Steam library, right-click the game name, select Properties, then the BETAS tab, then "beta - Build Candidate". No access code is required.

This build contains several new options under the Settings menu. There are additional options for unusual screen resolutions.

There is also a Languages tab. We are currently testing the French language localization. We also have a partially complete Simplified Chinese version. To change languages, click on the arrow next to your current language until the display changes to the language you want to use.

The Super Gluey is now active. It will hold even large monsters in place for much longer than an ordinary Gooey. It should even be usable as a puzzle solution on a particularly large and heavy monster. Let us know whether the Super Gluey lives up to your expectations.

Prequel Game Now on Kickstarter!

We're raising funds to complete Summer Daze at Hero-U, the prequel to Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. This is a story game in a visual novel format, but also an adventure game with many choices and consequences.

In Summer Daze, you'll play as either Tilly, a mischievous Disbarred Bard, or Ifeyo, a studious rogue who is related to Ifetaya, the master chef of Hero-U. It will be your responsibility to make the end-of-Summer harvest festival a success... or not. As in Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, you'll meet many fascinating and unusual characters, and there will be puns.

If you enjoyed Hero-U or Quest for Glory, we think you'll love Summer Daze at Hero-U. Check it out at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/transolargames/summer-daze-at-hero-u.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

If you enjoyed Hero-U or Quest for Glory, we think you'll love Summer Daze at Hero-U.

Wow. They really are that out of touch, huh?

 

[MRY]

I wonder what "Operations" means here? Someone to whom the KS campaign was outsourced, or the Coles' cost of living, or what?

 

[Curratum]

Anyone who gives those people another penny deserves everything that's coming to them. It's not like KS hides the author's previous KS project history.

 

[Jenkem]

I bought Hero-U during the summer sale and started playing it, but I got to the point where I was exploring the caves and found the things needed to open the door to get Kate's treasure, but now I can't even talk to her about getting that item she just runs off.. in a previous save she asked me what object I wanted to look for... but then I quit, when I restarted I went and got that and did stuff and now she is just like "i'm gonna go look around" and the next day school is back in session and that quest just sort of ends...

not sure if I should just continue or stop, the game is not as good as QfG and kind of drags a bit unless you know where to go/what to do, which the game doesn't really give you many hints towards... which can be a good thing but the way it is here it seems like you have to level up the correct skills in order to access the correct areas to advance the story/various plots... it's nice that the game wants you to explore/find stuff on your own but between needing skills to do that and the time limit imposed on you, it feels like you have to do things in a very specific order or manner with no idea of how that order is supposed to be..

not sure about this game

 

[Curratum]

Just stop. The game is more or less a glorified visual novel.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Just stop. The game is more or less a glorified visual novel.

It's a dating sim with "adventure" elements ...

• Very repetitive gameplay, feel like a chore, like you're back to school yourself and have to repeat the daily training and shit.
• The dating sim part is really disturbing, i got friendly relations with multiple characters, good friends (friends +1) with one and buddy with the woman cook (friends +2) and yet, playing a male character, i got only one dating option so far and with a friendly male ... Not that i wanted the character to date anything but still ... why do the game offers my male character to date another guy ? I don't really care if they code it but i want an option to prevent me from having the opportunity at all.
• Aside from the talking to improve relations and daily routine, not much is going on, you can explore the dungeons by yourself, there is some tasks rather than quests (shitty ones mostly, like my roomate has a crush on the receptionist, then the nurse ... right ...
• Almost forgot, the gameplay, so far is using detect magic 100 times on statues and paintings and trying to move the statues or look behing the paintings ... That was almost fun ... almost.

On the plus side the engine is good enough and the music is good too.

On the down side, there is no game using that engine yet, no game at all ...

 

[Sergiu64]

• The dating sim part is really disturbing, i got friendly relations with multiple characters, good friends (friends +1) with one and buddy with the woman cook (friends +2) and yet, playing a male character, i got only one dating option so far and with a friendly male ... Not that i wanted the character to date anything but still ... why do the game offers my male character to date another guy ? I don't really care if they code it but i want an option to prevent me from having the opportunity at all.

Maybe the game knows something about you that you've been afraid to admit to yourself?

 

[Taluntain]

Integrated gaydar working as intended.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Maybe the game knows something about you that you've been afraid to admit to yourself?

Integrated gaydar working as intended.

Afraid of talking about the real issue ?
You love that crap, don't you ?

 

[Infinitron]

RIP Hero-U 2, hello Dr. Brain clone: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/transolargames/hero-u-rogue-to-redemption/posts/2908943

Upcoming (Tentative) Project

Hero-U: Wizard’s Way is on indefinite hold for now. We can’t afford to produce it on our own, and we don’t currently see a path to find a publisher or outside backer for the game. We could put it on Kickstarter, but our last few campaigns have not come close to raising a full game budget.

But we do have something else in the pipeline. Did you enjoy the mini-games on the way to Dr. Cranium in Quest for Glory IV? Or the game that inspired them, Castle of Dr. Brain? What if we could make a new game with puzzles like those, but with more story? We could set it in a dark and moody atmosphere reminiscent of Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness?

Castle of Dr. Brain was a fascinating project. My team and I built it under SCI, the same game engine used for Quest for Glory and other Sierra adventure games, but it was a completely different type of game. It was much more condensed, with the emphasis on puzzles rather than exploration. I’ve thought about making another game like that many times, but want to build a real story into the game as well.

We’re working on a prototype and a few puzzles as proof of concept. If they turn out well, Consulting Magicians (working title) might become our next game after Summer Daze at Hero-U. We’ll keep you posted here.

But hey, apparently they're finally convinced to make a serious game without cowladins. MRY

 

[jackofshadows]

I'm soooooo fucking confused. Please, some generous person, do tell me what is goin on? They've made Rogue-U like 5xdeadline time, right? And it was a decent game imo (albeit with not a perfect role-play system, that's from my playthrough:

)
Also, the art-style wan't great AT ALL. Otherwise though, as I said, imo it was a decent (and quite fresh) game.

 

[fantadomat]

Please, some generous person, do tell me what is goin on?

What do you mean? They overinvested in to generic game that nobody really wanted. They promised a new Quest for Glory but delivered harry potter and the fabulous gay. Also they overestimated the market for adventure games.....and wasted shit ton of money on.....something. It is only natural that their expansion/sequel won't sell and there is no point in making it. They really fucked it up big time. After the whole joke of game,i doubt that many people will trust them with their money again on kickstarter.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I think their solution to fixing to Hero-U's development hell was completely bone-headed of them. VNs are an oversaturated market and from what I know the only ones people actually like are free anyway. On two different forums I frequent, two members of staff shilled Summer Daze and nobody took the bait. They probably should have done their neo-Dr. Brain game instead anyway.

 

[jackofshadows]

What do you mean? They overinvested in to generic game that nobody really wanted. They promised a new Quest for Glory but delivered harry potter and the fabulous gay. Also they overestimated the market for adventure games.....and wasted shit ton of money on.....something. It is only natural that their expansion/sequel won't sell and there is no point in making it. They really fucked it up big time. After the whole joke of game,i doubt that many people will trust them with their money again on kickstarter.

Nah, I disagree with that the game is a complete shit. It's very well written, at the very least. I've enjoyed it. As for broken promises though, apparentely it's more than a thing in this case. But it's the past, I'm far more interested in the future and their project just buffles me greatly.

 

[fantadomat]

What do you mean? They overinvested in to generic game that nobody really wanted. They promised a new Quest for Glory but delivered harry potter and the fabulous gay. Also they overestimated the market for adventure games.....and wasted shit ton of money on.....something. It is only natural that their expansion/sequel won't sell and there is no point in making it. They really fucked it up big time. After the whole joke of game,i doubt that many people will trust them with their money again on kickstarter.

Nah, I disagree with that the game is a complete shit. It's very well written, at the very least. I've enjoyed it. As for broken promises though, apparentely it's more than a thing in this case. But it's the past, I'm far more interested in the future and their project just buffles me greatly.

Never said that it is a shit game lol chill dawg . It is a generic mediocre adventure game with a lot of time waste in it. And nobody really wanted it,people gave their money for quest for glory like and they good kids game.