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

SerratedBiz

Arcane
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
4,143
If I made a Hero-U game in the style we made Quest for Infamy, it'd be pretty cool.

You know we're looking forward to the next thing to pop out of your crazy brain.
 

TheWorld

Educated
Joined
Apr 11, 2017
Messages
44
I think the Coles still "got it". I did enjoy Hero U and thought it was well written. The problem, as said in this thread, is that their management skills are shit, and they marketing skills also. It was quickly clear that the art choices they made were horrible, whoever did the 2d graphics can't even get perspective right. Yet, Corey was still saying the game looked beautiful and people were not "getting it".

Also, if you advertise your game saying "oh we are the developers that you love from the quest for glory games" people will want to see a game in that style, even more since hero u is basically in the same universe. I do think that by providing better art and marketing their game differently hero u could have fared better. What saddens me is that the basis for a great game are there. If tweaking a few things Hero U 2 could have been much better, by improving the combat system, adding more variety to dungeons and perhaps some puzzles.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
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
They were pretty explicit that the QFG games were compromises and that Hero-U is the game they always wanted to make.

I'm inclined to believe that a lot of what the Coles say is a rationalization for their own eccentric lackadaisicalness. Maybe sometimes they even believe their own bullshit.

I mean, yes, it's clear that they're genuine fans of the cutesey furry stuff from the QFG series. I'm not denying that part. But it didn't mean they had to make a game of a specific type or genre. The "meh, we never liked adventure games anyway" thing just strikes me as massive cope.
 

Morpheus Kitami

Liturgist
Joined
May 14, 2020
Messages
2,476
Reading up on them, this seems like a fascinating company that I know nothing about, despite having a longstanding interest in edutainment (I'm about 8 years too old to have interacted with their very specific demographic targeting). Based on what I've been able to glean it seems more like they don't realize they hold anything of value rather than they don't want to support a back-catalogue. This is a company founded by an apparent altruist that then (the company, not the altruist) very quickly pivoted towards being a cashcow after stumbling on unexpected and outsized success. This in turn led them to explore the F2P MMO edutainment market (which is apparently a thing?) before ultimately being bought up by a Chinese megacorp
Yep. They did a lot of shovelware in addition to the Jumpstart games. Let's just say a few of them are strange choices for children's games.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anyone is going to rake in millions selling copies of The Island of Dr. Brain at $10 a pop, but the front end cost of making it run on modern machines is negligible; it works great on DosBox already (afaik, haven't actually tested it, but every other Sierra game of the era does and they all use the same engine so I can't imagine it's any different), and paying someone to make a wrapper for the launcher is a couple day's work tops.
Its better than that. Because the first two Dr. Brain games work in Sierra's SCI engine, there are two frontends they could use for them. DOSbox and SCUMMVM. After that, they've got problems. Early Windows games I'm sure crashes in Win10 easily.
It feels much more like they just don't realize they could make a couple thousand bucks on it OR *dons tinfoil hat* they're not actually sure that their acquisition of the IP entitles them to the distribution rights of the older entries and have just decided not to risk possibly being taken to court.
Now, I didn't realize this at the time, but later on I realized that KA is the new company, which means the third puzzle game, the action-adventure and the FPS should all be good for Jumpstart to distribute these days. Barring some weird licensing issue. The FPS should be easy, since its Unreal Engine 1, I'm sure there's something they can do to fix that for modern PCs.
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
4,099
Location
Chicago, IL, Kwa
Reading up on them, this seems like a fascinating company that I know nothing about, despite having a longstanding interest in edutainment (I'm about 8 years too old to have interacted with their very specific demographic targeting). Based on what I've been able to glean it seems more like they don't realize they hold anything of value rather than they don't want to support a back-catalogue. This is a company founded by an apparent altruist that then (the company, not the altruist) very quickly pivoted towards being a cashcow after stumbling on unexpected and outsized success. This in turn led them to explore the F2P MMO edutainment market (which is apparently a thing?) before ultimately being bought up by a Chinese megacorp
Yep. They did a lot of shovelware in addition to the Jumpstart games. Let's just say a few of them are strange choices for children's games.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anyone is going to rake in millions selling copies of The Island of Dr. Brain at $10 a pop, but the front end cost of making it run on modern machines is negligible; it works great on DosBox already (afaik, haven't actually tested it, but every other Sierra game of the era does and they all use the same engine so I can't imagine it's any different), and paying someone to make a wrapper for the launcher is a couple day's work tops.
Its better than that. Because the first two Dr. Brain games work in Sierra's SCI engine, there are two frontends they could use for them. DOSbox and SCUMMVM. After that, they've got problems. Early Windows games I'm sure crashes in Win10 easily.
It feels much more like they just don't realize they could make a couple thousand bucks on it OR *dons tinfoil hat* they're not actually sure that their acquisition of the IP entitles them to the distribution rights of the older entries and have just decided not to risk possibly being taken to court.
Now, I didn't realize this at the time, but later on I realized that KA is the new company, which means the third puzzle game, the action-adventure and the FPS should all be good for Jumpstart to distribute these days. Barring some weird licensing issue. The FPS should be easy, since its Unreal Engine 1, I'm sure there's something they can do to fix that for modern PCs.


After poking around a little bit more I've found multiple abandonware sites hosting all 4 Sierra Dr. Brain games for download, and one which lets you play the two SCI games in your browser, so either Jumpstart is totally incompetent at protecting their own IP, or, as I speculated, they're not sure if they own the rights to the first four games. Good news is that all 4 are out there and available to play free of charge!
 

Blackthorne

Infamous Quests
Patron
Developer
Joined
Jun 8, 2012
Messages
981
Location
Syracuse NY
Codex 2014 Divinity: Original Sin 2
Did you ever reach out to the Coles?

To be honest, this seems like such a natural proposition -- and perhaps a way to bring a little light into dark patches for you and them.

I haven't, but I have become friendly with them over the past few years. Perhaps I should pitch a game where they'd written and designed it, and we make it. Or co-write and design, etc. I don't know how we'd get funding - I suppose kickstarter is an option, though I am loathe to do another one until I finish up the obligations I have left from my old ones, which hang around my neck like a lodestone. But I could definitely fund the game much the way we did with QFI. I know what it'd cost to hire the artists and animators, and that's really the big expense for me. I don't take a salary when I'm programming the game, which keeps overhead down. I could probably make a game with them for $100,000-$150,000 and it'd be a great, old school RPG adventure.
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
What if I just tweeted you and them and proposed the idea, with the hope that we'd get respective twitter follows chiming in on what a great idea it is?

I'm not sure you need them even to "write and design" it in toto; or even "co-write and design" it. They could provide high level guidance, help attract backer support and team members, and regularly provide notes as you develop it. You have the chops to be the lead on this; their role would be wise councilors, which isn't a heavy load for them.
 

Blackthorne

Infamous Quests
Patron
Developer
Joined
Jun 8, 2012
Messages
981
Location
Syracuse NY
Codex 2014 Divinity: Original Sin 2
Yeah, I mean, I talk to them in private quite a bit. Their assistant and basically lead of Transolar is a close friend of mine. I wonder.... I'll get back to you on this.
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
Ok. If there's any nudging or anything I can do to support you, let me know. (I'm sure many Codexers feel the same.)
 

mediocrepoet

Philosoraptor in Residence
Patron
Joined
Sep 30, 2009
Messages
11,468
Location
Combatfag: Gold box / Pathfinder
Codex 2012 Codex+ Now Streaming! MCA Project: Eternity Divinity: Original Sin 2
It's possible, I guess. Switch gamers tend to be a completely different demographic / tend to look for a different set of experiences. I just hope they're able to recoup whatever investment they had and move on, even if that's simply back to retirement.

It was a bummer when they dropped their plans for other classes in the Hero U series. As I recall, I'd given them a bit of money to help start the sorceress game before they realized it wasn't going to be viable.
 

Boleskine

Arcane
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
4,045
I just hope they're able to recoup whatever investment they had and move on, even if that's simply back to retirement.

They split up the Summer Daze spinoff into two separate games, one for each main character. I hope at least they can finish the second game and not leave my man Ifeyo hanging without his degree.

Hero-U 2: Wizard's Way probably won't happen though. I'm curious if the Coles made enough to pay off whatever they borrowed against their house during Hero-U's development.
 

mediocrepoet

Philosoraptor in Residence
Patron
Joined
Sep 30, 2009
Messages
11,468
Location
Combatfag: Gold box / Pathfinder
Codex 2012 Codex+ Now Streaming! MCA Project: Eternity Divinity: Original Sin 2
I just hope they're able to recoup whatever investment they had and move on, even if that's simply back to retirement.

They split up the Summer Daze spinoff into two separate games, one for each main character. I hope at least they can finish the second game and not leave my man Ifeyo hanging without his degree.

Hero-U 2: Wizard's Way probably won't happen though. I'm curious if the Coles made enough to pay off whatever they borrowed against their house during Hero-U's development.

Yeah, I didn't know that Summer Daze was split as I wasn't as interested in that. I wrote off Wizard's Way back when they first were saying it wasn't going to happen. I was mostly putting money towards seeing what else they came up with and I figured I'd more than gotten my money's worth with the QfG games, so it was all kind of a wash to me.

I don't think that Rogue to Redemption is a bad game and it definitely has elements of what I was hoping for, but also missed the mark somewhat. I actually didn't finish it, but played far enough to get my fill and never really felt like getting back to it. I think I'd have been more into it if I was younger, like around the same age I was when I played the QFG games. If that's true, I wonder if there wasn't a missed opportunity with the demographics they were aiming at / reaching with the advertising (say, nostalgic middle aged and older gamers vs. kids who might be receptive to an adventure game).

It didn't really surprise me that I wasn't into it though, although I always thought the FACS was funny, I didn't want to play it. For the same reason, things like the Persona JRPG series never held any interest for me.

It's just unfortunate how things worked out since they seem to still have a set of core fans, even after all this time.
 

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