KickStarter Summer Daze - light-hearted Hero-U mini-sequel

[Hellion]

They uploaded their QfG4 stream on youtube. Part 1 and Part 2.

Has anyone watched their posts, comments and various interactions with the fans to see if anyone has stated the obvious to them, that QFG4 is their quintessential creation and something like that is exactly what fans would love to play?

Its writing is amazingly clever, its world is masterfully built, its overall tone is mature and dark as shit - friggin' Cthulhu gods that want to cover the land in darkness, cultists that turned into tentacled monsters, female NPCs with perky boobs, a hot vampire lady that dresses in BDSM clothing, ghosts (a weak old man who must come to terms with the fact that his wife DIED IN THE FOREST DECADES AGO - and you can even loot his home as a Thief character!), naked zombie chicks dragging males to their deaths (literally a feminist's wet dream - "wet dream" because Rusalka lives in the lake lol, I can make jokes that are funnier than the entire Hero-U)... MAKE THIS SHIT AGAIN, not a "visual novel about making friends and celebrating diversity" FFS. Making a 2D game like the old Sierra games would probably be cheaper too, compared to the 3D stuff they tried with Hero-U.

I'm gonna send the above paragraph to Corey Cole as a reply if he sends me another plea to back Summer Daze. Fuck you Corey, and fuck your Cowladin, I'm gonna replay Shadows of Darkness right now.

/rant

PS. $73,286/100.000, with 3 days to go.

 

[MRY]

It’s not their quintessential creation. It’s the product of Ken Williams using their ample talents. Hero-U is the first game they made without being controlled by him. In some ways, it speaks volumes about how much was Ken and how much was Coles. You can see their relentless punning and detailed world-building, but not the same sense of what would actually engage the Sierra market. But for the niche of Transolar players, I think the Coles know best.

 

[Boleskine]

And just like that they're at $83K with less than 2 days to go.

Kickstarter must have sent out reminder e-mails to people who were watching the campaign. Over 150 new backers and nearly $10K this weekend.

 

[fantadomat]

And just like that they're at $83K with less than 2 days to go.

Kickstarter must have sent out reminder e-mails to people who were watching the campaign. Over 150 new backers and nearly $10K this weekend.

So all they have to do is make two sock accounts and pay up.

 

[Hellion]

Last change to pledge. Let's talk about Ifeyo!

Ifeyo grew up in the land of Yoruba in Western Fricana. Yoruba is steeped in traditions that include strong gender roles. Women are traditionally the “makers” - they are expected to run the household, cook, raise children, and craft. A few of them have a talent for magic and use it in their crafting and artistry.

Men are “doers” - In earlier times, they were the hunters and farmers. They were expected to do hard physical work, protect the community, and trade with outsiders. Yoruba in the time of Hero-U is a much more advanced and modern society, but the Yoruban people still cling to many of their past traditions. Women are still the makers and crafters, and men are now the traders and salesmen. But not everyone fits so neatly into those roles.

Ifeyo is one of the exceptions. His father expected him to work in the family business, selling and trading. But Ifeyo has always been drawn to magic, and he has a talent for it. His Aunt Ifetaya, who works at Hero-U as the head chef and culinary instructor, recognized both his inclinations and talent. She has helped Ifeyo get a scholarship to Hero-U, where he hopes to become a true Wizard.

State of the Game
Over the past 15 months, Lori has directed the art for both Tilly’s and Ifeyo’s sections of the game, but has focused her writing efforts mostly on Tilly. That half is more than one-third complete, with the rest of the game outlined. You can play through the first day of the game as Tilly in the free prototype at https://transolar-games.itch.io/summer-daze.

The production plan is to complete Tilly’s game to the beta testing level. While we begin testing that, and working on technical matters with bringing it to portable devices, Lori will fill out Ifeyo’s game. That half is also outlined, and principle art is complete, but there’s much more we can add. And of course writing games with many paths through each story takes time.

The major goal of this Kickstarter is to give us the time we need to make Ifeyo’s game every bit as strong as Tilly’s. In a sense, you’re helping to fund the Wizardry department at Hero-U.

Final Call to Action! Save Summer Daze at Hero-U

Already backed, or you aren't ready to back at this time? You can still help us reach the goal! Follow the link, then share it with your friends - especially the adventurer gamers and fantasy readers in your life. Know someone who has never played an adventure game, but loves Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter? Summer Daze at Hero-U will be their gateway to a new world of fantasy adventure experiences!

Thank you from Lori and Corey Cole. We need your help getting out the word about Summer Daze at Hero-U in these final two days of the funding campaign. It's all or nothing, and nothing would be a sad loss to adventure gaming!

So essentially they could release Tilly's cowdventures even if their kickstarter fails?

 

[MRY]

No way it fails. Once it hit 60% it wasn’t going to.

 

[Infinitron]

$93k with 24 hours to go. Looks like some whale dumped a pile of cash on the campaign.

 

[MRY]

There are a lot of new backers, though. If it's a whale, he's laundering through krill for some reason.

 

[Infinitron]

There are a lot of new backers, though. If it's a whale, he's laundering through krill for some reason.

Today compared to yesterday. Fewer backers, more money. Telltale sign of a backer who gave more than usual.

 

[fantadomat]

backer

You mean sock account.

 

[Hellion]

They announced stretch goals. The first one starting at... 100.000, one dollar above their basic required funding.

A few days ago, we were worried about whether Summer Daze at Hero-U would meet its funding goal. But here we are, less than one day from the close, and the "final days Kickstarter magic" is, well, kicking in! That makes it time to reveal our plans for stretch goals based on the final pledge total.

To be clear, all of the stretch goals are things that Lori and I really want to be part of the game, but are a little beyond our budget. Adding them should not appreciably affect our milestones and completion date for Summer Daze.

At $100,000 we will add the fast and fun Boomba card game to Tilly's story.
First up are mini-games within the main game. We left some room in our budget by asking for a modest $99,999 instead of the far more difficult to reach $100,000. Oh, but what a difference a dollar makes!

If we exceed the project goal by $1 and manage that glorious six figure pledge total, Lori and I will spend it (and a few thousand dollars of our own) on adding at least one super-fun mini-game to Summer Daze!

The first mini-game is a card game we call Boomba. Tilly will play it against her nemesis Rodrego for fun and dominance. Think of it as War meets Bridge - War for the fast play, and Bridge for the challenging strategy and tactics.

We have some other mini-games we'd like to add to Summer Daze. If we have the time and budget later in development, we'll get those into the game too. No promises at this point, but we've been talking about things such as a Hero's Quest style combat screen. We can't do that for a dollar, but maybe we can STRETCH our own budget to include it.

At $105,000 we will add additional animation to Summer Daze
We’ve been developing Summer Daze at Hero-U on a very tight budget up to now. It has all the story and background art, but there isn’t much animation so far. With your help, we’d like to change that!

If funding makes it past $105,000, we’ll be able to have Al Eufrasio add more animated sequences to the game. That might range from subtle transitions in dialogue when a character changes mood to active backgrounds to combat animation. We’ll be able to show more of the things we would otherwise have to put in words.

At $110,000 we will voice all of the characters in the game
This is the big one! Voice acting will add a new dimension to Summer Daze. It’s also pretty expensive to do it right. If funding passes $110,000, we will add voice recording into the budget.

We made a vow when we developed Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption - We would only add voices to that game if we could do it right. We didn’t have the time nor budget to pull it off for that game, but we can do it for Summer Daze at Hero-U.

An excellent voice director, who is also a well-known adventure game designer, has volunteered to do our voice recording at an affordable price. If our backers commit to the game by helping us reach this stretch goal, we’ll make our own commitment to get high-quality voice acting into Summer Daze at Hero-U.

$95,421, 20 hours to go.

 

[MRY]

Dave Gilbert, human stretch goal!

 

[fantadomat]

I honestly don't know why people decided to back this up.

 

[Boleskine]

$1,000 to go. I really didn't think this would make it but am pleasantly surprised to have been wrong.

To the Coles I say go forth, make a good game, and pay off your second mortgage*!

*if Hero-U profits weren't enough

 

[Blackthorne]

And it's funded. It was a squeaker for sure.

 

[Boleskine]

 

[Infinitron]

The $100k rule of modern-day Kickstarters proves itself again. If your game is sufficiently impressive or you're sufficiently famous, you will always be able to get at least around $100k on Kickstarter.

 

[fantadomat]

And now the circle begins a new...

 

[Boleskine]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/transolargames/summer-daze-at-hero-u/posts/2676768

Update #13
We're funded - Thank you!
Corey Cole
November 7, 2019


Summer Daze at Hero-U is Funded

Thank you for supporting Summer Daze at Hero-U. As with our two previous Kickstarter campaigns, it came down to the wire in our usual nailbiting finish. But we were able to get two stretch goals through - additional animation and mini-games including the Boomba card game.

From here we'll be moving to BackerKit. We'll be at https://summerdaze.backerkit.com/. They'll send everyone an email once Kickstarter pays us and we set up the site in a few weeks. Signing on to BackerKit will involve answering a brief survey. This will let you specify the add-ons you picked, t-shirt sizes, and so on. Later, if you change addresses, you'll be able to update that on your BackerKit page.

We also met a "number of backers" goal in which Lori and I are adding a Lucky Coin to every order that includes at least one physical item. Only one coin per order, and only for those of you who backed the project here on Kickstarter. That will include backers who upgrade on BackerKit to a tier or add-ons that require us to ship something.

We did not reach the voice acting tier, but we want to have professional voices in the game so we'll try to add them using outside funding. Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games has volunteered to do the casting and voice direction if we are able to add them. Even with voices, we are going to try hard to meet our planned Oct. 1, 2020 release date, but that will depend heavily on when we finish the writing.

Boring (Unless You're Like Me) Number Stuff

Multiplying Kwirk

I've recently been trying to explain "Kickstarter accounting" and "game development economics" to people. It's challenging! When we did our first Kickstarter for Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption in 2012, some people thought our $400,000 goal was outrageous. Even for Summer Daze at Hero-U, I got advice that a $100,000 goal was way too much, and that $20,000 might be more appropriate. In each case, we (thanks to many dedicated fans!) made it over the finish line with just a few hours to spare.

I want to talk a little about what actually happens with those numbers. Here's the chart I put in the project description:

How we expect to spend the Kickstarter proceeds

On $106,000 in pledges, that will come to about $25,000 for fees, cost of goods, and other campaign expenses, so about $80,000 will actually go to development and running the company.

We've actually already spent about $85,000 on the project before coming to Kickstarter. The total planned budget is $150,000 - mostly for art, programming, and music - or $200,000 including foreign language translations and voice acting if we're able to get those in. Assuming we do, we'll need to sell at least 10,000 copies to break even. We think that's ambitious, but reachable, especially if we manage to appeal to some visual novel and dating sim players in addition to hardcore adventure gamers.

What makes these games so expensive to develop? We hear all the time about indie games being developed "at no cost" or on a shoestring budget. The reality is a bit different. Developers need to pay rent and put food on the table for themselves and their families even if they aren't drawing a salary on paper.

Let's say a developer needs to make about $50,000 a year to make ends meet. That's actually pretty iffy in the U.S. I made about that (in 2019 dollars, adjusting for inflation) at Sierra in 1989, and it wasn't enough to pay our bills. We finally started coming out ahead when Sierra started paying us royalties.

One full-time and two half-time developers for two years = 4 x $50,000 = $200,000. Yes, these games aren't cheap to make even with tiny teams. Rogue to Redemption took six years with a larger team - total developer payments about $960,000.

Note that we only stay that low by not paying Lori and I at all, saving at least $300,000. Our theory is that we will eventually get some royalties from game sales, but first a game has to break even. That's pretty tough to accomplish with indie games.

Anyway, we've run those numbers, and we're fine with them - Don't take this as a rant! Kickstarter gets projects started - It isn't designed to cover all the expenses. I'm bringing this up just so that readers who plan to make their own games and crowdfund them will have some idea of the costs and numbers involved.

 

[FuckLiefeldGiveMeChew]

Hero U was good, but not great: It was funny, but the puzzles were virtually nonexistent, the combat became a pathetic joke once you built up your skills a little, and I easily developed all the relationships with all the characters and solved all of the quests in one playthrough making the supposed replay value nonexistent. I recommend a much better Quest for Glory tribute: Mage’s Initiation: Reign of the Element by A.G.D. Interactive, which succeeds where Hero U fails although I still wish it had more puzzles. Its puzzles are good though, and one puzzle is harder than the entirety of Hero U.

Hero U does have potential though, and there are much worse tributes to Quest for Glory like Quest for Infamy and Quest for Glory 4.5: So You Used to be a Hero. It certainly is a much better Kickstarter game than No Man’s Sky, Underworld Ascendant, Grimoire or Bubsy

 

[Dedup]

Personally I liked Quest for Infamy better than both Hero U and Mages Initiation. I agree that Hero U was a good but flawed game but I feel that Mage's Initiation, while certainly not bad, would of been better without the RPG mechanics and the terrible combat.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

I have to admit I absolutely don't like Hero U and never managed to endure it for more than the first hours. I know you are supposed to feel like a school brat, but it's all so terribly restricted and limited, everything in the daily routine feels like a chore, characters are bland and clichée and obviously strongly influenced by today's socio-political crap. This game - for me - has nothing at all in common with the masterful QfG-series and its enchanting atmosphere of adventure, freedom and wonder. My true and worthy successors of QfG are the brillant QfI and HQ (MI on the other hand wasn't able to capture me, something in the formula didn't work out for me, I don't even know what exactly it was). Summer Daze seems to stray from the QfG-paths even more than Hero U and thus is of no interest to me.

 

[V_K]

My true and worthy successors of QfG are the brillant QfI and HQ (MI on the other hand wasn't able to capture me, something in the formula didn't work out for me, I don't even know what exactly it was).

Try West of Loathing, if you haven't yet. It's the closest thing to QfG that isn't a direct spiritual successor, and it's pretty good at that.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

My true and worthy successors of QfG are the brillant QfI and HQ (MI on the other hand wasn't able to capture me, something in the formula didn't work out for me, I don't even know what exactly it was).

Try West of Loathing, if you haven't yet. It's the closest thing to QfG that isn't a direct spiritual successor, and it's pretty good at that.

I have that game on my radar for quite some time now. Maybe I'll give it a try. Thanks.

 

[Boleskine]