RPGWatch Forums - Hero-U - Kickstarter Update #15, The Thief

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Hero-U - Kickstarter Update #15, The Thief

In the 15th update of Hero-U insight in the thief gameplay is provided. Also with 8 days to go the game appears to be quite a bit away from being funded (222K/400K), so it could use some help.

Quote:

(Here's a teaser of how the first scene of Hero-U might play out. This is by no means final – We will adapt the text to the art, and will no doubt come up with last-minute design ideas or humor. "Secure your valuables with the Surelock 221-B. Remember, the safest homes are Surelock homes!")
(This is the first part of the game, so it's designed to help the player along. Also, Shawn has no tools at this point of the game, so his options are limited. First, some scripted lead-in… There is no player interaction at first as we set the scene.)
You crawl in through the side window and find yourself in a study room illuminated by a single oil lamp on the fireplace mantle. The main wall has a display cabinet with the portrait of some gloomy old man over it. There is a large desk in the middle of the room.
"Ah, made it! Good thing this window was still open to let in the night breeze. Pretty silly of them not to shut it before they left for the evening…"
"I just hope they stay away for a while."
(The player looks at the cabinet. At the moment, it doesn't seem significant.)
"There are some bottles and things in the cabinet, but I don't see anything that looks like a medallion."
(Now the player interacts with some of the objects in the room. Eventually, he gets Shawn to inspect the desk.)
"Let me see… The Chief Thief said to find the medallion hidden someplace in this room. The desk is a good place to look."
Shawn walks over to the desk and examines it carefully.
"Hmmm… Nothing but junk and papers in these drawers. Wait, this last one is locked. Damn, if only I had some lockpicks, I'd have it open in a second… if I knew how to use them. Well, once I bring the medallion back to the Thieves' Guild, I'll learn all about picking locks."
(One case: Shawn looks at the desk again, and didn't look in the cabinet earlier.)
"The medallion has to be in that locked drawer. But where's the key?"
(Different case: Shawn looked in the cabinet earlier, and now looks at the desk for the 2nd time.)
"I've got to get that drawer open, but it's locked. I thought I saw something shiny in that cabinet. Maybe I should look in there again."
(Player asks for a hint or looks at the desk yet again.)
"You know, people don't carry desk keys around with them. I'll bet the key is around here someplace. It's not in the other drawers… It's not in the pen holder… I guess I have to look somewhere else for it."
(Player looks at the cabinet after having looked at the desk.)
"I wonder if the key is hiding in the cabinet. Hmm…"
(And lots of other options from there. Sorry, it's a little hard to turn an adventure game into a story unless we skip all the interactivity that makes it fun.)

More information.

This kickstarter is doing surprisingly poorly, considering the rep of the Coles. Are people getting kickstarted out?

Possibly. As for myself, I never played the Quest for Glory series, so their reputation doesn't mean much to me, and the project doesn't seem all that exiting to me.

I think a lot of rpg fans donated huge sums to other rpg's and are still trying to recover from that, I think if the developers of the QFG games(QFG series of rpg's is a personal favorite of mine, especially part 4 and 5 because they used voice actors in those two) had gotten in their 30 days of kickstarting for Hero-U before project eternity started theirs, I think they would have been able to do much better. I think a big reason they are having funding troubles is due to poor timing, being late to kickstarter when a lot of rpg fans already have too much debt(and angry spouses) from donating to other games. I also wonder if they'd aimed higher with significantly higher quality graphics if more people would have been willing to donate. I know of some who were turned off by the game due to it looking like it will have system requirements from a game from 10 or more years ago. I realize they are probably doing it with the lowest budget they think they can make the game for, and that's why it doesn't have high end graphics. If I remember correctly, they said to make a 3D Hero-U game with high quality graphics would cost them at least several million dollars, and they didn't think that would have been a realistic goal for them to set on kickstarter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Hulk (Post 1061170620)

I think a big reason they are having funding troubles is due to poor timing, being late to kickstarter when a lot of rpg fans already have too much debt(and angry spouses) from donating to other games.

I think another significant reason is that most people initially interested are fans of QfG´s, but this project doesn´t seem quite like a spiritual successor to these, mainly due to visual presentation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Hulk (Post 1061170620)

If I remember correctly, they said to make a 3D Hero-U game with high quality graphics would cost them at least several million dollars, and they didn't think that would have been a realistic goal for them to set on kickstarter.

I bet if they went a visual route á la AGDI´s Sierra remakes, by now they´d be already funded.

I agree; I think many fans want QfG and the Coles have said many times they wouldn't get enough funding etc, so I'm left with the impression this is a "bridesmaid" project rather than what they really want to do. Not so inspirational.

The Coles want to do another QFG sequel, but they don't have the rights to make one. The fans want another QFG game, but some, perhaps many, don't realize the Coles need to be able to afford to buy back the rights first(if the rights holders are even interested in selling for a price the Coles could afford). So that is why they decided to make a game(Hero-U) set in the same world as QFG, but with different characters.
Another disturbing and unfortunate problem, is I've heard some people say when they first saw word of Hero-U, they assumed it was a Wii-U console game, and were immediately turned off and uninterested, and ignored all further news about it. One person who later found out that it was actually a PC game for Windows and Linux, said he'd wished he'd known sooner so he could throw in his support right from the start. Can't help wonder how many people thought the same thing, that is was a game for the Wii-U console, and therefore decided to ignore it completely.