Hero-U - Kickstarter update #24

Myrthos

Cave Canem
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With less than 33 hours to go and still in need of 50K it is not impossible for Hero-U to reach its goal of 400K. To make that go faster new add-ons are available.
Here are the new virtual add-ons (no shipping charge):
  • $10: NEW - Downloadable game music soundtrack
  • $10: NEW - Art book PDF
  • $20: NEW - Set of 4 high-resolution game art images in PDF
NOTE: The first two are included in the $35 and higher tiers. Order one if you are at the $20 tier and only want one of the two items, or if you are at any tier and want an extra copy to give to a friend.
New physical add-ons (shipping charges apply, the 4 art print add-on counts as a single item for shipping purposes):
  • $10: NEW: Meep keychain
  • $20: NEW: "Erana's Tribute" poster 11"x17" (art without poem)
  • $50: NEW: Set of four 11"x17" poster prints of Hero-U game art
The art prints are different from the "school art on canvas" print that Master Rogues (and above) will receive.
In addition they also list how Hero-U is different from other games.
Lori answered this question for the Gaming on Linux site. I think her answer is of interest to all of our backers and potential backers.
In the first place, Adventure/RPGs are a very rare breed indeed. We were the first to design them with our QfG series. Japanese RPGs could be called Adventure/RPGs because they have strong stories and characters. But I don’t know of anyone actually using the classification of Adventure/RPG other than us right now.
But story-telling is ingrained in human nature. We love stories. That’s why movies and books continue to entertain people all over the world. RPGs are direct descendents of tabletop D&D games that combined story-telling with character progression and action. We want to create games that are fun experiences with meaningful stories, characters you care about, and excitement.
There isn’t a lot of excitement in most Adventure Games. There aren’t too many quirky characters in RPG games – they tend to take themselves very seriously.
Quest for Glory was an Adventure Game with Role-playing elements. It took advantage of the strengths of Sierra On-Line’s talents and resources. Hero-U will have more Role-playing elements – more exploration of caverns, dungeons, and catacombs. The player will have the ability to shape Shawn’s character and his destiny by making critical choices and improving Shawn’s skills by practice and study. Unlike the real-time combat of Quest for Glory, Hero-U will have tactical combat where you can treat each combat like a chess match where you plot your moves carefully, a fast-action skill vs. skill, or find ways to never come in direct combat with your opponent. We want the player to feel completely in charge of Shawn’s fate.
Hero-U will be a unique game with humor, story, adventure, action, and perhaps even romance. It will touch the heart and it will make you smile. What’s not to like?
More information.
 
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So... I can't make up my mind about this one. Never played Quest for Glory. Part of me likes the idea of an adventure / RPG hybrid, part of me thinks I'd just rather play a regular RPG. Does someone want to try and convince me?
 
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OK, my girlfriend will cry if you don't contribute. :p
 
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Well, sorry to say, but I can live with that... :)
 
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I've played and beat all 5 QFG games(actually beating the 5th one was a collaborative effort between a friend and I), I got my first PC back in 1993, one of the first games I remember playing was QFG 1(the VGA remake). I liked that you could transfer your character between all 5 games, few other rpg's allowed that. It was a lot of fun for me, though I realize if you don't appreciate some elements of humor in your games, you might not appreciate QFG. Not that it's all humorous, things can get quite serious as well. I wished that they allowed you to choose the sex of your character(perhaps the reason they left that out was limited budgets that wouldn't allow for them to be able to have two different stories for males and females), that was one downisde. They at least allowed class choice(fighter, magic-user, thief, and in part 2 and later, paladin became a possibility).
I wish that the creators of Quest for Glory could afford to make Hero-U a 3D game ala Skyrim, or even an older game like Morrowind, but with their limited budget, I think they are doing the best they can. I believe that if Hero-U sells well enough and they make enough profit, they will increase the graphic quality and length of the game and maybe even consider 3D for Hero-U2. Guess we'll have to wait and see how successful they are.
I don't really know what I could say to convince you to pledge to the Hero-U kickstarter, but I've played many different crpg's over the years(I started out playing PnP roleplaying games in 1980 and became a Macintosh gamer in 1985 on Mac with 512k ram w/ black and white screen(yes there were some good Mac games back then, including crpgs), which allowed me to enjoy a great Mac only cprg called Quarterstaff:The Tomb of Setmoth which came out in 1987 or 1988 but it required an upgrade to 1mb of ram or 2mb ram if you wanted to play it in color on a super expensive Mac II, and I switched to PC in 1993), and the QFG series of games which blended crpg and adventure games are some of my favorite(and I'm definitely looking forward to the Hero-U series). True, the QFG games are dated looking now(the first one came out in 1989), compared to current crpg's, but they looked and played decent for the time they came out.
Some may not know this, but the developers of QFG and Hero-U don't have the rights to make any more sequels to the Quest for Glory games, so that is why they decided to make a new series of games which are set in the same game world, but with different characters. I imagine some gamers who don't realize they don't own the rights to QFG may have been upset that they decided to make Hero-U instead of QFG 6. I think if the developers could afford to buy the rights for Quest for Glory and make QFG 6, they would. Perhaps if they are successful enough with the Hero-U series of games, they'll be able to afford to do that in the future.
P.S. If you ever decide to give the QFG series a try, and play QFG 2, try the free ADG remake of QFG 2 instead of the original version, it's got superior graphics to the original version, and some things got cut out of the original(due to time or budget restrictions) QFG2 that were added back in to the remake.
 
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Adventure and Role-Playing – They're Better Together
A Guest Column by Corey Cole @AdventureTreff
 
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So… I can't make up my mind about this one. Never played Quest for Glory. Part of me likes the idea of an adventure / RPG hybrid, part of me thinks I'd just rather play a regular RPG. Does someone want to try and convince me?

Same here, word for word.
 
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To me the best thing about QFG series was that gameplay really depended on the class you played. Not only about combat, but about how you would solve situations. For example, getting inside a castle, as a warrior, you'd fight the guards outside. As a thief, you would tightrope walk from a tree, as a wizard you would levitate and cast 'push', and these situations would present all through the game. There were also locations that would be just a generic house as a warrior or wizard, but as a thief you could get inside and steal things, then go to the thieves' guild and sell them, or as a wizard you would go to the WIT (Wizard's Institute of T...something) or the Fighter's guild as a warrior. There was a real point to play the games 2 or 3 times.
Now, this doesn't apply to this game as you're a rogue, but you get to choose different skills so there should be several ways to overcome obstacles (not the same, but good enough for me).
 
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Well they are damned close, and I always say variety is the spice of life, so I pledged. If they are $20 short in the end it wasn't my fault :)

(Thanks to the posters above providing additional insight in what to expect!)
 
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