Other Quests for Something

[Bad2DaBone]

Aside from QFI, are there any other QFG-inspired games you're looking forward to?

All I can think of is a new game that the original creators are making.

[chucklas]

I am looking forward to Mages by Himalaya Studios.

[Intendant S]

I'm looking forward to Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption and Mage's Initiation in addition to QfI, of course..

[Klytos]

I'm very interested to see Mages, in particular how they make each class interesting to play. Hero-U I'm not sure about yet, I'll wait until I see some more although I'll certainly get the game, I'm just not sure what sort of game it's going to be yet!

[nidoking]

I'm still trying to decide on a few of the answers for the Hero-U backer survey. If I'm going to have an entire wing of the university named after me, it had better be good.

[Goatmeal]

I'm still trying to decide on a few of the answers for the Hero-U backer survey. If I'm going to have an entire wing of the university named after me, it had better be good.

If it's multiple choice, choose "B" for all answers.

Usually works for me...

[Bad2DaBone]

I think Heroine's Quest looks interesting.  Maybe it just needs a "kick-start."

[Fizzii]

As someone who is working on HQ, I can say that most of the resources are there. Remaining are some animations (mostly combat), which Corby is furiously working on, as well as coding and testing.

We're looking into the possibility of getting voice actors for the game, which may be tricky, as a lot of good voice actors don't do work pro bono. But we'll have to see what's out there. It is something which would be nice to have, as a good voice pack can really enhance a game. So stay tuned

[Blackthorne]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to Mage's Initiation and Heroine's Quest, (as you can see, I have friends who are working on some of these games, so I'm very psyched to see the fruits of their labors!) and I'm definitely interested in seeing how Hero-U progresses.  Let me tell you, Fizzii has done some amazing work for QFI, and that's just an indication, for me, that Heroine's Quest is going to be something special.  I'd love it if the game got a voice-pack too!


Bt

[Bad2DaBone]

As someone who is working on HQ, I can say that most of the resources are there. Remaining are some animations (mostly combat), which Corby is furiously working on, as well as coding and testing.

We're looking into the possibility of getting voice actors for the game, which may be tricky, as a lot of good voice actors don't do work pro bono. But we'll have to see what's out there. It is something which would be nice to have, as a good voice pack can really enhance a game. So stay tuned

Why not turn it into a series and sell it like Infamous Quests is doing?  Or kick-start it?  Don't get me wrong, I appreciate free games, but I know making money does give more resources to get stuff done.

[Fizzii]

This is my opinion only, so I'm not speaking for anyone, but selling an old-school low res adventure game isn't a big money maker (quite a niche market), needs to be marketed well, and once money gets involved, then there's the obligation to keep people up to date and meet deadlines (if set).

Making money does give the opportunity to hire more people, but having more people on the team also means extra management is required. And if you're paying them, you need to make sure you have enough funds to continue to pay, otherwise they may decide not to continue working on the project.

My viewpoint on a Kickstarter is that it can certainly help with getting more people on board, but even if you look at the funds raised for QFI - $60k is not a lot between a team of artists, programmers, composers and story writer. It means that everyone is able to spend a little more time working on the game, but are still constrained by time they need to spend working in their normal job, plus spending time with family.

At this stage, the core HQ team doesn't need to expand as the sprites are being done at a good pace and a lot of the game is coded already. As I mentioned, the only thing we will need extra help with is a possible voice pack. And the game's come so far on no budget already, ideally we'd like to keep it that way.

[s_d]

My viewpoint on a Kickstarter is that it can certainly help with getting more people on board, but even if you look at the funds raised for QFI - $60k is not a lot between a team of artists, programmers, composers and story writer.

Yeah.  Assume that a game like HQ, QFI, etc. could be accomplished in two years for a full-time team of 7 (background artist, portrait artist, sprite artist & animator, writer & producer, sound designer & score composer, and a pair of programmers for gameplay/packaging/engine coding), at competitive rates between $50-100K (industry standard being an unfortunately wide range), and including overhead for operations (managed servers to host nightly builds, asset pipeline, regression testing, source repository, backups... also employee benefits, like *anything*), as well as contract voice work... well, that's in the million dollar range.  To fund that on a distributor like Steam (30% cut), you need to sell 130,000 units at $10 (and that's after you've already spent the money leading up to release).

So... nobody takes a wage for years, voice work is volunteer and perhaps not always of the highest quality, and next to nothing is done in the regards to infrastructure (which is why so many fan/indie projects die due to failed drives and lack of backups).  Building an amazing independent game under those constraints is so astonishing that I'm surprised it ever happens (the exception being the one-off project by some amazing loner sitting under a rock and toiling by herself, to introduce something small and magical into an unsuspecting world).

Being able to accomplish *anything* under QFI's budget requires an extraordinarily dedicated (and barely paid) team, and producers who have tricks for getting awesome things done cheaply.  I wish that there were more gamers who understood that 

[Bad2DaBone]

As someone who is working on HQ, I can say that most of the resources are there. Remaining are some animations (mostly combat), which Corby is furiously working on, as well as coding and testing.

We're looking into the possibility of getting voice actors for the game, which may be tricky, as a lot of good voice actors don't do work pro bono. But we'll have to see what's out there. It is something which would be nice to have, as a good voice pack can really enhance a game. So stay tuned

You know what?  I've always been good at imitating voices, it's been a skill I've had since I was a kid.  You need a free voice actor then I'd happily volunteer!

[Lambonius]

Being able to accomplish *anything* under QFI's budget requires an extraordinarily dedicated (and barely paid) team, and producers who have tricks for getting awesome things done cheaply. 

I just thought I'd quote this.  No particular reason.  Carry on, everyone.