Blog

Order of the Thorne The King’s Challenge – Post-mortem

I’ve written this post-mortem about five times over the last couple of months. It’s hard because I feel like I’m clutching at straws trying to nail down something as concrete as “these are the three main reasons TKC failed”. Rest assured, this game was a commercial failure. We might make some of our money back on the longer tail that adventure games have, as well as sales and such, but it’s not going to be enough to fund the next game.

Here’s the simple truth for most, if not all, indie developers. The success of the next game is life or death for your company. It’s only when you get a catalog of games that have residual income coming in can you afford a poor selling release. Even then, it’s tough.

(more…)

Update about Infamous Quests

Hey Folks,

I know it’s been a long time between updates; I want to apologize for that, but I didn’t want to post something when I had nothing to report.

SHIPPING UPDATES

Due to some professional and person setbacks/issues, there’s been delays on my end with some of the shipping.  I’d sent out some packages earlier in the year, and a few more in sporadic doses in between, but I still have a vast majority of packages to send out.  I’m very sorry about the delay.  I don’t want to give long explanations, but I do want to apologize and let you know I have been working on packing them up, and now – this week – I intend to send out even more.  Everyone should be getting their packages between now and the end of Summer (Mid-September).

This is just a small taste of packages waiting to go out.
This is just a small taste of packages waiting to go out.

For several of you with larger packages and multiple items, I will contact you personally when they go out, so you can know to look for them.

Again, I have to apologize – this has been a source of great anxiety and stress to me, and I feel awful about the delays.  You all have been amazing and supportive, and I can not thank you enough for that.

Which leads me into…

The Future of Infamous Quests

We’ve had a great run as adventure game designers; from our ambitious start as Infamous Adventures and our remakes of King’s Quest III in 2006 and Space Quest 2 in 2011, to our latest games – it has been one of the greatest adventures of my life.  I’ve met and made friends all around the globe; I’ve traveled, told my stories, worked with amazingly talented people and done things I only dreamed about as a kid.  I never thought in my life I’d be able to accomplish so much, and yet – we did.

In 2012, we banded together – the creators and the backers – to fund our project on Kickstarter, and it was a magical time, not only for us, but for other creators and fans.  It was, simply put, a magical time.  Something I don’t think will ever be repeated in the history of game creation and gaming culture.  I have to thank you all for being a part of that and including us in it.

After the completion and releases of our upcoming games, Order of the Thorne: Fortress of Fire and Quest for Infamy: Roehm to Ruin, we will most likely not be producing any more games.  Adventure games, and certainly the kinds of games we produce, are a niche market.  Niche is probably a fancy and nice way to put it… we’re a tiny segment of a huge and amazingly competitive market.  We’ve been lucky enough to create the kind of games we always wanted to make and play, but – unfortunately – it hasn’t been financially viable for us to do so. We just haven’t been able to sell enough copies to cover our production costs, and I can’t pay the talented people who make these games come to life in good wishes and moral victories.  They deserve more. Like many commercial ventures, I’ve incurred a decent amount of personal debt on this – I rolled the dice, and sadly, it didn’t quite pan out. It’s not viable for us to continue on, from a financial standpoint.  So, we will complete our last two games here, and continue on – many of the people who have worked on these games are already involved in other careers, jobs and projects, and are committed to finishing our games solely because of our love for the games, the genre and you, the fans.  You backers have been the best – I wish there was a whole lot more like you out there.  Thank you so much for everything over the past four years – you were, and are, the heart and soul of everything we’ve ever done.

Being a designer has been amazing, and you all have afforded me and my friends to collaborate to tell you our stories.  Thank you for letting Mr. Roehm come to life, and for letting him pursue a Quest for Infamy.  There was a time when QFI was just a pipe dream of some post-college kids – and you made it a reality.  I wish you all the best in the future, and (again) thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We hope you’ll enjoy our upcoming games – even though they are most likely the last, I’m very excited about what they’ll offer you, as adventure game fans.

All my best,

Bt

Order of the Thorne – 5 days to go!

The Grand Master of the Order of the Thorne looked up from her desk as Kunchen, a Monk of the Order, was escorted into her chambers. “Greetings, Brother. Thank you for coming so quickly.”

“Of course, Grand Master. I am always at your service,” he replied while he looked around the Grand Master’s chambers. The furnishings were sparse, as he had expected from someone of her position, while the bulk of the room was taken up by the large oak desk which the Grand Master was currently sitting behind. Everything on the desk was in order, neatly stacked piles of papers sat to the side of the one she was currently working on while her quill and ink-well sat neatly above them. The only other item on her desk was the seal of the Order, used on any official communications such as the letter which brought him here today.

“Brother Kunchen, I’ve asked you here today to take on a very special mission for the Order. Our monestary in the Faerie Realm has been left unmanned for a number of months since our brother there passed away. I’d like you to take up the monastary there, conduct any repairs it may require and fly the flag of the Order, so to speak,” the Grand Master said.

Kunchen was taken aback at the request, “Thank you for the honor Grand Master. I would gladly do so.”

“Good! Good. Speak to my chamberlain about anything you require for your journey when you leave,” she said by way of dismissing him. “I will Grand Master. And thank you again.” Brother Kunchen walked out of the room and closed the door quietly behind him, his head already full of the plans he had to make for his mission. The Grand Master watched him leave and for a moment envied him. To run a monastary was a high honor. Of course, to be Grand Master was also a high honor, but with much more responsibility. Sighing, she returned to the paper she was studying before Brother Kunchen had interrupted her.

“Not good. Not good at all,” she whispered to herself. “We should have heard back by now. I shall have to send someone to see what’s happening there. Brother Caradoc should do.” Making a note on the paper she put it aside and took the next one from the pile, quickly reading it. “Why would the crystal mines have stopped production…”

Order of the Thorne Q&A – 7 Days to go!

Before we start, here’s the brand new trailer for newest game, Order of the Thorne: The King’s Challenge, which is out January 26th.

This time next week you’ll be able to get the first Order of the Thorne game, and we’re very excited to see what everyone thinks! To kick off our launch week celebrations we give you an interview with Shawn Mills, Executive Producer of The King’s Challenge and ask him the tough questions!

(more…)

Deconstructing Quest for Infamy – The Game

It’s been over a year since our first commercial game, Quest for Infamy, was released and with the impending release of our next two games I figured it was as good a time as any to look back at what we’d done and make some of my thoughts public. I’m going to try and be objective in this article, but as with anything creative, a lot of ourselves went into it so a lot of the time things I like or hate are my personal feelings. There’s plenty of reviews on the internet if you want to see what other people thought!

Quest for Infamy

 

Steve (Steven Alexander – my partner is this crazy game creation business) and I have talked a lot about our game in the time since it’s release and we’re pretty much on the same page with this stuff, so while I’m making writing this post, we’re both in agreement about it. Two final thoughts before we start, a lot of people worked very hard on this game so I’m using the the terms “we” and “our” when talking about it to simplify matters. And secondly, this is going to be quite a long post, so grab a drink!

(more…)

Roehm’s Adventure Continues

We have been talking a lot about Order of the Thorne : The King’s Challenge lately, and rightly so because it’s a bloody fun game, but I just wanted to let you all know we hadn’t forgotten our Mr William Roehm!

Roehm’s adventures continue (or should that be begin?) in Roehm to Ruin, the second of our games to be released very soon. One of the early events that happens is this shakedown of his friend Gareth, a local fish-monger and supplier of illegal pharmaceutical enhancements. Does Roehm help out his friend? Does he run and get some guards? Does he help the thief? You’ll work it out, we’re sure!

Roehm to Ruin
Roehm interrupts to shake down! (Artwork may change for final release)

Roehm to Ruin is now complete and all the graphical assets are in the game and working a treat! The game is being tested as we speak (or type in my case) and after some more runs through the testing machine we’ll get the speech recorded and in-game, for your listening pleasure!