[Crapstorm]

Aw sorry, everyone. I promised that I would buy you all a copy of A Vampyre Story if it came out before the end of 2007. The publisher seems to have pushed the release date back to Q1 2008. Too bad. They squandered an opportunity to make hundreds of sales. I even had $25,000 put in a trust fund just in case I lost the bet. At least now I can buy that boat that I've had my eye on.

[Nelza]

What does 'Q1' stand for? *prepares for slapping*

[Melanie68]

The first quarter of the year - January, February, March (and Q2, Q3, Q4 follow suit). When they don't have a really firm date of release yet, they'll usually give that 3 month estimate.

[Nelza]

Ah, that does make sense! I've been reading a lot of reviews lately and 'Q1/Q2/Q3/Q4' kept coming up. Thank you once again Melanie!

[chapter11studios]

The release date slip is disappointing, but this game could come out in 2015 and I'd still be first in line for it.

[Terramax]

Agreed. If pushing it back more and more prevents bugs and allows them to make the game they wanted to in the first place, I'll carry on accepting push backs.

[Erwin_Br]

I can't wait! (But I'll have to, I'm afraid)

--Erwin

[Zanthia]

I do hope it will be worth. To much waiting rises expatations greatly.

[Kolzig]

Originally Posted by Terramax

Agreed. If pushing it back more and more prevents bugs and allows them to make the game they wanted to in the first place, I'll carry on accepting push backs.

Exactly. You said it just like I would've wanted to say.

[cwapitm]

Well whenever it comes out, I'm looking forward to it.

[AdrianWerner]

Good thing. The end of the year is so full of AAA games that a more niche title like Vampyre story would pass completely unnoticed by most people

[Thello]

This is one of those games with so very little actual media available, much of which is concept art, that I have to question how much of the game they've actually done so far. I knew it wasn't happening this year, but I'm already starting to think that Q1 isn't going to happen either.

One of the more disheartening quotes of the recent preview:
"A Vampyre Story will end on a cliffhanger, with plans already in place for a trilogy of games, and with ports to console systems being actively considered."
Unless A Vampyre Story turns out to be episodic, this is probably never, ever going to happen. If you're reading this, Autumn Moon, please don't end things on a cliffhanger. It's great that you're still enthusiastic about the genre, but let's make sure you see some financial success before you start planning so far ahead.

[Crapstorm]

This is the usual "democratization of art" that we're seeing. Artists, faced with the financial realities of their profession, attempt to reach a broader audience by compromising certain features of their product. At first, I think this was going to be an entirely hand-drawn and animated game, but then they switched to 3D characters. Now they're planning to produceonly one third of the story, and port to consoles. Next announcement should be that there will be some combat.

[Terramax]

Originally Posted by Kolzig

Exactly. You said it just like I would've wanted to say.

I learnet this the hard way see. I waited push-backs over 6 months before Ankh was finally released in the UK. I snapped it off of the shelves the day it came out.

Sure, it's not a classic, but it was well made. Apart from one or two bugs at the very end of the game, it played fine.

Then there was the sequel, which I think got put back once by about 2-3 weeks. Unplayable was the result. Literally. If anyone looked at the help thread, I ended up restarting the game about 3-4 times before I sold it off.

Maybe I'll never know what's behind that kitchen door... at least not until there's a patch and the game comes cheap enough. Shame...

[Marek]

Originally Posted by Crapstorm

This is the usual "democratization of art" that we're seeing. Artists, faced with the financial realities of their profession, attempt to reach a broader audience by compromising certain features of their product. At first, I think this was going to be an entirely hand-drawn and animated game, but then they switched to 3D characters. Now they're planning to produceonly one third of the story, and port to consoles. Next announcement should be that there will be some combat.

It's hard to even respond seriously to what you are saying here. 3D characters are a compromise? Potentially releasing to multiple platforms is a compromise? Planning three instead of one games is a compromise? Is it opposite-day, or do you live in some kind of parallel world?

[Thello]

Originally Posted by Marek

It's hard to even respond seriously to what you are saying here. 3D characters are a compromise? Potentially releasing to multiple platforms is a compromise? Planning three instead of one games is a compromise? Is it opposite-day, or do you live in some kind of parallel world?

Planning three games instead of one is a bad idea on their part as the chances of a full trilogy ever being made in this day and age is extremely unlikely. I wouldn't count on multiple platforms either. These statements are what you'd call Molyneux-isms, and I'm willing to put $100 down that either Autumn Moon's publisher drops them or goes out of business before the second and third games are ever realized.

[Orange Brat]

They have 3 publishers depending on territory.

Germany, Austria, Switzerland: Crimson Cow - http://www.crimsoncow.de
France, Benelux, UK: Focus Home Interactive - http://www.focus-home.com
Russia: Akella - http://www.akella.com

[Udvarnoky]

I'm pretty sure Crimson Cow owns the worldwide publishing rights though.

Crapstorm, you're making many assumptions in your post, not to mention implying that the notion of releasing on consoles is evil or something. How do you know that the game was originally intended to have 2D hand-drawn characters? Everything I've read indicates that 3D models were the plan all along, and that the prototype sprites were just placeholders (rather simplistic ones at that) until they got funding and their animator. I doubt they had all these elaborate hand drawn 2d animations in the can or anything, but I guess you know better.

And if the idea of making the story into multiple games wasn't conceived from the beginning by Bill Tiller, it's hard for me to believe that he made the decision in order to compromise his artistic vision or whatever, at least based on what he's written on the subject. I can appreciate cynicism, but not when it's based on stuff you made up.

[Erwin_Br]

Originally Posted by Thello

Planning three games instead of one is a bad idea on their part as the chances of a full trilogy ever being made in this day and age is extremely unlikely. I wouldn't count on multiple platforms either. These statements are what you'd call Molyneux-isms, and I'm willing to put $100 down that either Autumn Moon's publisher drops them or goes out of business before the second and third games are ever realized.

If Autumn Moon believes it's going out of business, Tiller wouldn't even have started the company and the game. You and Crapstorm are talking nonsense.

--Erwin

[ozzie]

Hey, people like to be pessimistic.
It gives them something to complain and talk about.
The split in three parts is surely a compromise to the budget.
But since adventures are popular enough in Germany and the business of Crimson Cow is healthy it's more unlikely that they will have trouble funding all three games than not.