Adventure Gamers - Forums

Fascinating thread read. Coming as a nonbacker who is pretty much a qfg fanatic, I had similar concerns about the appearance of Hero-u. See, I play thru the qfg series (yep all 1-5) at least twice a year.  lol. That’s how much I adhere the Cole’s creations, but Hero-u really needed to be something different to appeal more to old school qfg fans, imho.  I was personally really impressed with the spaceventure demo material in comparison. It had a sleek high res appearance which I think looks really nice and was a nice translation/evolution of the old SQ graphical feel.  I was hoping for a new qfg type game with a somewhat similar look. Even just something that looks somewhat like Memoria or these new kinds of games, but *plays* like qfg… yeah. that’s what I’ve wanted for ages.

I must say I’m really impressed with what I’ve seen so far of the smaller companies take on the qfg game mechanics.  Mage’s Initiation seems like it will be really, really fun like an old qfg the same as Quest For Infamy. Eagerly anticipating both of those releases, however, ultimately I think the 320x200 res needs to go away. It’s nostalgic and nice enough, but I think people should be thinking in terms of modern high resolution engines and getting away from AGS. If all Hero-U would have been was a QFI / MI / Heroine’s Quest style game but with Memoria type resolutions, I think everyone would have backed it. I know I would have. Graphics aren’t everything though, sure. I am having a blast playing through the new free release : Heroine’s Quest, despite its often mediocre graphics.  Some locations and artwork look excellent, and others are just so so, particularly the repetitive forest screens.  Nevertheless, the game is FUN!!! I really hope the Cole’s even may check it out because I think it really gets back to the *feeling* of what makes a qfg game so great and I know it would give them some excellent new perspectives and ideas.

Ultimately, I do still hold out hope for the final product of Hero-U and will probably purchase it when it gets here… but like everyone has already expressed, from what I’ve seen so far, I’m concerned.  If they really are redesigning the entire graphics engine somehow… well, that would be a good idea. If they restarted a new kickstarter after all the new direction changes, I think they might gain more pledges.

I tried to express these opinions without being rude. I believe in constructive criticism over outright hating.  Despite the concerns over the engine and graphics, I am still excited beyond reason that there is a new resurgence of quest for glory, both from the Coles themselves and these indie companies. I, like everyone else, just hope the Coles game turns out to be something we can all love amongst the classic qfgs. I know Heroine’s Quest is already there for me. Thanks Crystal Shard!

My sympathy goes out to those people who gave up their hard-earned money in order to help fund this utterly disappointing-looking project “Hero-U” by Corey Cole.

According to Corey Cole’s most recent Kickstarter update, his plan is to once again come with outstretched hands to gamers in a fundraising campaign and beg for even more money on top of the $400,000+ already given to him by generous backers. In the comments beneath that update, he writes that, if people give him a certain amount of additional funds, the Coles would have “breathing room on the loan so that [they] don’t have to get high-interest credit card financing.” Cole also says he needs the extra money for possible recorded voice acting, among other things.

He reportedly plans to launch this new fundraising campaign a mere 5 months or so before the promised Oct. 15, 2015 game release date.

Corey Cole, who has disappointed many by pushing a radical, intolerant feminist political agenda in his public postings about Hero-U, now seems to be, in his pitch for more money, trying to make people feel sorry for him.

While there will no doubt be some who will send him even more of their money, others will be reminded of an old saying that’s particularly apt here: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” I have a feeling that many original backers won’t be making the same mistake twice and throwing good money after bad.

In a way, it could be a positive thing if this second Corey Cole funding campaign failed. Developers need to learn the hard way that they shouldn’t count on last-minute bailouts to fix problems resulting from poor planning and incompetence. It would also show companies like Sierra that people like Corey Cole may not be among the best choices of people to team up with in future projects.

Corey Cole has had his time in the past and had an excellent partner in Sierra back in the day, and that’s great. Many of us will always look back and remember the Quest for Glory series fondly. But today there are new and better and more competent adventure game designers who are more deserving. Rather than trying to resuscitate that which maybe doesn’t merit it, I would prefer to support new, capable, vibrant talent.

@OrionO wow you’re really incensed against them. I’m often surprised at the level of hate against kickstarter projects… Backing a project on Kickstarter is not a preorder… Some projects being over budget is to be expected, have you never followed news about games backed by publishers and saw games being delayed (= additional money needed to pay salaries), cancelled (= loss of investments by publishers)? What did you expect that Kickstarter projects would be magically on time and on budget?

I agree with tomimt, I think that the Coles went in with outdated development ideas and wasted time and money on things that didn’t work out. They also had been a bit spoiled by having worked at Sierra with great development tools that had already been developed in house and helped make a lot of the work much easier. It’s easy to criticize them for this but then again hindsight is 20/20 and game development is damn hard…

By the way OrionO, where are those famous intolerant feminist writings by Corey Cole? the only result when googling for it is your post and I don’t see anything either on the forum… I’m kind of curious…

OrionO - 22 February 2015 05:42 AM

Corey Cole, who has disappointed many by pushing a radical, intolerant feminist political agenda in his public postings about Hero-U

jaap - 22 February 2015 09:46 AM

You can find some of it here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1878147873/hero-u-rogue-to-redemption/posts/978955

Didn’t spot anything radical or intolerant in that post - more the opposite: A plea for women and women characters to receive equal treatment within games and the gaming industry, and for hate to be taken out. But maybe OrionO will let us know more?

DaveGilbert - 22 February 2015 11:20 AM

Delays and mismanaged projects are one thing. I’m more concerned that they remortgaged their house to continue paying for the project and it’s still not enough. Even as a backer, I wouldn’t want them to lose their house over this.

uuuuuuuggggghhhh.

Easy for me to say, but they should just make a publisher deal… several other kcikstarters have done it… life goes on… anything is better than the headline “kickstarter part 2: we mortgaged our house for this!”
The fallout from making a publisher deal would be much less than the fallout of double kickstarting… a thing that has been frequently feared by kickstarter critics.. but im not sure has actually happened before.
From the update: “We also think a new Kickstarter campaign will give us a chance to reach many players who did not see the first one.”
I just hope they realize every single article of publicity is going to start with “this is their 2nd kickstarter for the same game.”

DaveGilbert - 22 February 2015 11:20 AM

Delays and mismanaged projects are one thing. I’m more concerned that they remortgaged their house to continue paying for the project and it’s still not enough. Even as a backer, I wouldn’t want them to lose their house over this.

I agree, the fact that they mortgaged their house concerns me. Kickstarters put people in an impossible position, though. I don’t know if it’s happened on gaming projects, but well-intentioned people have been sued over their failure to deliver Kickstarter rewards (with at least one lawsuit that I know of being successful).

I don’t see what’s so “intolerant” about what Corey says about women in the KS update linked above? It’s important to consider the context of what was going on in the game industry this past summer, when he made that post—women in the industry were being harassed with rape and death threats by so-called “real gamers” who feel threatened by their participation in game development. (And to some extent it’s still happening, but it was really bad last August/September.) Google “GamerGate” if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

That’s what he was reacting to, and stating unequivocally that women have a place in games, both on the dev side and as protagonists, is hardly pushing a “radical, intolerant feminist political agenda”.

DaveyB - 22 February 2015 12:45 PM

OrionO - 22 February 2015 05:42 AM

Corey Cole, who has disappointed many by pushing a radical, intolerant feminist political agenda in his public postings about Hero-U

jaap - 22 February 2015 09:46 AM

You can find some of it here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1878147873/hero-u-rogue-to-redemption/posts/978955

Didn’t spot anything radical or intolerant in that post - more the opposite: A plea for women and women characters to receive equal treatment within games and the gaming industry, and for hate to be taken out. But maybe OrionO will let us know more?

“radical, intolerant feminist agenda”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Hero-U has a boatload of problems, mostly stemming from mismanagement, but “SJW infiltration” isn’t one of them.

This is that whole “you refuse to tolerate my intolerance, so YOU are the REAL BIGOT” circular reasoning crap that bigots use to try and turn the tables on anyone who criticizes them.  It’s hilarious bullshit and should be ridiculed mercilessly at every turn.

Just a remark, I noticed that bigot is the favorite term of modern fascists.
If they want to discredit and even destroy someone, when (s)he doesn’t agree with their views, they mark them with that term which represents an unofficial call for lynching of that person.

I also didn’t see anything intolerant in their update, I didn’t read the letters though.