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No new postsHero-U, from the developers of Quest for Glory
Sometimes, your wording reminds me of this guy:
I’ll agree that the Coles Kickstarter has been a mess pretty much from the start, but I don’t understand the need to wish them ill. Just because you’ve participated in a successful kickstarter yourself doesn’t make you the king of kickstarters.
Hahaha…Joffrey. Love that comparison.
I was just being a grump. 
I just think that the Hero-U kickstarter is a great example of quirky creative minds in desperate need of some kind of supervision or direction. Clearly, that’s something that the Coles had in the Sierra days, but don’t now, and it really shows.
Yeah, don’t know how I’d feel about another fundraiser. Perhaps the Coles should approach AGDi and IA with whatever money they have left to work on a QfG-like game with them when they’re done with Mage’s Initiation and Quest for Infamy.
... well, it’s just a thought.
I doubt that would be a realistic option give, that those both are rather small developers with their own big projects going on.
Yeah, don’t know how I’d feel about another fundraiser. Perhaps the Coles should approach AGDi and IA with whatever money they have left to work on a QfG-like game with them when they’re done with Mage’s Initiation and Quest for Infamy.
... well, it’s just a thought.
I doubt that would be a realistic option give, that those both are rather small developers with their own big projects going on.
I know, I’m just being silly.
You’ve got to love how every monthly update is about how they’ve had an epiphany and decided to change the game’s look and design all over again. When I read that update a few days ago, I went and checked when the Kickstarter actually ended; turns out it’s been 6 months – and they still have no idea what the game is going to look like or play like…
Oh well… We all knew some of those Kickstarters were going to be a mess.
Man, Homestuck Adventure still doesn’t even have a developer as far as I know, and that was 6 months ago. At least the Coles have done SOMETHING.
It’s important to do your due diligence on a project before you back—at least unless you’re prepared to just gamble that money. Generally, if there isn’t an established, stable company with an actual office behind a project, it’s a pretty big gamble.
I’ve only backed two such projects that weren’t, and they’re both pretty iffy. One I’m pretty convinced will never come out, and the other is SpaceVenture, which I have my doubts about (but I’m hoping it’ll work out).
Corey Cole mentioned at some point, that they might consider another funding run at some point and I think it might be very possible at this point.
In my mind, that would be a worst case scenario. It would gain press for all the wrong reasons. Pleaaaase dont do that, hero-u.
I just think that the Hero-U kickstarter is a great example of quirky creative minds in desperate need of some kind of supervision or direction. Clearly, that’s something that the Coles had in the Sierra days, but don’t now, and it really shows.
Heh, we got virtually *no* supervision at Sierra. It was the most laissez-faire company I’ve ever seen. What we *did* have at Sierra was a mature set of tools that meant all of the artists there knew exactly how to turn our game designs into content. We’re using the same game design process for Hero-U, but the programmers and artists have much more work to do without Sierra’s tools. We have to build that infrastructure before our team can create game content.
Ref another comment - It is not at all that we’re changing art direction every update. Lori specifically referred to decisions that we made *while running the Kickstarter*. We had a major hit losing two programmers early on, so we’re only now getting the results of experiments of how the art will look in game. In the meantime, our artists have been creating background art and characters for Hero-U since January. Still, most of them are working part-time, and it is turning out to be a very slow process.
As for getting additional funding, we will almost certainly have to do that. We haven’t yet decided whether to do that by taking on investment, running another crowdfunding campaign, or doing a pre-sale on our site. But you have to understand that Quest for Glory IV, back in 1995 with 256-color art, cost $750K to develop. We have about $300K to spend on the game after covering the backer rewards, fees, and shipping costs. If we were sticking to MacGuffin’s Curse production values, we could make the game we originally envisioned - but that isn’t what our backers want.
Do we need adult supervision? Oh, probably. 
But we’ve never had it while making a game. I suspect it would hurt the creativity.
Hello there Mr. Cole That quote in your post, I didn’t say that, Lambonius did 
From reading interviews with Al Lowe, I’ve gathered that Ken Williams pretty much let his employees develop their own games as they saw fit, which is probably part of the reason why the Sierra games, for the most part, were so enjoyable. I agree that too much supervision can greatly hurt creativity, something that has been quite evident in several AG productions over the past decade.
Anyway, I wish you good luck with the remaining process, and if it does turn out you need another crowdfunder, I hope it won’t generate as much bad publicity as some ppl on this forum fears.
Duckman: Can you believe it? Five hundred bucks for a parking ticket?
Cornfed Pig: You parked in a handicapped zone.
Duckman: Who cares? Nobody parks there anyway, except for the people who are supposed to park there and, hell, I can outrun them anytime.
As for getting additional funding, we will almost certainly have to do that. We haven’t yet decided whether to do that by taking on investment, running another crowdfunding campaign, or doing a pre-sale on our site. But you have to understand that Quest for Glory IV, back in 1995 with 256-color art, cost $750K to develop. We have about $300K to spend on the game after covering the backer rewards, fees, and shipping costs. If we were sticking to MacGuffin’s Curse production values, we could make the game we originally envisioned - but that isn’t what our backers want.
I would imagine that a second Kickstarter could potentially lead to a huge backlash. A couple people have pulled it off, but it’s probably better to save that for a last resort.
Hope you guys can pull it off alright. I’m afraid I didn’t back, but I’m definitely interested to see what you come up with.
News about playable demo by the end of this month ...
As for getting additional funding, we will almost certainly have to do that. We haven’t yet decided whether to do that by taking on investment, running another crowdfunding campaign, or doing a pre-sale on our site.
theres nothing wrong with adding a presale option, many kickstarters have done it. And i dont think backers would mind so much about getting outside investments. A 2nd kickstarter however, thats uncharted waters… shark-infested at that.
I think pretty much every KS game I’ve backed has a pre-sale going as well, but from the looks of it none of those are making money in the numbers comparable to what they got from Kickstarter.
The game that has gotten the most after it’s KS run was over is Roberts’s Star Citizen, which is clocking in 10+ million at the moment, but then again that game is a crowdfunding juggernaut, and would be near those numbers even without KS, given that they’ve gathered almost 8 million through their own site and only 2.1 million from KS.
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