Guess you guys are the only chance we have left. Could and would you tackle a Quest For Glory 6 project?
Cheers,
Rob
I won't say absolutely never, because you never know what will happen, but I will say it's highly unlikely. We aren't doing any non-commercial games after TSL is completed, and to do a QfG game we would have to get a license from Activision. And while plenty of us on the team have enjoyed the QfG games, I don't think we quite have the same collective passion for that series as we have for KQ.
I will take this time to point out that AGDI is releasing a commercial game (under the Himalaya Studios name) that's very QfG-inspired called "Mage's Initation: Reign of the Elements" (http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/games.html) in 2012 that looks quite promising--and knowing them, I have no doubts that it will be a quality game!
Thanks for the reply. Thats a real shame. :( As with Obi Won Kanobi you were our only hope...
I'm looking forward to your commercial releases in the near future. If I may comment, and you probably well know is that what helps to create a great experience is not only a good game but is the box and inside goodies. Something Sierra, Richard Garriot from Origin did very well. These days most games come only with a poor DVD jewel case and a tiny few page manual.
Cheers,
Rob
Indeed :) Right now we're looking more at an online-only distribution model--like Telltale Games does with their products--but we know everyone likes extras, which is why we do things like the contest prizes of mousepads, calendars, the soundtrack, etc. :) Who doesn't love a little swag?
The QFG series also adds in another whole level of game design with the RPG elements that are in place there. We're all pretty clear on coding the adventure game stuff, but it'd take some work to get familiar with how to do the RPG stuff properly. We may do something like that at some point, but yeah doing a QFG game commercially may not be very possible these days.
I'm not even sure who owns the rights to Quest for Glory at this point. Presumably it's mainly Activision.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/11/original-quest-for-glory-devs-unaware-of-any-planned-remakes/
But I'm not sure they or Vivendi before them rereleased the games in a modern collection, like was done for KQ, SQ, PQ, and Larry under vivendi. I'm not sure why. Gabriel Knight, Phantasmagoria, KQ, SQ and PQ got new rereleased or collections on GoG. The initial PQ collection was based on the vivendi KQ collection.
The Coles apparently still maintain certain rights to some of the characters but not the Quest for Glory logo, as their School for Heroes real world meta-game would suggest. Which basically partially continues were QfG 5 left off, but a different interpretation of the world, and Silmeria. Apparently in that universe the hero never became king, and he rescued both Katrina and Erana from Hades.
It's not really a game per se though more of a community service type thing, that has you go out and do things in your community to advance.
On a related note Activision doesn't have rights to Larry anymore., it's codemasters now. Nor do they hold the rights to Gold Rush! The latter went back to the owners who publish the game through their own company. They also do not have the rights to The Realm, former Sierra's QfG like MMO. There might be one or two other IPs they no longer hold, Manhunter might have gone back to the developers, they have discussed making the third game addy all these years.
Conquests is still connected to Activision currently but the Marx's offer it illegally on their website, rather than leave it abandoned. Mark Seibert has done the same thing with Pepper's Adventures in Time on his website. Even Al Lowe offers some of his old software on his site, although he admits he doesn't own thr rights to them.
You know what? I'd love to see a QFG 6 done by the Coles.... for, say, the xbox360. That would be cool.
Bt
I have a feeling a modern QFG wouldn't be much like QFG. QFG5 didn't quite feel like a QFG game and more of a standard hack and slash action-RPG most of the adventure game aspects were stripped out, leaving most quests combat related. Almost all items were food, potions, money, weapons and armor.
I think a modern game would stray even further, probably end up being a Fable clone or the like. Probably wouldn't have an elaborate mouse driven menu system, since that wouldn't work on consoles. It would probably be dumbed down, little to no inventory puzzles (fetch quests instead), more box puzzles, maybe lock picking puzzles.
You know, I don't think Phoenix Online is your last hope, man.
You never know - a lot of groups like this just started out because some talented fans came together and worked hard on something. A new group could easily come along in the future - who wants to tackle a QFG-like game.
There's always hope. People can surprise you.
Bt
Quote from: Blackthorne on June 02, 2011, 12:20:40 PM
You know, I don't think Phoenix Online is your last hope, man.
You never know - a lot of groups like this just started out because some talented fans came together and worked hard on something. A new group could easily come along in the future - who wants to tackle a QFG-like game.
There's always hope. People can surprise you.
Bt
Hmmmm, implying anything, Blackthorne?
IA was/is working on Quest for Villainy. Maybe it hasn't been cancelled just out on indefinite hold until their other games are completed.
Quote from: Sslaxx on June 05, 2011, 12:47:14 PM
Quote from: Blackthorne on June 02, 2011, 12:20:40 PM
You know, I don't think Phoenix Online is your last hope, man.
You never know - a lot of groups like this just started out because some talented fans came together and worked hard on something. A new group could easily come along in the future - who wants to tackle a QFG-like game.
There's always hope. People can surprise you.
Bt
Hmmmm, implying anything, Blackthorne?
Nah, I'm not implying that my group is working on anything. Believe me, we've got our hands full with our current projects. What I'm saying, though, is that at one time - we were just a bunch of guys who hung out on forums like this, and liked games like this, and we pooled our talents and resources and made a couple of games. I'm saying that anyone, with perserverance and dedication, can do the same. If you want QFG6, you might have to get up, get out there, and make it yourself....
Bt
Quote from: KatieHal on May 31, 2011, 08:40:43 PM
And while plenty of us on the team have enjoyed the QfG games, I don't think we quite have the same collective passion for that series as we have for KQ.
That's interesting and it begs the question: If not for King's Quest would Phoenix still exist, would it have the support of so many talented fans or would everyone have gone their separate ways by now if recreating another game.
Quote from: drunkenmonkey on June 05, 2011, 08:35:12 PMIf not for King's Quest would Phoenix still exist . . .
My magic 8 ball says: outlook doubtful.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Phoenix came together because of a desire to create King's Quest IX, no? If King's Quest didn't exist, Pheonix's reason for being would also not exist, and the members would possibly never even have met in the first place.
Quote from: Baggins on June 05, 2011, 12:50:57 PM
IA was/is working on Quest for Villainy. Maybe it hasn't been cancelled just out on indefinite hold until their other games are completed.
They've made it pretty clear that QFI isn't happening.
Quote from: snabbott on June 06, 2011, 08:24:31 AM
Quote from: Baggins on June 05, 2011, 12:50:57 PM
IA was/is working on Quest for Villainy. Maybe it hasn't been cancelled just out on indefinite hold until their other games are completed.
They've made it pretty clear that QFI isn't happening.
Yeah. I mean, in a perfect world, I'd LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to make Quest For Infamy. The truth is we just don't have enough time, resources and people to do it. If I had a budget, I could hire the requisite amount of artists and programmers to make it happen - and to get the game out in a timely manner, they'd have to be working full time - 40 hours a week, doing nothing but the art and scripting for the game. We just don't have those kind of resources. We're taxed to the max with our free time on KoS and SQ2.... we've been working on SQ2 for over 5 years now.... and it's still taking time to finish it.
Bt
Stick to one or two projects at a time, don't stress yourself! Who knows what you'll move onto after these two projects are finished, but whatever it is I wish you success!
Quote from: Baggins on June 07, 2011, 06:41:45 PM
Stick to one or two projects at a time, don't stress yourself! Who knows what you'll move onto after these two projects are finished, but whatever it is I wish you success!
Yeah, we're really devoting our time to finishing Space Quest 2 and Kingdom of Sorrow. I really think KoS is going to be a great treat for old-school adventure gamers. We're really putting a lot of time and effort into it to ma
(Posted on: June 07, 2011, 10:23:42 PM)
Quote from: Baggins on June 07, 2011, 06:41:45 PM
Stick to one or two projects at a time, don't stress yourself! Who knows what you'll move onto after these two projects are finished, but whatever it is I wish you success!
Yeah, we're really devoting our time to finishing Space Quest 2 and Kingdom of Sorrow. I really think KoS is going to be a great treat for old-school adventure gamers. We're really putting a lot of time and effort into it to making it an incredible experience.
Bt
As much as I'd love to see a QfG6, that Hero's story is definitely wrapped up pretty nicely.
That said, the Coles *did* say once upon a time, and no I have no idea where I saw this at this point, that they had entertained the idea of continuing the Quest for Glory series by introducing a new Hero for the player to be -- adding race options, maybe some different classes, and exploring some of the other lands of the same world (North Fricana, Jotunheim, etc)
Honestly, I think that the time it wouldn't have gone over as well as they'd hoped -- I don't think there was the technology that is being implemented now with Dragon Age 2 that lets you import the sort of decision-oriented information (versus character information) so that you'd be able to see the results of QfG5 affect the world you were playing in. And I think after five games of building up this one character it'd be kind of a let down to start over.
That said, I'm all for any fan projects set in Gloriana.
Like Katie said, I think Himalaya's game will be a great spiritual successor to the Quest for Glory series. And I love the idea the guys are going retro with it. Making a "new' Quest For Glory that would match the appeal of current gen games out there would be a nightmare. With games like Skyrim, Dragon Age, etc abound, it wouldn't be easy. Not that Quest for Glory is really anything like those games but to make it mass appealing, it'd probably have to have that open world feeling that costs a lot of money to make.
Hmmm ... is Quest for Infamy sufficiently divorced from Quest for Glory to be commercially released without a license from whoever has the QfG rights? I have no idea of IA would be interested in going down that route, but I wonder if it's possible in theory.
Also, I think it would be cool to have a fan-game about Simba as a teenager/adult, given his ties to East Fricana and Shapeir (I don't think it would be good for an official sequel, since I think having a strongly defined player character is too much of a break from the QfG tradition).
It was to take place in Spielburg, some twenty or so years after QFG series. So no it reuses too many assets (from QFG 1 VGA).
Having it take place in Spielburg was one of the early ideas. It had since evolved beyond that before it was indefinitely shelved.
Yeah, originally it took place in Spielburg 20 years later - but later on down the line, we removed that and created our own valley and town.
Bt
Wow, you seriously never did update your website to match the finalized aspects of the game eh?
I remember checking one of the last versions of the Quest for Infamy page on the IA website, before the game page was taken down (just before "Project X/Kingdom of Sorrow" was announced IIRC), and it still had images of both Spielburg, and mentioned that twenty year thing. I think that version of the website still shows up on Wayback machine.
Quote from: Baggins on July 05, 2011, 03:37:40 PM
Wow, you seriously never did update your website to match the finalized aspects of the game eh?
I remember checking one of the last versions of the Quest for Infamy page on the IA website, before the game page was taken down (just before "Project X/Kingdom of Sorrow" was announced IIRC), and it still had images of both Spielburg, and mentioned that twenty year thing. I think that version of the website still shows up on Wayback machine.
Yeah, we never changed it on the webpage, because we didn't want to announce something and then not do it. We had changed it in the game design document, but we'd never changed it in any of the demo builds we made. The game, in playable form, always had the Spielburg stuff in it. The "non-Spielburg" version only ever existed on paper. We wouldn't have changed the website until we had concrete work done - and by that time, we'd decided to leave it be. Why announce something you're not going to deliver on? We'd already DONE that by announcing QFI in the first place, and learned our lesson from it. To note, though, we were just a green bunch of dudes starting out. You learn things as you go in the amateur game development business.
Bt
Quote from: Blackthorne on July 05, 2011, 05:08:27 PM
You learn things as you go in the amateur game development business.
Amen to that!
Baggins, dude, who cares?
I do, I found it interesting! There are alot of misconceptions of what that game was going to be!
Someone needs to go in and edit the Quest for Infamy page in the QFG Omnipedia, since much of the information is apparently outdated! :)
http://questforglory.wikia.com/wiki/Quest_for_Infamy:_So_You_Want_to_be_a_Villain%3F
I don't even know why there's an omnipedia page for it. The game was never publicly released, and really never was more than an idea we had - something we discussed and worked on a lot internally, but the public never got to see it. I mean, should anyone who whispers the mention of a QFG fan game get an "omnipedia" entry? Because basically, that's all it was.
Granted, the game and the work we did for it is very close to my heart, and we all had fun developing it - but we never progressed it far enough to consider it an unfinished and abandoned work. It really never got much beyond the conception stages.
There's really not a whole not more information on it - well, any that we'd care to share.
Bt
Well there is playable demo for it, that's still accessible! That's a bit beyond the standard, fan game announcement! Some people are interested in playing these demos.
Actually there are 'fan websites' that devote space to your game idea, screen shots, and demo!
http://webspace.webring.com/people/ed/d_blakeley/Games/QFGSeries/QFI/QFI.html
If you have been to the Space Quest Omnipedia, people have gone out of their way to pretty much make pages for every fan game in development, LOL, before I was an admin there (I adopted myself into admin there a while after it was moved to Wikia).
The same goes for King's Quest Omnipedia, with the pages for unfinished KQ games in development/cancelled, including KQ4 AGI versions, and KQ2 SCI. That may or may not ever be finished! Who knows what the future holds.
In general I agree with your assessement that it seems a bit silly, to make a page for a fan game, unless it is completed (or in my opinion at least has a playable demo to download, ala KQ2 SCI for example). But if I really went with my personal opinions, I'd delete every fan page, except for those that have a complete game! I'd probably merge all the 'unfinished games/games in development' to a single page, with links to archives, demos, etc, for those interested in knowing more! Then wait for specific pages, once the game is released.
But eh, the original policy was put into place before I joined, and I keep it there to be fair to different types of fans (that apparently thought that policy was a good idea in the first place). Apparently there are quite a few people that are interested in fan scene development, even for those games that are never finished.
Yeah, I suppose as a curiosity it's interesting. I just feel it's mostly a let down to fans, though.
I'll say this, had we the means and ways to properly make Quest For Infamy the way we'd planned it, it would have been a pretty excellent game.
Bt
Well, I hope someday, after you complete your current stuff, and have free time; you will find a way to go back to the idea! If its completely stripped of any QFG content, it could easily have financial merit, like Mage's game by AGDI/Himalaya.