Can you guys say at the very least if you feel Ep 5 will come out at some point during this year?
I ask because we're basically at the end of the first quarter of the year with no real word.
I don't know, but I would say it's at least possible. It's really hard to predict that sort of thing so early in development, though. Somebody else might have a better idea - I haven't been very involved yet.
So early in development? What? If you go back to the thread "Episode 5: 2012?" which I started back in February 2012, several staff replies indicated a hope for a 2012 release. I'm confused how that would have been possible, if development hasn't even really started in March 2013. I understand Cognition and Moebius and other projects are taking over: they make money. Would it be possible to encourage an Episode 5 release by charging us for it? I've been a huge fan of you guys for years. I loved that you were underdogs, that you were independent, and that there was nothing driving you other than your passion and your fans. This seems to be changing...?
More like "early in assembly." It's a much trickier beast to tackle than Episode 1-4 were as those were mostly put together in the engine when Episode 1 was released, it was just fixing up and finishing them off that took place. 2-4 were all probably 70-80% complete as each prior episode went out. Episode 5 is a bit different as the entire thing is being assembled from scratch in a new engine. We do have a huge amount of that work done, we're currently putting the game logic together and finishing some R&D to make sure characters move from place to place and interact with their environments properly. I can't really give an exact date of when the game will go to public release, but we really are pushing to try and get it wrapped up later this year.
Quote from: gem_sky on March 26, 2013, 08:50:59 PM
Would it be possible to encourage an Episode 5 release by charging us for it?
No, this is strictly forbidden, as KQ is the property of Activision - we are working under a license from them.
Quote from: gem_sky on March 26, 2013, 08:50:59 PM
I loved that you were underdogs, that you were independent, and that there was nothing driving you other than your passion and your fans. This seems to be changing...?
Not really - it's just the way real life works. People have to make money in order to live. A lot of the people who were working on TSL (for free) are working on the commercial projects. They're still involved with TSL, but as before, it's in their "spare" time. There are also some people working on just TSL, but as Weldon said, it's a huge project. All of the assets had to be recreated for Unity. Trust me, though, the passion is not gone. TSL had to be put on the back burner for a while, but work on it is ramping up. :)
Thank you. I am satisfied with both answers :) Just don't forget about us or episode 5!
Rest assured, it isn't being forgotten or abandoned. Mainly we want to make sure we finish TSL properly, and not just rush it out the door to get it out of the way or anything.
I thought you guys arent allowed to Profit TSL, now it seems the Episodes are being sold in a Store.
Um, they're still there for free.
Quote from: daventry on March 31, 2013, 02:24:10 AM
I thought you guys arent allowed to Profit TSL, now it seems the Episodes are being sold in a Store.
The games are indeed in the store, but they're still free. We simply placed them on the store for the sake of convenience, so that we can have all games in the same page
It's still unclear to me WHY the conversion to Unity was necessary. When it was decided before, it really just seemed like it was being done "because we can!" And not because the game itself really required it. Seems like a big fat waste of time and effort to redo everything like that.
Just about everything in Episode 5 is new anyways--we're no longer in the Green Isles. So all the scenes would have to be newly made and set up in the engine either way. And Unity is MUCH more user-friendly than Torque was, so since we were already making the switch, it made sense to go with the better engine. Making builds take much less time, too. Plus we can easily make a Mac port for Episode 5, whereas doing so for Eps 1-4 was obviously much more difficult and time-consuming (as evidence by the fact we still don't have them).
Not to mention the amount of time we had to spend trying to fix crashes and memory / handle / user object leaks! :X
Yeah the version of Torque we used for Episodes 1-4 of TSL was getting very outdated, and we had modified so much of the core engine code that we couldn't even really get normal support for it any more (not that it even was being properly supported in general) and we figured since we were developing better tools for game assembly directly in Unity it just made sense to do Episode 5 in the newer engine. Our tools make it a lot easier for those who aren't familiar with directly coding to still setup a majority of the game's logic and cinematics.
Those all sound like perfectly valid reasons. Fair enough. :)
Good, but I hope I can play it soon! I'm anxious! ;D
we all are!
Welcome to the forums, Jussara :)
Quote from: stika on April 04, 2013, 01:31:25 PM
we all are!
Welcome to the forums, Jussara :)
Thanks! :-*
Welcome! Love the avatar :)
Quote from: KatieHal on April 04, 2013, 01:46:25 PM
Welcome! Love the avatar :)
Thanks!
It's my little cute cat!, Jurandir! ;)
A Mac port? Fantastic news! So I hope it's released in the same time frame of the Windows version.
I have a Mac mini with an AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics with 256 MB of dedicated GDDR5 memory, I hope it's enough for Episode 5
That would save me money, I'm not in the mood to buy a new PC
;D
Quote from: KatieHal on April 02, 2013, 12:33:43 PM
Just about everything in Episode 5 is new anyways--we're no longer in the Green Isles. So all the scenes would have to be newly made and set up in the engine either way. And Unity is MUCH more user-friendly than Torque was, so since we were already making the switch, it made sense to go with the better engine. Making builds take much less time, too. Plus we can easily make a Mac port for Episode 5, whereas doing so for Eps 1-4 was obviously much more difficult and time-consuming (as evidence by the fact we still don't have them).
Since I know nothing about engines and codes and the like I'll have to take everyone's word that this is all for the best in order to finish the game with the best possible outcome and the like. However my concern is this.
Will it lose the flavor of the game as it has progressed so far? Will it still be reminiscent of the old Kings Quest series or will episode 5 be a completely different animal. Also will we be able to install all 5 episodes in a continuing link as we are now able to do in Episodes 1-4?
I have been following your struggle since it was first introduced as Kings Quest 9 watched it die and return to life (which I assume is why you've named your studio Phoenix) and am a loyal fan. Just don't want Episode to get so ambitious that you forget about the original purpose of the whole game.
Quote from: jgsax on April 14, 2013, 08:51:52 PM
Since I know nothing about engines and codes and the like I'll have to take everyone's word that this is all for the best in order to finish the game with the best possible outcome and the like. However my concern is this.
Will it lose the flavor of the game as it has progressed so far? Will it still be reminiscent of the old Kings Quest series or will episode 5 be a completely different animal. Also will we be able to install all 5 episodes in a continuing link as we are now able to do in Episodes 1-4?
I have been following your struggle since it was first introduced as Kings Quest 9 watched it die and return to life (which I assume is why you've named your studio Phoenix) and am a loyal fan. Just don't want Episode to get so ambitious that you forget about the original purpose of the whole game.
With Episode 5 being built in an entirely different engine, we won't be able to still distribute them all via a single launcher. Episode 5 will need to be launched separately from the other 4. Especially since Episode 5 will be the only one that will be able to run natively on a Mac. We'll still be able to package all five PC episodes into a single download though.
Quote from: jgsax on April 14, 2013, 08:51:52 PM
Will it lose the flavor of the game as it has progressed so far? Will it still be reminiscent of the old Kings Quest series or will episode 5 be a completely different animal.
I think it will keep the same "flavor." From what I've seen of it, it looks very similar to the previous episodes but with higher-quality models. :)
Yeah--while the quest moves on from the Green Isles, it's definitely still very much rooted in KQ flavor. :)
Oh, boy! I'm so anxious! ;D
Perhaps, in the future, you guys could remake the 1-4 episodes to the new engine too ;)
I don't think their license would hold out for that long. And besides, wouldn't it be kinda... jarring?
Quote from: GrahamRocks! on April 15, 2013, 09:53:47 PM
I don't think their license would hold out for that long. And besides, wouldn't it be kinda... jarring?
It's a hope, I guess ;)
Quote from: GrahamRocks! on April 15, 2013, 09:53:47 PM
I don't think their license would hold out for that long. And besides, wouldn't it be kinda... jarring?
I don't
think there would be an issue with the license. It's more the enormous amount of work required that is the issue.
Huge amount of work plus the limited resources the team has would make it a hard task. Don't fret, though. We're making progress every day :)
You know what I think would be kinda cool? To show off the new Unity engine, you could recreate the opening scene in that engine, as if to say, "Hey! Look at what we can do now!"
Or why not give you a new opening for 5 to show you what we can do? :)
I'd love to see more information on Episode 5, it's been so long
It would seem that this game has been put on the backburner for more profitable ventures. I understand you have a team dedicated to this project but here is how I see things at the moment:
- The team you have dedicated to this "free" project has this as a side project.
- It has been over a year since the previous episode was released
- There is (as far as I know, please correct me if I'm wrong) no release date set other than possibly sometime in 2013. But it seems that that might even be optimistic
I appreciate the work they're putting into this and the work they've put into the previous episodes and understand this is something they work on in their spare time and I understand that you want this release be somewhat more polished than Episode 3 was as well as completely revamping the entire game engine. But I see all the updates to Cognition and its progress and the Four Winds newsletters on the Facebook page and get sad when I don't see anything new to report on TSL Ep5.
I know I shouldn't be complaining about something that's free and that you're working on for free and I'm sorry for that. But I just feel like Episode 5 has been dangled in front of me for a long time and eventually may lose interest altogether.
I understand your frustration. Some of the TSL team members are involved with other projects and some are not. The other projects do have to take precedence, since they are what is putting food on the table for a number of people. However, I assure you that work is being done on TSL. It was pretty much on the back burner for a while while the commercial projects were being established, but TSL work has been ramping up lately. You are correct that there is no release date, and I can't promise that it will be done in 2013, but I assure you that Phoenix Online has not forgotten its roots. They want to do this project right, and it's going to be amazing when it's done!
It's definitely getting there! :D Be patient. We will have glimpses into the new game before the final release, never fear!
I've been helping iron out any problems the TSL team has with using the new engine, in addition to transitioning the GUI from prior episodes. My hope is that the tools created during 2012 will help significantly in game production speed. Artists and animators can only go so fast but the logic and sequencing tools are helping quite a bit.
If it doesn't get done by 2013, I think it would also be kinda cool if it were done by 2014. Why? Because King's Quest 1 was released in 1984, which would mean that TSL would end around KQ1' thirtieth anniversary!
Oooh! I didn't know that
I understand your frustration and as the producer I'm doing everything I can to make sure this game has the best quality that I can. I'm pushing this team hard and they are working the best they can. It is true that many of us work full time jobs that sometimes pull us away from TSL for a day but we come back and try to make up for the lost day. I myself am guilty of this.
TSL is hardly on the back burner, it is in the front of my mind every day. It has come along way since last year and the new tools we have are helping us out quite a bit. I have seen a scene go from very rough to decent looking in just one day because of the tools. We are nearing a stage where we will be able to show some stuff but we aren't quite there yet so please continue to be patient. I know I have said that before but we are making progress and I can't wait until you are able to see it.
How far are you guys? Yes, is it very time consuming when it comes to animation. Especially, if you work on it, on your spare time. First there is creating the buildings and the characters. Than there is rigging the characters. Than there is bringing the characters to life. Than there is texturing. Than there is the rendering. There is a lot to do when it comes to animation. I say the longer they work on the project the better. Dont want to rush it. Rushing will cause a lot of glitches. People will complain about the glitches. So, let them take there time on it. :)