Hey, is anyone else getting... frustrated?

[IrishAngel2010]

I don't want to be a jerk or anything, it's just that we have fought for this series. We're written letters, campaigned, and argued the critics who were negative about the silver lining series... We have been intensely loyal and supportive fans.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm starting to feel cheated. It's all about Cognition now, and all the KQ fans are just left to hang.

Moratorium on asking about release dates aside, I just want to know honest answer, is this thing even going to happen?

[waltzdancing]

Trust me I feel you frustration. I know about writing the letters because I led that fight and you were the best people to lead. I have led the TSL development team and we have our traction under our feet now. Development is moving and from what I have seen from my team is amazing because the work they are giving is 200% or more. I can't wait to share it all with you

[Cathenah19]

Thank you for your continued dedication to this decade-long project. I, too, have been following TSL from the shadows since its early days as KQ9, and I cannot wait until the final episode is released. This is one of the most ambitious volunteer projects I have ever seen and your efforts are truly appreciated.

Keep up the hard work. Hugs and support for everyone on the TSL team, no matter how long it takes. 

I'm sure everyone will forget about the wait once the game comes out and you all will hear nothing but praise. For me, when episode 5 comes out, I will squee like no fan-girl has squeed before. 

[KatieHal]

As Andi said, it is being worked on and it is going to happen! The summer is looking like it will particularly productive, actually. The TSL Team is still people who are giving up their free time to work on this and also have day jobs--that means things move slower than they do for the games that have fulltime teams behind them.

You guys ARE intensely loyal & supportive, and that's why we're going to make sure we get this Episode delivered to you!

[IrishAngel2010]

Please understand my beef is not about the wait itself. I do understand that this is a volunteer project, and I appreciate that it would and should take time. And all the work you guys have done has been incredible, and I am immensely grateful. I have no right to complain on that front... I would wait 10 more years if it means a great finale to the series we love.

My frustration is that is seems all of POS' efforts have been diverted to Cognition. Case in point, the background of the forums is the cityscape. Heck, Katie's avatar is Erica Reed. I may be completely wrong - I'm sure people are busting their humps behind the scenes, but that's just the impression that I'm starting to get, that everything has been reinvested.

As a volunteer project, you have every right to divert any and all efforts to whatever endeavors you like over whatever period of time. It just feels, I don't know, sneaky. Like our fan loyalty is being used for something we didn't sign up for. Like I said, I may (and hope) I'm totally wrong about that, but... I just wanted to voice that frustration.

I know when people say "no offense..." it is usually followed by something incredibly offensive, but I honestly don't mean any offense by the above. I really am grateful for all the hard work, and I know even bringing this up is probably going to piss people off ("ungrateful, entitled, etc")

[Rosella]

To be fair, Erica and Katie are very similar, so I don't blame her for that.

I think almost all of the promotional energy is going solely into Cognition because that's what can actually make Phoenix money. It makes sense, though it leaves TSL feeling under-represented. The fact is that even though the website and the forums have a candy-Cognition-coated shell, there are plenty of people working solely on TSL. Obviously, there are plenty working solely on Cognition and (I believe) plenty working on both as well, but despite the outward appearance being Cognition-focused, TSL is being worked on.

And believe me, I'm looking forward just as much to Episode 5 as you are.

[daventry]

[Thaumaturge]

I'm rather looking forward to seeing what the finale looks like, especially given the change in engine (I'm somewhat of a fan of Unity) and having seen the experimentation and creativity in the final few puzzles of the previous episode. Nevertheless, I'm patient on this matter, I believe, and am content to await its arrival.

@daventry: By the way, "wherefore" is one word, and means "why" (or "for which reason"), not "where". ^^;

[Oldbushie]

Most of the past year was spent working on our new game engine (on top of Unity), really. Now that it's much more polished and the team has a better familiarity with Unity we are able to handle multiple games at once. Even if that is stressful at times. And yes, while there are several people that are TSL-only, some of us paid employees are pitching in too to see it come to fruition. For instance, the GUI has been reimported and reworked a bit to fit the new engine. Heck, TSL Episode 5 work started in summer of last year (basic importing from the old engine) and it's really picking up steam now.

I am *so* looking forward to the grand finale.

[GrahamRocks!]

It better be good!

Also, I've been wondering something lately? You know those recaps at the beginning of each episode that show off all that happened with important details? Well, before that was all done on the Torque engine. Now that you've switched to Unity, I'm going to assume that you're still going to do a nice recap (probably a much longer one than normal since this is the episode where it all starts coming together), but will the recap scenes still be in Torque or will they be Unity style?

[snabbott]

I think the recaps are video files, so it doesn't really matter. I'm guessing the video would be created using the Torque engine/resources, though. (I'm a little fuzzy on how the videos are created actually - I don't know if they can be rendered outside of the game engine.)

[GrahamRocks!]

But won't it be kinda jarring if you use the Torque videos and then when the actual game starts, we're suddenly in the Unity style with it looking so different?

Also, I gotta ask something about a certain Death in

Spoiler (mouse over to reveal):

the Tower Sequence. When you reach the Tower, and get on the stairs to open the door, it is actually possible to make Graham jump off the stairs and die. My question is HOW DOES THAT KILL YOU?! That wasn't even all that high up! Oh, sure, if it had been the wooden stairs he'd jumped off, that would be understandable (in fact, when I was discovering all the Ways to Die in that sequence out of curiousity, I can actually remember wincing at the one where the Shadow pulls him down and you hear that "CRASH!"), but those steps aren't all that high up! Unless it wasn't the fall that killed him, but his scream that gave him away which led to death. But if that's the case, then the Shadows would have choked him like normal.

[snabbott]

I don't know, but the alternative would likely be no video. It would be a lot of work to recreate all that in Unity.

Spoiler (mouse over to reveal):

I don't know - maybe it's an homage to the original KQ games, where a fall from a foot off the ground is enough to kill you.

[GrahamRocks!]

Y'know I think it is! After thinking about it, I'm reminded of a certain KQ5 Death by Falling on Mordack's Island.

[Oldbushie]

If you mean the style in which they're rendered, the only difference is that the new videos will be higher res, since we're aiming at 16:9 resolution. The original game was geared towards 4:3. Unity is able to read in most (if not all) of the same resource files as Torque did. The main differences are how the backend ties everything together. Any new movies made for TSL 5 will be rendered inside Unity AFAIK so there should not be a break in style.

[darthkiwi]

It's a video file. They make and animate it using the assets, then play it back after they've coded it in. The assets are all the same, so there's no reason to think it would look any different. Since they're reusing many of the assets, they can't really change the graphical style at this point.

People can die in lots of ways. Maybe the fall was such that he broke his neck because he fell the wrong way, in spite of it not being very high up.

[GrahamRocks!]

But he landed on his feet, not face down!

[waltzdancing]

You'll have a bone thrown to you here sooner or later. 

[GrahamRocks!]

Huh?

[waltzdancing]

We have a demo in the works. No release date yet. But the directors did a play through and they were very happy with what they saw.