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QFG-style "Mage's Initiation" from Himalaya/AGDI

MusicallyInspiredMusicallyInspired
edited March 2013 in General Chat
Yeah, but besides the fact that ActiVision won't let us do anymore, we're kind of tired of doing this for free.

But we are working on a new original Sierra-style adventure game under our commercial brand Himalaya Studios which was just announced! It's an adventure/RPG hybrid like Quest For Glory called "Mage's Initiation: Reign of the Elements."

Comments

  • IrishmileIrishmile
    edited February 2011
    Oh yeah I can definitely understand why you guys do not want to do 4 you have all been very generous already... Yeah I saw that about Mage's initiation... I signed up for the newsletter.
  • Secret FawfulSecret Fawful
    edited February 2011
    Mage's Initiation looks so badass just from those three screenshots. As far as KQIII Redux, it's badass too. I almost died laughing from the wizard's "punishment". Greatest punishment ever! Greatest wizard ever! He's not JUST evil; he's hilarious and awesome. Only a wizard made of awesome would think up a punishment like that. I also refuse to use a walkthrough for the game. CAN I BEAT THE TOUGHEST KINGS QUEST GAME UNAIDED BY CHEATS? Yes, because I beat KQ 1, 2, and 5 the same way. After this, I'll only have KQ 4, 6, 7, and 8 to beat.
  • MtnPeakMtnPeak
    edited February 2013
    Apparently any day now a new Kickstarter will be launched by Himalaya Studios (also known as "AGD Interactive") for their hi-res QFG-style Mage's Initiation game:

    http://www.himalayastudios.com/games/mages/#about-the-game

    No doubt you're all already familiar with these guys, who have been putting out adventure games since before Telltale existed. Their popular, free Sierra game remakes have won tons of awards and have inspired many adventure game indie teams over the last ten years, even when things looked bleak for the genre.

    Free downloads of their games...
    http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/games.html
  • DAISHIDAISHI
    edited February 2013
    We're certainly familiar with the guy who composed the music for their games.
  • MusicallyInspiredMusicallyInspired
    edited February 2013
    Only a couple of them. Actually, Mage's is the only project that has been completely mine with no contributions from another composer. I did the bulk of KQ3Redux, but Tom Lewandowski helped out with a fair amount of music.
  • DAISHIDAISHI
    edited February 2013
    I see you as more of an avatar combining the souls of all those involved in the project into one super composer being.
  • MusicallyInspiredMusicallyInspired
    edited February 2013
    Lol. No pressure.
  • MtnPeakMtnPeak
    edited February 2013
    MusicallyInspired wrote: »
    Only a couple of them. Actually, Mage's is the only project that has been completely mine with no contributions from another composer. I did the bulk of KQ3Redux, but Tom Lewandowski helped out with a fair amount of music.

    I hope the Himalaya pitch video is punchy. I have no doubt the Mage's Initiation product will be of high quality (AGDI/Himalaya's track record speaks for itself), but I hope their sales pitch is strong. As a longtime fan of their work, I always thought they should toot their own horn a bit more.

    I loved the opening animation in the SpaceVenture pitch video, and I think it did them a lot of good. Hero-U's video, on the other hand... well, let's just say I'm happy they succeeded despite their pitch video. Jane Jensen's was memorable and effective, and showed what could be done when you really don't have any game clips of the project you're selling.
  • MusicallyInspiredMusicallyInspired
    edited February 2013
    MtnPeak wrote: »
    Jane Jensen's was memorable and effective, and showed what could be done when you really don't have any game clips of the project you're selling.

    Which we, conversely, do. And more. :)
  • Chyron8472Chyron8472
    edited February 2013
    MtnPeak wrote: »
    Apparently any day now a new Kickstarter will be launched by Himalaya Studios (also known as "AGD Interactive") for their hi-res QFG-style Mage's Initiation game

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2112639455/mages-initiation-a-classic-sierra-style-adventure

    Their Kickstarter page is up. They're only asking for $65,000, which is next to nothing, really.


    I don't know anything about Daniel Stacey, but my first reaction to watching the video was that it seems an awkward choice, from a marketing standpoint, to choose a guy with a lisp to introduce the game.

    Second, color me skeptical about the combat. How does tying your level to your score make the combat balanced? How does it affect it at all?

    And third, I hope the animated cutscenes shown are as yet unfinished. They look like they could belong to a saturday morning cartoon from when I was a kid. What I mean is, there needs to be more shading and detail to them. They're just... not impressive, I guess.


    EDIT: also, looking at this screenshot:
    5da846bc9b62781f3b3fc45d2d1597f9_large.png?1360357714

    Something about the difference in detail between the background and the sprites just doesn't look quite right to me.


    The game looks great. I'm just nitpicking.


    EDIT AGAIN: I got in early with the $6 Early-Bird pledge, but I'm very likely going to upgrade to at least $16 simply because Brandon Blume (MusicallyInspired) made the music all himself, and you get a digital copy of the soundtrack at the $16 tier.
  • Chyron8472Chyron8472
    edited February 2013
    Just got this in my email. It would seem that pre-ordering the game doesn't get you a collector's box set, but rather it gets you a notification that you should spend $100 on the KS page:

    o3PFIi6.png
  • LamboniusLambonius
    edited February 2013
    I've always been a bit skeptical of Mage's Initiation, frankly.

    I think the sprites look pretty nice, but the backgrounds--meh. They all have that strange slightly blurry quality that plagues so much digital painting that I hate. It makes me wonder why they even opted to go for "high res," as the backgrounds do not take advantage of it at all with much in the way of additional detail and texture.

    I'm sure the music will be awesome though, if KQ3Redux was anything to go by. I know MusicallyInspired does great work.

    And yes, I agree that the "cutscene animations" look jarringly out of place. Diverging so radically from the established visual style of the rest of the game is a huge art direction "no no." As they look now, I can't imagine them doing anything but ripping players straight out of their immersion in the game. Hope they rethink those if they get successfully funded.

    I'll probably still back this, though. ;) Gotta support my fellow indies.
  • MtnPeakMtnPeak
    edited February 2013
    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2112639455/mages-initiation-a-classic-sierra-style-adventure

    I pledged $50. And that's just for starters.

    As for the pre-order thing, they never charged anyone. I was also one of the people who got on the pre-order/gauge-of-interest list.

    Honestly, I'm more interested in Mage's than I am the Coles' new project.

    And Daniel Stacey was a writer for them on a couple of their other games, I believe. He's a talented writer, and lot of credit should go to him for helping give the AGDI games a polished, professional feel and for helping them stand out among a crowd of other indie projects that too often felt amateurish. He deserves to be in that pitch video.

    Another thing I'll say about the AGDI/Himalaya team: from what I've seen they've always been great (and have always acted so professionally and responsibly) when interacting with and providing support to their customers, fans and others. Very classy.
  • Chyron8472Chyron8472
    edited February 2013
    From the Mage's Initiation KS: (top post is me, bottom is dev's reply)

    (image in question is in my post above)

    Y0bjb8H.png
  • MtnPeakMtnPeak
    edited February 2013
    MusicallyInspired wrote: »
    Only a couple of them. Actually, Mage's is the only project that has been completely mine with no contributions from another composer. I did the bulk of KQ3Redux, but Tom Lewandowski helped out with a fair amount of music.

    Is Erpy still working with that team? He always seemed very knowledgeable. Hopefully he is still involved in game design.
  • MusicallyInspiredMusicallyInspired
    edited February 2013
    I honestly haven't seen Erpy around in quite a while. I've been wondering how he's doing. I know that he was involved in some capacity with designing an early rendition of the combat engine before I came aboard the project.
  • RogerXYRogerXY
    edited February 2013
    http://kck.st/W7OBdj

    A new Kickstarter from the people behind the awesome remakes of King's Quest 1-3 and Quest for Glory 2 (http://www.agdinteractive.com) as well as "Al Emmo & The Lost Dutchman's Mine" (http://www.himalayastudios.com/index.php)

    I love their previous games and "Mage's Initiation" looks really promising. Let's do this! :)
    Mage's Initiation is a Role-Playing / Adventure Game hybrid, very similar in style and execution to Sierra On-Line's classic Point-&-Click Quest for Glory and King's Quest series. It maintains all the charm of classic and timeless adventure games of yesteryear while adding 21st century innovation to the mix - like multiple game interfaces, and a free-range magical combat system!

    We're all very big fans of the adventure genre here at Himalaya Studios, and we feel that Sierra's games really hit their peak in the early 90s. We're working hard to provide a nostalgic experience, reminiscent of that golden era of 2D Sierra adventures circa 1993-1994.

    Mage's Initiation has a medieval / fantasy setting and it features multiple playable character classes, spell-casting, and an open-field magical combat system, complete with equippable items and monster loot drops!
  • MtnPeakMtnPeak
    edited February 2013
    They are already more than 50% funded in less than two days after their Kickstarter launch.

    Big fan here of Himalaya Studios. Happy to see them getting a lot of support.
  • MtnPeakMtnPeak
    edited February 2013
    Chyron8472 wrote: »
    Something about the difference in detail between the background and the sprites just doesn't look quite right to me.

    I agree and think some of the backgrounds could be brought up to the same standard they themselves set in KQ3 Redux. Look, I'm a big Himalaya fan and certainly don't want to come off like nitpicking either, but I also want them to hear feedback that is given in the interest of seeing the game be the best it can be.

    Here's what artist John Paul Selwood said in a comment on the Kickstarter page:
    Thanks so much for the support everyone! Adventure fans are truly the best fans ever. I've read a few comments concerning how the backgrounds mesh with the characters, and I will note these concerns for the remaining duration of development. One of the things the success of this Kickstarter will bring with it, is an increased opportunity for me to revisit areas of the game that could use improvement. Once the remaining background art pieces are finished, I can go back and re-edit older backgrounds, and even add additional environmental animations.

    I think this is the same artist who did amazing work on some of the KQ3 Redux backgrounds. I may be wrong, but it sounds like he was brought on board with Mage's after some background art had already been done. Given this, it appear that, if time and budget permit (and Selwood seems to suggest that merely reaching their initial funding goal will be sufficient in this regard), he will be sprucing up and polishing existing backgrounds. He does great work and seems like the perfect guy for the project.
  • BonitoBonito
    edited February 2013
    Hey guys, Chris here from Himalaya. Yeah, rest-assured, that should we reach our funding goal, we'll definitely be revisiting all the backgrounds and sharpening the details up in some of them!

    The forest screens in particular are a bit blurry because those assets (trees, rocks, bushes, towers etc.) were made in bulk and resized dynamically by the AGS engine. We'll probably scale them manually to various sizes and edit more details into them at a later date.

    Yep, JP Selwood is the same artist who worked on the backgrounds for our King's Quest remakes. He's actually just finished a new high-res background piece for Mage's Initiation which I think is really going to blow people's socks off. We plan to show that in forthcoming update!

    No worries, we're listening to all the feedback and (assuming we hit the target goal and some stretch goals pertaining to artwork) we'll be re-examining all of these things. We've always been all about polishing our games up to the optimal level, so we'll do what we can to meet expectations.

    Cheers for your support!
  • Chyron8472Chyron8472
    edited February 2013
    Bonito wrote: »
    Hey guys, Chris here from Himalaya. Yeah, rest-assured, that should we reach our funding goal, we'll definitely be revisiting all the backgrounds and sharpening the details up in some of them!

    The forest screens in particular are a bit blurry because those assets (trees, rocks, bushes, towers etc.) were made in bulk and resized dynamically by the AGS engine. We'll probably scale them manually to various sizes and edit more details into them at a later date.

    Yep, JP Selwood is the same artist who worked on the backgrounds for our King's Quest remakes. He's actually just finished a new high-res background piece for Mage's Initiation which I think is really going to blow people's socks off. We plan to show that in forthcoming update!

    No worries, we're listening to all the feedback and (assuming we hit the target goal and some stretch goals pertaining to artwork) we'll be re-examining all of these things. We've always been all about polishing our games up to the optimal level, so we'll do what we can to meet expectations.

    Cheers for your support!
    Good Luck, Chris. I've played all of the KQ remakes and I love them to bits.


    I really do hope the animated cutscenes in Mage's Initiation get more attention to detail than what we saw in the Kickstarter promotion video.
  • BonitoBonito
    edited February 2013
    Thanks!

    The cutscenes aren't actually much different in style to the game graphics. Most of the stuff you've seen is work in progress with no shading added yet. The cutscene backgrounds are all being handled by JP so that they maintain consistency with the regular game screens. The detail and shading we're adding to the cutscene characters is also consistent with the number of colors used in each characters' sprite palette.

    But like I mentioned earlier, the amount of detail/shading in the cutscenes depends on the funding level, and we'll look into that further if we hit the $100k stretch goal.
  • MtnPeakMtnPeak
    edited February 2013
    I really like the look of a background/wallpaper they revealed in a recent Kickstarter update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2112639455/mages-initiation-a-classic-sierra-style-adventure/posts/414736

    Mages_Initiation_Treasury_Wallpaper_1280x1024.jpg
  • MtnPeakMtnPeak
    edited March 2013
    :D. They easily made their initial goal already and will be funded. Very happy to see that.

    Hope they meet their stretch goals for all the excellent things they have planned.
  • MusicallyInspiredMusicallyInspired
    edited March 2013
    Seeing as we've reached our goal (and surpassed it so far by over $8k!) you can now pledge via PayPal! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2112639455/mages-initiation-a-classic-sierra-style-adventure

    Another $1900 or so and we'll reach our first stretch goal!
  • fleskflesk
    edited March 2013
    I'm pretty impressed with the rewards. The $100 tier looks especially awesome compared to the lackluster $110 tier of the Dreamfall: Chapters kickstarter. Haven't decided where I'll end up pledgewise, but I'm hoping (against odds perhaps) that they'll reach the $120,000 strech goal. Linux is really shaping up as the gaming platform of the future. :)
  • inm8#2inm8#2
    edited March 2013
    Yea their rewards are especially nice.
  • MtnPeakMtnPeak
    edited March 2013
    I also hope they get to $120K!

    Happy to see many other Telltale fans over there backing Mage's Initiation. Can't ever have enough great adventure games.
  • MtnPeakMtnPeak
    edited March 2013
    They just released a free public demo here:

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2112639455/mages-initiation-a-classic-sierra-style-adventure/posts/428693

    Some comments from Himalaya team members left in response to feedback on their comment page...

    Chris Warren:
    Keep in mind that this demo was tailored to the press who may not necessarily be adventure game players, so the puzzles were intentionally made very easy so that they would be able to reach the end without major frustrations (we didn't want them to quit early and give it a bad write-up). The puzzle seen in the demo won't appear anywhere in the game, and the actual game puzzles will, of course, be more thought-provoking.
    As for the combat, the reason we released the demo was, in part, to get feedback so that we can tailor any early suggestions into the final game. Can you explain why you found it hard and if you have any suggestions?

    Daniel Stacey:
    As Chris said, the puzzle/s were designed to be very easy, so those reviewing the demo could play it through quickly and get on with writing up their article. :) As for the combat, we are very interested in how it might benefit from further refinement. Personally, I have rubbish reflexes, but I find much satisfaction in knocking out a bunch of pygmy goblins all at once. I'll assume that's healthy...

    I haven't had a chance to try out the demo yet, but will later today.
  • MtnPeakMtnPeak

    Fans of classic-style adventure games, you can support this great indie adventure game developer by voting for Mage's Initiation to be available on GOG.com:
    http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/mages_initiation

    Several fans have been expressing surprise and disappointment over the apparent strange unwillingness on the part of GOG to approve Himalaya titles, including Mage's Initiation, which was recently Greenlit on Steam:
    http://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_rejects_agdihimalayas_mages_initiation/page1

    If you haven't played their free, full-length, classic-style adventure game remakes, you should check them out:
    http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/games.html

  • fleskflesk

    That's really surprising indeed. I wonder why GOG is so reluctant to put Himalaya games up for sale.

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