Hey everyone! Thank you all so much for your
patience in waiting on this update. We know it has been a long time
coming. We’ve been debating on bringing up personal issues due to it
sounding like excuses. However, we decided to at least let you all know
that Mark and Chris both lost their mothers during a span of time in the
last few months. This is not the only reason for a slow update, but we
hope you’ll understand that it has played a role in delaying things
further. I am happy to report that things are getting back to normal for
the team.
For months we have hoped for this update to
have a doable release date in it. It took some time for us to get things
to a point to where we felt good about a date that seems possible.
First off, where are we on the game right now?
All the main scenes of the game are completed, including the intro and ending game sequences
Parts of the game are still being properly connected so everything plays from sequence to sequence
Parts of the game are going through a polish phase right now
Almost all of the VO has been added to the game. There are a few small parts that still need to be added
The game still has some missing SFX and music that need to be added.
More death sequences are being added
Some fun Easter eggs are being added
Game credits have not been put in yet, but that is on our radar
We will be doing beta testing on a very large scale as soon as we
feel we are ready. Backers that backed at a high enough level will
receive access to beta testing
The save game system is going through a revamp to make things work better and have a bit more polish
Our Gantt chart shows that June is a
reachable date so long as everything goes as planned. If June gets close
and we feel things continue to run behind, we’ll post another update
and let you know. Either way, the game is close and you can look forward
to seeing it finally get released soon. We will be releasing the game
for digital download in English first and hope to have the localization
stuff done in the not too distant future. Once everything is ironed out
with the digital downloads, we will be going through getting the
physical copies done. Please do not worry about sending us mailing
information yet. When we are ready to mail out the physical rewards, we
will send out a questionnaire on Kickstarter that will allow you all to
update us on that information.
In the last update, we mentioned having video
game boxes printed. We got that done and here is a glimpse of some of
the boxes stacked up and ready to be folded:
We have two more VO interview videos for you
all involving our fantastic cast of voice actors for SpaceVenture. The
first video here features actress Melanie Stone(Mythica series fame)https://youtu.be/cLxb5McqHUs
We’re doing a live stream today on Twitch at 3 pm PDT. Our channel is https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames and the theme is “Go Green” in honor of the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day and Shawn O’Conner’s “Eirish” heritage.
We’ll run live games and contests for
Fabulous Prizes, some Q&A, and Lori will read chapter 12 of her
Quest for Glory inspired novel “By the Book.”
Summer Daze at Hero-U is a light-hearted interactive tale of friendship, fun, and folly suitable for all ages. It’s up to you to save the upcoming Harvest Festival at Hero University from imminent disaster… or make it even worse! Will you forge life-long friendships? It all depends on how you play the game.
With a diverse cast, and narrative-driven gameplay, Summer Daze is part visual novel, part adventure game, and a dash of “light RPG” for everyone who enjoys great storytelling. New players will enjoy the simple point-and-click interactions and lighthearted humor. More experienced players will dig into the nuanced puzzles and masterful game design by two of the most acclaimed game designers.
“Summer Daze at Hero-U is a new direction for us. We’ve crystallized the story and characters into a fast-paced illustrated adventure that can be played anywhere.” – Corey ColePlay day 1 of Tilly’s story
The best way to learn about Summer Daze at Hero-U is to try our playable demo. You can download it now from itch.io at https://transolar-games.itch.io/summer-daze. You’ll be able to play the full first day of Tilly’s game.
NOTE: Anything in this demo is subject to change in the full game. That may include editing, adding more player choices, and additional art, animation, music, etc.
Interactive adventure story with role-playing elements
Light-hearted game filled with humor and charm
Choice of two playable characters – and two very different stories
Set at Hero University – the school from Rogue to Redemption
Meaningful and memorable interactions with 23 unique characters
25 beautifully-rendered locations
Playable on PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and Switch
The Hero Ewe Needs You at Hero-U
Summer Daze is an interactive story game that changes through your choices. You play as the studious Wizard Ifeyo or the mischievous Rogue Tilly. Your choices will help you make friends, have exciting adventures, and help the Harvest Festival succeed (or fail gloriously).
This is a dialogue-driven point-and-click game with choice menus and an interactive game map. The focus is on the story and characters. There is no “hunt the pixel,” juggling dozens of inventory items, or getting lost in a maze. It’s a purer, more focused form of adventure game play.
Try out the free gameplay demo. Players of all ages have praised the intuitive game controls and gentle sense of humor in Summer Daze at Hero-U.
A Page from Tilly’s Journal (Prototype)Interactable Map of the University EnvironsTilly’s Bedroom, where she has a few choices each eveningMr. Terk returns… And he is still a jerk!Tilly tries to con Junger Maximilian into doing her work. He isn’t having it.
Corey and Lori Cole, the husband and wife team behind Transolar Games, have designed many great games including the Quest for Glory series, Castle of Dr. Brain, and Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. With the support of their talented development teams and devoted fans, they continue to create role-playing, adventure, and story-telling games full of lore, mystery, wonder, and beauty.
Lead developer Cidney Hamilton wrote e-commerce and enterprise software before joining the development team for Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. She does gameplay scripting, web infrastructure, playtest coordination, UI design, and systems programming. Cidney is also a major contributor to Archive of Our Own, which won this year’s prestigious Hugo Award for Best Related Work to science fiction & fantasy.
Our lead artist is the extraordinarily-talented John Paul Selwood. “JP” was a key artist on Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. He has also created backgrounds and character art for Mage’s Initiation: Reign of the Elements, and other games from Himalaya Studios, Tierra Entertainment, and Crystal Shard.
Character designer and animator Al Eufrasio created animation art for Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. He is also known for his contributions to Sierra games such as Torin’s Passage, Space Quest 6, The Realm, Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail, and many others.
New to the team is composer and musician Brandon Blume. Brandon composed the soundtrack for Mage’s Initiation. His previous work includes soundtracks for AGD Interactive on several Sierra game remakes.
Here’s a project expense breakdown assuming we make just above our minimum goal at $100,000:
We’ve been working on Summer Daze at Hero-U for over a year. Kickstarter funds will mainly be devoted to current and future operations, in addition to repaying some of our expenses to date.
The percentages will shift to some extent if this campaign earns enough for us to reach stretch goals. I’ll adjust this breakdown as the campaign progresses.
Some potential stretch goal upgrades might include:
One or more foreign translations (“localized versions”)
Professional voice-acting
Additional choices, animation, and sound effects
Pre-production on Hero-U: Wizards Way
Plush Meerbat Toy add-on option
Risks and challenges
We could miss the delivery estimate. Our policy is to keep working on a game until it’s ready. We had to add years to the schedules of two of our previous projects to get them right. However, we’ve developed seven other games within a few months of the original estimate. Every game project is unpredictable, but we have never failed to deliver a game we promised; some just took longer than others.
Another potential challenge is that we rely heavily on every member of our team. If illness or accident affects our writers, programmers, or artists, that could add a substantial amount of time to the schedule.
We’ve sought to prevent some of these challenges by putting a full year of development into the game prior to bringing it to Kickstarter. In contrast, our previous project was still in an early concept stage when we sought crowdfunding for it. We believe we’ve scheduled Summer Daze conservatively.
If this campaign is wildly successful, fulfilling stretch goals and managing the player community may add additional delays to the schedule. We want to keep our players and backers happy, and sometimes that can take time away from game development.Learn about accountability on Kickstarter Questions about this project? Check out the FAQ
