SpaceVenture Project Update #92: Mar. 16th Update: Anti-Gravity Puzzle Spewing Action Teaser

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Larry Laffer

Good day backer buddies! This update is going to be short and sweet since the last couple of weeks have been a continuation of a lot of the same focus points I mentioned in the previous update. We are still knee deep in a major scene that is actually three scenes and puzzles in one.

I did want to share a small and funny clip with you though. This is something that Mark Crowe put together after spending hours upon hours working on a scene in which Ace is dealing with an anti-gravity puzzle situation.

http://youtu.be/M_1oShIT77kNow please note that this isn’t polished and Ace isn’t gonna be spewing like that in the real game. This was just something funny put together because of some frustration Mark was having while working on this scene and we thought we’d share it. It will be part of the blooper reel for the game when it’s released 🙂

If you’re wondering when the game will be available, we don’t have an estimated date yet, but please see this update for more details on why that is.

EPISODE 10 OF THE BI-WEEKLY PODCAST BY THE SPACE QUEST HISTORIAN

Settle in with a nice glass of whatever’s-your-poison and relax to the soothing voice of professional radio announcer Joe Cassara reading excerpts from the Space Quest fan fiction novels written around 1997-1998 by Daniel Stacey (Mage’s Initiation, King’s Quest II and III VGA) and the Historian himself … oh, and Pete Toleman gives it a go, too. Prepare for horror. There’s also news from the Andromedan Bunker, straight from the lips of that sexy beast, the Space Pope. And we conclude with our last and final and ultimate part of the fireside chat between the gentlemen of rock, Brandon Blume and Ken Allen. Stay tuned for Part II and check out www.spacequesthistorian.com for links to the PDF’s of the novels.

LISTEN IN ITUNES or THE RSS FEED HERE

OTHER SIERRA ALUMNI PROJECTS

The amazing Josh Mandel / Al Lowe’s Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded

Jane Jensen’s Moebius and Pinkerton Road Studio / GABRIEL KNIGHT: SINS OF THE FATHERS 20TH ANNIVERSARY

Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption by the Quest for Glory designers – Corey Cole and Lori Cole

Under The Half Dome: An Album by Sierra Composer, Ken Allen

SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO OUR BUDDIES AT INFAMOUS QUESTS

Their Sierra Style “Quest for Infamy” game is looking epic! Check out the teaser trailer below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8HmIJpHudo#t=40You can get more info at their website: http://www.infamous-quests.com/

Thanks for all of your support everyone!

Chris Pope a.k.a your humble local intergalactic SpacePope

Hero-U Project Update #50: Irish You Were Here At Hero-U

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Larry Laffer

Next Monday is St. Patrick’s Day. People celebrate it in the U.S. by eating corned beef and cabbage, wearing something green, drinking green beer, and singing Irish songs. We celebrate by eating; Lori added Irish soda bread this year. We are also singing, but then we do that whenever we can. (We don’t actually drink beer, sorry.)

Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption has a touch of the green as well. Shawn O’Conner has an Irish name, and that’s an important part of his back-story. We set both Quest for Glory and Hero-U in worlds based on Earth geography, sort of a parallel planet to our own. In the game, you can help Shawn learn more about his forgotten childhood and family heritage.

Irish You Were Beer

Corey and Lori on IGN’s Up at Noon with Greg Miller

Last month Lori and I visited the IGN offices in San Francisco to talk about Hero-U on the Up at Noon webcast. Check out the results at http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/02/17/persona-4-meets-dungeons-dragons-hero-u-on-up-at-noon. We had a lot of fun doing the show and meeting Greg, Kristine, and some of the IGN crew.

Also in February, we managed to mail out all of the collectibles reward packages to backers except for posters and paintings. If you backed at the $125 tier or higher (except the $175 all-digital tier), you should now have your toy meep. If you backed at $200 or higher, we also sent you a t-shirt or baseball cap. We plan to send out the posters and canvas art later this year, and the boxed games when they are ready (probably late 2014).

Web Site Update

Lori and I took some time away from game writing to improve the Hero-U web site (www.hero-u.net). The new site includes in-progress art and music, the long-awaited Backers Page, and two new store pages.

By the way, if you do *not* want to be listed on the Backers page, please say that in a note to support@hero-u.net. Everyone is there currently because you are all part of our community and inspiration for making the Hero-U games.

The Hero-U Pre-Order Page

At http://www.hero-u.net/hero_u_preorder.html, those who missed the Kickstarter can pre-order Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. Currently we have three all-digital tiers:

$22 buys Basic Admission – The downloadable game when it is ready
$38 buys Audio-Visual Extras – The game, digital art book, and sound track
$60 buys Premium Course Materials – All of the above, plus access to Beta versions as they come out, and the digital Yearbook with additional game information, illustrations, and an introduction to many of the other students at Hero-U.

Limited Edition Collectibles Page

The new Limited Edition Hero-U Collectibles page (http://www.hero-u.net/hero_u_collect.html) is the place to capture some of the collectible items we have left from our Kickstarter campaign:

$35 for a blue Meep plush toy
$30/$35 for a t-shirt with the Scott Flanders “Rogue’s Last Stand” design
$30 for a red embroidered Hero-U baseball cap designed by Lori
$10 for a “Team Meep” key ring and tag designed by Lori with the Eriq Chang Hero-U logo

The first two items are limited to stock on hand (about 350 Meeps and 50 t-shirts, mostly size L and XL). I plan to order more key tags, and possibly caps, if we have demand for them.

Please tell your friends about the game and the new www.hero-u.net site. Every purchase and pre-order helps us finish Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption.

Marching On

We are making a lot of forward progress on Hero-U. Our artists have created most of the game scenes and props. They have painted customized images for everyone with a yearbook picture, in-game painting, or “school spirit”. The programmers have put together many of the scenes and are working on the combat interface and simulation. Lori and I still have a lot of writing to do as we gradually build up the game, in between directing the team and handling the many details (such as filing tax reports, answering email, and posting here and on www.hero-u.net) involved in running a small business.

Next up for our “insider backers” ($175 and up) will be a sneak peek at the combat system. Jonathan has been working on the interface and I am developing a simulator to help us balance stats, tactics, and special abilities.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding as we work to get every detail right in Hero-U. This game will have a different feel than anything else out there, and that is only possible thanks to your support.

The Magic Classroom (In-Game Screenshot)

SpaceVenture Project Update #91: Mar. 1st Update: Sneak Peek Pipes Puzzle Madness

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Larry Laffer

Hello ladies and gents! It’s time for another look at how things have been going in the last couple of weeks on SpaceVenture. The SpaceVenture team has been moving forward quite nicely as of late. We had quite a few bug fixes that got taken care of, and we also made a lot of progress on a major scene in the game. This particular scene has taken almost a month just to get all the artwork and animations in order. Starting Monday, we’ll be breaking ground on the puzzle part of it! You know, the part that makes it tricky and fun to figure out! 🙂

AN UPDATE ON THE PIPES PUZZLE

So I told you all in a previous update and a rewards diary entry (if you can’t view that diary entry and you are a $30 and up backer please email pcj@andromedanpost.com) that I had the pleasure of working on a puzzle we have dubbed, “The Pipes Puzzle”. (I personally want to add “OF DOOM” to the end of that, but that didn’t fly) It has been in the works for about a month now, and I’m happy to report that it’s almost complete. We’re gonna give you a sneak peak in a video below. But before watching the video, here’s some info on how it came about.

My part in the puzzle was to handle all the events that happened in the background in order to make the puzzle function correctly. After that was all working, Mark Crowe gave it a beautiful face lift that made it have a darker more Sci-Fi convincing feel. Ken Allen has been hard at work rigging up sounds effects. Although most of his recent sound effects aren’t in the video, and there isn’t any music at this time. But you will get to hear a few sounds in the video. Soon, Scott Murphy will be jumping in to add his hilarious dialog to all the objects in the scene.

Originally this scene had ladders that Ace would climb to go up and down, but during one of our weekly team meetings, Scott Murphy brought up the great idea to add a Jetsons style tube system. The next day Mark had the assets put in and we got it rigged up and working. Please note that the scene you’ll see in the below video is a work in progress and we have taken out a few things that are a bit too spoilery, but I think you guys will like what you’ll see.

As a side note, the player UI (the icons) are also not what you’ll be seeing in the actual game, so please hold off on any feedback on those. We’re planning something very intuitive for our UI system that I think you’ll all love. More input on that in a future update.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bKqU21oqyE&feature=youtu.beIf you’re wondering when the game will be available, we don’t have an estimated date yet, but please see this update for more details on why that is.

THE SPACE QUEST HISTORIAN PODCAST

The Space Quest Historian took a couple of weeks off due to some unforeseen circumstance this time around, but below is the most recent episode if you haven’t already listened to it.

EPISODE 9 – Something happened last week that put this week’s planned podcast topic on hold. Well, that, and some unforeseen complications. So this podcast is all about the freeware game Serena and what a very special collaborative experience it was making for and by the adventure gaming community. We’ve also got some startling news from Pete Toleman, who was last seen fleeing from some rather unsavory types and who had a Kickstarter out to save his company; the amazing Chris Pope regales us with some more news about the SpaceVenture; and, to cap everything off, we’ve got the fine gentlemen of rock, Brandon Blume and Ken Allen, with part 2 of their New Year’s chat. It’s a very special episode, unlike all the other episodes which weren’t special at all.

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