It’s time for another SpaceVenture update! First off, let us start by saying, we know this is overdue. The time between the last update and this update have not been a waste though. One of the issues has been the fact that some serious design time needed to go into certain pieces of the last third of the game that had not been completed. As these things go, game mechanics that make perfect sense in our design document don’t always pan out the way as expected once we begin implementing them in the game, which means, it’s back to the drawing board. During this time, we didn’t have any new visuals to show. We do have visuals to show now though! The good news is, things are coming together nicely and we are still pushing hard for the November 30th release date which is in sight.

INTRODUCING THE NANO FLEA SEQUENCE

During your adventures at “Scraps Place” you will be given the task to repair something. You’ll have to operate the nano flea critters shown in the below video in order to achieve your goal. This is a fun little part of the game in which you’ll find each nano flea has a particular job role it can perform during the repair.

https://youtu.be/r5mNYAbLgjw

_________________________________________________________

The title of this section pretty much says it all. This is a tiny bit spoilery, but I was sure not to divulge any of the puzzle here. As Ace, you’ll have to navigate your way through this creature’s internal plumbing all the while figuring out how to get out and what you might need along the way. Considering Ace’s profession, this should be a piece of cake, right?

NOTE: For some reason Kickstarter had an issue with embedding this video, so please click the below image to view the video on YouTube.

_________________________________________________________

https://youtu.be/mMzJW5zvRXY

You all haven’t forgotten about the Space Dome from our original concept art pieces have you?

This video below is another small teaser of something that is in the works in which Ace will possibly find himself face to face with the Two Guys From Andromeda themselves as he takes a service call at “Dominian Estates”. Just to clarify, the SpaceDome you all saw in our playable concept art pieces is in the process of being revamped quite a bit. Once it’s in a showable state we’ll have that posted out here for you all to check out as well.

https://youtu.be/Ilae9M9-wMY

_________________________________________________________

ONE OF THE FINAL SCENES OF SPACEVENTURE

This scene is hot off the presses by Mark Crowe. We don’t have video to show of it yet, because it is still very much a work in progress. The mechanics aren’t rigged up, so we figured an image would do it more justice. Mark is not quite happy with it yet, but he wanted to give you all a sneak peak at it. Hopefully in the near future we’ll have some actual game play to look at. As mentioned, this is one of the very last scenes in the game so for the sake of not spoiling much, I won’t give anymore details of what is going on here.

From Mark Crowe:

“Oooh! Big glowy A.I. eyeball. Scary! Ok maybe not yet but trust me it will be… it WILL be. Bwahahaha! IN this WIP scene, Ace isn’t seeing eye-to-eye with an antagonist in the final showdown puzzle sequence. Sparks are gonna fly.”

_________________________________________________________

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_fLdpncQNE

_________________________________________________________

Thanks for all of your support everyone!

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

Each game in our Quest for Glory series took players into a new land with a unique society. We based these lands on real-world locations to give players a taste of different cultures. As he became more experienced, the Hero traveled from Western Europe to the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and finally to the Mediterranean.

Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption and the upcoming games in the Hero-U series all take place (or at least start) in the Hero University in Sardonia. The school is again on the Med Sea, but there is a strong influence from many different countries and cultures. While some of Shawn’s classmates are locals, others have traveled to Sardonia from all over the world – Yoruba, Arzmoor, Kriegsland, Mordavia, Marete, and many other lands.

Hero-U prides itself on its diversity. Students, faculty, and staff come from a wide variety of cultures and all walks of life. Nowhere is that diversity better reflected that in the University kitchen and dining hall. Each day Master Chef Ifetaya Kinah leads her staff and culinary students in preparing delicious meals from all around the world – Albion, Bellefrance, Nihon, and other exotic locations. Anyone who asks, “Since when is a Chef a type of Hero?” has never dined at Hero-U.

Our backers and team also reflect our quest for diversity and variety. I shipped packages to backers in over 30 countries, and I’m sure we have many more represented in our all-digital rewards backers. Our developers range from the Eastern and Western United States to Australia and New Zealand.

After the first two years, in which Lori was our sole female team member, the current team has equal numbers of men and women. We are unified in a few other ways – everyone on the team loves making and playing adventure games, and we’re all enormously excited about the way Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is developing. We’re doing our best to live up to every promise we made about Hero-U during the Kickstarter campaigns – beautiful graphics, realistic character interactions, and meaningful choices throughout the game.

User Interface Survey

We’ve tried multiple variations of the main user interface for Hero-U, and we’re still tweaking and refining them. I’ve put together a short survey of how you play games, and it will be very helpful to us if you and your friends take the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WGMC5CW.

We want to know how many of our players use both mouse buttons when playing games, and what expectations you have for the right mouse button. In Quest for Glory, the right button toggled between commands (such as Talk, Look At, or Use) that the left button would use. In our first Hero-U demo, the right button brought up action menus, while the left button. For the second version, I switched that – left button acts, right button gives a description.

Project Status

We are continuing to refine the rest of the user interface, including the look and feel of the inventory, character sheet, and journal. It takes an amazing amount of behind-the-scenes work to make these screens work well with the right appearance and ease of use.

We’re in the last couple of months of creating “room content” for the game. This includes all the dialogue, text, interactions, animation, and “adventure game stuff” for Hero-U. This Summer we will refine and expand the combat system and working on “alternate interface puzzles” such as trap disarming. We will also start adding music and sound effects once all of the rooms are otherwise complete.

We plan to have a very long beta test to prevent the kinds of problems we had with several of our Sierra games. We hope to start Beta in late September or early October. As we get closer to the finish line, our ability to estimate the real completion date will improve.

We are delaying shipments of physical goods until the game is complete. It’s a very time-consuming process that takes time away from game development. We’ve sent out digital rewards such as Quest for Glory game keys and high-resolution travel posters and game images. Log on to BackerKit and visit your Hero-U page to get access to your digital add-ons.

Kickstarter Projects Ending Soon

Thanks to Unleasher for posting these projects to the Hero-U game forum. Visit the forum at http://www.hero-u.net/forum/index.php to keep up with game discussions and join them. Also check out the main page at http://www.hero-u.com for Lori’s game design updates (when she can find a few hours away from writing dialogue).

Masquerada: Songs and Shadows (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13978330/masquerada-songs-and-shadows) is a “pause for tactics” RPG. It needs about $7,000 more to reach its $65,000 goal within the next 3 days.

Chronicle of Ruin (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/954260789/chronicle-of-ruin) is a real-time tactical Japanese-style RPG. It’s at $6,000 of a $36,000 goal and has 16 days to go.

Thanks for reading! Invite your friends to help support Hero-U by pre-ordering the game at https://hero-u-adventure-role-playing-game.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders.