Help! We Need Somebody…

Not just anybody.

But before I get into that… our next Livestream is this Saturday at 2 pm PST. That will be on https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames as usual. The theme is “Winter Daze at Hero-U,” which might have something to do with the fact that we’re finalizing Summer Daze at Hero-U: Tilly’s Tale in the middle of Winter. Given the warm weather we’ve been having in San Diego, that actually makes a kind of sense. 🙂

Here’s a Bird of Paradise – no, I’m afraid you can’t tap it for one mana of any color – from an upcoming patron-only post (https://www.patreon.com/coreyloricole) of Lori’s best photos from 2020. Springtime is coming!

Hiring a Developer

We’ve been working with one part-time programmer and “full stack developer” for most of the Summer Daze project.  It’s been a hard day’s night (for the last seven years), and they have moved on, so we are looking for a replacement. Responsibilities include:

• Maintaining the Hero-U code base –
• Rogue to Redemption patches and support for our Nintendo Switch developer
• Fixing issues with Summer Daze at Hero-U, adding audio
• Preparing for testing and later release
• Helping us create future projects such as Puzzleworthy and new Hero-U games
• Contributing to features and design of upcoming games
• Maintaining our website, including integrating with a shopping cart for direct ordering
• Helping us run Alpha and Beta tests, triaging and merging reports, fixing issues

Qualifications

You’ll need some or all of these knowledge sets and experience:

• Working with Unity, Mecanim, and the Unity editor – essential!
• Knowledge of C#, JSON, and Inkle (can learn the latter on the job)
• Understanding tropes of adventure games and RPG’s
• Ability to work well with other team members – design, art, audio

This is a paid position, but we can’t compete with large corporate salaries. It could last anywhere from six months to multiple years.

Time requirement will likely be 20-40 hours a week (not quite Eight Days A Week). We have some flexibility on this.

If you’re interested, please contact me at support (at) hero-u (dot) net. (Trying to avoid some bot attacks.) If you know someone else who is qualified and interested, please have them contact us directly.

Craig Hendricks on Facebook posted this. Is it purely coincidental?

The photo of Claudia Schiffer is from: The new Bardot: Claudia Schiffer in Italy, 1989. Photograph: Ellen von Unwerth.

And Leisure Suit Larry 1 VGA was in 1991 – so it would have been two years later. Is it coincidence after all? Or was she the inspiration for Fawn in the remake?

Hey everyone! We hope you are all doing well during the COVID world we are living in right now. We wanted to give you a very quick update on the game and it’s release. As always, the holidays slowed us down a little more than we would have liked, but we are pushing now to get the game out the door very soon.

We got a tremendous amount of helpful feedback from our beta testers. The game breaking bugs that were being experienced are fixed now and the game is feeling much better on the polish front as well. There is one thing that we have had to go back to the drawing board on. The Save/Load system. This feature, admittedly, has bedeviled us throughout development. With the rest of the game now complete, getting Save/Load working reliably is now our biggest focus.

The issue is with handling each scene’s setup at particular points in the scene. Some scenes have many different ‘states’. The challenge has been to get all the variables saved just right or the restored game get’s screwy. 

So this is it everyone. The save load system is really the final big fix that needs to happen. The other items are small changes that we are knocking out each day. Once this is done, we are releasing the game.

The game will be released first on Windows and the other platforms should happen not too far there after. Once the game is released digitally, we will begin working on physical backer rewards. Please do not send us anything involving your address updates or anything along those lines at this time. When the time comes, we will send out a survey to gather all that information.

It’s What’s For Launch! Nintendo Switch launch and reddit AMA

We’ve just launched the Nintendo Switch version of Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption! You can find it at https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/hero-u-rogue-to-redemption-switch/.

The list price is $20, but we’re celebrating the launch with a 20% off sale. If you’re thinking about getting the Switch version, now is the right time!

We’re doing an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) on reddit just after I post this – 11 am PST on Feb. 9, 2021. Join in the Q&A at https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/.

Please let your Switch-owning friends and family know about the game that you helped us create. Here’s a quick summary of Hero-U for those unfamiliar with our games:

“Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is a genre-defying story game – It’s dramatic, but also funny, an adventure and a role-playing game. You’ll play as a young man who is caught between becoming a thief or being a hero. On his journey, he’ll make friends, solve mysteries, and fight dangerous creatures.”