Those who have been following adventure games on Kickstarter as long as I have should be familiar with Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption by Lori and Corey Cole. It was a spiritual successor to their Quest for Glory series back during the days of Sierra On-Line. They had run a campaign at the tail end of 2012 and just barely managed to eke out their $400,000 funding goal. Two-and-a-half years later they’re returning with a second campaign to finish the game.
A lot has changed with regards to the first installment of the planned series of Hero-U games during this period of time, most notably in the art department. Last month they posted an announcement that the original 2.5D environments and characters have been updated to 3D. They’ve also released a combat prototype to backers.
Well, suffice it to say that they’ve pretty much run out of funds from both Kickstarter and their own savings and in order to release Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption and polish up the game they plan on running a second campaign on May 12, according to the latest blog post on their site. They would rather give the full experience than rushing it out before it’s ready. They’ll be asking for an additional $100,000 to finish it.
In addition to what I would assume to be the standard reward tiers (game, soundtrack, art book, etc) the Coles have announced that there will be swag unique to the new campaign for Hero-U. As well as a special “thank you” tier at $20 for those who backed the first time. Which includes everything at their planned $50 level.
So if you didn’t make it the first time around or would like to give again and get some of the new items, make sure to check back on May 12 when the second semester starts. I’ll be there in my cheerleader outfit.
As i’ve told you on the KS comments Serena, apparently you spent 350$ on this one. I, for once was on the lower tier. But, i think, no one should back this again unless you’re a die hard sierra fan.
The additional cost comes from the change of system to 3D. The game would have been out and on time already if it wasn’t for that. Nobody told them to go this way, Heck i’d preferred that nice hand-drawing style than that ugly failed 3D.
They changed things, they should have known it would add additional cost, they should deal with the consequences. Backers i’ve been already patient enough, asking for more when it is obviously their mistake is a complete lack of decency that i wouldn’t have thought possible coming from such a respectable (once maybe) creator.
Well, I am a diehard Sierra fan. I gave a lot of money to each of the alumni Kickstarter projects (a lot more than I’d care to admit) and also to the spiritual successors (Quest for Infamy and Mage’s Initiation). I’d love to see this one succeed and not just because of the money I gave last time. I’ll still probably put in a buck to keep tabs on it, though.
Actually i read their update again (and you should too). The part were they are doing magic trick with numbers is just awful. “More than half of you (3300 of 6100 total) backed at the original $20
level. Check out the math – As a numbers guy, I think it’s pretty cool.
3300 x $20 = $66,000. That leaves about 2800 backers. Each of you kick
in just $10, for 2800 x $10 = 28,000. Add those together and you get
$94,000, and the new campaign is nearly funded. It doesn’t take a
painful amount from anyone – All it takes is a community and a
commitment to this game.”
Between the math and it’s pretty cool, the it isn’t painful, and the all it takes is a community and commitment to this game. I just want to throw up and i am not easily shaken. But it takes some guts to write that.
Yeah, I have to agree with you on the approach Corey went with in his pitch. It did put a sour taste in my mouth despite being a lifelong fan. And he also needs to know that the bulk of the money came from low level backers like yourself. He did come off as a bit condescending in the update.
Well, usually i am on the higher but if i remember well, i put my money back then elsewhere (Ars Magica which fail..). God, how atm i am glad of that choice.
Besides his 3D trip while being the reason behind his lack of money (the guy started over twice!!). It is ugly, i mean not in the ugly sense but ugly like it looks like failed 3D i was seeing at the start of the 3D games..
Personally, i’ll be keeping my money on the 2nd KS. With his condescending tone i am even restraining myself for asking a refund and i hope even if you’re a diehard sierra fan that you won’t back them higher than the 20$.
They’ve got your money already, they don’t deserve more. If things went sideways it’s their fault, deal with the consequences.
The good thing about Kickstarter is that if it fails (and it looks like it most likely will) I won’t be out any money if I so back the second attempt.
Nah, it won’t fail, they probably will receive even more than needed.
You can guess that by seeing the unconditional support for the majority
on the KS comments. But, i won’t be there, i’ve done my part of the deal.
It’s their time to honor their part. I don’t intend to give bread to pigeons twice.
Then..they grow fat…and transform into Nazi-Zombies.
What I’d like to see is Corey address these concerns and do so satisfactorily. We’re talking about doing an interview with him over at Kickstart Ventures to hear his side of the story.
oh, that’s a good idea!
Don’t forget to mention me to Mr and Ms Cole on your interview lol.
I think they like me 😛 (i maybe went a little too strong on them ^^)
I backed last time ($150) and will be backing again. Sierra was and still is my all time favorite video game company. Quest for Glory was right up there under King’s Quest in my list of favorite franchises and some of my most defining gaming moments came from the series. It will take more than game delays and developmental mistakes to shake me off from supporting the Coles in their quest to return to video game development. I am enamored of them, their past work and the charm of their current endeavor. I hope it ultimately meets with some measure of success. Looking forward to the first day of school!
The real purpose of the second Hero-U Kickstarter is to introduce the game to people who didn’t hear about it, or who thought it was too early to back, in our 2012 campaign. Back then, most pitches – including ours – were a few sketches and a lot of promises of “We’ll make a cool game!”
That doesn’t work in 2015. Kickstarter has matured and successful projects are ones that have a lot of work put into them before asking for funding. Our 2012 pitch would bomb completely today, but now we have a lot of cool stuff to show – good demos, many great paintings, and actual game play. We’re doing the Kickstarter campaign we would have liked to do 2.5 years ago.
As for the “cool math trick” – Well, I think it’s cool, the idea that that much funding can be reached that easily with very small contributions. I’m not trying to pressure any backer into giving us more – the project is really aimed more at new backers – but we want to make sure we can provide value to those who do.
I added the line “All it takes is a community and a commitment to this game” at the last minute, and guess that didn’t go over the way I intended. Everyone who contributes, or even mentions the game in social media, is part of our community. Everyone who contributed the first time is especially important to us, because you showed faith in us long before we had anything good to show you. No one need pledge a penny more unless they really want to help us out.
We’re in a hole not because we changed graphic styles. We changed graphic styles because the earlier stuff didn’t work, and we didn’t have a team that could pull it off. As to the new stuff looking ugly… Wow, it must be like the white-gold/blue-black dress. We think it looks awesome and ten times better than what we showed earlier in the project, 100x better than the “tiled” prototype. We cringe playing Quest for Glory today; the art has not aged well, especially the blocky, pixellated characters.