tomimt

Fried Gorn on a stick "Sometimes you just can't beat a good gorn"

Hutt Hooch "Every thirst needs to be exstinguished"

Wookie Whopper-meal combo "for that LARGE apetite"

Spice crust Dune pie "Arrakis Mom & Pop bakeries"

Treverser Hothouse special "From Aldiss Gardens to your plate"

The Ring of Fire "Hotter than Ortega"
 
Xenomorph Slice with Sticky cheese "rib bustingly good"
 
IT came from the kitchen-surprise platter "prepare for the experience of the lifetime"

Gort Giblets "Even we were surprised it had any"

Klaatu Clams "Depending on the vintage, they might be wooden"

Brundle Wings "For every flyboy"

Ceno Bites "There's no party without Ceno Bite"

 

The Ring of Fire "Hotter than Ortega"
 
Xenomorph Slice with Sticky cheese "rib bustingly good"
 
IT came from the kitchen-surprise platter "prepare for the experience of the lifetime"

Gort Giblets "Even we were surprised it had any"

Klaatu Clams "Depending on the vintage, they might be wooden"

Brundle Wings "For every flyboy"

Ceno Bites "There's no party without Ceno Bite"

 

Personally I don't like Twitter. I find the converstions to be much harder to follow than even in KS page, which is shitty as well.  And I really don't follow Facebook that much either these days. I only check what my fiends and family members are up to, but anything else, I just don't can't muster that much interest anymore in FB.

Actually KS rules state that it isn't a charity.  It's not a promise of a finished product either, as KS does understand that shit happens, but they also do state that the creator is obligated to do what he suggested or if that is not possible then find an another agreeable solution with the backers. Also the promised rewards should be delivererd as well.

Though those all are just words, as KS as such doesn't seem to have any intentions on going in one way or an another with the projects that actually do fail to deliver and where the creators just fanish underground (not talking about SV here, there are projects in which the creators just stop updating all together after they hit a brick wall and to my knowledge KS hasn't been any help to the backers)

Of course backers are entitled to know where the project is at. That's one of the bargains in any KS, that they're kept in loop on the general level about how the project is progressing. That doesn't mean any bank statement break downs, but it does mean reassuring the masses a couple of times during the development that everything is going okay, especially now that everyone knows this project will come out much later than originally expected.  Besides well done communication, something SV at the moment is lacking, enhances the feeling that the project is going well and hasn't been abandoned.

At this moment Troels is the only person attatched to the projet who has done good job at communication in the KS forums. And overall I'd say it would be a good idea to give him the PR run.

KQ3 is sadistic game, there's no way around it. But it does turn more enjoyable after you've been frustrated with at first, maybe it's some sort of Stockholm syndrome.

I know you're joking Fronzel, but I have no anger towards RPGCodex for that emoticon. It's the most entertaining game site on the web.

The thing is, you need other people to buy the game as well. Not that many games have managed to do so. We already know that Jane Jensen won't be making continuation for Moebius, that game was a  disaster that wore her out. It might have sold just barely enough to cover the additional money they poured in it. Tesla Effect wasn't a high seller either, though Big Finish is hoping it could make profit at some point. A lot of those games have ended up being more expensive than what they got from the KS. Even Larry Reloaded ended up costing over a million (if Trowe is to be trusted, but think Josh Mandel said the same)
 
A lot of those KS budgets just aren't the whole picture, as many devs have already poured in money in their games even before they come to KS. And many devs end up pouring more money in the development, because in some cases what they get isn't necessarily enough, because stuff happens.

I honestly don't think they actually even need the "old" fans that much. They don't even need adventure game fans that much. The people they are aiming this one doesn't have the nostalgic connection to the game, but they still might have brand recognition. Some people might even be interested of seeing what the fuss those old, grumpy gamers were all about really is about, when they talked about KQ with a tear in their eye. Or actually they do need the old fans, but only to talk about it, not really buy it. Talking by itself is enough, the tone of discussion matters here very little.
 
What Activision is doing here, and I think it is a very smart move at that, is the rebirth of a name. Two names, actually, and both of them in their own right iconic, but neither is a name you need to have played, or experienced yourself at first hand, as both KQ and Sierra do still echo in many places, in written word and in many game videos. There's a lot of people still talking about them and that could be what they want to spark. A bit like what movie studios want to spark when they dig a classic monster from its slumber, like Dracula or Frankenstein. There's no need for the new viewer to have seen Bela Lugosi's movies to know Dracula. There's no real need for that nostalgic connection for the potential viewe to be interested about it, as the name stands tall itself.
 
Will it work? Who knows. The difference between Dracula and KQ or Sierra is time. Dracula has hanged around a lot longer. A lot of people know him even if they haven't seen nor read any movies or books about him. But a lot of iconic actors have portrayed him. What I'm interested here the most really is, if they can make it work.
 
 

I do understand why they do try to reach other than P&C gamers really. Despite there has been some success stories in KS front, none of the released P&C adventures have really done anything remarkable in the market place. The best ones have propably done enough money for a small studio, like Revolution for an example, but even the game that kickstarted the Kickstarter trend didn't really do a thing in the market, especially from the POV of a big company. So in that sense the way to go is pretty clear: either an interactive adventure story like what Telltale does or to try something different if you don't want to spend that much money, but still want something that might sell better than traditional adventure games.

I honestly don't think they actually even need the "old" fans that much. They don't even need adventure game fans that much. The people they are aiming this one doesn't have the nostalgic connection to the game, but they still might have brand recognition. Some people might even be interested of seeing what the fuss those old, grumpy gamers were all about really is about, when they talked about KQ with a tear in their eye. Or actually they do need the old fans, but only to talk about it, not really buy it. Talking by itself is enough, the tone of discussion matters here very little.
 
What Activision is doing here, and I think it is a very smart move at that, is the rebirth of a name. Two names, actually, and both of them in their own right iconic, but neither is a name you need to have played, or experienced yourself at first hand, as both KQ and Sierra do still echo in many places, in written word and in many game videos. There's a lot of people still talking about them and that could be what they want to spark. A bit like what movie studios want to spark when they dig a classic monster from its slumber, like Dracula or Frankenstein. There's no need for the new viewer to have seen Bela Lugosi's movies to know Dracula. There's no real need for that nostalgic connection for the potential viewe to be interested about it, as the name stands tall itself.
 
Will it work? Who knows. The difference between Dracula and KQ or Sierra is time. Dracula has hanged around a lot longer. A lot of people know him even if they haven't seen nor read any movies or books about him. But a lot of iconic actors have portrayed him. What I'm interested here the most really is, if they can make it work.
 
 

The thing is, you need other people to buy the game as well. Not that many games have managed to do so. We already know that Jane Jensen won't be making continuation for Moebius, that game was a  disaster that wore her out. It might have sold just barely enough to cover the additional money they poured in it. Tesla Effect wasn't a high seller either, though Big Finish is hoping it could make profit at some point. A lot of those games have ended up being more expensive than what they got from the KS. Even Larry Reloaded ended up costing over a million (if Trowe is to be trusted, but think Josh Mandel said the same)
 
A lot of those KS budgets just aren't the whole picture, as many devs have already poured in money in their games even before they come to KS. And many devs end up pouring more money in the development, because in some cases what they get isn't necessarily enough, because stuff happens.

I just started to play KQ4 again. I must admit I had forgotten how much unfair puzzles that game has as well. It's filled with puzzle items you can miss because you just didn't think enough to just search the ground which you don't even see or that you just aren't able to see in the future in order to know how to solve something that you just can't know is coming.

It is a lovely game though. It's not as punishing as KQ3 is and you can even have an alternative bad ending in it as well.

I just started to play KQ4 again. I must admit I had forgotten how much unfair puzzles that game has as well. It's filled with puzzle items you can miss because you just didn't think enough to just search the ground which you don't even see or that you just aren't able to see in the future in order to know how to solve something that you just can't know is coming.

It is a lovely game though. It's not as punishing as KQ3 is and you can even have an alternative bad ending in it as well.

Indeed... KQ3 suffers from a severe case of "you have to know things you just can't know before they happen" design.

I always hated the cat more... and that's a lot from me as I love cats. Even before it was the thing to do in the internet.

I always hated the cat more... and that's a lot from me as I love cats. Even before it was the thing to do in the internet.

I'd go and pronounce it something like this: Aivn-kovh-grogh-prem
It's clearly a name from some dead language.

Now that you are entering KQ3, let me warn you before hand, when you do the spells, one of the spells has a wrong incantation line in the manual, so be sure to check out the right lines. The error is, if I recall right, included in every version of the game.

I do recall most of the treasure items can be actually used to solve at least one specific puzzle. It won't give you max poinst, but it will get you past that point if you don't have the max point item.

I'd go and pronounce it something like this: Aivn-kovh-grogh-prem
It's clearly a name from some dead language.

Yes, the gnome puzzle is optional, as if you answer wrong you'll get a key you can use to unlock a door that has a ramp which leads to the giant.

The big three puzzles, getting the shield, mirror and the chest, have multiple solutions, which is very clever. KQ1 has a lot of design elements which were sadly dropped from adventure game development, but I think that has more to do with how difficult it is to design such open puzzles, especially when the games themselves are more and more difficult and costly to produce.

What was really fun back in the day with KQ1 was to try to find out the optimal ways of doing the puzzles. Though the unfair gnome's name puzzle made that pretty difficult, unless you knew the answer.

It's pretty difficult to think any modern first time player would go gaga over any of the first 3 KQ games. As they are, they really work best seen as historical relics and views on where games have started and how they've evolved. They have a lot of stuff that can be compared to modern games really in a way, that you can see that some ideas we think are modern have been thought of in the early years of computer games.

KQ1 really is one of the most open adventure games there is. It's interesting just because it was not only the mother of animated adventure games, but because its approach on the world and puzzle design. It is open world, small, but still you can go almost everywhere immediatly. You can pick up a lot of stufff, some just for points, but some can be used to solve multiple puzzles. But at the same time it has stuff in it that just isn't in any way fair towards the player, as the game really doesn't give that many hints on how some of the more obscure puzzles work, nor does it generally give that many hints at all.

KQ2 is far more guided and "traditional" in approach, I'd even call it less ambitious. It's clearly more of a midwork, that was done to fill in the need for a new game more than anything else. In terms of game design only KQ3 is far ahead of KQ2, which really didn't bring anything new to the table. I think KQ2 might actually be the only KQ game that didn't bring any significant improvements to the game engine itself, nor Roberta's design.