QFG-style "Mage's Initiation" from Himalaya/AGDI

[MusicallyInspired]

Yeah, but besides the fact that ActiVision won't let us do anymore, we're kind of tired of doing this for free.

But we are working on a new original Sierra-style adventure game under our commercial brand Himalaya Studios which was just announced! It's an adventure/RPG hybrid like Quest For Glory called "Mage's Initiation: Reign of the Elements."

[Irishmile]

Oh yeah I can definitely understand why you guys do not want to do 4 you have all been very generous already... Yeah I saw that about Mage's initiation... I signed up for the newsletter.

[Secret Fawful]

Mage's Initiation looks so badass just from those three screenshots. As far as KQIII Redux, it's badass too. I almost died laughing from the wizard's "punishment". Greatest punishment ever! Greatest wizard ever! He's not JUST evil; he's hilarious and awesome. Only a wizard made of awesome would think up a punishment like that. I also refuse to use a walkthrough for the game. CAN I BEAT THE TOUGHEST KINGS QUEST GAME UNAIDED BY CHEATS? Yes, because I beat KQ 1, 2, and 5 the same way. After this, I'll only have KQ 4, 6, 7, and 8 to beat.

[MtnPeak]

Apparently any day now a new Kickstarter will be launched by Himalaya Studios (also known as "AGD Interactive") for their hi-res QFG-style Mage's Initiation game:

http://www.himalayastudios.com/games...about-the-game

No doubt you're all already familiar with these guys, who have been putting out adventure games since before Telltale existed. Their popular, free Sierra game remakes have won tons of awards and have inspired many adventure game indie teams over the last ten years, even when things looked bleak for the genre.

Free downloads of their games...
http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/games.html

[DAISHI]

We're certainly familiar with the guy who composed the music for their games.

[MusicallyInspired]

Only a couple of them. Actually, Mage's is the only project that has been completely mine with no contributions from another composer. I did the bulk of KQ3Redux, but Tom Lewandowski helped out with a fair amount of music.

[DAISHI]

I see you as more of an avatar combining the souls of all those involved in the project into one super composer being.

[MusicallyInspired]

Lol. No pressure.

[MtnPeak]

Originally Posted by MusicallyInspired

Only a couple of them. Actually, Mage's is the only project that has been completely mine with no contributions from another composer. I did the bulk of KQ3Redux, but Tom Lewandowski helped out with a fair amount of music.

I hope the Himalaya pitch video is punchy. I have no doubt the Mage's Initiation product will be of high quality (AGDI/Himalaya's track record speaks for itself), but I hope their sales pitch is strong. As a longtime fan of their work, I always thought they should toot their own horn a bit more.

I loved the opening animation in the SpaceVenture pitch video, and I think it did them a lot of good. Hero-U's video, on the other hand... well, let's just say I'm happy they succeeded despite their pitch video. Jane Jensen's was memorable and effective, and showed what could be done when you really don't have any game clips of the project you're selling.

[MusicallyInspired]

Originally Posted by MtnPeak

Jane Jensen's was memorable and effective, and showed what could be done when you really don't have any game clips of the project you're selling.

Which we, conversely, do. And more.

[Chyron8472]

Originally Posted by MtnPeak

Apparently any day now a new Kickstarter will be launched by Himalaya Studios (also known as "AGD Interactive") for their hi-res QFG-style Mage's Initiation game

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...tyle-adventure

Their Kickstarter page is up. They're only asking for $65,000, which is next to nothing, really.


I don't know anything about Daniel Stacey, but my first reaction to watching the video was that it seems an awkward choice, from a marketing standpoint, to choose a guy with a lisp to introduce the game.

Second, color me skeptical about the combat. How does tying your level to your score make the combat balanced? How does it affect it at all?

And third, I hope the animated cutscenes shown are as yet unfinished. They look like they could belong to a saturday morning cartoon from when I was a kid. What I mean is, there needs to be more shading and detail to them. They're just... not impressive, I guess.


EDIT: also, looking at this screenshot:


Something about the difference in detail between the background and the sprites just doesn't look quite right to me.


The game looks great. I'm just nitpicking.


EDIT AGAIN: I got in early with the $6 Early-Bird pledge, but I'm very likely going to upgrade to at least $16 simply because Brandon Blume (MusicallyInspired) made the music all himself, and you get a digital copy of the soundtrack at the $16 tier.

[Chyron8472]

Just got this in my email. It would seem that pre-ordering the game doesn't get you a collector's box set, but rather it gets you a notification that you should spend $100 on the KS page:

[Lambonius]

I've always been a bit skeptical of Mage's Initiation, frankly.

I think the sprites look pretty nice, but the backgrounds--meh. They all have that strange slightly blurry quality that plagues so much digital painting that I hate. It makes me wonder why they even opted to go for "high res," as the backgrounds do not take advantage of it at all with much in the way of additional detail and texture.

I'm sure the music will be awesome though, if KQ3Redux was anything to go by. I know MusicallyInspired does great work.

And yes, I agree that the "cutscene animations" look jarringly out of place. Diverging so radically from the established visual style of the rest of the game is a huge art direction "no no." As they look now, I can't imagine them doing anything but ripping players straight out of their immersion in the game. Hope they rethink those if they get successfully funded.

I'll probably still back this, though. Gotta support my fellow indies.

[MtnPeak]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...tyle-adventure

I pledged $50. And that's just for starters.

As for the pre-order thing, they never charged anyone. I was also one of the people who got on the pre-order/gauge-of-interest list.

Honestly, I'm more interested in Mage's than I am the Coles' new project.

And Daniel Stacey was a writer for them on a couple of their other games, I believe. He's a talented writer, and lot of credit should go to him for helping give the AGDI games a polished, professional feel and for helping them stand out among a crowd of other indie projects that too often felt amateurish. He deserves to be in that pitch video.

Another thing I'll say about the AGDI/Himalaya team: from what I've seen they've always been great (and have always acted so professionally and responsibly) when interacting with and providing support to their customers, fans and others. Very classy.

[Chyron8472]

From the Mage's Initiation KS: (top post is me, bottom is dev's reply)

(image in question is in my post above)

[MtnPeak]

Originally Posted by MusicallyInspired

Only a couple of them. Actually, Mage's is the only project that has been completely mine with no contributions from another composer. I did the bulk of KQ3Redux, but Tom Lewandowski helped out with a fair amount of music.

Is Erpy still working with that team? He always seemed very knowledgeable. Hopefully he is still involved in game design.

[MusicallyInspired]

I honestly haven't seen Erpy around in quite a while. I've been wondering how he's doing. I know that he was involved in some capacity with designing an early rendition of the combat engine before I came aboard the project.

[RogerXY]

http://kck.st/W7OBdj

A new Kickstarter from the people behind the awesome remakes of King's Quest 1-3 and Quest for Glory 2 (http://www.agdinteractive.com) as well as "Al Emmo & The Lost Dutchman's Mine" (http://www.himalayastudios.com/index.php)

I love their previous games and "Mage's Initiation" looks really promising. Let's do this!

Mage's Initiation is a Role-Playing / Adventure Game hybrid, very similar in style and execution to Sierra On-Line's classic Point-&-Click Quest for Glory and King's Quest series. It maintains all the charm of classic and timeless adventure games of yesteryear while adding 21st century innovation to the mix - like multiple game interfaces, and a free-range magical combat system!

We're all very big fans of the adventure genre here at Himalaya Studios, and we feel that Sierra's games really hit their peak in the early 90s. We're working hard to provide a nostalgic experience, reminiscent of that golden era of 2D Sierra adventures circa 1993-1994.

Mage's Initiation has a medieval / fantasy setting and it features multiple playable character classes, spell-casting, and an open-field magical combat system, complete with equippable items and monster loot drops!

[MtnPeak]

They are already more than 50% funded in less than two days after their Kickstarter launch.

Big fan here of Himalaya Studios. Happy to see them getting a lot of support.

[MtnPeak]

Originally Posted by Chyron8472

Something about the difference in detail between the background and the sprites just doesn't look quite right to me.

I agree and think some of the backgrounds could be brought up to the same standard they themselves set in KQ3 Redux. Look, I'm a big Himalaya fan and certainly don't want to come off like nitpicking either, but I also want them to hear feedback that is given in the interest of seeing the game be the best it can be.

Here's what artist John Paul Selwood said in a comment on the Kickstarter page:

Thanks so much for the support everyone! Adventure fans are truly the best fans ever. I've read a few comments concerning how the backgrounds mesh with the characters, and I will note these concerns for the remaining duration of development. One of the things the success of this Kickstarter will bring with it, is an increased opportunity for me to revisit areas of the game that could use improvement. Once the remaining background art pieces are finished, I can go back and re-edit older backgrounds, and even add additional environmental animations.

I think this is the same artist who did amazing work on some of the KQ3 Redux backgrounds. I may be wrong, but it sounds like he was brought on board with Mage's after some background art had already been done. Given this, it appear that, if time and budget permit (and Selwood seems to suggest that merely reaching their initial funding goal will be sufficient in this regard), he will be sprucing up and polishing existing backgrounds. He does great work and seems like the perfect guy for the project.