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Mages Initiation

Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 11:19 am
by rugged
I am pleased that we have some more info about the above game. I love the work of AGDI / Himalaya and can't fault the games, though at times I do wonder about some of the marketing.

Would it have been worth holding kq3 back a bit so it was released at least semi close to this, to get some of the spin off from KQ3? With this being AGDIs last project the activity here will die down over the next 18 months and may be quite hard to drub support back up? I was always dissapointed that Al got released while AGDI was in a bit of a lull and can't help but wonder what might have been was it released at a different time.

Do you think the reserve a preorder with no money down is the best way to go? Sounds to me like it could be an admin nightmare

I also wonder about all the other extras that will be in the preorder pack. I know some people love that stuff but at the moment no one has any connection with the game or franchise. I think offering the kq3 poster will be the one that atracts people so why go to the work of offfering all the other extras, I know it is a nice throw back to how things used to be done, but I think people usually only get excited by the collectables in established franchises where they have a connection.

Still pumped about this title and look forward to purchasing it!

Re: Mages Initiation

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:06 am
by Anonymous Game Creator 2
We thought the Mage's project would be further along by the time we released King's Quest III Redux, but we hit some pretty big hurdles along the way, the loss of several animators, and progress slowed a bit. We contemplated holding back King's Quest III Redux until Mage's Initiation was closer to being complete, but there was really no way of telling when that would be. So rather than making fans wait longer, we decided to simply release KQ3 Redux and cross promote Mages now to get it exposed to as many people as possible. It's not the ideal scenario, but having a game like KQ3 Redux perpetually in-production is a big drain. The development team who worked on it for 8 years already waited through numerous delays because of scheduling conflicts so it's only fair to release it without making anyone wait even longer. It's better to get it "off your plate", so to speak, so that you can see people enjoying it and are able to draw motivation from the buzz and the positive feedback. Besides, the Mage's pre-orders seem to be doing exceptionally well, so far! There's such a high level of interest in it, I'm kind of wondering how we're going to ship all this stuff out when the time comes. :lol

We'll try our best to get Mage's Initiation finished as soon as possible. I listed late 2012 as the release to give the team enough *realistic* time to finish it. Anyone who develops games will tell you to allocate double the time, and then double that again to your planned timeline. I remember when Quest for Glory 5 was first announced in early 1996 and it wasn't released until late 1998. I don't think the public's interest-level waned... and then there's Duke Nukem Forever. Granted, Mage's Initiation is a new series and it not well-known or established yet, but I think the fact that it's an Adventure/RPG similar to Quest for Glory should be enough to hold the public's interest. Or at least I hope so!

Al Emmo did pretty well considering that no retail publisher picked it up. Most sales were self generated and it broke-even and made profit. In the days when TellTale games were actually helping us, they were the single largest 3rd party distributor of Al Emmo that generated us the most sales. Al Emmo was also the best selling "TellTale Now" game on their site. I think the main problem with the Al Emmo release (aside from not researching a lot about how to cater to what an audience is looking for in advance) is that was released in 2006, when there was still not much of an indie industry presence, before social networks and promotional tools like Facebook and Twitter became a useful way to promote a niche game and keep people interested in it. We spent all our money on a title that could have benefited from a "less is more" approach, as well as being released a couple of years later to take advantage of better promotional tactics. But I think you learn more from doing things the hard way, than simply doing them the easy way by having someone guide you to.
Do you think the reserve a preorder with no money down is the best way to go? Sounds to me like it could be an admin nightmare
Certainly not the best way, no. But I'm used to admin nightmares by now. In fact, you could say they're our specialty. ;)
I also wonder about all the other extras that will be in the preorder pack. I know some people love that stuff but at the moment no one has any connection with the game or franchise. I think offering the kq3 poster will be the one that atracts people so why go to the work of offfering all the other extras, I know it is a nice throw back to how things used to be done, but I think people usually only get excited by the collectables in established franchises where they have a connection.
As I mentioned above, I'm surprised at the number of pre-orders the game has generated so far. This is mainly because I shared your concerns, but it looks like people are responding to what appears a fun and interesting game in the Sierra style. So I'm pleased about that.

Re: Mages Initiation

Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 7:47 pm
by rugged
Awesome! I hope the game sells well enough to not only make a small profit but to pay the developers a wage!! In sales figures what would you deem to be a success for your new game?

Re: Mages Initiation

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:01 am
by Labrynian Rebel
Wow, the few screenshots you've released look fantastic, the level of detail is amazing. I personally love the giant crab and ocean ones. I guess I already know what my element is going to be :rolleyes

Re: Mages Initiation

Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 2:16 am
by DaemonDarqueGS
I'm looking forward to this game a lot! I loved the QFG series and if this is like that, I'm sure I'll enjoy it too! I'm very intrigued by magic system and want to see how that plays out.

I love being able to buy a game that has collectibles with it. Most games in recent years have forgotten to do such a thing and the only other company that I'm aware of that's doing that is CD Projekt Red with the Witcher. If you give the option for collectibles and the like, it encourages people to buy it because you can't get it anywhere else. So between my eagerness for the game, I also preordered because I want that KQ3 poster. I learned my lesson from not preordering Al Elmmo for the QFG poster...even though I didn't have a job at the time and couldn't have bought it anyway :rollin