"Colonel's Bequest Remake"

[jarod]

Colonials Bequest was an awesome game, the only complaint I ever had about it was that there was so much you could do in the game but weren't given much clue within the story and your actions for all those things.

It was only by getting to the end and finding out what you had missed out on that you knew it was there - and (from memory, how old is this game again?)  a friend and I ended up buying the clue-book to be able to figure EVERYTHING out.

So I would suggest including vague and subtle hints early in the game (or at correct intervals leading up to some events) towards things you can do.  Nothing egregious mind, replaying the game over and over and over was one of the great elements to it

Now that I think about it more, a lot you could find out was in conversation, but you wouldn't have any reason or prompt to ask many of those questions without having fore-knowledge.

[DKORNBLET]

But the way you both are acting, fighting over the game like this. I think it looks great the way it look now than in the past.  

[DKORNBLET]

could you please give me a date? on colonel's bequest.


thanks

[Broomie]

I NEED HELP ON KQGS QUEST 3 IN THE I NEED THE WINSETUP FILE BECAISE I'VE PLAY KINGS QUEST3 IN THE PAST BUT NOW I NEED IT.

I'm quoting your signature here, and I know this is irrelevant to the topic but what exactly do you mean? The VGA remake released last year or the original KQ3?

[Alistair]

(Broomie: hint: It's a troll.)

I can't believe noone told me about this- this is really promising!

I hope something comes of this project (I've been a part of 2 failed SQ fangames ).


On CB, I agree with a bit of what everyone's said. Mainly Laur though- there are obvious flaws with CB, and I'd say it comes back to Roberta Williams. I've never been a fan of her 'ripoff what's been done' brand of "storytelling", Dagger of Amon Ra is an infinitely better game.

BUT- CB has a lot of potential. That review Laur linked to is spot on- Laura seems an awfully dull person when such important events in her life are unfolding, such as her best friend losing the plot. The only time she shows emotion is before a death sequence (hers, I mean!).

Take Fifi and Jeeves for example. There's pointless voyeurism with Fifi there (I mean, I'm no prude, but Laura is a 20's woman who is!), and then, you don't know whether to be upset when they're dead, or nervous, or sort of indifferent. The character development is VERY poor to say the least.


But, you have to look beyond the cliched characters, because te game is kind of supposed to be that. I can say it's another example of how Roberta's not a good storyteller though :P

The obvious original CB flaw is the dumb Act system. If you don't work *everything* out per Act, and trigger the Act event, you might miss something vital (probably will, in fact). In the real world, it doesn't matter if Laura does A, B C or A, C, B, and shouldn't 'trigger' where people are sitting and important events.
Yes, if someone dies, people will move around and things will change, but having a game where if I walk into a room and suddenly there's a body, but I haven't done X/Y/Z yet, and miss XYZ permanently, it's pretty annoying. There is an element of 'mindreading' in CB that throws some detective work out the window.

It's very annoying, and means everyone will miss something (well, lots of things) on their first playthrough, unless they're anal with saving/restoring (which noone would do).


The graphics really aren't a problem with this game, although I like the screens that have been posted. It's all gameplay. Laura Bow 2 was far more intuitive and straightforward, and although I'm a fan of the parser system it was a massive black hole in CB.
Why? You can type things a million ways, plus, it sucks asking every single character in the game a million things, plus, reasking them everytime something changes.

Anyway, it's late, so I'm done. But I get passionate about the oldies, and I look forward to this remake. Ignore the nay-sayers, CB is one of those Sierra oldies that could really do with one.

- Alistair

[Dump401]

Hello again,

To respond to the recent posts, I just wanted to say that this game isn't dead, nor will I ever let it. It's just in limbo right now. I've almost been a one-man team since the start, I've gotten some great help from some great people, but I can't seem to get anything consistent.

I'm getting a new laptop for school in the fall,  so once I do that I figure I'll be able to get all of the games artwork done. And I am now revisiting my notes on the gameplay and plot structure, keeping the comments and concerns from this forum in close consideration. I'm sure I can't please everyone, but I'll try.

So, at the moment I'm down, but not out. And when I make some progress and put a website up, I'll make sure to put a link in this forum.

[Billetwound]

Well thats good to hear, when this was 1st brought up i was all excited about it, in fact pretty much i go back and play the game when ever there is activity in this topic lol.  I was hoping it didn't die out.  I'd say i'd help out with it but i don't know to much about programming but its always the perfect time to figure it out right.

[Alistair]

Two more things:

1. If you made more progress, I'd be willing to help out by recreating the original CB music for you (see link in my signature).

2. I love the avatar- Larry 7, right? (Been a while since I played it )

- Alistair

[gargin]

Sierra games have been among my favorite games ever since I was younger. Of the games I played the Quest for glory series was my personal favorite. After that I would have to say Colonel's Bequest rated quite high on my list as well because it was really interesting and the game focused on exploring which to me made it feel less linear. Often times when playing through I would find different bodies than the previous time. I do however agree that the acts system could probably be improved upon. One thing that might be cool is having a list of unknowns that were unveiled as they were discovered. This way people know if they discover everything in one act if not they can go back and try again but are not forced to do so. Also it may be prudent to increase the length of the acts a little bit to make it a little bit easier to deal with.

Unfortunately I am little use when it comes to music or graphics but if you ever needed someone to help with scripting the game or web design I am pretty good at that kind of stuff. Also I can provide some free webspace with no adds if you didn't mind a subdomain.

Hope everything works out for you!

-Gargin-

[Natteravn]

Personally, I'm not very fond of the "3D" look, it's not as atmospheric as the stylized painting/drawing look of the original.
The backgrounds also look a lot simpler than the detailed SCI-graphics.
Try to study some photos of architecture from the period and setting to have something to model by, likewise when it comes to clothes and props.

[Bees]

Read the thread. Notes:

Most people are right: Do not mess with the story or storyline progression. The heart of this game, the nitty-gritty, was that you were plopped into an Agatha Christie novel, but had the decision to act. In the beginning, you are SUPPOSED to have to explore a lot to get your surroundings. Things are SUPPOSED to happen that you do not understand until later or, possibly, until completing the game and having started over again. The always decision is how much freedom to give the player (at the risk of leaving them feeling at sea) versus The Rail (leaving the player feeling like s/he's just clicking arbitrarily on a pre-determined book). More and more gaming is turning to The Rail, and I'd like to see re-makes, re-dos, and enhancements not go down that road.

I guess the graphics could use an overhaul, although I personally find the original style charming. Add decent voice acting? That would be a thing.

Ah, CONVERSATION TREE. Here we're getting at something. "Ask Lillian about Gertude. Ask Lillian about Jeeves. Ask Lillian about Colonel..." Next room, possibly 15 minutes later, possibly not: "Ask Gertrude about Lillian. Ask Gertrude about Rudy. Ask Gertrude about Gloria."

THAT nonsense could be lost, easily, and nobody would mourn the loss. The Sierra-style conversation interface was perfected with Quest for Glory 5 and the Quest for Glory 2 re-make. Anything relevant is there, and that's great.

OH, and inventory puzzling: It's a Sierra hallmark, and was fairly absent in the Laura Bow games. I can't honestly say whether it would add something positive to the LB series. It's something to think about though; maybe a topic of pro-con conversation.

[Bees]

It occurs to me, what the problem with the original is:

You do not know what room the game-advancing scene is going to take place in. Therefore, in each 15-minute interval you have to scour every tile of the game (and ask everyone everything). If you guess right on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. try, you have to restore in case you missed something. That means you have to explore EVERY skareen in EVERY 15-minutes, not just act, in case you might miss something. That was typical Sierra stupidity (aw baby, don't take it personal, you know I love you).

Since we're in 2008 here with considerable more savvy in both playing and making these things, that weakness is not acceptable. If we're puzzling, meaning thinking these things out, the "totally random wandering around rooms until something happens" puzzle is history that wouldn't be missed.

Something in the story or in the puzzle should give some kind of clue BOTH as to where the next time-advancing plot-point is AND where the next inventory puzzle point is, if there is one. It doesn't mean every conversation has to end "Well anyway I think GLORIA has more to say in the KITCHEN in 15 minutes and by the way DON'T FORGET TO PICK UP THE BONE" but these things could be blended in better.

[crimsonmansion]

Thanks Dump401 for working on an remake for this great game since it and the Dagger of Amon Ra has always been one of my favorite series...that was unfortunately short lived. I have two suggestions which I don't believe have been mentioned quite yet.

#1: Enhance the gore. Perhaps some of you recall how deliciously gruesome it was to examine crime scenes, and how inventive the various deaths could be. I say, take a note out of the DAR book and make it dark, bloody, and unique. Don't spare the violence that these characters would cause.

#2: Promote the scare. For me, when I played the games at a young age; they bloody well scared me, but not enough to make me stop playing! There was something about the suspense of the games that made you feel on the edge of your seat, not to mention that poor Laura Bow was so utterly alone and had to rise above everything to simply survive and provide justice to those that were killed. I say keep the mysterious figure, but perhaps just include it into the end. Make the locations scary, dark, and like corpses rotting away. Doooooom!

Aren't I cute...phaw!