Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

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Jack of All Trades
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Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#1 Post by Jack of All Trades » Wed Aug 12, 2009 3:11 pm

So, a couple guys, including myself, from the hero6 board. Want to make a QfG game. I'm pretty sure we've figured out all of the legal odds and ends to avoid any copyright issues. We intend on asking Corey and Lori for permission to play with Glorianna. Are highest priority right now is artwork. I'm talking to a spriter right now. So, I'd really like to find someone for backgrounds. However, we're also looking for more spriters, programmers, and even musician's . We just got started so we are definitely looking at putting people together. So if anybody is interested now is the perfect time to speak up, you can reply here or PM me with your contact information and I'll put you in touch with our project's coordinator.

So, since I'm writing this thing. I've been researching the world of Quest for Glory. This link is a great resource for all of the cannon locations in Gloriana: Here is an excerpt:

According to Lori Ann Cole, a force wave hit Earth during 1 BC which split the world in two parallel realities. While our part evolved as we know from history, the time on our parallel Earth did not advance in a stable time pace, which explains the anachronisms found in the games.

There was a diversity of progress of the civilisations in Glorianna and some remained in ancient times (Marete), Middle Ages (Spielburg), while others evolved into Victorian times (Mordavia); all civilisations co-existed together, with flavours of modern anachronisms. The Force wave also influenced some animals that started to evolve rapidly into sentient species, like the Katta and the Liotaurs.

The world of Glorianna is, essentially, a mirror of our own world. Many of the kingdoms and locations mentioned in the game series are representative of real-world locations. Spielburg, for example, represents a small, medieval Germanic town; while Marete is Glorianna's version of the Greco-Mediterranean islands in the Aegean Sea.

Compare also to the concept of the Divide, after which our world is apartized by parallels Stark and Arcadia in the game The Longest Journey.

However in Trial by Fire, we see different constellations (eg the Saurus, Dragon and Hand constellation), while the names of the planets Xenon, Ortega, Pestulon, Phleebhut, and Uranus (an injoke about Space Quest 3), hints that Glorianna is in a different planetary system. Also, the division occurs only in backstory and is never brought in consideration in the games' scenarios.

So, I've been looking into the various locations for a story and the corresponding mythologies that should accompany them. Then I weighed them against what else is being made out there. Currently there are two major Quest for Glory inspired fan games floating around out there. One of them is based on Celtic Mythology and the other is based around Norse Mythology.

Now ideally, I'd prefer to set our game in Norse Mythology but I'd like to respect the concepts of our fangame brethren out there. Which is why I propose a game based on a character, a location, and a mythology that the original hero uncovers during his WIT initiation, The Isle of Gramarye. The Isle of Gramarye is home to the wizard Merlyn Ambrosius from the paintings on the wall during the WIT initiation, and would make an excellent home for a story centered around Arthurian & Brittish Mythology.

Now, I haven't worked up a story yet since I'm still in the rough concept stages but I've been looking heavily into characters like Morgan Le Fay as inspiration for the villain of the game. As the story goes, I'd like to feature further into the future in a post Camelot and post Arthur timeline. Possibly a pre-industrial Britain or a post medieval with a big forest. I'd like to use the Lady of the Lake, the questing beast, a nightmare hag, the ogres who formerly occupied Britain aka Gramarye. I definitely want to feature a Jack in irons running around the town. The Green Man of the forest. The Elves (or Fairy People) and Oberon their King. For random monsters, I'm looking at Goblins, Humans, Black Shucks, Revnants, Bugbears (not the d&d type), and Ogres.

To keep the story from being just a generic fantasy setting, I've been toying with the idea of setting the game in a large city probably 4x4 or 5x5 screens in length modeled after industrial london, but without the industry. With a Neil Gaiman style Neverwhere-esque underworld of magic and mystery. I'd like to use an enchanted forest as well though. As long as they don't step on eachothers' toes. Of course the London-esque city setting could be different enough that the secret underworld city may not be necessary. I'm trying to reconcile these three environments into a cohesive place for adventure. Like I said, I'm still in the concept stages.

My story takes place between 18 to 20 years after QfGV. Our character a new hero, a graduate of the Famous Adventurer's Community College in Silmaria, sets off to Gramarye investigate the disappearance of both Silmaria's greatest hero and his recent bride. Throughout his journey our new hero soon learns a lot about himself and the hero who he's modeled his life after. Just remember, I'm still working on the concept so the point is it will be different.

As far as the copyright issues we won't be calling the game QfGMany of the characters that the Cole's used are public domain, I believe even Liontaurs are considered public domain, and the Coles' own the rights to Erasmus and Fenrus. I couldn't find any mythological usage of the land Gramarye but I did find a published song or an album that uses the term Isle of Gramarye from 1976, although I haven't had time to investigate it fully yet, so it's also not copyrighted by Blizzard. I'm pretty damn sure that there is nothing they can do to us. Take heroine's quest for example. They are doing the same thing. I'm pretty sure that we can get away with including words in the text and dialogue like Silmaria, Aidendale, Elsa, Katta, Spielburg, etc. without fear of any repercussion.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#2 Post by cyberdalekyeti » Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:03 am

:rollin Great news will we still get a choice of the four characters Fighter,paladin,thief or wizard?Also will you be having a speech pack and be able to save the character at the end of the game just in case you decide to make a sequel?

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#3 Post by Jack of All Trades » Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:06 am

Well we are going to use AGS so we should be able to do every the QfG2 remake can do. Except we will only have 3 classes available at the start. Paladin-hood must be earned.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#4 Post by DrJones » Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:29 am

Have you got experience with game making? You know, the very first project of AGDi was the remake of Quest for Glory II, and they did three other games in the process because QFGII was so ambitious they couldn't do it without gaining experience first.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#5 Post by Jack of All Trades » Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:38 pm

I have to ask Paul since he's the programmer. He just asked me to write the plotline and dialogue for him. I just started recruiting developers right away. I'll get back to you soon.
Last edited by Jack of All Trades on Thu Aug 13, 2009 5:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#6 Post by Blackthorne519 » Thu Aug 13, 2009 5:04 pm

Jack of All Trades wrote:You know, I have to ask Paul. He's the programmer, he just asked me to write the plotline for him. I just thought I'd start recruiting developers first. I'll get back to you soon.
Make sure you have an excellent proof-reader and editor. Your ideas are great buy your writing is incomprehensible!

All grammar cracks aside, good luck with the project. It's no easy undertaking, and just remember to stick with it. It'll take a long time, and it's easy for interest and enthusiasm to wane.

Bt

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#7 Post by Jack of All Trades » Thu Aug 13, 2009 5:32 pm

These games do take a very long time. Unfortunately, I'm not an artist or a programmer, so once the story and dialogue trees are complete, I'll be left without anything to do but moderate our forum. I just hope there are enough people who want to see this game made for it to happen. It's really up to the fans. It's only a small sacrifice for me to write an entire game and the dialogue trees to go along with it without ever seeing it completed.

Even if I am going out on a limb its worth it. After playing through the series recently, I realized that Quest for Glory is dead. It's not dying, its actually dead. We'll never see another one. I searched for all of the boards and I read all of the news, and I discovered that the Quest for Glory community is dying too. I realized that I have to do something soon or one of my favorite things will be forgotten forever.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#8 Post by Angelus3K » Fri Aug 14, 2009 8:11 am

Jack of All Trades wrote:These games do take a very long time. Unfortunately, I'm not an artist or a programmer, so once the story and dialogue trees are complete, I'll be left without anything to do but moderate our forum. I just hope there are enough people who want to see this game made for it to happen. It's really up to the fans. It's only a small sacrifice for me to write an entire game and the dialogue trees to go along with it without ever seeing it completed.

Even if I am going out on a limb its worth it. After playing through the series recently, I realized that Quest for Glory is dead. It's not dying, its actually dead. We'll never see another one. I searched for all of the boards and I read all of the news, and I discovered that the Quest for Glory community is dying too. I realized that I have to do something soon or one of my favorite things will be forgotten forever.
I'd have to point out that it actually is up to you. You need to prepare to work hard long years even when your fans have become bored and moved on elsewhere. If your going to do it, your team needs to do it for themselves.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#9 Post by Jack of All Trades » Fri Aug 14, 2009 2:25 pm

I
Angelus3K wrote:I'd have to point out that it actually is up to you. You need to prepare to work hard long years even when your fans have become bored and moved on elsewhere. If your going to do it, your team needs to do it for themselves.
When I say its up to the fans, I mean all of us. Myself, my current team, and the fans that will eventually join our team. If there aren't enough fans out there, there won't be enough volunteers. It's up to the fans to make this happen because the concept has been taken away from its creators and buried by blizzard. I'm not so superficial to believe that its up to the fans to inspire me to make this game. Motivation happens internally.
Last edited by Jack of All Trades on Wed Aug 19, 2009 3:48 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#10 Post by Klytos » Sun Aug 16, 2009 9:00 am

Good luck!

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#11 Post by Jack of All Trades » Sun Aug 16, 2009 12:36 pm

Thanks

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#12 Post by Jack of All Trades » Wed Aug 19, 2009 3:46 am

DrJones wrote:Have you got experience with game making? You know, the very first project of AGDi was the remake of Quest for Glory II, and they did three other games in the process because QFGII was so ambitious they couldn't do it without gaining experience first.
Yes and No. Paul has been programming for years and this is not his first game. However, Paul has not previously played with AGS before, but I'm not concerned about it. He seems to be a very gifted programmer, and he's been having a lot of success with AGS so far.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#13 Post by UnknownHero » Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:37 am

Man, I really hope it works out! Would it help if I ask any of the programmers in my other forums to offer help? You all set now?

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#14 Post by Jack of All Trades » Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:43 am

I'm sure we could make use of other programmers but to be honest, I'd like more artists.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#15 Post by Labrynian Rebel » Wed Sep 02, 2009 10:43 pm

This sounds awesome! Can't wait (which is a shame because the wait will probably be long...)

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#16 Post by Blackthorne519 » Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:21 am

Jack of All Trades wrote:I'm sure we could make use of other programmers but to be honest, I'd like more artists.
Get used to wanting more artists and animators. They're in short order for these free fan projects.

Bt

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#17 Post by Jack of All Trades » Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:32 am

No kiddin'. I've got a background artist, an animation artist, and a programmer and a half. I'm going to make use of the leftover heroine's quest screens that Corby has given us. So, as long as our entire team sticks together, we should be in business.

Oh, and Paul has been tinkering with AGS and he's getting pretty good at it. He's going to keep practicing and making preliminary demos during the pre-production aspects of the entire game. He's all ready posted a few on our personal forum. By the time all of the art is finished He should rocking pretty hard. Also, we've got some sprites of our hero made and he looks terrific. Our animator was convinced that he wanted to do a different look for each class. I had to talk him down to a single class neutral one.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#18 Post by Labrynian Rebel » Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:26 pm

What I think would be neat if you could "import" your Quest for glory V save file, so that when you rescue "yourself" he's actually called "John" or "Ralph" or whatever you named him, and the bride is actually the one you chose to marry in Dragon Fire, but then of course if you don't import it's automatically Devon Aidendale, and the bride is, er, random?

Better yet, how you save Elsa or Katrina for example, should be differant, which would create great re-playability

I think it's a great idea, unless this is a technical impossibility of course...

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#19 Post by Jack of All Trades » Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:16 am

I don't think we need an import function for a name of your character. We could just allow you to pick it during character creation. Of course we could allow the player's choice of bride and the girl he saved to be imported but that could get real messy. Especially, if you married 3 different women. Also, this would limit use of said choices to dialogue. We'd have to constantly dance around it. If we wanted to actually include the Hero's wife it would be quite a hassle for us. j

I think the best choice is for me to pick a cannon ending and run with it.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#20 Post by Brainiac » Fri Sep 04, 2009 12:21 pm

Jack of All Trades wrote:I don't think we need an import function for a name of your character. We could just allow you to pick it during character creation. Of course we could allow the player's choice of bride and the girl he saved to be imported but that could get real messy. Especially, if you married 3 different women. Also, this would limit use of said choices to dialogue. We'd have to constantly dance around it. If we wanted to actually include the Hero's wife it would be quite a hassle for us. j

I think the best choice is for me to pick a cannon ending and run with it.
You're going to fire an ending from a large mounted gun?

...Oh, canon. Never mind. :lol

Anyways, you could always go with the "standard" bride by character class: Elsa for Fighter, Katrina for Wizard, Nawar for Thief, Erana for Paladin.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#21 Post by Jack of All Trades » Fri Sep 04, 2009 1:30 pm

Cannon, ha! It seems that whenever I reply, I'm either doing two or three other things, I'm sleepy, or I'm sneaking off at work. Even now, I've just woken up and I've all ready got a couple irons in the fire. Don't let my spelling and grammar frighten you.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#22 Post by Labrynian Rebel » Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:26 pm

I can see how it would be a lot simpler to just type in the hero's name, and as for your chosen class decides who the hero married is a great idea, because you have to make the gameplay a bit differant for each class anyways. And as for dialogue problems, you could simply have her refered to as "his bride" or whatever, until the very end where you could simply have a sprite change, and then refer to her by name there, nothing complicated, but I'm sure fans will respond well to extra details like that. 8o

I guess the import idea is flawed, but one of the cool things about QFG was that each game seemed to build off of the previous one because of it, but I guess there are more practical ways to go about it, and besides it is a new hero and all.

The most IMPORTANT question of all is... will there be another fake Blackbird to find? :lol

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#23 Post by Jack of All Trades » Sat Sep 05, 2009 12:21 am

No Blackbird in this game... It was an editorial decision I made early on about it. The Blackbird has seen a great run and if I were only planning a single game, I would definitely use. However, I am not planning a single game. I am planning four of them. The blackbird had a great run, and while I'm sure I can top its usage in the fifth game I may not want to keep it up for four titles. Finding 3 more fake blackbirds or having it get stolen over and over would get cumbersome. I thought it best to move on.

Since Gramarye is Arthurian, I almost went with a MacGuffin based on the holy grail but I put the kibosh on that as well. The grail's story value diminishes significantly in a non-Arthurian setting. Furthermore, it would be better off as a paladin blackbird equivalent. I did a lot of research on MacGuffins and various treasures of the world. The treasure I found most interesting is the Hope Diamond. It has this wicked cursed history thing going on and its REAL. Many of its owners, handlers, and owner's families have suffered financial and physical misfortunes including bankruptcy, insanity, medical problems, and death. Yet it only increases its value. Also, it was supposedly originally stolen from an Indian Idol of some sort. I'm tentatively calling the Azure Diamond because of its color.

I may throw in a few blackbird easter eggs for fun though.

I have a very related question for anybody here. I'm looking at creating a high seas adventure for the second title and I've been sewing the seeds for it in this game. I was about to play through the 5th game for the first time in my life but the opportunity to create this game fell into my lap and I haven't had the time. I made myself familiar with much of the game's plot and characters, spoiling things for myself as it were. However, there are some minor plot threads that I'm unsure of.

I'd like to use Arestes. I know he was a former sailor or pirate of some sort who lost his arm at sea. He became a thief because being a one armed sailor is not the most lucrative profession. You eventually hook him up with Julanar, but what becomes of him afterward? Was he the former chief thief of Silmaria? Do you give him the blackbird, or does he just check to make sure its real? Does he reveal any future life plans at all for after the game is concluded.

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#24 Post by Labrynian Rebel » Sat Sep 05, 2009 2:36 am

Love the Diamond idea (does this mean we'll be seeing a future game in India >D ) and it is better to come up with your own material then just relying on the past for the laughs (hey I'm a poet and I didn't even know it)

The grail would work in a Middle Eastern setting (but we already had QFGII)

I'm afraid I'm currently chugging through QFGIV (and loving it by the way) so I haven't had the pleasure of exploring Silmaria yet, but I'm sure SOMEONE on this forum has (actually it's probably a given) so I'll let that someone do the Q & A for you, good luck with your game!

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Re: Starting another QfG fangame, better late then never

#25 Post by Jack of All Trades » Sat Sep 05, 2009 3:07 am

If I can get my first game made then Inja will definitely happen at some point. I'd also like to do a Japanese setting. I'm hoping to move east from the pirate setting. Although, the setting I want to do the most is the Northlands. I'm a big fan of the Norse Pantheon and its mythology, especially Loki. Its too bad that Corby has all ready laid claim to it.

I still haven't decided on where the best place to have a pirate game would be. A larger world map would be a must though. I'm toying around with seeing more of the Med Sea and possibly revisiting a little bit of Silmaria, although I need to do more research on the area first.

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