Quest for Glory I in flash

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achronism
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Quest for Glory I in flash

#1 Post by achronism » Sun Aug 08, 2010 12:07 pm

My favourite game from my childhood was Quest for Glory I. As a fairly experienced independent game developer, this weekend I decided as a fun project I'd see how I go porting Quest for Glory I to Flash.

Currently I have the entire land of Spielburg ported over, and I can happily walk through the (unpopulated) forest, reliving my childhood memories.

Now I'm thinking, before I continue this project, I should probably work out whether it's worth investing my time in.

There's a lot of benefits of having Quest for Glory I in Flash. For starters, people can play the game through any browser without downloading files or install the game, and they don't have to navigate DosBox. The game is very viable as a flash game thanks to the low resolution and low colours of the game, meaning the entire library of graphic files is on par - filesize-wise - with any standard graphics intensive flash game.

The drawbacks that I must determine are mostly focussed on copyright infringement, use of the original graphics/music and whether allowing people to play this game online for free will impact on sales of the original (if infact this game is still sold).

And the final reason I would want to port it over to flash is I can play around with fun stuff such as a 'co-op' mode, which would allow multiple players to complete the game together. Technically this isn't a huge challenge for me as I've created multiplayer Flash games before (although each game does present its own challenges).

Before you yell sacrilege, this wouldn't mean drastic changes to the gameplay. This would just mean different players could collect different items and trade them. Combat would probably remain the same (four players can't gang up on one monster), although penalities for not sleeping would have to be removed (otherwise the game will desynch if one player sleeps for 1 hour and the other doesn't). Death will just result in you reappearing at the last safe screen, which is a better option to the incessant saving and loading. To explain the multiple hero clones wandering the same screen I can make reference to a multiverse malfunction as kind of an in-joke.

Many of the sequences such as Brigand's Lair and Kobald's cave would still need to be completed once for each player to complete the quest. I couldn't imagine having four player running around the Brigand's Lair without drastically changing the gameplay.

So my questions are.

1) Should I continue developing this, or will copyright infringement inevitably see this shut down?

2) Would you like to see a co-op mode in Quest for Glory I, or do you think it will dumb down the gameplay too much and spoil the magic of the original?
Last edited by achronism on Sun Aug 08, 2010 1:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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pbpb33
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Re: Quest for Glory I in flash

#2 Post by pbpb33 » Sun Aug 08, 2010 12:23 pm

achronism wrote: So my questions are.

1) Should I continue developing this, or will copyright infringement inevitably see this shut down?
I think, if you do do it, then don't tell anyone about it until it's ready to be released. If you have the time and passion and talent to actually see a challenging project like this to fruition (and it sounds like you do, since you mention that you've made other games), then go for it... though why not consider making a totally new game but in the QFG1 style... with new characters, settings, etc.? Then you wouldn't have to worry so much about copyright issues.
achronism wrote: 2) Would you like to see a co-op mode in Quest for Glory I, or do you think it will dumb down the gameplay too much and spoil the magic of the original?
Multi-player would be awesome!

It sounds like you're all about Flash, since you say that's what you have experience with... but I think it would be cool to see more classic-style adventure games for Android smart phones, too! :D

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Re: Quest for Glory I in flash

#3 Post by achronism » Sun Aug 08, 2010 1:08 pm

The main reason I'd choose to do this over an original game idea is mostly nostalgia and lack of resources. I don't have the resources to hire a graphic artist, a music composer, write an original story and then manage the entire team to execute the project.

With QFG1, I have the majority of the work done, art, music, characters, script, sound etc. All that's required is making sure the execution does the original justice.

And I agree with not announcing the project until it's finished, many people promise the world and then never deliver. This could turn out to be another one of those projects. However, I think the key points are that I can replicate the game faithfully, release it and then persue the complexities of adding co-op as a final stage. The question isn't really whether it's possible, it's whether it's worthy of my time. VS starting a new project from scratch I'm very much decided this would be much easier and much more likely to reach completion.

My concern is that I'll make it, and then it'll never be seen by another soul because of copyright infringement. But then I look at things such as what AGD are doing, and they're freely using elements of QFG without a problem. Even though they redo the graphics, the mechanics, script, story, music and sound and mostly identical to the original. This gives me hope that a project like this can be done.

You're right: I am all about Flash, but I actually develop in Multimedia Fusion 2, which has exports for mobile phones (java), Flash and standard PC. I choose Flash because it's currently the most popular medium for 2D games. A phone export could be very possible.

Just to clarify though, I'm not here to give (empty or not-so-empty) promises about a Flash/Mobile Co-op version of Quest for Glory. I'm just saying it's possible, and asking if it's morally and legally right to persue it.

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Re: Quest for Glory I in flash

#4 Post by pbpb33 » Sun Aug 08, 2010 1:20 pm

Aw, I didn't realize you were going to use the same graphics. Regardless, I say go for it!! Live dangerously, keep it hush-hush and then let the game be distributed/promoted on sites which can't be restricted so easily. :D I bet it would spread fast and still maybe fly under Activision's radar. Many people would love it and would appreciate your hard work. Besides, the world can't have enough QFG. :D The multi-player aspect would bring a whole new element!!

As for AGDI, I'm sure they can speak themselves about whatever special arrangements they had/have with Activision, but I would NOT assume that, just because AGDI was able to do something, it means any other development team therefore has automatic approval to do the same kinds of things.

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Re: Quest for Glory I in flash

#5 Post by Brainiac » Mon Aug 09, 2010 12:31 pm

As far as "co-op" Sierra Flash gaming goes, it's been done for a while now with no legal interference. See for yourself.

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Re: Quest for Glory I in flash

#6 Post by achronism » Tue Aug 10, 2010 4:04 pm

Wow that's awesome.

Although there's some really impressive work there, my current version performs much better and is much more intuitive (perhaps because I'm basing it on the point-and-click remake rather than the text input). I'm sure I can do as good a job as the games on that site, and even out-do them in some regards.

That's fantastic news.

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Re: Quest for Glory I in flash

#7 Post by MusicallyInspired » Tue Aug 10, 2010 4:54 pm

The thing with Sarien.net is it's not a recreation, it's the original games with the original resource files playing in a web browser-based AGI interpreter.

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Re: Quest for Glory I in flash

#8 Post by Blackthorne519 » Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:39 pm

Dude, I say go for it.


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Re: Quest for Glory I in flash

#9 Post by Construed » Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:51 am

I notice this topic is somewhat old, But i thought i'd let you know over at http://www.Grimquest.tk
We have released a complete engine rebuild of QFG1.Including mmo Although most of the logic is not completed, all the maps are already imported and its capable of handling quite a large server load.The gameplay is much more original than Sarien.net.

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