King's Quest 8 remake

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cyberdalekyeti
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King's Quest 8 remake

#1 Post by cyberdalekyeti » Sun Sep 14, 2008 4:04 am

Hi all i thought you would like to know about a King's Quest 8 remake that is being made that i read about. Here is the link http://www.kq8project.9f.com/cgi-bin/blog

John

adeyke
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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#2 Post by adeyke » Sun Sep 14, 2008 6:17 am

Eh. It's easy to announce a project, but much harder to actually follow through with it, especially with a project like that. I don't think it's possible for there to be a game that's both true to King's Quest and recognizable as MoE.

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#3 Post by MusicallyInspired » Sun Sep 14, 2008 12:48 pm

Show me at least 2 screenshots and I'll start being mildly impressed.

Fender178
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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#4 Post by Fender178 » Sun Sep 14, 2008 3:20 pm

Or show at least 1 screen shot in order to get my interest.

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#5 Post by 1234567890 » Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:02 pm

Just so you guys know, I am remaking this game. I'm atec123, tombom, 1234567890, or lorem ipsum. So, I still don't have screenshots, because I don't have very good graphic artists yet. I am in need of graphic artists before there can be screenshots. Look at this thred

thanks,
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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#6 Post by Blackthorne519 » Tue Nov 18, 2008 12:57 am

"Simply make 10 frames of him walking in every direction"....

Heh. That shit's almost as good as crack! Thanks!

Bt

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#7 Post by 1234567890 » Tue Nov 18, 2008 3:08 am

I was going to delete that post on the homepage, it is kinda stupid now that I thought about it. Anyways, I need some help with the game, I've asked for tutorials on IA (you answered on IA and here, Blackthorne) but I can't seem to get it, So I am in need of artists as I said on my other post.

EDIT: I don't mean the update on the homepage, I mean the thread link in my other post.

thanks,
10

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#8 Post by Lady Pyro » Tue Nov 18, 2008 4:21 pm

Blackthorne519 wrote:"Simply make 10 frames of him walking in every direction"....

Heh. That shit's almost as good as crack! Thanks!

Bt
Agreed, and part two states that you should "Add more Detail to the face, and clothes"
So, A detailed character with a 10 frame walk cycle in (at least) four directions. And that's just the test to get onto the team. Man, I've had to do less to get on professional gigs!
:: smacks forehead :: Oh My. When people who know nothing about animation try to hire animators...

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#9 Post by 1234567890 » Tue Nov 18, 2008 4:40 pm

I RESTATE:
1234567890 wrote:I was going to delete that post on the homepage, it is kinda stupid now that I thought about it. Anyways, I need some help with the game, I've asked for tutorials on IA (you answered on IA and here, Blackthorne) but I can't seem to get it, So I am in need of artists as I said on my other post.

EDIT: I don't mean the update on the homepage, I mean the thread link in my other post.

thanks,
10

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#10 Post by Erpy » Tue Nov 18, 2008 6:08 pm

I think most people get that. The thing is...it's not 1999 anymore. It's 2008. People have seen lots of projects come and go. And the scary part is...the startup-hangup ratio was almost 1:1 for Sierra-related fangames. Back in the old days, artists (and other potential team members) were willing to give overeager project managers who stormed in with an idea the benefit of the doubt. Nowadays, I'd say experience has pretty much killed the doubt aspect and if people think a team leader doesn't know his stuff and has no experience, they won't risk contributing and then seeing their work wasted when the leader loses interest. There's several aspects that clue people in on your lack of experience with game projects and what you want to do is a very ambitious project that could even give professional game makers a hard time... and you want to do it as your first project.

As cruel as this may sound, I don't think a lot of artists will be jumping this bandwagon until you become more experienced doing game projects. (probably non-Sierra related) People don't risk seeing their hard work get cancelled/put on hold indefinitely anymore nowadays and that's you're not getting artists right now. There's been a 1000 people rushing in and proposing big projects over the years, all of them promised to be worthy successors to the Sierra legacy. The only way to get people to join is to convince them you're not number 1001 promising big things and not getting anywhere afterwards.

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#11 Post by 1234567890 » Tue Nov 18, 2008 6:22 pm

I do see (most of) what you mean, and thanks. But to clear things up, Are you saying I should do a smaller project, and then try this one? Look at this thread for what someone else had to say:
Yeah, it's difficult to assemble a team in this community when it comes to doing remakes. Mostly the fear is that you will abandon your project in a couple of weeks or months. Age and experience can be a factor too, teens typically lose interest in things and have poorer attention spans. Whereas, someone older with four completed games under their hat would be taken a lot more seriously. That's not always true, but for the most part I think so. And really, that supposed stability will weigh heavily into whether or not you find a competent and skilled artist. Gauging the reactions from people on the AGS forums, it doesn't look good right now...but if you're serious about remaking that game, I say don't give up.

If you can code a game, you might offer your services to someone else, like an artist who can't code, and at least be able to say you've helped finish a game. Doing that, you'd know someone in the community who is an artist perhaps, and you'd have more experience too. Anyway, just a suggestion.

I'm trying to grow this forum and keep it active, there's plenty of great threads here, and there's no rule about resurrecting dead threads...so I hope you'll stick around!
and here's the linkk to the actual thread:
http://www.novellice.com/forum/viewtopi ... p=939#p939

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#12 Post by Erpy » Wed Nov 19, 2008 12:52 pm

The guy makes some very valid points. Age and experience do matter. You state on your website you need qualified artists, but do the qualified artists need you? If I were an experienced artist who was like 27 years old with several years of experience "in the field", I probably wouldn't want to work under a leader who's 15 years old and who has no experience to speak of. Saying all teens have a lousy attention span is a gross generalisation, but teens in their 15's do think and act differently than people in their late 20's or early 30's and tensions easily arise if a team is a rag-tag group as far as emotional age is concerned. Experience matters, as the guy said.

I don't think you need to have completed a full-blown project in order to be taken seriously, but you do need experience and come across as "knowing your stuff". (I'm repeating some old mantra here)

Since you say you're a scripter, you could start the project with placeholder graphics yourself. Scripters have a natural advantage as leaders, since they're usually the most up-to-date on the general status of the project, them being the ones who have to put things together. I'd say, take the graphics from the SCI remake of KQ1 and try to create the Daventry section you envisioned with backgrounds and animations from that game, using blank screens with text in place of cutscenes. You will find that it's a ridiculous amount of work, for even the first chapter of your monster game. However, if you succeed, three important things will have happened.

- You'll be very familiar with AGS and how to make games using it.
- You'll have developed experience and a personal understanding how much work it takes.
- People will feel you know your stuff and feel you have what it takes to finish what you start.

The vision you need for your game will probably have developed too. It's easy to blame the stagnation of a project on the lack of artists and animators, but in many, many cases, lack of direction is to blame just as much.

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#13 Post by Spikey » Wed Nov 19, 2008 2:55 pm

Even if you do find 'qualified' people willing to join, it's only a very tiny part. Keeping them all motivated and active can be a challenging task.

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#14 Post by adeyke » Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:26 pm

And, just to re-emphasize what I'd alluded to in my first post, this project won't just be a simple remake. For AGDI's 1:1 remake of KQ1, the official version of that game could be seen as the design document. The remake just improved the graphics, sounds, and interface, while all the core elements of the game (e.g. the various screens, items, characters, puzzles, messages) remained the same.

A remake of MoE would be a completely different situation. For example, because that game focused to largely on combat (with different monsters to fight, various items to give you temporary combat buffs, and various weapons and armor), you'd either need to include combat (and figure out how you'll do that) or find something else to replace it with. If you removed the combat without adding new content to replace it, the game will feel very empty. And even when there were actual puzzles, these might not translate well to a 2D game.

So before you ask for any help, you'll need to work on a design document. Write out all the characters and items you'll have, and how they can be interacted with. Plan out the various screens, both in how they'll look and how they'll be connected to each other. Figure out what puzzles you'll have, and how each will be solved. In short, the document should have everything essential to the game, such that if you gave it to a team and had no further input, they'd be able to make something you could recognize as the game you wanted.

Yes, that's going to be a lot of work, but if it's too much, you're not going to finish the project anyways. And finding out problems with the game while writing the document is much better than finding them while you're in the middle of production. It's much better to complete the document first and then tell the team exactly what needs to be done than to do a scatter-shot approach of making miscellaneous music and art and then later trying to fit them together (possibly throwing out whatever it turns out can't be used).

If you're not going to do that initial work that shows you have a solid plan for the game, don't expect others to donate their own work.

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#15 Post by 1234567890 » Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:31 pm

This is what I've heard from everyone. I am doing that, and I've posted a small update on the homepage with a map/character list for Daventry, I posted that for people to see that I'm taking the advice, and am really working on the project, even though graphics are a problem.

thanks,
10

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#16 Post by Erpy » Wed Nov 19, 2008 6:45 pm

The graphics are not yet a problem, because you're not yet in production stage. (or at least, shouldn't be)

The map and lists were a nice start, but aren't enough for any artists to get going. As Adeyke stated (and I mentioned too on another forum), things will need to be planned out a lot more.

Once you have a list of locations, you should start making a design for each screen, detailing its function, what events happen there and what puzzles (if any) it holds. Make a design for each character, detail their role in the story and the general points of their dialogues. Adress the issue with combat that Adeyke spoke off. Determine if the map is to loop or not. All these things can and should be planned out before the art department even brushes off their art pads.

All this isn't merely meant to impress people on random forum boards...it's meant to set a steady foundation for the game itself. Just coming up with a bunch of ideas, backgrounds and animations and then throw them together hoping things will fall neatly into place is setting yourself up for one hell of a fall.

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#17 Post by 1234567890 » Wed Nov 19, 2008 7:33 pm

Ok, thanks again. ;)

EDIT: (forgot something) I will post if I need advice or something else, feel free to do what you've been doing, I need this kind of help if I can have it.
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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#18 Post by adeyke » Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:14 pm

One more thing: the public Web site itself really isn't needed yet at this stage in your project. You won't need to recruit a team until you're done with the design stage, and you won't need to hype the game until you're very close to release (and are 100% certain that the game is going to be ready by then). While it's tempting to show off every little step in the project, it's not going to be very constructive. If someone sees the site at too early a stage, they'll either be cynical about it and think it'll go nowhere, or they'll be optimistic and start asking for a release date that's still many months (or several years, even) away.

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#19 Post by 1234567890 » Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:54 pm

Yes, I do enjoy the forum though. I'm trying to make it more of a KQ fan forum for now, instead of just updates and info on the project, that's, until the project has been farther in production.

thanks,
10

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#20 Post by 1234567890 » Tue Dec 30, 2008 3:19 am

Hey, just stopping by to say, There's a new member of the team, an author, who will help me write the plot/storyline! look here:
http://kq8project.19.forumer.com/viewto ... ?p=316#316

thanks,
10

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#21 Post by Angelus3K » Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:20 am

Doesnt KQ8 already have a plot/storyline?

Wouldnt that have also been one of the key things you would have completed before even starting or at least announcing a remake?

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Re: King's Quest 8 remake

#22 Post by 1234567890 » Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:55 pm

MoE has a storyline, but not really, that's why I have the remake. And, my remake does have a storyline, but it's not yet complete. I am having this writer edit the one I made, and then write some more. (I'm not really the best author, so my stuff can be hard to read)

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