I'm a month late on this thread...but I'll post this anyway.
I put my name on the preorder list, as I'm celebrating my emergence back into adventure game nerddom that I neglected for so very, very long. And I just want to say that I'm totally behind this project. It'll be interesting to see a QFG style game with a magic twist but being primarily story-driven.
And there were some bits I saw in here I wanted to comment on...
1) Donations: If you want, I'll check with some of my colleagues on this, but if you're a for-profit entity I believe it might actually be illegal to solicit donations under §501 of the Internal Revenue Code. I do know that it's not illegal for individuals to do so (whether it's with PayPal buttons or getting change on the streets) because the IRS feels this constitute a non-taxable gift (if under $13K for the whole year), but for an actual partnership like Himalaya...don't get yourself in trouble!! None of us want that!
I'm a good source on this, I have an EA designation.
http://taxes.about.com/od/taxglossary/g ... _agent.htm
And I'm one semester away from earning my master's degree in accounting (concentrations in taxation and public finance.)
2) 3D vs 2D: something I could go on all day about. I'm pushing 30 so I remember the CGA-EGA-VGA-SVGA evolution (then it became the SVGA-FMV-3D crap devolution) and grew up with all the classics we know and love. I have mixed feelings about QFG5 and MI4, mostly negative but there were things about those games I enjoyed, and I have enjoyed what I've seen of The Silver Lining (if it would freakin stop quitting out on me every 10 seconds!)
But I'm biased in both taste and age bracket, in that I find 3D mostly hideous and unappealing. 2D allows for so much more aesthetic pleasure but also for the artists involved to really show off their individual styles-- since I'm trying to be less "Hey I'm mopey that 1993's over" and more "So it sucks the golden age of gaming has come and gone, but maybe there's a way we can use all this technology and available resources to our advantage."
To me, the "holy grail" of game graphics is the Sierra style of the early 90's; the hand-painted backgrounds with bright interactive objects and those close-ups you'd get in the cutscenes and other game aspects. Secondary to that would be the LucasArts stuff that made was made 100% with Deluxe Paint (or like MI2 where it was a mix of Deluxe Paint and some hand-painted backgrounds.)
But in with using technology to one's advantage, one thing I've seen with all these calibers of games made with AGS is just how different everyone's style is-- for instance, all the Yahtzee games use very simplistic flat colors and were done in MS Paint. But they were done well and the style just
works. Other creators want to stay true to that old school style rendering we all know and love but sometimes end up doing poorly trying to emulate it like that; while I've seen other games (such as the short-lived Principles of Evil series which I ADORED) instead use hi-res 2D imaging to their advantage and have a totally unique graphic design for their characters, backgrounds, GUIs, etc.
3D just does not accomplish that. One major bomb I'm thinking of right now, a sequel that never should've been made...Simon the Sorcerer 3. I LOVED the first two games, they had appealing VGA graphics that were indicative of their individual artists' styles whereas StS3 had both sucky graphics and gameplay that I barely made it past the first chapter.
So to conclude, I hear you on 3D graphics just ruining a game for you. It's not just so much that the graphics are unappealing too, but also that most 3D interfaces are a real pain in the ass. I'm biased in my point-and-click love though.
3) Games in episodic format, particularly Telltale: As a gamer, I'm not a fan of the episodic format. I hate the way it disrupts continuity, or worst yet
gives the player false hope that they'll have continuity*. Aveyond 3 suffers from this bigtime; I liked the first two games and generally support indie developers who use RPG Maker well. But I just hated how except for 1 chapter/episode, every freakin chapter/episode you pretty much had to build up your characters all over again just to play a game about 1/8 the size of the original Aveyond where almost nothing imports from your old save and actually kinda defeats the purpose. If it weren't for the fact that I love RPG Maker's simple charm, the little touches Amaranth Games puts into their creations, and the Aveyond story arcs themselves...I'd otherwise say I'd be super-hesitant to buy Aveyond 4 should it ever see the light of day and if it does, I REALLY hope they don't use the episodic format again.
In the business sense though?
I hate to say this but episodic format sells. Whether the episodes are stand-alones or in cliffhanger format, they're moneymakers. Someone's really into the story and/or gameplay, they'll get hooked and want to keep buying more. Gamers like us are also from an age where you really got more immersed in a game and its storyline and intricacies; episodes let someone with a shorter attention span get just slightly immersed as is the casual gaming mentality of the 2000s. So while us purists hate it, it sells.
While there's some episodic games that appeal to me, I would still rather throw down money for a good old school full-length game where you really get immersed, and it has a lot of replay value without any of those classic design flaws (like the game becoming unwinnable, but not so simple that there's no challenge.)
*Unlike in the Laxius Power/Force series where you can import your characters and all their special abilities, stats, money, and items come with you-- THAT is a smart way to use an episodic feature though the games themselves are not episodes as LF1 and LF2 are large epic RPGs, LF1 longer I think. LP3 was also utterly massive, and you lost a lot by not importing as far back as LP1!)