After more than 2 years in the remake business, Tierra has become Anonymous Game Developers Interactive, or AGDI for short. Read the official press release.

Today KQ2VGA is one year old! It's hard to believe that so much time has passed. Unbelievably, compared to the June stats below, downloads for KQ2VGA are still going just as strong as ever! And in case you're wondering about the chocolate milkshake, AGD1 was offering them in the forum party, so if you hurry you might be able to get one!

1-Year Anniversary KQ2VGA download statistics:

• Game downloaded 113087 times.
• Music Pack downloaded 47771 times.
• Speech Pack downloaded 31614 times.

And now a breaking-news update from the QFG2VGA team! Today Tom is working on Music20, "Training with Uhura." It is 47 seconds long and it loops. First he used an "organ-like sound," but didn't like the final result when it was OGG-encoded. He replaced it with a new sound, but AGD2 didn't like the new sound because it sounded too "Monkey Island'ish!" Tom says that he will try a slightly higher bitrate in order to get a better OGG-encoded result with the original sound. Regardless of the outcome, Music20 is the most exciting of the combat themes I've heard so far.

Well, you asked for it, so here's a big update to make up for the lack of updates. Some people think it's never too soon to start Christmas shopping, but if you ask me, you cannot start before December 1st. That also means no playing Christmas music before December 1st. Alas, all around me the rule has been broken. But that's okay, because today it's December 1st so I will dutifully go out and start my Christmas shopping.

We continue to get asked, what is the overall progress of QFG2VGA? I talked to AGD2 and he revealed some top-secret information to me: "It'll be done at some point next year (2004)." Actually, he said that on our message boards, but if you didn't read it there, you get the picture.

And now some real information to whet your appetite for this still-far-off game. AGD1 did a lot of dialogue pictures at the beginning of November. She starts off by making a sketch of the character by hand. Then it gets scanned and colored in the computer. Then it goes to AGD2 and he resizes it, adds a border, and animates the talking frames. Sometimes we get to see some of the pictures before they are resized by AGD2, and they look amazing. AGD1 gets better every time. Since some of the beautiful detail is inevitably lost, AGD1 has also been learning to optimize the coloring process and starts with smaller pictures in the first place.

The backgrounds for this game are also continually being worked on, and they too look amazing. Some of the backgrounds are all new creations. Some of them are actually based off of AGD2's original artwork that was created years ago! The best thing is watching the development of a screen - great attention to detail is taken so that each screen is perfect, even if it means major revising of the screen five times or six times or more. It's impossible to say that we've finished up until "x point" in the game. Because that's not the way development works. You might do a screen here and a screen there, and nothing in between. But whenever the first alpha demo is released (I have no idea when it will be, but not for quite some time yet), I'll be able to tell you more about how much is actually finished.

Tom is still going strong with the music - in fact, he's putting out so much that I barely have time to archive it, never mind listen to it! So today I finally sat down to do that. The atmospheric strings and chiming stars of the WIT pathway are magical, and the effects for the Fountain Plaza are... watery. Most recently, Tom's been working on combat music. I compared two versions of the same piece, one that Tom did on November 16th and one from November 25th. Both have the same underlying themes, but the latest version has less overused conventions and some brilliant percussive and orchestral touches that the earlier version lacks.

Well, that's it from me. I hope to make some more updates to the site over the December holidays, in addition to some more designer journals, and I still need to get a new scanner (as well as some other minor hardware upgrades) which I will definitely do this month.

I've been fortunate enough to see a "pre-alpha" of the game, and boy was that exciting [I didn't even get to see this one - Relight]. The QFG2 team has been working hard every day, creating numerous animations, dialogue pics, and so forth. I was proud to be a part of the KQ2 team because of the strong devotion and hard work to accomplish the project. Well, nothing's different with this team! The energy has remained high throughout. A lot of work has been done thus far, but there's still a lot yet to be done -- so there's no way any "target date" can be provided at this time.

On the music end, most of it has been recorded. I'm in the process of composing a few new themes that are being added to the game. And don't worry, none of the original soundtrack will be missing. You'll just hear a few new pieces from time to time.

Wanted: 3D modeler with solid animation skills to join our fun and motivated team! Your task--create semi-realistic, semi-cartoon style pre-rendered character models based on 2D concepts. 3D Studio Max is the program of choice, but proficiency in another 3D package is also acceptable. Texturing skills would be a definite plus. Traditional art technique would be nice, but is not absolutely necessary. Strong work ethic is a must, as well as the ability to communicate and be a team player. The ideal candidate should have a passion for classic adventure games and be driven by challenges and success.

Finally, we guarantee that this project will be completed. It will also provide an excellent opportunity to work alongside our development team and get your work seen by many people.

If you're interested, email us at kqvga@hotmail.com. Providing a link to a webpage or some still renders of characters would be handy.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

The Tierra Team

Why no update recently? Well, I've had a few technical difficulties. First of all, my graphic card bit the dust, so I had to get a new one. Secondly, my scanner is down for the count, hampering my duties. Opening the thing up, nothing seemed to be mechanically wrong. So I Guess I'll have to buy a new one.

This week I heard a brand new piece of music that Tom composed - it's ogg music # 91 on my master list and it was posted in Version 9.0 of Tom's secret updates. Tom puts a lot of work into each and every song - making changes as feedback is given to him - and this piece has already been through several revisions. It will play in the background of the Adventurer's Guild, and it has a slow pace, an ambient quality and familiar elements of the Quest For Glory theme tinged soft with sadness. It has a meandering Eastern feel, occasional percussion and it reminds me of music from QFG5.

Lastly, some goodies. To start with, our links page has been sorted and updated. Secondly, the press area has been fully updated within an archive of everything we could find that's been written about us. Something missing? Let us know. The official KQ1VGA DVD Cover is also back up, so if you didn't get it before, grab it now. And last, but certainly not least, to provide a bit of Halloween trick or treat fun, we have a treat for you: Quest For Glory II Halloween Wallpaper!

Tierra has released the final version of King's Quest I VGA! Version 3.0 includes translation pack support, bug fixes, optimized music and speech packs and more. Visit the KQ1VGA feature page.

Today's update is from Tom, whose work on the QFG2VGA soundtrack is progressing very quickly, and it's sounding amazing! I'll give you more of my thoughts on the music next time, but I have to address a few brief matters now before I let Tom speak. The KQ2VGA Testimonials submission is now closed and the page has been updated - check it out! Also, if everyone who is emailing us with their praise can just hold on, a new guestbook will be installed soon. Lastly, stay vigilant for the final release of KQ1VGA, version 3.0, which is coming very soon! At least that's what they keep telling me...

Tom Lewandowski, Music Director
Unlike the music of most classic Sierra adventure games, Tierra has decided to bypass the inclusion of a MIDI-based musical soundtrack to accompany the QFG2VGA remake. Today's gaming computers are equipped with such a variety of MIDI sound cards, it becomes too difficult to support them all. Unlike ten or fifteen years ago - when MIDI support was targeted towards only a select few MIDI devices, this is no longer feasible. Therefore, QFG2VGA will contain only a digital soundtrack. The advantage of this is that everyone will be able to hear the soundtrack equally well. The tradeoff, a larger and longer download. However, we've taken steps to reduce the overall size of the download by using super-high compression, while maintaining acceptable quality.

The majority of music you'll hear in QFG2VGA was composed by Chris Brayman and Mark Seibert, as heard in the original EGA release. I've used the best of the MT-32 tracks, along with enhancements using newer MIDI gear, such as Roland's Sound Canvas ED SC-8820 and Yamaha SW60XG. This allows some embellishment on an already spectacular soundtrack, and I believe, makes it even better. I believe you'll be pleasantly surprised. In addition to Brayman and Seibert's musical score, there will also be some new selections heard here and there throughout the game. But don't worry... nothing will be cut out from the original soundtrack; more music will be added!

Tierra has been featured with a 3-page article in the October 2003 issue of the magazine Computer Games (on sale since September 10th). Check out their website to see the cover and Tierra mentioned, and then go out and buy yourself a copy!

Internal team feedback is another important thing for a game development team. Everything that's done by each person is brought before the team as it's being worked on, and everyone else comments on it. This ensures top quality all around! Here's some things that have been said about the background art recently:

"Hey, that looks pretty good! With a little bit of pixel editing, it would look nice in the game, I think."

"I like the way you keep the palette so simple, yet still manage to add a lot of detail into the screens."

"I think the simplicity of this screen kinda speaks for itself. Big empty room, guy with huge scimitar, and hero chained to a wall = good atmosphere."

"Holy mackrel. Those plaza scenes are *perfect*. I'm really just flabbergasted. Every color is spot on, and the details are amazing. Wowsa!"

And for those of you waiting for the final release of KQ1VGA (version 3.0), the wait is almost over... but not quite. I overheard this complaint (made by a particularly thorough beta-tester notorious for fix-lists pages in length) last week while some bugs were still being worked out: "Good grief no, no more beta testing. If you make me beta test it, I'll kill you and then I'll bury your body with pages and pages of things for you to fix." Yikes!

Animation is one of the most important parts of QFG2VGA - and right now, for more than the past month, animation is what AGD2 has been very busy working on. The sprites for all the characters (except for Hero) are based on the original QFG2 sprites, in order to retain authenticity, and they're all being re-created in beautiful VGA - and that's a lot of work. For the best appearance, Hero's animations are taken from VGA QFG games, but based on your votes he's been re-costumed in his original QFG2 attire. The painstaking process involves not only re-painting existing sprite frames?

Continuing our discussion of demos from the last update, the second type of demo that a development team uses is a "feature" demo. For Quest For Glory 2, we have a few of these types of demos - whether they are developed fully before integration into the game, or more usually, as concepts toward a working model while discussion of the feature is happening. Over the past few weeks, it's been very exciting to see demos of how the combat system, the dialogue system and the alley system are developing. As with all of the work on QFG2, it's still a bit too early to give out specifics, but some things I can say. The combat system is going to be very smart and smooth, the dialogue system should make both typists and P&C-enthusiasts happy, and lastly, the alley system is the current hot topic of debate among the Tierra team - so you can be sure that a lot of work is going into it and it's going to turn out fabulous.

In other news, more fan-submitted comments will continue to be added to the King's Quest 2 VGA Testimonials page... but not for much longer! If you want your comments to appear on that page, this is your final chance to submit them!

This update comes a bit late because around the office everyone is very busy, especially me, as I've been given the onerous task of summer evening frozen yogurt waffle cone sampling. Throughout the day the constant typing of a programmer can actually drive one quite insane. It's all worth it at the end of the day though, when everyone has gone home, the lights are out, I have peace and quiet and the office to myself, and there's an envelope marked "TOP SECRET" on my desk, containing a rugged CDRW demo disc and a stack of programmer's notes printed on colored paper (a different color for each day, if you must know). Did I just say "demo"? Yes, I did! Let me explain what I mean. There are two types of demos that a development team uses. The first type of "demo" is the actual game, as it is being assembled. Right now, the QFG2VGA demo is in pretty rough shape, but the potential is glistening behind each element of the game. The demo has many place-holder graphics, temporary sound, music and sprites - but even in such a rough, developing state, you can imagine how my heartbeat increased the first time that I slipped that disc into my computer and the magic of AGD2's original demo took a hold of me. And as each day passes, the holes slowly begin to fill: new backgrounds are added, new programming adds new rooms, characters, and features. This is where the second type of demo comes into play, and I'll tell you about that in the next update!

In other news, Tierra fan Paul Thompson has created CD covers for KQ1VGA and KQ2VGA. You can get them from the fan art area on our extras page.

I suppose you would call me lucky, now that I've moved into the Tierra offices - I've even got my own desk! But actually it's pretty boring sitting around here all day, especially since I have to share the work area with Erpy, whose desk is in the cubicle opposite mine. But then there are days like today, when I'm allowed into the Tierra studio. It's been said before, but you don't realize the full implication of the fact that QFG2VGA will be Tierra's largest game yet until you start seeing some of the work that's going into it! For example, QFG2VGA will have well over 50 dialogue portraits! I got my first look today at some of this amazing artwork. The colors are rich and vibrant, the expressions are classic, and the touch-ups produce a final image that is smooth, yet sharp, with fantastic lighting creating the perfect mood for each character! Unfortunately, all the artwork was being carefully guarded, so I couldn't steal any to scan and post here.

A few other updates. Broomie's Tierra fansite, Tierra Game Central, has now been added to our links. Also, the King's Quest II VGA Testimonial page is up! You can read what the fans have to say, or you can submit a comment of your own! Well, time to get back to work! Stay tuned for another update soon!

PS> Happy Canada Day!

We'd like to thank everybody who has taken the opportunity to download and play King's Quest II: Romancing The Stones over the past seven months. Thanks go out to everyone who has offered us feedback, comments, praise and marriage proposals as well! The download links for this game will, of course, remain available for everyone who hasn't played the game yet. But as for us behind the scenes at Tierra - well, it's now time for us to put all this behind us and move on... that's right, move onto our next project, which is quite possibly the most anticipated Tierra release ever... Quest For Glory II VGA!

Scripting has already re-commenced and we have enlisted the help of several other talented people to help us out with the workload. So far things are moving along at a very good pace. Spells have been implemented, and so have parts of the conversation/bargaining/purchasing system; many animations and background screens have been created, and the stats system has been implemented as well. Character importing works too.

Additionally, Relight (of KQ2VGA introduction cutscene sequence fame) has been given access to the QFG2 development forum, and will continue to post updates about the game here on this news page - just like old times. So keep an eye out!

Again, thanks to everybody for your support. We look forward to bringing you more classic adventure game remakes in the future!

Current KQ2VGA download statistics:

• Game downloaded 68115 times.
• Music Pack downloaded 28779 times.
• Speech Pack downloaded 11187 times.

Long overdue for a Tierra website update, right? Then you got your wish, because Tierra's website has been shaken up, each area reformatted for easier viewing and consistency. Not only does each page on this site have a fresh new look, you might also discover some new additions hiding in different places - and you'll be sure to see more active updates on this site in the future. In the past, AGD1 has been responsible for keeping things running, and if you read the archives for 2001, you'll find almost daily journal entries from the AGDs! But now that the AGDs are very hard at work on their current projects, there hasn't been any time for them to pay attention to this site. So in short, a happier medium will be aimed for, with regular (but less often) journals from the AGDs and more focus on updated content in the other areas of this site.

Hey guys! If you've been around the forums lately, you were probably part of a spectacular April Fool's joke carried out by the Tierra team. Erpy announced the completion of King's Quest II version 2.0 as well as an additional VOICE PACK. The joke consisted of making people believe that there was no voice pack, but instead, it was just a cruel April Fool's joke; but we are glad to now inform everyone that the voice pack DOES truly exist and can be downloaded on the King's Quest II download page! It was a huge surprise that we've been working on for nearly half a year now, and you should be sure not to miss this one! It features the voice acting talents of most of the Tierra team, as well as the authentic Graham and Cedric of King's Quest V fame! For more information on what is included in version 2.0 of the game, please check out the thread dedicated to this topic in the King's Quest II forums. Other than that, we've just been busy working on future projects and getting King's Quest I version 3.0 ready for release--it shouldn't be too far off now.

There is a position available for an artist on the Tierra team; this is primarily a background artist. Animation skills are not necessary (but would be great if skilled in both). Photoshop (or similar art program) experience is a must. The artist would assist in creating/coloring backgrounds for 320x200, high-color, non-profit games. The artwork should match or exceed the quality of artwork seen in King's Quest 2 VGA.

Requirements:

• Must be over the age of 18
• Must be able to dedicate an adequate amount of time to project. For this reason, we can not accept applicants who are currently dedicated to other fan games or internet projects.
• Please send a sample of what you consider your best background artwork/or another art piece to kqvga@hotmail.com (if possible, please send us a link to where it's been uploaded rather than attaching the file to the email directly. Although, it's ok to attach the file if absolutely necessary.)

In your application, please state where you are from, and briefly describe why you would be suited to the position.

Serious applications only. Please don't apply if you know you won't have time to dedicate to the project for at least one year--most likely longer.

The successful applicant will be required to make regular contributions. Thank you!

I would like to update you on what's been going on behind the scenes at Tierra Entertainment. It's been a highly exciting time for us, as it's the first time that any of the Anonymous Game Developers have met in person! On January 2nd, 2003, I left my home country of America for Australia, where I arrived on January 4th and am currently staying with Anonymous Game Developer #2. Additionally, we took a 36 hour trip on no sleep to meet with our very own plot writer, Cadbury Wookie! During our 9 minute meeting at McDonalds, we discussed future projects and awarded Wookie with the original Count Caldaur dialogue picture from King's Quest II VGA. Also, a top secret CD was passed on to him with orders to protect it with his life. And that's all that will be said about that. ;) I am pleased to inform you all that we're getting back to work and have a very full plate for the foreseeable future.