After a temporary hiatus our main priority has shifted back to QFG2VGA again. The next phase of development will involve programming the finishing touches for a few in-game scenes, addressing the daunting list of bugs, and a LOT of play testing to make sure that the game is stable from beginning to end with all character classes (and hybrids).

We've been receiving a lot of comments lately from fearful fans, expressing concern that the QFG2VGA project may have died/been discontinued due to the lack of updates on the site. It hasn't. The game is close to 90% complete with the bulk of the remaining work lying in the programming department. Programming and bug fixing reports don't usually make for very interesting news articles, so at this stage we try to focus on getting the game finished so you'll be able to play it faster!

Finally, here's a glimpse of things to come in the form of a screenshot. In this picture, we see a pack of vicious Jackalmen surrounding the hero as night descends upon the land of Shapeir.

Just a quick update to inform everyone what's been going on behind the scenes at AGDI. In the past month, programming has continued sporadically as we've been juggling our schedule between QFG2VGA and certain duties required by our commercial project at Himalaya Studios. As far as QFG2VGA is concerned, we've reached that very familiar stage in development where everything very slowly starts coming together! We now have the 'structure' of the game finished which is fully playable from beginning to end (with all three character classes, I might add).

However, with the complexity of the game comes the capacity for glitches. This means we still have an enormous to-do list to contend with. Said list contains multitudes of bugs, graphical touch-ups, small additions, fatal errors, and text edits -- all which must be addressed before QFG2VGA can even be considered for alpha testing status. As we've always maintained, we want this remake to be of the highest quality and we'll release it only when we feel it has met our expectations. Once again, allow us to assure all of our loyal fans that the wait will be well-worth it. Progress is being made regularly, and the remake will contain tons of interesting surprises -- even for seasoned Quest for Glory fans! A thorough development schedule ensures a more stable and fully-featured end product.

In today's update, we have an exciting tale of glory as told by the AGDs themselves, wherein the infamous Erpy and the AGDs decide they should meet up with Lori and Corey Cole, creators of their all-time favorite computer game series, Quest for Glory!

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Meeting Lori & Corey Cole by AGD1 & AGD2

A good comparison to our boldness would be the Jurassic Park fan who calls up Stephen Spielberg himself asking permission to come over and play with his dinosaurs. AGD1 made the fateful call which would connect us to Lori herself, and much to our amazement, Lori invited us into her very home during lunchtime and offered us a tour of the surrounding Oakhurst area! She then suggested that we first meet with Corey while we were in LA, as he was working there during the weeks. We called him, and he was only too happy to oblige, offering us the selection of a number of fine dining establishments in which we could meet, greet, and eat. We ended up deciding on a Persian restaurant, which was quite fitting given the fact that we're currently remaking our all time favorite QFG game, Quest for Glory II, which is set in the Middle East. We showed Corey scenes from the game on our laptop while dining on a buffet of exotic rice, aromatic stews and heavenly soda. It reminded us very much of the Katta's Tail Inn, a pivotal Quest For Glory II location. Check out our photo with Corey (click to enlarge).

We were up by 7am the next day to make it to our lunch appointment with Lori in Oakhurst. It was a pretty uneventful five hour drive to Northern California. Once we neared Coarsegold, we called Lori to receive further directions to her abode. In no time, we were pulling up her driveway and were personally welcomed into her home. A Honda-CRV stood proudly outside, bearing the license plate "2BAHERO" and emblazoned with a bumper sticker "Back Off Man: I'm a Professional Hero." A stone gargoyle sat atop the front gate, reminiscent of Erasmus' house in Quest for Glory I. To the trained eye, it is easy to see many similarities between the Coles' residence and the game. We were humbly welcomed inside, which felt similar to the Hero being welcomed into the Katta Tail Inn. The living room was decorated with a plethora of Quest for Glory-like nostalgia, such as a moose head which was conveniently disguised as a triceratops (since an actual moose head wouldn't fit). Check out our photo with Lori (click to enlarge).

Lori invited us to show her our current project, Quest for Glory II VGA. She seemed impressed with what we have done, and we took it as a huge compliment and were inspired to continue with increased fervor. She also bestowed upon us several Quest for Glory 5 dragon badges which she had left over from the E3 in 1998. The dragon badges were much like the sapphire pin given to the hero as a gift by the Katta in QFG2. Next, Lori showed us the holy grail of every Quest for Glory fan - the ACTUAL design documents for each and every Quest for Glory game, containing concept art, original maps, Lori's personal sketches, notes and many game scenes and characters which did not make it into the final version of the games (click photo to enlarge).

Additionally, she showed us clay figurines of the characters from Quest for Glory I (click photo to enlarge). We found it most difficult to drag ourselves away from this treasure trove of historical greatness, but the time had come for Lori to personally escort us on a tour of Oakhurst! It was extremely interesting to see such legendary locations as: Sierra Way, the street upon which the main offices were located, the old Sierra Buildings, where the work on all our favorite games was undertaken, and Ken and Roberta's former residence by Bear Lake, behind a secure and foreboding gate. We wanted photos of this joint, so true to a Quest for Glory game, we snuck behind the gate and got up close for a good shot. It was at this point that we were overcome with the familiar feeling of how it felt to play the thief in Quest for Glory - only this time, we were doing it in real life, and Lori was the chief. We returned to Oakhurst and took Lori to dinner. We discussed many interesting topics including the fact that the lifestyle of a game maker leads to frequent nervous breakdowns, and is so stressful, it can lead to the loss of one's sanity (not to mention forgetfulness in remembering passwords). However, we also learned many interesting things from Lori about game development, which gave us fresh insight into how we could tackle tasks in a different manner.

And thus concluded our most grand and honorable adventure. We returned back to the land of game making, rather inspired and excited to finish Quest for Glory II VGA.

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It's all in a day's work... and it's another historic marker for the AGDI team as AGD2 from Australia, Erpy from the Netherlands and NavyNuke from Oklahoma all gathered in Phoenix, Arizona - home of AGD1 - for a May summit meeting. Besides the usual fury of game-related work that happens at such meetings, the intrepid foursome also rose to the challenge of the Grand Canyon - at some serious peril to the future of QFG2VGA I might add, as the group didn't hit the 18 mile route until 1:30 in the afternoon, made their way to the finish line stumbling up the slopes at nearly midnight, and didn't stop for sleep at a motel until 4 in the morning! Check out the photo below of these adventurous companions (click to enlarge).

In other news, AGDI's new guestbook, after much delay, is now online! Thanks go to NavyNuke for putting this together. If you haven't signed our guestbook before, now is your chance! All previous entries are still available, as the old and new guestbooks have been integrated.

In another addition to our site, our fan art area has once again been blessed by further contributions from Charles Shields! Up new in his animated style is Valanice, Alexander and Cassima.

Finally, for everyone who is wondering about a Quest For Glory II VGA update, the previous update still applies. Programming work continues, though there's no update to make about when beta testing will begin, but I can say that work on an AGDI intro logo in 3D has been progressing nicely. Stay tuned for another update soon!

Many of you have probably been wondering what has been going on behind the scenes at AGDI. The lack of designer journal updates comes from the fact that a lot of programming has been going on with little happening in our development forums, and this doesn't make for much excitement in the way of updates. I have been told that recent work has included fixing up placeholder elements such as GUIs, so we're still well and alive here and are continuing to work on the game! Many of you have been sending in emails inquiring about beta testing. QFG2VGA is not yet ready for beta testing, but when it's ready for beta testing it'll be announced here and in our forums. As work continues, we want to thank all of you, our fans, for your continued patience through the long development that QFG2VGA has undergone. It will definitely be worth the wait when the game is released!

To sweeten up this update, we've got some awesome new artwork in our Fan Gallery. There's cartoon-style images of Graham, Valanice and Rosella courtesy of Charles Shields and a rendition of Ad Avis (that you might have seen before) by E.S.!

All seems quiet on the AGDI QFG2VGA front... but it's the calm before the storm! A few last background images and dialogue portraits have trickled in from their final revisions, and the thunder in the distance is the remaining programming that's happening before the game goes alpha. You can be sure that this will mean new updates from yours truly as I give you my impressions of the game, and then the beta testing battles will begin to shape the game up to true perfection. Meanwhile, I've been busy working on the QFG2VGA manual. Combining material from the original game manual with new material, it's an exciting endeavour. I'll bring more updates on that when it starts shaping up!