Future Version of QFG2VGA (speech maybe)?

[papste]

After seeing the amount of work put into the recent KQ2VGA release (over 3,800 lines of narration audio by John Bell, as Anonymous Game Creator 2 mentions), it just came to me that QFG2VGA (which happens to be my favorite game of all time) is the only game made by AGD that stick lacks spoken dialog. I also completely agree with Anonymous Game Creator 2 that "being TOLD the story, rather than having to read it manually, feels more personal to the player and helps to include them as part of the game world". Now to my actual questions:

Is there an estimate of the number of dialog lines included in QFG2VGA?
Does AGD have any plans of including speech for QFG2VGA in a future release? (i'm talking about plans - no commitments of any sort). I know the answer was no in the past, but is there a chance that after having remade KQ1VGA and KQ2VGA AGD have changed their mind about not including voice into QFG2?

Thanks in advance for your answer which i hope will be yes at some point in the future

[Brainiac]

I expect an announcement about this very subject in eleven days.

[1234567890]

they donm;t need a new vvversion to do that, just a speech pack

[papste]

they donm;t need a new vvversion to do that, just a speech pack

The reason i said new version is because i guess they would like to fix afew bugs along the way as well, if they go into all the trouble of recording speech and lip-synching the game.

[DrJones]

they donm;t need a new vvversion to do that, just a speech pack

I think that's wrong, in order to have a speech pack, the game needs to support them. And I remember reading somewhere that Quest for Glory II VGA doesn't have that support (also, it doesn't have support for translation packs).

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

Unfortunately, there won't be a speech pack for Quest for Glory II, as the amount of work would be too great for too little gain. I don't just mean recording and casting the voices, but also programming the game and adjusting (and testing) all the in-game scenes to accommodate the speech correctly.

Also, we really can't keep expecting people like John Bell to contribute so much of their time and efforts for free. It's almost shameful that we even have to ask so many talented people to do all this stuff without being paid. To give you an idea... to record the narrator lines for just one KQ game takes 3 or 4 months. There comes a point where peoples' work starts to become undervalued by doing too much pro bono stuff. And I think this is partially the reason why the adventure genre is in such a sorry state these days, because of the abundance (and even the expectation) that there will always be an endless supply of free labour to work on fan-made or amateur titles. But these people, actors and such, also need to earn a living. They can't do that if they're continually being asked to participate in non-profit productions. Like any successful business, money is the lifeblood of keeping adventure games alive. The only way we could justify a QFG2 speech pack would be if it was a funded project, but that's not likely to happen.

Thus, we'd like to invest our time in commercial games where we can afford to keep making adventures and also pay these talented contributors like John Bell!

[Klytos]

Out of curiosity, have you scripted in the speech code to the lines? I personally can't blame you not wanting to do a speech pack for QFG2. What a mammoth task that would be.

[Erpy]

For QFG2VGA? No. So people can't create their own speech pack by putting the right files in their folder either.

[papste]

For QFG2VGA? No. So people can't create their own speech pack by putting the right files in their folder either.

What's wrong with people creating their own speech or language packs? Does it have to do with legal issues?

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

Legality, quality control, and in the case of speech packs, lip-syncing (something that makes medieval torture methods seem enjoyable by comparison).

[Erpy]

That and the fact that a not insignificant part of the job is programming the game to work with a speech pack. (setting up the game to behave in a certain way when a speech pack is present) Since there were no plans to do a speech pack, I didn't even bother numbering the lines, let alone implement code we didn't intend on using.

On the other hand, you guys are, in a way, lucky we decided not to go with a speech pack. When you know you're gonna do a voice pack, you become very conservative with adding new stuff or even new lines, since every message comes with a voice sample that has to be added. QFG2VGA wouldn't have had a lot of extras if we had decided to make the game suitable for a speech pack.

[Klytos]

Did you have any discussions about doing a speech pack? A problem I thought of was how to deal with the unique player character name? I don't recall how this was dealt with in the classic games though.

[Brainiac]

Did you have any discussions about doing a speech pack? A problem I thought of was how to deal with the unique player character name? I don't recall how this was dealt with in the classic games though.

Presuming you mean the QfGs with talkie, they just scripted it to avoid a proper name at all times. The player character was either referred to his title of Hero or Prince of Shapeir, or just called friend, stranger, or some other generic term when a name/title was absolutely unavoidable.

[Erpy]

No, I don't think we ever had a discussion about a speech pack for QFG2VGA behind the scenes. Actually, with the exception of Al Emmo, all our games started out as intended to be without a speech pack. For KQ1VGA, we changed our minds when we heard Josh Mandel was willing to donate his voice and for KQ2VGA, I suppose a significant point was when we heard Josh Mandel had no objection to doing the large amount of lines that Graham's role in KQ2 consisted of.

I recall a line in QFG4 where the hero's name was used. It was used after Katrina opened the Dark Cave near the end of the game. The line went something like: "That's all I can do, (name). You'll have to do the remaining rituals yourself." I think it was followed up by Ad Avis saying something like: "We will be watching you, so don't even think about trying to betray us." Naturally, the line with the hero's name in it had no narrator message...it was a mute message as it were. In all other cases, references like "Prince of Shapeir", "my friend" or "the Hero" were used. That said, QFG2 used the name a lot as several characters became closely associated with the player. It would require quite a bit of rewriting.

[Gronagor]

I also believe the AGDs once said that the only chance that they'd do a speech pack, is if Vivendi paid them to do so (because of the amount of work...) AND that they'll only make use of pro actors who would need to be paid an incredible amount of money. Neither will ever happen.

[MusicallyInspired]

You mean ActiVision.

Goodness, can you imagine file size of such a speech pack if it was included with the game files?

[Gronagor]

Well... when AGD2 said it, it was still Vivendi. We all know we can't even consider the possibility that Activision would do something like that.

[Broomie]

I recall a line in QFG4 where the hero's name was used. It was used after Katrina opened the Dark Cave near the end of the game. The line went something like: "That's all I can do, (name). You'll have to do the remaining rituals yourself." I think it was followed up by Ad Avis saying something like: "We will be watching you, so don't even think about trying to betray us." Naturally, the line with the hero's name in it had no narrator message...it was a mute message as it were. In all other cases, references like "Prince of Shapeir", "my friend" or "the Hero" were used. That said, QFG2 used the name a lot as several characters became closely associated with the player. It would require quite a bit of rewriting.

I'm sure you could get Microsoft Sam to narrate the game!