Progress Update Thread (formerly known as quest for glory 2)

[CrazyStalker]

Well, I think it would be a bit cheap, and unnatural to call him always ''Hero''. I like to see the name I chose written, yes.

[gizzywiz]

Any word from Vivendi yet?

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

^^^If there was, then you wouldn't have to ask, as you'd already know.

[Gronagor]

weird...i would say that lip syncing would add nearly nothing to the voice pack gamingexperience....lipsyncing is just fluff...eyecandy.

EEEEK! NO!! Voices with lips swinging on a different tune simply looks weirds and completely ruins the gaming experience! Rather voiceless than that!

[RogerWanko]

weird...i would say that lip syncing would add nearly nothing to the voice pack gamingexperience....lipsyncing is just fluff...eyecandy.

EEEEK! NO!! Voices with lips swinging on a different tune simply looks weirds and completely ruins the gaming experience! Rather voiceless than that!

like i wrote in my post, for me, the lips don't have to be moving at all during speech.
i never wrote i was for unsynced lips.
again, i just think the whole lipmoving business is fluff and adds almost nothing to the atmosphere/gameexperience....voice does....it can add to the gameplay nicely, but if done badly it can also destroy the whole "feel".

[Gronagor]

Ok, Roger. You mean you'd rather have a still-image of the person.
1. That's not what you said in your post, but that's ok. (Lips not moving and lips not synced are two totally different things)
2. That would be a bit off from the old Sierra style that the AGDs are aiming for.

No matter. We all have our own tastes and ideas.

Lips moving actually gives characters more life than just voices. Look at an Anime episode with sub-titles (if you're not Japanese). The actual animation of the characters is what give them life... having subtitles or actually understanding the voices couldn't matter less.

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

In my mind, that would be a cop-out. For the sake of quality and standards, you either do something right, or you don't bother doing it at all.

But like I mentioned, the major workload involved would be the casting, recording, line-splitting processes as it looks like lip syncing is soon to become a relative non-issue.

[RogerWanko]

Ok, Roger. You mean you'd rather have a still-image of the person.
1. That's not what you said in your post, but that's ok.

from my post on the previous page:
"in short, i would be happy with non moving mouths and good voice acting. "

"non moving mouths"....seems obvious i was talking about still images no?

not that it matters indeed...just felt the need to respond to your wrongness.

[MusicallyInspired]

You're a strange one...

[Gronagor]

not that it matters indeed...just felt the need to respond to your wrongness.

Ok. I'll give you that. I didn't read your last sentence. If you agree your 'summary' in your last sentence isn't quite the same as what you said in the rest of the post.


Crap. I'm getting annoyed with VU. Someone get the number for their CEO.  :p Let's get him to lit a bit of fire under his employees.  :p

[AGP]

"^^^If there was, then you wouldn't have to ask, as you'd already know."

Does that mean that all work is completely finished?

"Let's get him to lit a bit of fire under his employees."

Or, here's an idea: we can just get him to approve the game himself! :-)

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

Nope, we're still fixing bugs at the moment, though most of the remaining ones seem fairly minor.

[jpnuar1]

Just wondering, can you give an estimate as to how many bugs are remaining, or a range? Have you gotten under, say, one or two hundred bugs yet? Has the discovery of new bugs slowed to the point that (at your current rate) you don't expect to find more than [x] new ones before you release the game?

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

Last I checked, there are probably 100 (give or take) bugs left to take care of in the beta testers lists, and about 170 on my own list from my most recent Release Candidate playthrough.  Although, I'm writing newly discovered down as I go along, so that number will increase slightly.

Also, this won't be the last Release Candidate version. A lot of big changes were made to this latest version so some bugs were inevitably introduced.  Every time a fairly large number of bugs are found in a RC, we'll have to fix them and then release another RC for consideration. Hopefully the next RC after this one will be playable from beginning to end without running into anything, so that it can be released as the final.

[Damisha]

And if you look hard enough, you'll even find SAG actors who will ignore the "global rule one" and take jobs just for the sheer enjoyment of acting.

True, but at what cost if they get caught by SAG?

There are lots of "what if" questions associated with this topic and the answer is not a simple one.  First of all, from my experience, I've known actors to both file financial core to do non-union work or just simply take the job without any notification to SAG whatsoever.  The consequences of these actions are solely the responsibility of the SAG actor and do not reflect on the production companies whatsoever (unless they do something silly like enter in an agreement with SAG).  And from the number of cases of union actors doing non union work where they actually got caught by SAG, for the first time offense, they simply have gotten a slap on the hand and was told not to do it again.  This is only from what I've heard of the actors who have gotten caught, and I have spoken to many many actors regarding this matter.  I'm sorry I am not a mathematician so I cannot produce any actual numbers but of the many I have spoken to, there aren't very many who have actually gotten caught.  I would not know from personal experience because even though I have taken many non union jobs myself while still in active status as an official SAG member, I have not gotten caught myself.  And you can actually go to blockbuster and rent movies that I have done non union with pay as a lead role.  So personally, I don't feel that SAG has the resources to just go around checking all of the non union productions out there just to see if anyone is failing to obey their "rules".  Every person has their own personal decisions, opinions, and choices to make in their lives, this just happens to be mine.  And whatever the consequences, they are only what the individual actors will have to deal with when and if that time ever comes, not the production company associated.  I think its funny how I hear from some production companies how SAG has been able to 'bully' them into thinking that they could somehow possibly get into trouble if they were a "non-union" company who decided to use a "union" actor.  SAG can only dream of having that kind of power over everything.  It will never happen, but hey, if they can use their scare tactics and talk people into signing agreements with them, then the better off they will be.  Right?

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

Thanks for the excellent input on SAG-related matters. It's always good to have input from more actors and producers with personal extensive experience on the situation.

I have noticed in my dealings with SAG reps that they really dislike direct questions for which the honest answer would go against the best interests of the guild (Financial-Core questions for example.) They will skirt around those types of questions at all costs and come back with standard reply "If you wish to discuss this further, then it must be discussed within the terms of a SAG agreement."

Yeah, I'm very much aware of the fact that SAG can't do a damn thing to a non-union company that uses union actors without a contract. I wouldn't be at all concerned about that. The thing is that I just wouldn't want any generous actors who are simply wanting to contribute to a good cause to become the target of bullying by SAG on account of one of our projects.  Aside from that, I couldn't care less if an actor breaks SAGs rules. And if SAG came after me as a non-union producer for that, I'd tell them exactly where to stick their contract.

The only other issue is that if a producer wishes to use some big-name Hollywood actors as a publicity drawcard, then there's probably no way around signing a union contract. It's the only way to get those actors on board.

It's surprising to me that SAG has so many actors brainwashed and scared of the union. I think so many actors aren't even fully aware of their options nor the real facts regarding Financial-Core status. This information should at least be made widely available to every actor. They should be given the true facts and not all the "fire-and-brimstone" laced nonsense that SAG coat Fi-Core information with.  Then actors can at least make their OWN choice about what to do in their career, instead of having SAG make their choices for them. SAG treats its members like they have no intelligence to make their own decisions.  It's only when actors know that they have options, that this kind of democratic decision-making starts taking place on a large scale; when enough actors start filing for Fi-Core over dissatisfaction with SAG's current policies,  the union might then realize their members are not happy and it's time for a change. They will realize it's time to do something that will work to *keep* members in the guild, rather than push them away, en masse.  

I think there's a very obvious reason why SAG attempts to force members to remain in the guild with scare tactics, while simultaneously trying to hide legal facts and cast Fi-Core in a very negative light. It is 100% legal to go Financial-Core, and there is virtually no real difference from that and being a full SAG member. Seems like this is tantamount to an admission of guilt by SAG that its policies are complete BS. Yet SAG try to guilt-trip their members for wanting to break those policies rather than actually bothering to fix them!

[Calvert666]

  This is freakin useless at this point. The voice-pak has since been shot down, enough of this SAG-FiCore-AFTRA-Union-Contract crap. Get Back To The Topic at hand! When is the game coming out as a first public release?!

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

So, what's your problem?

[^Mo^]

  This is freakin useless at this point. The voice-pak has since been shot down, enough of this SAG-FiCore-AFTRA-Union-Contract crap. Get Back To The Topic at hand! When is the game coming out as a first public release?!

I believe the right answer to that is: "When it's done"

[Prio]

  This is freakin useless at this point. The voice-pak has since been shot down, enough of this SAG-FiCore-AFTRA-Union-Contract crap. Get Back To The Topic at hand! When is the game coming out as a first public release?!

Sorry, Boss.  Sometimes we get carried away and mistake ourselves for human beings.  Won't happen again.

[Chester]

Hi everyone, long time listener, first time caller
Firstly can I just say to everyone involved in this project- THANK YOU!

I have been following the progression of this project for years like so many others and am stoked as to how close it is getting.

My reason for writing is yesterday I read on a very prominent abandonware site (i won't name it due to not knowing whether it's against the rules) that and to quote:

" Well, the unthinkable happened: Vivendi, Activision and LucasArts have just left ESA.

We're currently sorting through all the affected titles and re-evaluating their status one by one - in the following weeks you can expect several popular titles to become downloadable again.   "

To my reasoning this would indicate that the big V would be relaxing a little, thus making approval all the more likely... or am I sadly mistaken?
Thanks again guys,
Chester

[The Guy]

Actually, I know what site you're talking about. I believe most older Sierra titles are still able to be bought online, so I dunno if that really makes the abandonware and/or free to download. I think if Vivendi themselves allowed the games to be downloaded free from their own site, that may be a different story than going to some random site to download them. I've no idea if by them leaving the ESA has any impact, positive or negative, on the project that ADGI is working on.

[Kloreep]

Yeah, I doubt that will have any impact. No one seems to be worried about the "whether" of the approval anyhow, given AGDI's existing relationship with Vivendi and past approval of the KQ remakes. It sounds like more a question of "when" they will get around to reviewing the game and rubber-stamping it.

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

Well, Vivendi just got back to us and said that the first CD we sent them over 2 months ago never arrived at their offices. So we've just had to resend it to them again a few days back.  

Our contact at Vivendi said that he'll try to hurry the authorization process along, and he expects that we should still be able to release the game according to our currently anticipated schedule.

[^Mo^]

Well, Vivendi just got back to us and said that the first CD we sent them over 2 months ago never arrived at their offices. So we've just had to resend it to them again a few days back.  

Our contact at Vivendi said that he'll try to hurry the authorization process along, and he expects that we should still be able to release the game according to our currently anticipated schedule.

It's nice of them to be so cooperative about it (or at least your contact is)

PS. Is the forum a bit slowish today, or is it just me?