A lighthearted adventure story game by Lori and Corey Cole, creators of Quest for Glory, Hero-U, and Castle of Dr. Brain.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Summer Daze Holiday Update 2024
over 1 year ago
– Fri, Dec 20, 2024 at 05:19:50 PM
Happy Holidays!
It’s been quite a while since I last posted a Summer Daze update. We’ve made some progress in the meantime, and we have big plans for 2025.
But first, Lori and I want to thank all of you for your support, and for your patience as all of our work turns out to be more challenging than we expected and planned. Perhaps we should know by now that that’s the norm in the game business. Here’s a holiday card with characters from Summer Daze: Ifeyo’s Adventure that JP Selwood painted as our Winter Solstice gift to all of you.
Speaking of the Solstice, our last livestream of the year is this Saturday, December 21, 2024, starting at 2 pm PST. We’ll answer questions about our games, and talk about our future plans. Come join us on our Twitch channel - https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames. Our usual streaming schedule is every two weeks on Saturday at this time, so the next stream will be on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025.
We also post our stream videos to our Hero-U YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@Herou-Game. Check out our timeless content there, including Lori’s readings of her Hero’s Quest inspired novel, How To Be A Hero: By the Book, co-written with author Mishell Baker.
Any time of the year, you’ll want to join our Discord server. Here’s a temporary invite link - https://discord.gg/r8PVAkjm - but you can find us any time by searching for “Transolar Games”. Corey’s favorite channel there is the #punitentiary, where puns are imprinted and imprisoned.
We also have a Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/coreyloricole. This is a great place to keep up with the streams, Lori’s photography, and more! It’s also one of the best ways to support our work. Most of the content is free, but some - such as our travel photos and stories - are reserved for patrons.
What’s Going On
As you know, Summer Daze development was severely delayed by the pandemic, team changes here at Transolar Games, and life issues with Lori and me (Corey). As a result, we decided to separate Tilly’s Tale and Ifeyo’s Adventure into two separate games. We postponed some physical good releases that relate to both games.
We aren’t going to resolve all that in a day, but we are working at finishing the missing content in 2025. That includes distributing the coloring book, making separate physical boxed game releases for Tilly’s Tale and Ifeyo’s Adventure, and completing the latter game. Some of the Ifeyo physical goods will likely be delayed into 2026.
We also have two games in the prototype phase - Summer Daze: Sami’s Story and Puzzleworthy. Those won’t see release until likely 2027 or later, but we’re continuing to create concept art and design concepts for both of them.
You can help by supporting our Patreon, spreading word of mouth about Hero-U and Summer Daze, or by gifting copies of the games to your friends. Both Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption and Summer Daze: Tilly’s Tale are currently on sale at great prices.
If you need help with a specific issue, you can do it through BackerKit, private message on Discord or Patreon, or by email to [email protected].
Join our bi-weekly Twitch stream tomorrow
about 2 years ago
– Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 08:58:06 PM
We're making slow, but continuous, progress on Summer Daze: Ifeyo's Adventure. We aren't promising a release date at this point, because it will be finished when it's ready.
If you ordered either the Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption boxed game, or a plush Blue Meep on this Kickstarter, and have not yet received it, please contact me at [email protected]. Our original plan was to ship all of the physical goods at once, but with repeated delays in the game schedule, I'm now trying to deliver all of those "older" items to backers.
In the meantime, Lori and I connect with fans on our Discord and bi-weekly (every second week) Twitch streams.
To join our Discord, search for Transolar Games under public Discord servers. We have active conversations ranging from politics to puns, Quest for Glory to Hero-U, films, music, and more. #punitentiary is where we imprison the most despicable (aka best) puns.
Our Twitch streams are every other Saturday starting at 2 pm U.S. Pacific time. In the last two streams, we started a "slow-play" of the original EGA Hero's Quest aka Quest for Glory 1. We'll continue that tomorrow (Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024) at 2 pm PST. That's 5 pm on the U.S. East Coast, Sunday morning Down Under, and so on. (I look it up by "current time in Los Angeles," from an old habit.)
After that, the next stream will be on Saturday, Feb. 24 at the same time. In addition to slowly playing the game, Lori and I answer questions and talk about Sierra and other game topics.
If you miss a stream, no problem. Even if you don't miss one, check out our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@Herou-Game. I export all of our streams to the channel. It's also the place to find Lori reading her book with Mishell Baker, "By the Book," which was inspired by Hero's Quest.
Happy Hero-U Halloween!
over 2 years ago
– Tue, Oct 31, 2023 at 07:27:30 PM
Sami, Tilly, and Ifeyo dressed to impress
Happy Halloween from Lori and I, and from Tilly, Ifeyo, and Sami!
Nintendo Switch Fulfilled!
I recently sent out email queries to all of the backers who requested Nintendo Switch codes on the survey a few months ago. The response was astonishing - Who knew that people still read email?
I’ve sent out properly region-encoded eShop game keys to everyone who responded. If you requested a Switch code, check for my email, and please respond soon so I can fulfill the rest of the codes. The emails are from my personal Transolar account, because mail-merge thwarted me from putting it on the support email.
If you requested the game on Switch way back in the BackerKit survey, but didn’t answer the Kickstarter survey in the Spring, please send email to [email protected] with your Kickstarter name, email, country, and (if you know it) Switch region. The sooner the better, as I’m currently in a “getting things done” phase.
If you wrote us previously, and I missed your email, this is a great time to resend it.
Twitch Stream on Saturday
We do a live stream every other Saturday on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames, usually from 2 pm PDT (or PST for upcoming streams) to about 4:30 pm. Come join us, ask questions, and watch us pun and tell stories of game development and the Quest for Glory and Hero-U worlds.
This weekend’s topic is… Day of the Living Dead. We’ll talk about the Undead and similarly spooky creatures in our games. Or, really, whatever the viewers want us to talk about.
Tilly's Tale launch on Nintendo Switch
almost 3 years ago
– Sat, Jun 17, 2023 at 12:10:50 PM
Thanks to our partner in Poland, Silesia Games, you can now play Summer Daze: Tilly's Tale on the Nintendo Switch! There's a launch discount of 20% through July 5. Tell your friends!
After all, it's not as though Lori and Corey release a new game every year. :-)
Summer Daze: Tilly's Tale is an interactive visual fantasy novel about Tilly Appleberry, a rogue student at Hero-U. She has knacks for getting into trouble and out of it, but she's more interested in making friends than in her studies. It's humorous and charming, suitable for all ages.
Tomorrow I will pull a new report on the Kickstarter surveys. Based on that, I will order Nintendo Switch keys from our partner. I will plan to fulfill requests for Switch and itch.io keys over the next week. If you haven't answered the survey, and want your game key from a site other than Steam, make sure you answer the survey today.
I haven't tried to fulfill itch.io keys previously for a few reasons. I've been waiting for patches to the Steam version to settle down, for everyone to have a chance to answer the survey, and I've been distracted by some outside issues. Although the latter are still ongoing, I should have time to work on fulfillment this week.
We're live-streaming today on Twitch at transolargames - Twitch. Stream starts at 2 pm PDT, and runs for two to 2.5 hours. This will be part 2 of the "Build a game workshop" that we started two weeks ago. Don't worry if you missed part one - You can catch it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/WfhB_rShEDw or read about it below.
We start out by talking about the process Lori and I use to come up with a pitch for a game. We went through some of the proposals we came up with for games we didn't manage to make. In hindsight, that may not have been the absolute best approach to talking about how to make a successful game pitch. :-)
But that's ok; this is about having fun and stimulating creativity. Besides, I have a theory about "luck" - Luck is what happens when you take enough chances that one of them hits. To make those attempts count, you have to put in the time and effort on each attempt to give it a chance to succeed.
Results of Workshop #1
After reading these survey results, think about what kind of game you would make, and what stories you would tell, that fit the participant votes.
What kind of game are we making? Unsurprisingly given our audience, there were four votes for "adventure game," three votes for RPG, and only one other vote (interactive fiction).
Where and when is it set? This had more variety. We had three votes for fantasy, two for SF, two for modern, and one for alternate history. Drilling down deeper into the location, there were two votes each for cute countryside, distant planet - feudal with magic, or a planet where magic meets science.
For tone, we had four votes for "slightly humorous" - none for "downright silly," which we should take note of in our games. :-) Four votes for "mysterious," and two for "uplifting." Ok, it isn't impossible to include all of those in one game.
Even dramatic films tend to include some humorous dialogue or events. Think of Lord of the Rings, for example - a high-stakes, dramatic high fantasy film series; yet there were many humorous events to lower the tension. We've sometimes described this as the "roller coaster story progression." You need some light moments to add power to the tense ones.
We only had a few votes on "who is the protagonist." The most popular was "first person avatar, viewed in 3rd person," as in Quest for Glory. We had one vote for a specific main character as in Secret of Monkey Island, King's Quest, or most adventure games.
Again, think about what kind of game you might make with these parameters. Hint: There are thousands, probably millions, of possibilities still. The idea is to gradually tighten the game space until you have the particular game you want to make.
We'll continue this process today in about three hours, starting at 2 pm PDT. Come join us to participate, and see what happens when a group of clever adventure game and RPG players get together to create something new.
What To Expect From Summer Daze: Tilly's Tale
almost 3 years ago
– Sun, Apr 09, 2023 at 11:55:24 PM
Read a great game lately? Played a great story? Now’s your chance! Lori’s prequel adventure to Rogue to Redemption, Summer Daze: Tilly’s Tale, is now available on Steam and itch.io. We’re calling it a visual novel adventure, and we hope that you - our greatest fans and supporters - will love it.
The Summer Daze stories are designed to fit between Hero-U games. Tilly’s Tale takes place in the Summer before Rogue to Redemption, and helps explain Terk’s attitude towards Shawn. In Tilly, Terk has already met a rogue, and met his match.
The second Summer Daze game is Ifeyo’s Adventure. It stars a Wizard student, and is a lead-in to Hero-U: Wizards Way, should we ever manage to make that game. Third up is Sami’s Story, with a half-human, half-Corgi Warrior.
Sierra’s “Quest” games, and Quest for Glory in particular, are best known for their storytelling. Years after playing them, fans keep returning to the games to experience their favorite characters and scenes again. Lori kept that in mind when she created the characters and events in Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption.
But adventure games, and especially role-playing adventure games, sometimes make it challenging to experience those stories. Everyone gets stuck sometimes on a tough puzzle or difficult combat encounter. Sometimes we crave that challenge, but other times we just want to collaborate with the game on experiencing a great story.
That’s one of the reasons we created Summer Daze: Tilly’s Tale as a visual novel adventure. Just as Quest for Glory crosses the RPG and adventure game genres, Summer Daze is a visual novel and an adventure game. You’re reading a story while making choices that affect dialogue and relationships. We think of it as the “good parts” of adventure gaming.
What kind of story is it? I like to use words like “funny,” “charming,” and “heart.” You’ll love Tilly Appleberry, and her connection with Quest for Glory. She’s the adopted daughter of Amelia Appleberry, the healer in Spielburg. She’s mischievous, but sweet. Summer Daze: Tilly’s Tale is the opposite of high-stakes, violent games. It’s gentle, charming, and funny.
Each scene has a gorgeous vignette-style background, painted by JP Selwood. Tilly and other characters have "talker" images, as in Quest for Glory and Hero-U, but there are no small characters walking around. Instead, you navigate by clicking on maps on the University indoor and outdoor areas. All of the conversations have full professional voiceover acting, as well as on-screen text. Zehra Fazal of Young Justice stars as Tilly, and the entire voice cast is amazing!
Now Is the Time!
This is a great time to buy Tilly's Tale on Steam or itch.io for your friends. Steam will give us better placement, and more promotion, if enough people buy the game there. Summer Daze: Tilly’s Tale is only $20, a bargain for a four-year Lori Cole project with professional voice acting. Everyone wins!
As always, the game is DRM-free. The Steam version includes achievements that will help you keep track of the many paths through the story. Learn more, wishlist, or purchase the game, at Summer Daze: Tilly's Tale on Steam (steampowered.com).
We hope you’ll love the new Summer Daze series as much as you loved our previous games - Quest for Glory, Mixed-Up Fairy Tales, Castle of Dr. Brain, Shannara, and Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. Buying Summer Daze: Tilly’s Tale, and telling your friends about the new series, is a great way to help us continue making indie adventure and role-playing games.
