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 Is A-Comin’ In!
almost 6 years ago
– Fri, Jun 19, 2020 at 12:20:08 AM
It’s been quite a year so far, and we aren’t even halfway through it. Fortunately we have some good news for you with respect to Summer Daze at Hero-U.
We’re proud to have Summer Daze at Hero-U as a featured title on the Steam Game Festival. You should check out the festival not just for Summer Daze coverage, but for over 500 mostly-indie games coming out in the next year. Yes, we have some serious competition!
In conjunction with the festival, we will be live-streaming Summer Daze at Hero-U this Saturday starting at 2 pm PDT. (That’s Sunday at an unreasonably early hour if you live Down Under.) We’ll also talk about the game and the development process.
Come to https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames to watch and participate in the stream. If you haven’t been to one of our streams before, this is a great time to start! We have games, contests, and giveaways for viewers, a chance to ask us about our games and work, and much more.
The second hour will be devoted to playing a bit of Quest for Infamy, the Infamous Quests (Steven Alexander) game that was inspired by Quest for Glory for those who want a little more of a “dark side” anti-hero. Steven has had an especially rough year and can use more support.
We’ll close out the stream at 5 pm PDT, but not before Lori reads chapter 17 of her Hero’s Quest inspired novel, By the Book. The first 11 chapters are on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-pxvRIKKQsXNnkDvqPgWLRLxc-RuMwwE. We’ll gradually post more chapters, but will have a decision to make after we post chapter 13. That’s the last one we reached in a stretch goal during the Summer Daze campaign on Kickstarter. In any case, you can catch all of the chapters live on our Twitch channel, and I think Twitch keeps those videos up for two weeks afterwards. Our previous livestream - featuring Heroine’s Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok - is still available there if you hurry!
If you haven’t yet completed the BackerKit survey, do it! Visit https://summerdaze.backerkit.com/ to fill out the survey and make sure you get your rewards. We’re missing just 50 of our 1600+ backers. Don’t miss out! You won’t be able to download your rewards until you’ve completed the survey and we lock changes.
One of our reward tiers was “Winter and Summer Games.” The idea was that we would give you some game keys “soon” to tide you over until we could put Summer Daze in your hands. Meanwhile the world started to go topsy-turvy, and I haven’t sent out any keys… until last week.
I’ve now uploaded Quest for Glory Collection keys (on GOG.com) and assigned them to everyone who requested them on Kickstarter or BackerKit. I’ve also requested and obtained Steam codes for Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, and already had (just) enough GOG.com for people who requested those sites. I will upload those this weekend and figure out how to supply itch.io codes and the Rogue to Redemption soundtrack.
I had one or two special requests from backers who already had both Hero-U and Quest for Glory, and wanted to get one of our game keys for Jolly Rover or MacGuffin’s Curse. If you’re in that category - whether or not you previously requested it - please email us right away at [email protected] and specify your Kickstarter/BackerKit email and the code you would like. Those games are from Brawsome rather than Transolar, but Lori and I approve them as worthy and fun games to play.
We haven’t started fulfillment on the “early” physical goods yet, but Al and I (Corey) will start on those over the next few weeks. I plan to update the game DVD to the current version, and discard the old game DVD’s, before sending out boxed games. We plan to send those out flat to reduce the chance of boxes getting crushed in shipment.
I will also order t-shirts for people who requested them. The “30 Years of Glory” shirt was very popular. We only have a few orders for Summer Daze “Hero-Ewe” shirts, but we should be able to fulfill those at the same time as we already have the design on file.
I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe. Lori and I hope to see many of you at the stream on Saturday!
30 Years of Glory T-Shirt
Stream Saturday at 3pm PDT
almost 6 years ago
– Mon, May 25, 2020 at 07:05:07 AM
This is a quick micro-update to make sure you know about our next livestream. I'll post a longer one next week with some of the incredible work the team has been doing.
Our next Twitch livestream is tomorrow, Saturday, May 22 at 3 pm PDT. You can find us at https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames. We'll have some contests. I'll probably play some more of Castle of Dr. Brain. And Lori will read chapter 16 of How To Be A Hero: By the Book.
The next stream will tentatively be at the same time in 2 weeks - June 5. I've been asked to play Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok, and I'll try to do a little of that.
I've locked and charged for addons on BackerKit. This will allow me to fulfill early stuff such as Quest for Glory, Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, and other game keys. It will also help us determine ordering quantities for 30 Years of Glory t-shirts, keychains, and such.
I have a logistical quandary with extra good such as t-shirts. Shipping and mailing costs have skyrocketed in the last ten years, so it's most efficient to ship multiple things in one package. But some things, such as 30 Years of Glory, really should go out sooner than the game. I'll look through the orders we have and make a decision about what we can ship sooner, and what has to wait.
I also have an issue in that Lori and I are currently caregiving for my mother, 400 miles away from our Meep stockpile. Therefore I won't be able to mail those until we either return home, or I make arrangements to have them shipped here.
Here's a teaser screenshot from the Summer Daze demo. Incidentally, we'll be looking for people to test the demo on iOS and Android tablets and phones. More on that in the next update (hopefully). You can download the demo on itch.io at https://transolar-games.itch.io/summer-daze.
I plan to “lock” orders on BackerKit in the next few days, and will be charging cards for purchases on the site - add-ons and pre-orders made since the Kickstarter. If you want to order additional Summer Daze add-ons, or change your existing order, now is the time to do it!
Visit https://summerdaze.backerkit.com/ to view or change your BackerKit “survey” - This is really important to us, especially if you are getting add-ons. The survey is our way of knowing who gets what.
In particular, if you are getting a picture in the game, we need that now so that we can assign it to an artist. Now, now, NOW, pretty please!
Once we have the orders locked down, I can start on early fulfillment such as Summer and Winter Games keys to our previous games.
Meanwhile on Twitch, we’re doing another stream this Saturday, 3-5 pm PDT. (That will be Sunday morning in Oceanic time zones.) In previous streams, besides the book reading, we’ve chatted and run games and contests. This one will be a little different as Corey will play through his game, Castle of Dr. Brain, during the stream. You’ll get to see Corey struggle with his own “easy” game. If we have time, Lori will read chapter 14 of By the Book.
Live Reading - How To Be A Hero: By the Book Chapter 10
One of the promises we made during Kickstarter was for Lori to do live readings of the first 13 chapters from her unpublished novel (with Mishell Baker), “How to be a hero - by the book.” We’ve included a chapter in each of our Twitch livestreams.
Fan and Summer Daze publicist Keith O’Neil has converted each of the chapters to its own video, and we’ve been posting them to the Transolar Games YouTube channel. You can find the channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfcyQnbZEKMxYd9VCy1Px0A. Please subscribe to keep up with all of our video posts!
There is a “Playlists” tab on the channel page. The “How To Be A Hero: By the Book” playlist contains all of the chapters we’ve published so far. We’ve just added chapter 10, and have chapters 11-13 recorded for release in the following weeks.
We Can Be Heroes!
almost 6 years ago
– Fri, Apr 03, 2020 at 02:10:05 AM
We Can All Be Heroes
They should be practicing more social distancing
It’s a crazy world out there. Lori and I have been around for quite a few decades now - let’s just say “more than half a Century” - and we have never seen anything like the current world health crisis. However, we’ve also never seen anything like the heroic response to that crisis!
As individuals, we might not feel that we have the power to make much of a difference. But you aren’t ordinary individuals! You’re all Heroes, or at least Heroes-in-training. Most of you have helped people in need many times. As Lori taught in the school for heroes, we can do in real live what we’ve practiced doing in games.
The most important thing right now is to slow the spread of Covid-19. That means staying away from other people as much as possible, and practicing safe interactions when we need to be with others. That includes social distancing, washing hands frequently and thoroughly, wearing gloves and face masks as appropriate, and so on.
One thing most gamers are very good at is staying at home alone (or with family). Some of us work at home, and hopefully can continue to do that. We all play games on computers, and most of us participate in social media. Those are great activities for when you need to stay home. It might feel more like “doing nothing” than making a difference, but this is one of those special times when doing nothing may be the best thing we can do! If the virus can’t find new hosts to infect, eventually it will die out. Maintain isolation and social distancing for as long, and as much, as you can afford to do it.
If you want to be a more active Hero, there are other things you can do. Consider contributing online to a local food bank or other charity. We’ve read that cash donations are much more useful than donating food or other physical items. Food banks are expert at buying the items people most need. Donated food is often relatively unhealthy, expired, or otherwise useless to a food bank. We also pay much more for the same items that they can buy cheaply in bulk.
Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption News
Parlez-vous français? Shawn parle français maintenant!
We’ve been working hard on improving Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, as well as on Summer Daze at Hero-U. Rogue to Redemption has a new 2.1 patch, with 2.1.1 coming soon. The big news is that the game now plays in French as well as in English! We’ve also fixed a few long-standing problems such as an issue with Katie’s Sea Caves questline.
We still need to get Yearbooks and autographs out to Rogue to Redemption backers. Those are high on my priority list along with Discord invitations and game keys to Summer Daze backers. All of those went on hold for a few months, but we’re ready to work on them now. Most of the Yearbook was finished in 2015, but I need to spend a considerable amount of time cleaning up the database to ensure that everyone who contributed gets their entry.
We are also working on making the soundtrack, art book, and hint book available through itch.io and Steam.
Summer Daze at Hero-U Status
We are on schedule with artwork - including backer portraits - and programming. Lori is working hard at catching up on the game writing, and we’re working with Brandon to get more music into the game.
The game is looking absolutely beautiful, and Cidney is doing a great job making the user interface look good and work smoothly on all devices. We will soon release iOS and Android versions of the demo, as well as the improved version for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
We’ve had a few challenges since our Kickstarter funding completed in October, including illness and spending way too much time reading about the world health and economic crisis. We’re doing our best to keep all of our projects moving during this challenging time.
Corey is currently spending most of his time dealing with business, administration, finance, and publicity issues as well as the Hero-U yearbook. Lori is working on managing the Summer Daze art team, and writing the game dialogue.
BackerKit and Early Fulfillment
A Summer Daze backer portrait. Some call him... Jon.
We have 95% completion of the BackerKit surveys. That’s awesome, but we really need it at 100% so we can start fulfillment and track orders properly. If you are one of the 88 backers who have not yet completed the survey, we need to hear from you soon! Visit https://summerdaze.backerkit.com/backer/welcome and log in with your Kickstarter email to complete the game survey.
Why does this matter? We don’t want rewards to fall through the cracks. For example, I really should have sent out game keys to everyone who asked for a Quest for Glory Collection or a Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption key by now. But suppose I send those out - which I plan to do very soon - and people finally complete the survey and order one of those as an add-on? It’s likely to fall through the cracks. That happened with a few late orders on Hero-U, and we had to spend a lot of time and extra shipping costs to fulfill the late orders.
Especially urgent are backers for whom we’re creating custom toons in the Festival scene and end credits. JP and Al are working on those portraits now, and we won’t be able to check off “Art Complete” until all of them are done. If you are in one of those categories, you need to completely fill out your BackerKit survey and send a reference picture to [email protected].
We're doing a live stream this coming Saturday, April 4, on Twitch at 3 pm PDT. Our channel is https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames. The theme is "Spring Fling." We'll run live games and contests for Fabulous Prizes, some Q&A, and Lori will read chapter 13 of her Quest for Glory inspired novel "By the Book."
If you miss the stream, you can watch a video of it on the Twitch channel for about two weeks afterwards. We’re also putting the book chapters on YouTube after a delay. Currently we’re up to chapter 9 there, and are working on post-processing chapters 10-12. Chapter 13 is the last scheduled chapter fulfilling a “stretch goal” promise in the Summer Daze Kickstarter. We’ll have to decide what to do about future chapters.
Transolar Games Mailing List
Kickstarter is becoming more restrictive about how backer information is used. They aren’t really set up for ongoing maintenance and communication about a project once it’s been fulfilled, although you will continue to receive our Kickstarter updates by email unless you opt out.
Please sign up for the Transolar Games mailing list at https://mailchi.mp/transolar/newsletter. We will *not* sell or provide it to anyone else; it will just be a single point from which we can communicate with all of you.
This is really important to us - We need to keep in touch with all of our players and fans to keep you posted on game updates, new projects, other interesting games, and other news about Hero-U, Transolar Games, and what we’re doing.
Discord
Here’s a permanent link to our Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/transolar. Corey is on there regularly, and other team members including Lori and Cidney check in frequently. We recommend the Discord App, but you can also participate in a web browser.
Many of you qualify for the “heroes” role. I will be going through the BackerKit database and applying those soon. Currently we aren’t doing anything special in the heroes-only channels, but I’ll try to occasionally post special content there.
Patreon
Lori and I have a personal Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/coreyloricole. Most of the posts are either public, or become public after a few weeks, although we reserve some of the content to patrons. This is a great place to learn more about us and our work, as well as to see some of Lori’s pretty pictures.
Our Patreon account has two purposes. The obvious one is income. You’re probably aware that Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption has been unprofitable so far, which means Lori and I don’t receive any personal income from it. All of the sales so far have been used to retire debt and pay the Summer Daze at Hero-U development team. Patron subscriptions are our main personal income. For example, when Lori’s camera was stolen from our car last November, we were able to buy her a new one with two months of Patreon income.
The less-obvious purpose for our Patreon is a way of sharing something of our lives, history, and philosophy with our patrons. I’ve posted a number of articles from our 1980’s fantasy gaming newsletter, The Spell Book, including the “Birth of a Hobbit” comics that first introduced Erasmus and Fenrus. I’m also posting some of the best content from our 2000’s “Quest Log” blog along with new posts. You’ll find examples of Lori’s photographic artwork, backstory of Quest for Glory characters, opinions, and more.
We currently have just two levels in the Patreon - $2/month accesses most of the content, and $10/month adds the Discord “heroes” role and some premium content. I plan to add more of the latter over time, including high-resolution art photography downloads. Most of our $10 backers are there to give extra support to Lori and me, but we also want to make sure they get some cool exclusive stuff occasionally. At the same time, we want to keep most of the content available to all patrons, and much of it to non-patron visitors.
To help out fans who have been affected by Covid-19 - and that’s likely everyone - we’ve suspended all April 1 Patreon payments. We will probably resume charging patrons in May.
Facebook
We have a Facebook page for Hero-U news and discussion at https://www.facebook.com/TheSchoolForHeroes/. Like and follow the page to keep up with Hero-U (including Summer Daze) news and announcements.
We also have a page specifically for Summer Daze at Hero-U, https://www.facebook.com/SDHeroU/. We don’t always remember to update it as often as the main Hero-U page.
Trigger warning: If you follow us, you may be exposed to liberal (by U.S. standards) viewpoints. But play along; we all live in bubbles, and sometimes it’s good to expand them a little.
In any case, I highly recommend following Lori on Facebook. She regularly posts beautiful photographic artwork made in Photoshop from her photography. I’ll start posting more of these to Patreon, but Facebook is currently the best place to see all of them. My own page is much less interesting. :-)
We have a few other Facebook pages that are mostly inactive while we try to get Summer Daze at Hero-U and new versions of Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption out the door. There’s the Hero’s Feast Test Kitchen at https://www.facebook.com/groups/Herosfeast/ for recipes inspired by Quest for Glory and our other games. We also created a Hero’s Quest 30th Anniversary group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/417597882218896/ to commemorate our first computer game series.
Twitter
We have several Twitter accounts. We share @transolargames and @summerdazegame with team volunteers. Follow us there for announcements and other cool posts.
Corey’s personal Twitter account is @HeroCorey. Lori’s is @Hero_Lori. See “trigger warning” about our Facebook posts; we skew liberal.
Quora
Corey occasionally posts answers on Quora about all sorts of topics ranging from game development and probability to political opinions. Some of them are liberal, others are libertarian, but most are informational. Probably “liberal” opinions dominate, so another trigger warning for the easily-offended. https://www.quora.com/profile/Corey-Cole-1 should get you to my Quora posts.
Lea in the Summer Daze Garden
Live Stream Today on Twitch - Go Green!
about 6 years ago
– Sun, Mar 15, 2020 at 03:21:13 AM
We're doing a live stream today on Twitch at 3 pm PDT (3 hours from now). Our channel is https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames and the theme is "Go Green" in honor of the upcoming St. Patrick's Day and Shawn O'Conner's "Eirish" heritage.
We'll run live games and contests for Fabulous Prizes, some Q&A, and Lori will read chapter 12 of her Quest for Glory inspired novel "By the Book."
