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:
What an effort - Now it's time to STRETCH!
over 6 years ago
– Mon, Nov 04, 2019 at 07:39:36 PM
We're having an incredible final few days thanks to you, our amazing backers! With just 20 hours to go, we've almost reached the project goal! But let's not stop there...
We've all worked so hard - It's time to stop stressing and start STRETCHING!
A few days ago, we were worried about whether Summer Daze at Hero-U would meet its funding goal. But here we are, less than one day from the close, and the "final days Kickstarter magic" is, well, kicking in! That makes it time to reveal our plans for stretch goals based on the final pledge total.
To be clear, all of the stretch goals are things that Lori and I really want to be part of the game, but are a little beyond our budget. Adding them should not appreciably affect our milestones and completion date for Summer Daze.
For just a dollar more, we will add the fast and fun Boomba card game to Tilly's story!
First up are mini-games within the main game. We left some room in our budget by asking for a modest $99,999 instead of the far more difficult to reach $100,000. Oh, but what a difference a dollar makes!
If we exceed the project goal by $1 and manage that glorious six figure pledge total, Lori and I will spend it (and a few thousand dollars of our own) on adding at least one super-fun mini-game to Summer Daze!
The first mini-game is a card game we call Boomba. Tilly will play it against her nemesis Rodrego for fun and dominance. Think of it as War meets Bridge - War for the fast play, and Bridge for the challenging strategy and tactics.
We have some other mini-games we'd like to add to Summer Daze. If we have the time and budget later in development, we'll get those into the game too. No promises at this point, but we've been talking about things such as a Hero's Quest style combat screen. We can't do that for a dollar, but maybe we can STRETCH our own budget to include it.
At $105,000 we will add additional animation to Summer Daze
We’ve been developing Summer Daze at Hero-U on a very tight budget up to now. It has all the story and background art, but there isn’t much animation so far. With your help, we’d like to change that!
If funding makes it past $105,000, we’ll be able to have our artists add more animated sequences to the game. That might range from subtle transitions in dialogue when a character changes mood to active backgrounds to combat animation. We’ll be able to show more of the things we would otherwise have to put in words.
At $110,000 we will voice all of the characters in the game
This is the big one! Voice acting will add a new dimension to Summer Daze. It’s also pretty expensive to do it right. If funding passes $110,000, we will add voice recording into the budget.
We made a vow when we developed Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption - We would only add voices to that game if we could do it right. We didn’t have the time nor budget to pull it off for that game, but we can do it for Summer Daze at Hero-U.
An excellent voice director, who is also a well-known adventure game designer, has volunteered to do our voice recording at an affordable price. If our backers commit to the game by helping us reach this stretch goal, we’ll make our own commitment to get high-quality voice acting into Summer Daze at Hero-U.
As we come down to the final hour of the campaign, we want to share some of the excitement with all of you! Join us on our Twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames one hour before the Kickstarter closes.
You'll want to keep Kickstarter open too in case you feel moved to make a last-minute pledge increase to help us reach all of the stretch goals. :-)
Lori and I will talk about the game and the experience of planning (do we even do that?) and running a Kickstarter campaign. We'll answer any questions you have about the game, Kickstarter, and BackerKit. Then we'll all breathe a sigh of relief as the campaign comes to a close and it becomes time to get back to work on the game and reward fulfillment. We'll also get a chance to say, "Thank you!"
We also plan to continue streaming on Saturday afternoons from 4-6 pm PST. Lori has been reading chapters from her unpublished young adult novel, "By the Book," during the Saturday streams. Backers have unlocked 10 of the 23 chapters so far, so we might be doing this for many Saturdays to come! On Saturday, November 9, Lori will move on to chapter three.
You're all awesome! Let's keep this going and see how far we can take the future of adventure gaming, Transolar Games style.
Wonderful Weekend for Summer Daze! More About Ifeyo - A Mage Out of Place
over 6 years ago
– Sun, Nov 03, 2019 at 07:14:45 PM
Ifeyo - A Mage Out of Place
We’ve talked a lot about Tilly and her “What can I get away with?” approach to studying at Hero-U and to life in general. But we haven’t talked much about Ifeyo’s story until now.
Ifeyo Kinah - A Mage Out of Place
Ifeyo grew up in the land of Yoruba in Western Fricana. Yoruba is steeped in traditions that include strong gender roles. Women are traditionally the “makers” - they are expected to run the household, cook, raise children, and craft. A few of them have a talent for magic and use it in their crafting and artistry.
Men are “doers” - In earlier times, they were the hunters and farmers. They were expected to do hard physical work, protect the community, and trade with outsiders.
Yoruba in the time of Hero-U is a much more advanced and modern society, but the Yoruban people still cling to many of their past traditions. Women are still the makers and crafters, and men are now the traders and salesmen. But not everyone fits so neatly into those roles.
Ifeyo is one of the exceptions. His father expected him to work in the family business, selling and trading. But Ifeyo has always been drawn to magic, and he has a talent for it. His Aunt Ifetaya, who works at Hero-U as the head chef and culinary instructor, recognized both his inclinations and talent. She has helped Ifeyo get a scholarship to Hero-U, where he hopes to become a true Wizard.
State of the Game
Over the past 15 months, Lori has directed the art for both Tilly’s and Ifeyo’s sections of the game, but has focused her writing efforts mostly on Tilly. That half is more than one-third complete, with the rest of the game outlined. You can play through the first day of the game as Tilly in the free prototype at https://transolar-games.itch.io/summer-daze.
The production plan is to complete Tilly’s game to the beta testing level. While we begin testing that, and working on technical matters with bringing it to portable devices, Lori will fill out Ifeyo’s game. That half is also outlined, and principle art is complete, but there’s much more we can add. And of course writing games with many paths through each story takes time.
The major goal of this Kickstarter is to give us the time we need to make Ifeyo’s game every bit as strong as Tilly’s. In a sense, you’re helping to fund the Wizardry department at Hero-U.
Summer Daze Funding Campaign News
We had a terrific day Saturday, pushing past both the 1250 and 1300 backer levels. That means we’ve unlocked live readings of the first seven chapters of Lori’s “By the Book” reinterpretation of the events in Hero’s Quest.
Lucky Coin Free Bonus Reward
We’ve also unlocked a free lucky coin to all physical rewards backers. That includes everyone who pledges at the $150 (“Beachcomber”) and higher tiers, as well as anyone who orders any of the physical add-ons. There is no additional shipping charge for the lucky coin - We’ll include it in your game box or package.
We have a limited number of these coins, so only one coin per order, and we aren’t selling them separately.
We’re into the final 50 hours. The next two days are make or break for the Summer Daze at Hero-U budget, and particularly for Ifeyo as a playable character in the game. We’re close to the $80,000 mark, just a little over $20,000 to go. We also have over 1300 backers - I’d love to double that, so please share the campaign with all the adventure gamers - and fantasy fiction fans - you know.
Pundown and Ask Us Anything Tonight!
over 6 years ago
– Sun, Nov 03, 2019 at 01:35:46 AM
Thank you so much for supporting Summer Daze at Hero-U! Now it’s time for a show!
We've nearly reached 1250 backers, a magic number in this campaign! Not only will that unlock chapter 6 of By the Book, but it unlocks a Lucky Coin for every backer in a physical reward tier! These are really nice antiqued silver-looking coins with a shamrock on one side (for luck), and "Hero-U" on the other side (for memories). We're looking forward to giving away lots of lucky coins to our most generous backers.
The campaign ends in under 4 days, so please spread the word to every adventure and RPG player in your life! Kickstarter is all or nothing, and as I said in the campaign description, we'd hate to come up $1 short.
In just over an hour, as I write this, Lori and I will be streaming. Join as at Transolar Games on Twitch for "Pundown at Punset" at 4-6 pm PDT (California time). (For future planning, watch the “coming soon” screen on the channel. Better yet, follow us on Twitch!) We'll post the video afterwards, but join us live for puns, trivia, contests, and prizes!
Generous prize donors include artists Chris Warren, Julia Minamata, Brandom Blume, Jason Chau, Roberta Vaughan, and Al Eufrasio! Lori and I will also hold a raffle for a seat in my upcoming live Tower of Indomitable Circumstance - my first published adventure - dungeon run. Maus Merryjest has created - and illustrated - some weird and fantastic characters for players in the game.
The stream will also include Lori reading the second chapter of "By the Book," a young adult novel she wrote with Mishell Baker back in 2003, but we never published. By the Book parallels the events of Hero's Quest from the viewpoint of Hawk and his siblings - Falcon, Owl, and Wren - as they journey to Siegburg in search of fame, fortune, and adventure.
We'll also have time for "Ask Us Anything" during the stream. Or if there isn't enough time, we'll do more streams later. After all, Lori has more chapters to read!
Each 50 additional backers (starting at 1000) unlocks another chapter for Lori to read, so she will continue on with the book for several sessions after the end of the Kickstarter. If you are much older than Lori and I, you might remember old-time radio shows in which they serialized and dramatized stories for their listeners.
Just kidding - Today they call those podcasts, and you've probably listened to more than a few of them. In fact, we've been on a few recently.
NOTE: In Part 2, Seoirse kindly include links to all of our social media. Use it as a handy reference to find us on Facebook, Discord, Twitter, our website, etc.
We did a marathon livestream on Halloween. It's available on our Twitch channel for a few weeks, or you can watch it on YouTube:
Halloween Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness livestream
over 6 years ago
– Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 02:29:02 AM
Halloween Live Stream - Quest for Glory IV and More
Lori and I have been having a lot of fun doing the Saturday evening livestream events. But now it's time for the Big One! The one this Kickstarter was scheduled around. Lori's and my favorite holiday - Halloween!
We'll be streaming live on our Twitch channel - https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames. Besides doing a Let's Play of Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness, we'll have all sorts of fun, games, and prizes. Here are just some of the incredible prizes donated by other backers and fans:
QFG4 Purple Big Box, donated by Roberta Vaughan
Unhallowed Ground, by Bruce Brenneise
QFG4 Making a Scene, by Jim Ferguson
QFG4 The Hero's Choice Print, by Wayne Adams
Toby & Tanya Print by Christen Phillips
Erana's Peace Light Up/Music Canvas from CanvasQuest Tom
Live Tarot Readings (short 5 minute sessions) by Charles Harrington
Seat at Tower of Indomitable Circumstance RPG run with Corey Cole
Congrats to all the winners from our stream: Jason Underhill, Richard Sampson, Eric Hamel, and Johannes Borg. And a huge congrats to our Meme contest winner: Benjamin Penney.
Thank you to the donating artists: Audrey Ryan, Wayne Adams, Jim Ferguson, and Christen Phillips.
Special thanks to Maus Merryjest for helping over the stream and hosting the meme contest. If you want to see the memes people voted on they are here: https://app.involve.me/transolar/memes Special thanks to the Classic Gamers Guild for your continual support and hosting month long contests to keep our Kickstarter promoted.
By the Book Live Readings
We promised that Lori would do a live reading from her and Mishell Baker's novel, "By the Book," based on the number of pledgers here on Kickstarter. She started by reading chapter one last Saturday - The video is up at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5wBMxKCL24. Thanks to Maus Merryjest for clipping the video from the stream and adding the opening and closing music and graphics.
Lori is committed to reading one chapter for every 50 backers starting at 1000, so we have four chapters in the plans so far. She does not plan to read a chapter on Halloween, but will continue with Chapter 2 on Saturday, Nov. 2.
We also have a special gift planned for when we reach 1250 backers - All physical rewards tiers will also get a free "Lucky Coin" - Hero-U obverse and a shamrock inverse. We're getting very close to that, and are excited to be able to give away more gifts to our backers!
We hope to see you all on Halloween for our special marathon stream with spooky puns, prizes, trivia and more! Thursday, October 31st from 1pm-midnight PDT on our same Twitch channel!
In a little over two hours, as I write this, Lori and I will be streaming. Join as at Transolar Games on Twitch for "Pun in the Sun" at 4-6 pm PDT (California time). We'll post the video afterwards, but join us live for puns, trivia, contests, and prizes!
Generous prize donors include artists Jim Ferguson, Audrey Ryan, Christen Phillips, and Wayne Adams. Lori and I are donating a boxed copy of Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption as well.
The stream will also include Lori reading the first chapter or two of "By the Book," a young adult novel she wrote with Mishell Baker back in 2003, but we never published. By the Book parallels the events of Hero's Quest from the viewpoint of Hawk and his siblings - Falcon, Owl, and Wren - as they journey to Siegburg in search of fame, fortune, and adventure.
New Add-On Items!
By popular demand, I've updated the Campaign tab to include both digital and physical add-ons (and to add a little more about Ifeyo's story). Kickstarter doesn't handle these directly. You just add the price of the add-on (plus shipping for the physical items) to your pledge amount, while staying on the same pledge tier.
For example, let's say you chose the $90 Beach Blanket Beta early bird tier, but you don't own Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, and of course you want to play it! Stay on the $90 tier, but pledge $110 instead of $90. When we move to BackerKit after the campaign closes, it will show you with a $20 credit. You then select the Rogue to Redemption game key add-on, and we'll get you your own copy of the game on your choice of Steam, GOG, or itch.io.
Or you're a huge fan of our games and want to show your love by having your own toon and name in the end credits. Add $300 to any pledge amount and choose "end credits cartoon" in the BackerKit add-ons. We'll contact you to get a photo or other image that Al can turn into your personal end credits cartoon.
Physical add-ons are a little trickier because you'll need to help us out with the shipping costs. They aren't too bad in the U.S., but they are really high to anywhere else in the world, and they're going up by another 10% next Spring.
So let's say you want one of our limited edition Meep plush toys. It's $40 for the toy, but you'll also have to add $10 if you live in the U.S., for a total of $50. If you live in any other country, that's going to be $30 shipping for a total of $70. (Yeah, I know - I get sticker shock at international postage too. But that's what it costs us.)
If you order multiple physical items, shipping is much lower for the 2nd and subsequent items because we can probably bundle them and save on shipping.
Here's the autographed postcard, which also comes with an autographed sticker you can put on a game box or manual:
Autographed postcard and sticker suitable for game boxes
