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:
Corey-centric Live stream 2 pm PDT today
almost 5 years ago
– Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 01:04:16 AM
Lori is up in Oakland playing “grandma,” which leaves Corey alone on camera. Don’t worry, Lori’s voice will be with us through Discord.
So this will be the “Crazy Corey Cole Comedy Conference” stream. Ask me anything, and I’ll talk about my pre-Sierra career, Castle of Dr. Brain, and similar topics. We’ll also have our usual games and contests.
If you aren’t already on the Discord, please join us. We have lots of great fans and friends talking about everything from Hero-U and Quest for Glory to other games, exciting world and gaming news, to philosophy.
I should also mention our Patreon, where I share thoughts, information, and art old and new. With all of the Hero-U sales revenue and some of our savings going into making Summer Daze at Hero-U, Patreon is our main source of personal income. This is also my soapbox, so many of the posts are available without a subscription. https://www.patreon.com/coreyloricole to join us.
The April Fools Live
almost 5 years ago
– Sun, Apr 11, 2021 at 12:28:26 AM
That would be us.
We're foolishly streaming today at 2 pm PDT (just over 3 hours from this post).
Join us for games, prizes, reminiscences of Sierra On-Line and game development, and general fun and foolishness.
Tilly's Tale Alpha Testing
about 5 years ago
– Thu, Mar 25, 2021 at 10:55:34 PM
Alpha Testing Begins!
I've posted our most recent build of Summer Daze at Hero-U: Tilly's Tale to BackerKit digital downloads. It's available to all backers with Beta Test and Early Access privileges - Beach Blanket Beta level and above. If you backed at one of those levels, log in to https://summerdaze.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards to get the download.
The game is complete except for in-game credits and most of the voice acting.
Any place where you have a selection menu - generally for dialogue - you will also see a button that allows you to provide feedback. These can range from bug reports (such as incorrect game flow), confusing dialogue, audio issues, additional menu choices you'd like to see, to suggestions for improving the game.
We'll look at all reports, but use our discretion on what we choose to change.
Our next livestream is this Saturday at 2 pm to 4 pm PDT. That's 2100 UTC if I have my time arithmetic correct. You'll find the stream at https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames. The theme this time is "Out Like A Lamb," referring to the saying that, "March comes in like a lion, but goes out like a lamb," and to the Hero Ewe school mascot. Afterwards, we'll take it on the lam.
Why is a sheep the mascot for Hero-U? It started with one of us making a joke about the Hero Ewe, and Eriq Chang drawing a number of whimsical sheep images for the first Rogue to Redemption Kickstarter in 2012. Since that game is entirely indoors, or in underground caves, there is no sheep in game. With Summer Daze at Hero-U, we decided it was time to bring the Hero Ewe into the game plot.
That's pretty much how our game designs go. People keep telling us that games should be carefully planned out from the beginning. That's probably a good approach for meeting schedules and budgets, but we think it detracts from creativity. We prefer a chaotic process that has room for whimsy and team contributions.
Help! We Need Somebody...
about 5 years ago
– Fri, Feb 26, 2021 at 01:04:13 AM
Not just anybody.
But before I get into that... our next Livestream is this Saturday at 2 pm PST. That will be on https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames as usual. The theme is "Winter Daze at Hero-U," which might have something to do with the fact that we're finalizing Summer Daze at Hero-U: Tilly's Tale in the middle of Winter. Given the warm weather we've been having in San Diego, that actually makes a kind of sense. :-)
Here's a Bird of Paradise - no, I'm afraid you can't tap it for one mana of any color - from an upcoming patron-only post (https://www.patreon.com/coreyloricole) of Lori's best photos from 2020. Springtime is coming!
We've been working with one part-time programmer and "full stack developer" for most of the Summer Daze project. It's been a hard day's night (for the last seven years), and they have moved on, so we are looking for a replacement. Responsibilities include:
Maintaining the Hero-U code base -
Rogue to Redemption patches and support for our Nintendo Switch developer
Fixing issues with Summer Daze at Hero-U, adding audio
Preparing for testing and later release
Helping us create future projects such as Puzzleworthy and new Hero-U games
Contributing to features and design of upcoming games
Maintaining our website, including integrating with a shopping cart for direct ordering
Helping us run Alpha and Beta tests, triaging and merging reports, fixing issues
Qualifications
You'll need some or all of these knowledge sets and experience:
Working with Unity, Mecanim, and the Unity editor - essential!
Knowledge of C#, JSON, and Inkle (can learn the latter on the job)
Understanding tropes of adventure games and RPG's
Ability to work well with other team members - design, art, audio
This is a paid position, but we can't compete with large corporate salaries. It could last anywhere from six months to multiple years.
Time requirement will likely be 20-40 hours a week (not quite Eight Days A Week). We have some flexibility on this.
If you're interested, please contact me at support (at) hero-u (dot) net. (Trying to avoid some bot attacks.) If you know someone else who is qualified and interested, please have them contact us directly.
How This Affects the Schedule
The Tilly's Tale story for Summer Daze at Hero-U was essentially done in September, but we will need help to get it from "almost done" to commercially releasable, or even testable. The latter should be quick. As for the former, my running joke about the game industry is that the first 90% of a project takes 90% of the available time, and the last 10% takes the other 90%.
We'll find out how much more still needs to be done once we get the game into testing. At minimum, we need to break out all the voice clips into individual files, get them into the appropriate places in the game, and make sure voice audio works properly. We're also still working on the end credits movie featuring all of our Beach Blanket Beta and higher-level backers.
Once upon a time, I would have taken on the programming tasks myself, but that's not something I have the time and energy to do at this point in my life. I'd much rather get the right team around us to make Summer Daze at Hero-U great.
The list price is $20, but we’re celebrating the launch with a 20% off sale. If you’re thinking about getting the Switch version, now is the right time!
We’re doing an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) on reddit just after I post this - 11 am PST on Feb. 9, 2021. Join in the Q&A at https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/.
Please let your Switch-owning friends and family know about the game that you helped us create. Here’s a quick summary of Hero-U for those unfamiliar with our games:
“Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is a genre-defying story game - It’s dramatic, but also funny, an adventure and a role-playing game. You’ll play as a young man who is caught between becoming a thief or being a hero. On his journey, he’ll make friends, solve mysteries, and fight dangerous creatures.”
