I totally understand why you guys wouldn't want to make a 3D version of the game.  All of the art done for the game would be useless, and I know that a lot of hard work went into it.  Lots of original media would be required for such a thing.  Such a thing wouldn't be at all feasible if you were starting from scratch.  However, I'm very good at what I do - I can model, and I have a TON of RPG type 3D stock media.   Lots of media that I use in Geisha House, for example, can simply be re-textured for vastly different looking models and characters.

If you released an impressive looking video of a 3D game, people (and talent) would flock to it.  It seemed to have a tremendous support base early on.  I think that people would appreciate a well made 3D version of a game that they love.  I won't make 2D games - I grew up with 2D games and I absolutely love them, I have tons of older 2D games that I play when I need to take a 3D break - but so much media is required, so much pixel art.  The worst thing is that the media isn't portable.  If your 'Creative Director' wants to up the resolution, you have to start over.  For 3D it's much simpler, every model is portable to any other project.  Animation is easier, once you've created the model all you have to do is rig and animate the bone structure.

I've made 2D type games that were actually 3D confined to two planes of movement.  The result is more flexible environments, easier media creation, dynamic lighting, etc.

My interest is this project is multifaceted.  On one hand, I absolutely loved Quest for Glory III, I played it every possible way, maxed out every possible stat, saw every possible ending.  I got so good I actually beat that mirror copy of myself near the end.  The same thing still happened, but I felt like a badass    So, if I were involved in such a project, it would indeed touch a special place in my heart.

On the other hand, I see it as a good opportunity.  It's a well known project, it has a large potential fan base, and the subject matter provides us with an entire world and mythology ready to tweak and use.  Also, I have no doubt that the game as it is planned is rich and detailed and fantastic.  I said that I'd want to keep the option of commercially publishing the game open, however my intent is not to make money.  Everyone who was involved in a published game would have a fantastic bullet to add to their resume, myself included.  It takes two shipped games to work as a Game Developer, and Geisha House will be only one.  It would also popularize my RPG Creator system, which would allow games like this to be created.  Geisha House is based on the style of Ultima VII, but this would greatly expand its visibility into a different genre of gaming.  That would be sold for profit.  The point is that I see the publishing of Hero6 as more of a formality with the intention of making it abandonware in an absurdly short amount of time.  The legalities of this could be messy depending on the publisher and the terms of the contract, but anything is possible if it's done right.

Though nostalgic, I'm a very practical guy.  I wouldn't dream of coming into a long running project like this and attempt to strong-arm or warp it into something it's not supposed to be.  I just think that 3D has so much more potential than 2D - you can make the same game with the same viewpoint, interface, and style of play, but better and easier.  You guys that are still involved in this should discuss it and see what you all think.  Maybe everyone is dead set to have a 320x240 2D recreation of their favorite game.  Maybe some want to see that game that they loved so much recreated in 3D.

If there was any interest, I'd put together a tech demo of a 3D version of the game.  I think that the best way to accomplish this is by recreating a memorable QFG moment(s) in the 3D engine, accompanied by some combat.  This video, and /or tech demo would provide six months of intense interest, and at that point much more advanced demonstrations of the game will be available.

The only thing that I would have to do is to hire a 3D artist to make the hero in 3D.  I prefer to contract out my character modeling, I'm better with non humanoid models.  This would be an acceptable investment to me, provided that there was legitimate interest.

You guys talk about it, think about it.  AGS is a nice engine, but it is within the realm of possibility to create a game that is far superior to Quest for Glory V, and such a thing cannot be accomplished in 2D.

I read that in a post, but there is no other mention of it on this forum.  I assume that it's true.  I was quite surprised when I saw that, mostly because there was no official mention of it.

In my experience, 'Creative Directors' never work for an indie project.  Every member has to be contributing to the project itself, or they're not really part of it.  I read some absurd things where this Servant guy said that reorganizing the team and renaming the files was taking a long time.  I've seen team project after team project fail because there is someone that essentially wants others to create their game for them.  They always offer the programmers and artists and musicians a part in the 'credits', when in reality the 'Creative Director' contributes nothing substantial.

This project, if indeed there is still a cohesive vision for a game, needs a fresh start.  Trying to stir up old interest will not yield much in the way of results, especially since no progress has been made.  I know, I see over and over again where people are saying 'Trust me, progress is being made!', but I suspect that it is unquantifiable progress that ultimately results in nothing.  This game needs to be properly developed with progress, in the form of screenshots and videos, shown to the public at reasonable intervals.

That's fine.

I do agree with your point about not going public with anything until significant progress is made, which is why there hasn't been any announcements for several months.

The problem with that is that the game has been in development for years.  Even if the game went public before significant progress was made, there was time for said significant progress to have been made, several times over.

You say that Hero6 was never managed like a business.  Statements like this...

"...appointed to the chief position of Creative Director in late fourth quarter of 2006" and "experience in managing online communities and some strong relationships with members of the gaming industry and media"

lead me to believe otherwise.  It has always been so in my perception, and I'm willing to bet that many others share this view.  This indie project was presented as a commercial venture in too many ways, especially in the way of structuring.  I think that I have a very valid point about this project focusing way too much on the trivial and unimportant.

AGS is a wonderful engine, good luck with it and I hope to see much good come of it.

Hi, my name is Cash Curtis II.  I've followed this project off and on since it began.  A couple notes before I start:

Your password must contain a mix of upper and lower case letters, as well as digits.

That's absurd    This isn't a DOD network password, after all.

And, the guy on your main page looks like Sean Astin.


Well, like I said, I've been following this off and on since '99.  I've always loved Sierra games, especially from the VGA GUI era.  So this project caught my interest early on.  I haven't checked in a couple years, but recently I downloaded a King's Quest remake and I saw the link.  I came here expecting to find the game, but was sadly disappointed.

I read through some more recent threads, and found this one...
http://visitors.hero6.com/forums/index.php?topic=953.0

Essentially stating the the MAD engine was being dropped and AGS was being used, and it would be very easy to convert the game.  This shocked me, relatively speaking.  After almost eight years changing game engines seems insane.  Switching a game engine, even with all assets in line, is no small matter.

I suppose that the bottom line is that your programmers failed you in the creation of the MAD engine.  That's very unfortunate.  I've seen lots of team projects over the years and they almost always fail due to lack of skilled programmers or lack of skilled artists.  Often both.

A big issue that I've always had with this project is no real progress was ever shown.  Lots of ideas were contributed, lots of nice music, but it was always stuck.  I saw the AGS demos as more of a publicity stunt, because making a demo that doesn't use the same game engine is kind of pointless.  Although, I liked the waterfall demo very much.  I always thought that the game should have been made with AGS from the start.

I think that the typical time frame for an indie game of this scope is about two years, if everything goes right.  Now, I'm not just making this up, I've seen a few successful indie games that took about this long, and my own is about to hit the two year mark.  About a year and a half ago I started work on a 3D RPG inspired by Ultima VII.  Visit my website to see screenshots and Youtube videos.

http://www.cashcurtis.com

http://www.youtube.com/cashcurtis

My game is essentially a team project, but I manage it differently than other indie projects that I see.  Often they try to run them like a business.  That never works.  You don't need websites and PR if you don't have a game.  It's too easy to focus on the unimportant details.  I didn't even go public with my game until significant progress had been made.  As such, it was easy to keep people interested as it progressed.

So, my point is that this team project was mismanaged from the start.  The whole project was contingent upon the completion of the MAD engine.  So, my suggestion...

After I release Geisha House (I've got a publisher interested!!) in six to eight months I could modify the RPG engine for use as an adventure game engine.    It would be 3D, 3rd person, in about the same viewpoint as the Sierra games.  3D media could be made that captured the look and feel of Quest for Glory.  Plus, my combat engine kicks ass, so I think that would be a nice addition to the game.  The modification of the engine would be pretty simple.

Here's the catch - if I did this then I'd be using my game engine, and I'd be doing a lot of the 3D modeling (I'm a programmer and an artist, I made most of the media in Geisha House).  Therefore, I wouldn't take second billing to anyone in the sense of being a 'subordinate', but rather a partner, depending on the amount of work contributed by any person.  I'd also want to keep the possibility of publishing the game for profit open, with the expectation of demoting it to abandon-ware after six months or a year.  A 'shipped' game looks good on any one's resume, but when it becomes abandon-ware then it will be free.

So, maybe it's all a terrible idea and offensive, but I like the idea of a Quest for Glory type game with 3D accelerated graphics and Ageia PhysX physics.  Let me know what you guys think.