Blue Milk Special

Video roleyplaying games are a lot of fun. People often think of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Ultima and Bards Tale when RPGs are brought up in a conversation. However, the coolest RPG I ever played happened to be a hybrid of the Adventure game genre and RPG called Quest for Glory. Imagine a Sierra or LucasArts adventure game that included stats you could improve as well as a combat system, spell casting, and thievery.

This game threw out the idea of “leveling” which has been intrinsic to roleplaying games since D&D emerged in the 1970s. Quest for Glory’s creators quite courageously acknowledged that leveling was a way to make keeping track of improving skills easier in the original pen & paper table top games, but archaic when it came to computer games. A computer game can be programmed to do all the calculations for you and so levels don’t really make sense as you can focus on improving whatever skill you want without having to reach some unrealistic “level” where everything suddenly jumps up all at once. Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is a new game, following in the Quest for Glory footsteps, brought to us by the same creators.

“As a result, each Hero-U game you play is likely to be subtly different from any other play-through. Skills open some doors and leave other secrets hidden for later games.” – Corey Cole, Game Developer

The Hero-U Kickstarter passed its goal of $100K on Saturday, including the first stretch goal. There is just one day left to try and hit the additional stretch goals. I want to thank any and all who read my blogs about it and decided to contribute to this fresh and exciting game that harks back to the Adventure games of old, but gives us the best and most innovative elements of RPGs at the same time.

“One difference between Hero-U and most adventure games is that our characters learn, grow, and change over the course of each game,” says Corey. “A Skill System lets us “soft-gate” the story – you can discover a problem early in the game, but might need to improve some of your skills before you can overcome it.”

Corey adds, “One way to think about the difference between role-playing and adventure games is that adventures have puzzles, each with a specific solution. RPGs have problems, and there are many different ways to overcome them. We think the latter approach makes more realistic and fair gaming – players don’t have to guess our way of solving a problem; they need to find a way that works within the game rules.”

The NPCs also have lives of their own, with their own schedules and relationships. They aren’t just sitting in a store, waiting for you to show up at any time of the day / night to purchase a healing potion. You have to work out their routines and truly interact with them, making the QFG series and Hero-U a pretty unique and immersive RPG experience.

The game is slated for release in early 2016 with a playable Beta late this year. Please throw money at them if you respect what this game is offering and would like to join me in my tiny bandwagon.

CAPITAL CON DC THIS WEEKEND HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

This morning we were informed that Capital Con DC has been cancelled due to problems between the convention and the hotel. A huge shock to us and disappointment, but even bigger disappointment for the organizers of the event. If you have already purchased a ticket then I understand the convention is working to send out refunds.

All involved have been great to work with. We hope to see it return next year! Here is the art Leanne had provided for the show’s program cover.