Mage's Initiation - Out Now!

[chucklas]

(But please only put your name down if you're actually intending to purchase the Limited Edition later. People on the list will be contacted as the game is nearing completion.)

This is hard to know. Without pricing, I don't see how we can know if we will purchase the limited edition. Can you give a rough estimate of cost?

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

Not yet, sorry. But people can reserve a Limited Edition, and once we announce the price they can still remove their name from the list if they want to cancel it.

We need X amount of orders to make the Limited Editions possible, and currently we have well in excess of that number. Still, at the moment it's like playing with Monopoly money, but if the majority who have pre-ordered do end up buying it, we should be able to do something real nice with the collectibles.

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

Adventure Gamers posted some large size screenshots from Mage's Initiation: Reign of the Elements:

http://adventuregamers.com/gallery.php?id=1895

[Radogol]

Adventure Gamers posted some large size screenshots from Mage's Initiation: Reign of the Elements.

Looks fantastic!

Out of curiosity, if you were granted a commercial King's Quest license, do you think it would look anything like that?

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

Oops, and here's Adventure Gamer's write-up, which I forgot to add to the above post:

http://www.adventuregamers.com/newsitem.php?id=2219

Out of curiosity, if you were granted a commercial King's Quest license, do you think it would look anything like that?

That depends. Telltale have rights to KQ sequels obviously, so we can't make them. If we were allowed to do remakes, we'd have to poll fans on whether they'd want higher-res remakes (slower, so there would be fewer of them), or traditional low-res ones(faster and less expensive, so more of them).

[Radogol]

That depends. Telltale have rights to KQ sequels obviously, so we can't make them. If we were allowed to do remakes.

The question was purely hypothetical. Although I noticed that whenever the subject comes up, you say "remakes". Is that the only thing you would be interested in doing, or have you given thought to creating original chapters in the saga? I ask because, frankly, it's the storyline and puzzle design that make me value KQ2+ much higher than the original, not so much the improved graphics (at least not until 3.0). After all, beauty is only skin deep

Anyway, as a fan of Quest for Glory - especially the first one - and Daniel's considerable talent, I am very excited for Mage's Initiation.

[MusicallyInspired]

Like AGD2 just said, Telltale has the rights to sequels so that's out of the question.

[Radogol]

Like AGD2 just said, Telltale has the rights to sequels so that's out of the question.

Like I just said, the question is purely hypothetical

[MusicallyInspired]

Well, hypothetically, if Telltale didn't have the rights we'd all be having a completely different discussion and probably different poll options, too. But they do.

[Radogol]

Well, hypothetically, if Telltale didn't have the rights we'd all be having a completely different discussion and probably different poll options, too. But they do.

You're no fun.

Anyway, back to Mage's Initiation. Dare I ask if the game can be completed without any combat at all?

EDIT: By the way, whoa. Did you just let slip that TellTale got the license for ALL the classic Sierra IP?

[Erpy]

The idea is not to make combat too big a part of the game as to deter players who don't like fight sequences.

[Radogol]

The idea is not to make combat too big a part of the game as to deter players who don't like fight sequences.

I'm assuming the frequency of combat depends to a degree on the main character's element. Could you say if that assumption is at least somewhat correct?

[DrJones]

The idea is not to make combat too big a part of the game as to deter players who don't like fight sequences.

I'm assuming the frequency of combat depends to a degree on the main character's element. Could you say if that assumption is at least somewhat correct?

If the game is not to be finished until late 2012, I think the most wise thing is not to say much about it, to avoid scenarios like the "naughty mickey" that was removed at the last moment from Epic Mickey and angered the fans.

[PValiant]

Wonderful news. I directly enlisted for a copy of this game. The gadgets are nice, but the reason to sign up (and actually buy the game ofcourse) had more to do with my expectations for the game itself ánd the desire to do something in return for all your amazing work. Please notify me If I have to pay ahead.

I really loved the screenshot of the lake scene This exceeds all expectations I had after reading about this game.

Having said that, I do have one question related to the character sprites. Are these final yet? They look like they can use a bit more shadow/lightning to blend in with the 640/480 environment.

Good luck with the production. Looking forward to the final product.

[b74life]

I think its a mistake to "minimize" the combat. That's what made QFG unique and that's what really made the agdi remake stand out. Just make an option to play the game without combat or something, but for those of us that are QFG fiends, please give us an in-depth combat system like you did for QG2. I personally don't care about regular adventure games but when you give it a bit of an arcade/actiony side to it, it keeps me interested and I appreciate the atmospheric/puzzle side. To me, though, nothing but puzzles the whole way through, can be boring. (except with the first Sam and Max game where the laughs kept my attention)

Am I alone here?

Btw: The screen shots are giving me a raging nerd boner. Looks really awesome so far. I'll def buy this.

[Erpy]

I never said it was gonna be minimized, but if it's to be possible to play through the game without having to fight, you can't have it be too prominent.

[b74life]

Well whatever it is, if it's anything like what was implemented in QFG2 I'm going to enjoy the living hell out of it. I'm excited!

[Chief]

What wonderful news!!!! Just saw this and it forced me to stay up late to find out more about this project.

I am also in the camp that likes more combat, since i'm a big fan of the QFG series.

Also, i was wondering, approximately how much of the game is done now, percentage wise?

[Radogol]

I am also in the camp that likes more combat, since i'm a big fan of the QFG series.

I feel I need to protect my street cred and comment on that

When it comes to RPGs, I'm in the camp of "as much combat as the player desires". For example there's this fantastic game called Arcanum (published by Sierra incidentally). In one playthrough, I was a dumb ogre, solving all my problems with a two-handed axe. In the other, I played as a sickly magician, making my way through the world using such skills as persuasion, lockpicking and concealment, not to mention creative spells which, among other things, allowed me to speak with the dead.

Another example is Fallout 1 - while the series is associated with first person shooting nowadays, I believe I've managed not to take a single human life in one of my playthroughs. I can't get enough of games which support variety of character builds and playing styles and that's the reason I've asked about combat in Mage's Initiation.

Anyway, I have a question regarding screenshots.


This background seems to be much sharper than all the others. Is it because it's a mock-up, or have you switched to a higher res halfway through production?

For comparison:

[GamerGal]

I really loved the screenshot of the lake scene This exceeds all expectations I had after reading about this game... Good luck with the production. Looking forward to the final product.

I have to agree ... this screen in particular, is breathtaking! Makes you want to go there is person!

[b74life]

Seeing those two pics up close made me realize that there's different spritesets for the different character types. I'm really curious to see the difference in how they play.

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

Yes, the first image was a mock-up made from a higher resolution version of the background. We don't have many of the more "interesting" scenes programmed into the game yet, so I had to throw a couple of them together in Photoshop. Usually, our game backgrounds and art assets go through a lot of additional editing and refinement, so none of these screenshots should be deemed 'final' in appearance, as a lot can change over time.

Anyhow, I'm glad to see that the graphics are getting such a positive response!

And yes, the main character's attire will change, depending on which element the player specializes in. Shane Stevens (ProgZmax from the AGS forums) is doing the majority of sprite pixel work and animation for Mage's Initiation, and his work is pretty spectacular!

[Blackthorne519]

Oh, wow, ProgZMax is doing the sprites? He IS very good.... that's awesome. Cool to finally find out more and more about the title.


Bt

[dailo23]

Hi,

been a fan since the beginning. any thought of porting al emmo / mage's initiation to mobile platform (IOS and/or android)? as much as i love classic adventure games, i do think classic adventure games won't sell well on PC anymore. you're probably make a lot more by selling iphone/ipad version for $5-10, then selling PC at $30-40.. as currently most mobile phone resolution are perfect for classic adventure game (800x480-1024x768 range).

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

The AGS engine doesn't currently support those ports, but there has been recent talk of the run-time going open source, which would open the door to these possibilities (so long as the entire game doesn't need to be recompiled or tweaked to accommodate new settings/resolutions etc).

I still think there's a lot of life in the PC market, especially when you consider localization deals for different territories and what not. Making the game available to more people on more systems is never a bad thing, though heavily under-charging for decent games is a pet-peeve of mine. When people can get too many good games for too low a price, it ensures that only AAA will survive in the marketplace. I personally prefer not play into devaluing games by selling them for less than they're worth. It's a trend that will make this form of entertainment seem valueless in the long run. Especially when Hollywood movies are getting worse (they contain much less "entertainment time" than games) and yet movie ticket prices are skyrocketing! I say let the casual phone developers run themselves into the ground with 99c games if they want, but a good adventure game is always worth paying for.