Topic: The developers dilemma...

[Construed]

Well, All my projects seem to be at a stalemate, Interest is low on all aspects.
I don't think any real qfg fans exist anymore.
I haven't had a new user on my project in weeks and my motivation has completely died off.
Looks like I might take a break from development for a few weeks.

If there are any true QFG fans out there, join in on my project, at least as a general user for i fear If something doesn't give sooner or later I'm going to lose my faith in the QFG communities of the world and consider myself "the last Mohican".

-J

[cat]

Well, you seem to be a huge QfG fan. So if you want to make that game - do it! If it is good people will play it. The decision if you continue working on the game should not depend on other people being fanboys - it should depend only on you wanting to make that game.

[WHAM]

Oh Quest for Glory games are great, no worries, you are not the "last mohican".
However, GQF games are classic "I want to be a hero" stories told in a single character perspective, and your recreation attempts are mere "add multiplayer / chat" remakes, that add nothing to the games themselves. I can only speak for myself, but that seems like a futile project withe very little practical value to the games themselves.

Also: since the original games are great and work great and aren't broken in any discernible way, why fix them? I see no real need for a remake anyway, save for perhaps a unimportant (in my mind) visual update, which there are quite a few already in the works / released.

[ThreeOhFour]

If you rely on other people's support for your projects to get finished, you will probably have a lot of trouble.

A lot of the time when making freeware games you just have to push yourself along and do it for yourself. If others like it when it is done then that is a bonus.

[Mods]

You really need to drop the emotion and get developing, starting so many threads about QFG isn't going to inspire you or anyone else.

Well, I just dropped the last update I'll probably do for several weeks unless some people show interest in this.

Not a particularly good approach. Are you only going to make things if people show an interest? That's really the trait of an attention seeker, not a game maker.

Hope you manage to work something out, but Ben is right, focus on the game, not the attention.

[Victor6]

Same game dev advice as always;-

Shut up and get on with it.

I'm not being unpleasant, it's just that it all boils down to:-

A. Talking about a game doesn't get it made.
B. If you make a game, and it's good, fans will come.
C. If you fail to make the game, no-body knows, and no-body is disappointed.
D. Screw the fans. - Pro diligo of venatus. (no python please, It's been years since I did latin.)

[kconan]

Shut up and get on with it.

Yea this.  The best AGS developers on this board spend more time actually working on their project than talking about their project.  Occasional updates and seeking input is good, whereas 9000 mini-updates and going on and on about the same ambitious project(s) is not.

[Construed]

Yea, Well for years I dreamed of finding a working multiplayer QFG, I told myself if i ever found one I'd join up with it and contribute all I possibly could after years of searching and researching i found that they all failed. Therein I spent many more years researching, Making 3d games, Using other game engines etc.. But i always had my eye out for that perfect engine that would encompass QFG and multiplayer.
To me it's an unbelievable dream come true.
I always assumed that if i felt that way there must be many others, with the way they go about boasting of their fidelity to QFG.

Yet here we stand, 80% complete multiplayer QFG been sitting around collecting dust for god only knows how long.

It's just like I said, There just isn't any real QFG fans like me anymore, There might have never been, looking at myself even i can see that i am overly obsessed with it and That's a skewed perception WHAM, not to cut you down by any means, but in today's world not only is multiplayer a huge bonus with games, It's almost always required for a game to be successful NOT all but about 80% of humans on earth wont even touch a single player game and the ones who will only do because of nostalgia, the same exact type of nostalgia that holds me to qfg and although the single player pnc adventure nostalgia retains higher numbers it is also fading just like QFG.

If i ever had gotten this game completed i wanted to try and introduce simple methods for everyone who makes ags games to incorporate multiplayer into their games.
But I mean, If its too hard for 1 person out of thousands to download my game and run around pretending to have fun for a few minutes what chance do the rest of them stand?

I'm not looking for attention, I'm looking for what people want out of a game like this and apparently it's nothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=A5yYAG-ISuQ

[Scavenger]

Shut up and get on with it.

Truer words have never been spoken. Talking about a project too much can kill it, since people get bored with conjecture, they want substantial stuff! And how many times have you talked to a person who goes on and on about writing The Great American Novel, but have yet to put down a single word of actual drafting? Perhaps there's not much demand for your personal pet project. Instead of constantly talking about it, show them a finished product they can get their hands on and devour. Show them, don't tell them, how great your game is. If people are skeptical about multiplayer (which I think they are), give them something to prove them wrong. Talk is cheap. Games aren't. This is your baby, not everyone elses'. They don't have the same connection to it you do. They don't feel the same enthusiasm about this specific concept, it's your game and you need to provide the enthusiasm to finish it. Noone else is going to do that for you.

In other words...

PS: Graphical adventure games have never been a very multiplayer experience in the sense you want. RPGs, FPSes, RTSes, etc, are completely different beasts and the multiplayer elements are very easy to implement. Just because people want multiplayer in certain genres, doesn't mean they want it in all of them. If you want it, sure, go ahead and make it. But don't expect people to jump on it, as adventure fans aren't known for their massively multiplayer addictions. You want to make them want MP? You make a good game. You don't try and convince them with words. Words don't work. Only games work.

[Construed]

I appreciate your thoughtful words, But have you tried it?

The game is already there!

70-80% complete

[WHAM]

It's there... It's QFG and... What?
What does the multiplayer add to the game? You can see other characters, you can chat with them and what else?

Are there any gameplay mechanics that make use of the multiplayer? Any puzzles that require multipla players to cooperate? Any new content that makes any kind of use of the forced multiplayer gimmick? I have read the GiP thread and I see nothing there warranting interest. If I want to talk to people while playing QFG, I can just open the AGS IRC on a separate window while I play.

[Construed]

There are a lot of shared animations between the players, funny interactions happen that no npc could ever mimic, There's giving new people tours of the land of speilburg which they have never experienced, Theres 3x player views compared to the original, for every set of views in the game i had to make them 3 times for the 3 different characters so you can basically say i remade QFG 3 times and I'm working on a pvp system that i Can't test because i have no beta testers, much less a soul even interested in playing it.

[Construed]

But anyways, I'm not trying to argue with you or anyone else here, we have different views on things and different tastes in games, I'm supposing that not many people here are the people who have been begging for multiplayer qfg for years and years, the PNC adventure pool is rather large.
I'm not going to spam the already overloaded forums with my babbel anymore. I'm just going to leave it alone for awhile and if anyone ever shows enough interest for me to believe its even worth making i'll continue eventually.
I mean someone back there accused me of attention seeking or something of the sort which is pretty whack cause i mean, all games are made to be played right?
 and you make them for other people to play? or do you just make them for yourself so you can sit alone and admire your own work never to be seen by another soul?

but anyways like i said, I'm done talking. it may or may not ever get completed.
It's whatever...

[WHAM]

Oh, I didn't realize you had drawn all new sprites, as all the sprites I've seen in your games so far have been copy/pasted from the original games. And you still give no GAMEPLAY purpose for the multiplayer, all you have is the ability to chat with another person while playing the original game (can you even play the original game fully?) and the ability to animate / emote (if I understand you correctly). That is still not a gameplay mechanic, it's a visual chat.

You have to understand that multiplayer is nothing but a chat feature unless it has a gameplay mechanic tied to it.

But as everyone is saying: if you want to make the game, make the damn game and be done with it. If people are interested (can't say I've ever heard anyone but you "beg for" a QfG multiplayer remake) they will come to you. If not, the game will fade away as yet another forgettable tech-demo.

[Radiant]

It's just like I said, There just isn't any real QFG fans like me anymore,

http://crystalshard.net/hq.htm

[Construed]

Your right and wrong,
It's a lot more than a chat feature, It is a living npc, capable of random actions that no amount of AI programming could ever achieve.
And on the note of adding gameplay mechanics its easy, i could already have ton of such things done, It's not a matter of being able to add them, but having people to test them with.
I guess being AGS has been primarily a single player community it doesn't understand or accept the aspects of such games.

Mmo's sometimes never move to the completed games section, they are usually updated weekly or monthly to face new hackers, add new content, etc..

Mmo's arent about playing a game and beating it, they are more about making a game that can be played forever.
I was really hoping that i could make something like that out of QFG so the new generations can stop downloading it, beating it then deleting it.
Instead it would grow into something marvelous and stop fading away like dust in the wind.

What a lot of you don't understand is that i have nostalgia for you as the PNC adventure gaming community but I'm trying to step us up to another level where we as a people can stop fading away.

All the qfg communities are dead, you can "" me all day on that.

QFMG the most prominent QFG site in existence sits for days on end sometimes without even a post most other sites are dead links or full of them.

PNC adventure gaming is on the same path and people can either embrace the future of technology or they can live by old stereotypes and sit back and watch it fade away.

I'm sad to see all of your beautiful games get played like a maximum of 10 times before being buried in a pile of forum topics or beaten once to never be played again, I mean don't you think all the hard work in code, graphics,story, testing etc etc etc... is worth more than that?

That's my personal view on the QFG series, I'm tired of seeing it being played once and forgotten forever.
That's why I'm breathing this new technological life into it, an everlasting interest.

But without the support of you "The ags and adventure gaming community". I will surely fail.

I don't want just any random people from the internet to play it.
I want people like you and me who share the real nostalgia for PNC, sierra and qfg games, who can really appreciate what it is!


[edit]

http://crystalshard.net/hq.htm

Yes i have been keeping tabs on your site, you are one of the last active QFG projects in existance other than myself

[Darth Mandarb]

Yeah man, you REALLY need to stop interpreting "lack of responses to threads" as "lack of interest" in the project.  Just because people aren't gushing doesn't mean they aren't waiting for it.  I almost never play demos, tech demos, etc.  I want the whole thing and will wait for it.  And I very rarely actually post in GiP threads even if I'm extremely interested in the project (unless they break the rules ).  So if tons of people aren't clogging your servers (of an incomplete game) I wouldn't read anything into that.

As others have already said; just go dark and work on finishing the game!  That's the best way to accomplish what you want!  I know it's a little discouraging when you aren't getting page after page of praise for a project you are so committed to but that's just the reality of 90% of the games in production.

And I think you might actually be discouraging a lot of people by FLOODING the forums to give attention to the project:

- 31 January 2012
- 07 March 2012
- 07 March 2012
- 08 March 2012
- 20 March 2012

And two GiP threads (one locked) for the same game:

- 18 February 2012
- 01 February 2012

Enthusiasm is great (and should be applauded) but too much [over] enthusiasm tends to annoy people and put them off.

I understand what a lot of people are saying about adventure games not lending themselves to multi-player (which is, I suspect, the primary cause for the lack of overwhelming interest).  However; I love the concept of multi-player and would love to see somebody come up with something new that could work within an adventure game setting.

So why stop?  If you're passionate about it (which you clearly are) don't stop just because you aren't getting the attention you think it deserves!

Me personally I am working on several things that nobody knows about and I prefer it that way.  Less stress, less distractions, more focus on the project.  In the end it's up to you but I'd encourage you to stop worrying about advertising and start worrying about just finishing it!

Good luck bud!

[Andail]

I'm not looking for attention,

Yes you are. You crave constant, 24/7 attention and feedback. Maybe it's a subconcious thing or something, but it's still a fact.

As plenty of people have told you already (repeatedly): Work more and talk less.

[Construed]

Yea Darth, your right as usual.
I guess i'm just a people person and thats why i even added the multiplayer before the game was finished.
I had hoped people would be running around in-game while i develop telling me , hey fix this and yo, fix that and doing a buncha silly crap to help make the work less burdensome.
But I'm realizing more and more every day that things don't always work out as you imagine.

I know i've made alot of bad judgment calls since i joined these forums and probably made alot of people dislike me, but i'm a highly forgiving person.
I don't hate anyone on earth right now much less anyone on these forums for any tit for tat disputes we may have had although i can understand some of them hating me.
But you know, it is what it is i guess, You screw up enough and there will be inevitable consequences which i guess i have to face perhaps even indefinitely.

I guess I just am naive and expect everyone on earth to be forgiving as me  which i know can't be the case with some of the many blatant episodes I've had.

I guess at this point i do just need to get on with it, I'm wasting precious ags bandwidth and my reputation LOL

 

[Stupot+]

I don't think I've even played Quest for Glory, so I certainly couldn't be called a fan, but I am very interested to see any ways in which people are willing to experiment with the question of multiplayer adventures.  Even if it does just amount to having a chat element, it's a step in the right direction.  So I've got one eye on your project, not because of QFG but because I'm waiting to see how it turns out.

So, I agree with everyone else who says just get on with it and don't worry about how many people seem interested or not.  When it's finished you might be surprised just how many people come out of the woodwork to have a play.  Good luck.