NOOO! KQIX shut down by Vivendi

[Alarcon]

Jet,

Yes, obviously.  The reason I mentioned commercial games in my first post is that it seems to me all KQIX had going for it was all right graphics.  The production values were very high for an indie (better said, amateur; there are "indie" games with big budgets) adventure game, sure.  But most everyone here I'm sure gets all huffy and says things like, "It's not the graphics, it's the game!" when discussing commercial products.  I'm somewhat baffled as to why, when the game is indie, people drop all gameplay standards if the graphics are pretty. 

In this case, I thought the graphics were decent -- although, as I believe I noted above, there were serious compositing issues and the animation was rather stiff -- but they weren't mindblowing.  And from everything we could see, the game looked embarassingly melodramatic.  The fact that they never showed anything that looked like gameplay in their stills or animation suggests to me that gameplay wasn't being considered at all.  My sense is that they viewed adventure games primarily as story-telling games, and, as I've written elsewhere (not under this nom d' clavier), putting story before gameplay in any genre is putting the cart before the horse.

My sense is that the game was being done by a crowd weaned on anime (some of the character designs definitely show anime influences), Japanese RPGs, and David Eddings quality fantasy novels.  They had a fondness for KQ, sure, but they were warped by those influencs to the point that was most important was telling an epic, melodramatic fantasy story, where the hero goes around declaiming and there are long, elaborate, uninteractive dialogue sequences.

So I look at this game, which shows us nothing but pretty graphics and jaw-droppingly lame writing, and I wonder to myself why everyone is so excited.  Then VU pulls the plug and everyone talks about the game like it was the Second Coming.  All I'm saying is that it looked decidedly mediocre to me.  If we take the same standards we use for appraising commercial games and then use those standards to compare KQIX to the other solid amateur adventure games, I think KQIX comes up short.  So when people treat it like it's way better than those games, it offends me and I feel obliged to point out its failings.

Generally, the same crowd who says that the reason indie games are better than commercial games is that they aren't obsessed with eyecandy wind up touting the most eye-candy oriented indie games as the best. 

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Speaking for myself, I didn't know much about the project. I don't know about "Second Coming", but I always find it sad when this sort of thing happens. It reminds me of Kairus' "Garfield" episode.

[MrColossal]

"My sense is that the game was being done by a crowd weaned on anime (some of the character designs definitely show anime influences), Japanese RPGs, and David Eddings quality fantasy novels.  They had a fondness for KQ, sure, but they were warped by those influencs to the point that was most important was telling an epic, melodramatic fantasy story, where the hero goes around declaiming and there are long, elaborate, uninteractive dialogue sequences."

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see anywhere on the website where there is art that is anime inspired.

I don't see anything on the website that says the game was going to be full of long and boring uninteractive cutscenes...

"If you read the forums, it's clear there was a coup in KQIX's development where the original writer was ousted.  I assume he had wanted to tell a more humble fairy tale, not a lame fantasy melodrama.  It's a shame he didn't manage to keep his hand in this."

Can you back that assumption up with anything or are you just making wild guesses?

Also, what does it matter, when any game gets shut down people cry foul and say release it anyway, even when some project on the AGS forums gets shut down people go a little nuts trying to convince the person to keep it going.

Sure you can criticise something but from what I've read [unless their forums give more story out, which I don't read] you're making a lot of assumptions with little fact.

But please, prove me wrong if I am.

[Alarcon]

The young man in the animation (who I assume is Alexander) looks like a stock "realistic" anime character to me.

Obviously I'm making assumptions -- that's what I mean by, "I assume" -- and you're welcome to try to track down more to the story.  But the ousted writer came up with the title, which is pretty campy, and if you look at older screenshots they look a lot less serious.  It's hard to imagine what the change of direction could have been, if not from a fairy tale to a melodrama.  Do you have a better guess at it?

[big brother]

I'm not sad KQ9 was canceled. It would've sucked anyways*.

*See the Aesop's Fable about the wolf and the grapes.

[TheYak]

I really don't see how that's applicable as I certainly wasn't planning on eating KQIX.  I'll thank you to keep your arbitrary comments to yourself, BB.

[Nikolas]

I'm really bad at spotting fun and sarcasm through the net, but I can't see it here, thus I enter to defend big brother.

I really don't see how that's applicable as I certainly wasn't planning on eating KQIX.Ã,  I'll thank you to keep your arbitrary comments to yourself, BB.

Check at google and see if you can find anything on Aesop (Ancient, Greek author of many fables with educational values).
He does mean quite the opposite.

And if this some kind of fun, please forgive me... (I did say that I'm an amateur when it comes to spotting sarcasm. On the other hand I'm quite professional when it comes to ruining the fun)!

On the topic now:

Fan games are made for a couple of reason, that I can think of.
To pay respect to the original games and to take some of the flame from the original.
I don't think that there is any denayal in the fact they were doing a good job (from what I've seen). It is a bizzare coincident that SQ, KQ, LucasFan were all shut in a period of a month (maybe not for the latter, but the other two?)

The fact remains that Vivendi holds the f***ing copyrights and that gives them the power to do whatever they want. And for some reason, that me for once am not able, or experienced, or in the industry, they decided to shut the project down. It does seem, small minded, stupid, hostile and whatever else, but they must have a reason, other than playing with destroying other peoples' projects.

I sure hope that a game with a simillar name, and simillar characters, will emerge and that Vivendi won't be able to do shit about it!

And for some of you who think that hiding until releasing the game is a good idea, I'm not so sure. As even if there are 1000s of mirrors to your game (which breeches (sp) copyright) it is still illegal and Vivendi (or any other holding the copyrights), could even sue you. I've no idea how this could work in court (maybe a lawyer can help here), but again the law is pretty specific on that. If you "steal", something you're going to have to pay. No matter why you did it, if you get anything out of it, financial that is, or if the damage is allready done!

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

The young man in the animation (who I assume is Alexander) looks like a stock "realistic" anime character to me.

Obviously I'm making assumptions -- that's what I mean by, "I assume" -- and you're welcome to try to track down more to the story.  But the ousted writer came up with the title, which is pretty campy, and if you look at older screenshots they look a lot less serious.  It's hard to imagine what the change of direction could have been, if not from a fairy tale to a melodrama.  Do you have a better guess at it?

He wanted to know if you had any fact behind your assumptions, not weather or not you were making them.  I want to know where on the forums you found any of the plot and deemed it highly influenced by anime & japanese RPGs. 

And some of the most serious scenes can take themselves lightly, and not make it an "epic melodrama" or a "campy humor". 
**trying really, really hard not to quote QFG**

[cesarbittar]

Alarcon,

I normally don't this, but I believe I have to clear out some of the comments I've read in this thread.

1) "games should not be melodramatic" I welcome you to look at the Final Fantasy series. They may be a different genre that you may not like, but there's a reason why the game is followed by millions of people, including many adventure lovers.

2) Roberta Williams gave us her support, and was totally amazed at the screenshots/trailer. So was Ken. Roberta is particulary very proud of us and has thanked us for carrying on her legacy. Ken has publicly said that if he were still at the helm of Sierra, he would sign a project like ours immediately.

3) You obviously don't know even a 1% of the script, as the game is balanced between drama and humor. Yes, I'm a fan of the KQ series and know exactly what they are about. The idea was to take the series to a wider audience that is more used to the epic sagas of today. However, the game follows a lot of fairy-tales and blends them into the story (Cinderella being one of them). No, the plot/art is not *completely* influenced by Japanese anime (the art truly isn't). I won't deny that I am a fan of Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts (latter which happens to be a lot in the vibe of KQ), etc, however, KQIX is more influenced by games like The Longest Journey (A melodrama, and one of the best adventure games out there, btw), sagas like the Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, etc.

Here's a couple of examples of how lighthearted this game can get to be:

LOOK at soup bowls:
GRAHAM:    Hmmm, aren't these…?   
NARRATOR:   "Hear ye, hear ye! Now your inner glutton can be satisfied, and you'll never starve again!Ã,  Daventry's own Refilling Bowls, used and approved of by King Graham himself whilst he sought the crown of Daventry! Warning: The contents of this food product may or may not contain any nutritional value. In fact, the contents of this food product and their origins have not successfully been identified. Do not place in or heat in microwave.”
GRAHAM:    Microwave?
NARRATOR: Sorry, I mistook you for Roger Wilco.
GRAHAM:    Ah, Roger.
NARRATOR:   Graham still remembers the time Roger crashed into his moat after hitting the “Don't Push” button in the original Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter.
GRAHAM:    Funny guy, a little bit out there. He insisted he came from the future.
NARRATOR: It took the Daventry guards days before they could pull that strange device out of the water.
GRAHAM:    What did he call it? Space horse?
NARRATOR: Ship, Graham, spaceship.
GRAHAM:    He kept saying he wanted to be my first knight. I always thought he was good for cleaning the stables. I wonder where he is now.
NARRATOR: Probably crashed at Schloss Ritter.
GRAHAM:   Where in Daventry is that?
NARRATOR:   You don't play too many adventure games, do you, Graham?
GRAHAM:    Contrary to your beliefs, I do! Over and over again.
NARRATOR:   Luckily for you there is that “save and load” feature.
GRAHAM:    Yes. Especially on those narrow edges in the early days.
NARRATOR: Somebody ought to teach those players how to control those arrows.
GRAHAM:    It hurt! A lot!
PO:   Excuse me, sire, are you talking to yourself?
GRAHAM:   â€¦No.

Hole in the Wall starts jumping and making noises.
GRAHAM:    (he kneels down) Slow down, my fantastic friend--
Hole in the Wall keeps jumping around, getting more excited.
GRAHAM:    What is it that you say? I can't decipher your tongue!
Hole in the wall, points in one direction over the sea.
GRAHAM:    The sea?
Hole in the Wall shook his head and mimics “over it.”
GRAHAM:    Over the sea?
Hole in the wall nods, then looks at his surroundings, scared.
GRAHAM:    I understand. You are lost, and you want to go home.
Hole in the Wall nods, then points at Graham.
GRAHAM:    I'm sorry. I wish I could help you go home, but I'm on a critical mission.
Hole in the Wall stars whimpering.
GRAHAM:    All right, all right, don't cry. You can come along. I'll do my best to bring you home.
Hole in the wall gets all excited.
GRAHAM:    Jump in, my new companion.
Hole in the Wall jumps into Graham's pocket.
(End of Sequence)

USE MAGIC POWDER on pond:
Sequence Trigger:
EXT â€" POND - NIGHT
   Rosella goes to the shore of the pond and sprays it with the powder. The waters start moving violently, up and down.
FAIRIES:    Here she comes! Here she comes!
   Rosella gasps. The waters get even more violent, and they seem they are going to flood the place. The wind is strong. Finally, from the pond, a unicorn no bigger than the size of a hand emerges and lands on Rosella's hand.
ROSELLA:    (disappointed) This?
   The fairies gasps and Unique bites Rosella, Rosella screams and stirs her away.
UNIQUE:    And I am to serve her?
FAIRIES:    Unique!
UNIQUE:    Did you miss me?
FAIRIES:    Rosella, Unique will take you to Astratos!
ROSELLA:    Me? I could carry it!
UNIQUE:    Her.
ROSELLA:    Whatever!
UNIQUE:    Her, I said. And if it wasn't my task, I would not carry you at all. Not even back to the castle, where the guards would take you to the dungeon.
ROSELLA:    (astounded) Well, I, I just…
UNIQUE:    But since it's my task, let's get over with it. What are you waiting for?
ROSELLA:    I don't take any orders from a midget beast!
FAIRIES:    Oohhhhh!
UNIQUE:    I'm about to give up my sacred obligations. Now do what you have to do and I'll do what I have to do, and that'll be that.
FAIRIES:    Rosella, do as she says! She's the only one that can take you to Astratos!
ROSELLA:    Why didn't I get a hippopotamus?
UNIQUE:    Because not even one of those could put up with your weight.
ROSELLA:    And just how are you going to do so? I can barely see you.
UNIQUE:    It's not my fault you are blinder than a Typhlopidae.
ROSELLA:    A what?
UNIQUE:    A blind snake. Hmph! As far as what you need to do, I don't have to tell you everything, do I?
                  (End of sequence)

EXT â€" SHIP - NIGHT
   The ship is riding through the skies, Alexander is on the bow.Ã, 
DVOICES:   (O.S) Yes, Alexander… Yes… Come to us… We are part of you…
VOICE:    (V.O) It may be a hard decision, especially now, when you cannot distinguish what is right and wrong for you. This you must believe, and ponder. In the many years that will come, you may still think on this. But you have no need to ever be afraid, or feel you are strangely different. You are different, but you are not alone in this world.
TIGROAT:    (O.S, in a long scream) Help!
CAPTAIN:    Come back here! You scurrying beast!
   Tigroat runs and hides behind Alexander.
TIGROAT:    Please, mi amigo, you have to help me!
ALEX:    What…?
TIGROAT:    He wants to kick me out the ship! And I need to go home!
CAPTAIN:    There you are! I was very clear no one steps on my ship without an admission letter!
TIGROAT:    But I am a citizen of the Endless Forest!
CAPTAIN:    That is not of my business. No letter, no ride! Now come with me!
   The captain tries to take him, Tigroat hides behind Alexander, and Alexander moves up and down funnily. Finally, the captain takes him and starts carrying Tigroat away.
TIGROAT:    (to Alex) Por favor!
ALEX:    Stop there, captain.
CAPTAIN:    Huh? (he turns around).
ALEX:    He's with me.
CAPTAIN:    Pets are not allowed in the academy.
TIGROAT:    I am n-not a p-pet!
ALEX:    He's… he's right. He's… this is actually top secret information, but I can assure you that if he doesn't make it to the Academy, you are going to be in big trouble.
CAPTAIN:    I didn't receive any notice of this!
TIGROAT:    That's because it's top secret!
ALEX:    He's right.
CAPTAIN:    Arr! Aight! But you better keep an eye on him. I don't want no kitty fur anywhere on my ship!
TIGROAT:    I am a tiger (roars and tries to scratch him), not a kitty!
CAPTAIN:    You look like a damned overgrown kitty to me. Now, you heard me. No fur!
   He drops Tigroat and leaves. Tigroat cleans himself and then walks to Alexander.
TIGROAT:   Gracias. (beat) It means thank you. (Alexander doesn't respond). What are you gonna do in the Academy? Are you a big wizard? You don't look that old, though. I'm Tigroat, that's T-I-G-RRRRRRR-O-A-T. I come from the lands of the Endless Forest.
   Alexander looks down and can't help but smile.
ALEX:    I'm Alexander.
TIGROAT:    I could tell you a lot about the lands you are going to. It's your first time, right? Well, there's this… (voice fades).
   The ship starts pulling towards the horizon.
                        (CUT TO)


4) "Maybe the exception is KQ VI" You are correct. That also happens to be the fan's favorite. We've done a lot of research before making our decisions.

5) The graphics weren't less serious. That's a different land, and you are looking at them from wider shot as opposite to the tighter shots of the game sequences.

6) Luke Jensen left on his own. The game script he wrote was probably 30 pages as opposed to the 1500 pages that it ended up to be. He wasn't part of the team's decisions when the first set of screenshots came out. He wasn't even part of the Art Direction decisions. That has always come down to Rich Flores and Michael Fortunato.

7) Story before gameplay. You have probably never read interviews made to the team, articles written on the game, etc, etc, that could tell you about a couple of features that the game has. I'll just put it this way. The game script was 1500 pages long. The walkthrough was 56 pages long, and it was just a pintpointer of what to do, such as an example:

Getting the Dreamcatcher:

-Talk “Elements for the Dreamcatcher” with Andreios.
-On the stars below, cast Asturach Lon on sign.
-Cast Aperio Pridem on the Unicorn Star.
-Separate Alexander and Rosella. Send Alexander to Outside the Dragon Forest.
-As Rosella, cast Retrogradior on Unicorn's star. Switch to Alexander.
-Cast Yuner Koi on Unicorn.
-As Alex, hand on Unicorn. Get Unicorn's Hair.
-In Cave of the Dragon, grab cobweb.
-In Temple top outside right, Use Cobweb on dragon. They lay the cobweb down.
-As Alex, cast Grerear on cobweb.
-As Rosella, cast Ocius on Cobweb.

8 ) Pretty graphics, one decent voice over and one ho-hum song? Ok... more facts. The first part of the trilogy, SHADOWS, has 110 different locations, 190 characters (which are all modeled and more than half textured), a soundtrack that at the time goes a little over 2 hours of music and would have reached 3 hours (including two full songs), it was based on about 400 pages of the full 1500 pages script. We have a full cast of over 25 actors recorded online (that auditioned and were cast and recorded at New York City), plus the 30 or more actors from the online auditions which have the smaller roles. We completely turned the Torque engine, which was designed for a FPS into an adventure engine. First part has around 25 cutscenes and they had been all storyboarded and turned into an animatic, and some of them were finalized. I can go on and on and on here.... but I also "assume" that you could go around the KQIX site and find all of these facts.

Yes, it was an epic. Yes, it was very story-driven and had a lot of character development. Yes, it had a lot of cutscenes, and was overall very cinematic (which is a question of taste in my opinion), but also had a lot of gameplay and well thought puzzles that would have had anyone playing for days. I'm particulary not a stranger to the adventure genre. I have probably played 80% of all the adventure games out there prior to 2002 (I now pick what adventure games to play because I don't have the time).

And...

Yes, you are making a lot of completely incorrect "assumptions". If you are going to bring down the work of the hundreds of people of my team that have poured their hearts out for four years by working so hard on something they believed in, please, at least show them some respect by doing a better research on the things you say before babling out whatever comes into your mind. Thank you.

César Bittar
Project Director
KQIX Development Team

[Kweepa]

So, what's the next step?
Finish it with slightly changed names?
Or a completely different product with the team and engine?

[Nikolas]

So, what's the next step?
Finish it with slightly changed names?
Or a completely different product with the team and engine?

I would imagine that it would be for the best not to know,at least for now.

I don't know, after all the fuss...

[mcomp72]

Hey everybody,

I wanted to let everyone know that myself and many other King's Quest fans have joined together and started an organization to try to save KQIX.

Our website is:  www.savekqix.org

We feel very strongly that our best chance to save the game is through a letter writing campaign.  If you care about KQIX and want to see it released, I strongly urge you to take 10 minutes and write a letter to Vivendi Universal Games.  Let them know how much you were looking forward to the game.

I know some of you may have already sent an email to Vivendi.  That's great, but we still need you to send a physical letter via the good ol' postal service.  A physical letter will have so much more of an impact than an email.  The emails are probably never seen by anyone except a couple of low level people who's job it is to check those email accounts.  It's easy to dismiss thousands of emails.  But it's hard to ignore thousands of actual letters.  Physical letters will have so much more of a VISUAL IMPACT.  Think of how those Vivendi executives will feel when the see those stack and stacks of letters!

I know some of you may have also signed the petition that has been circulating.  We think the petition is a good idea, but really believe that a personally written letter from each one of you, rather than the same petition, will be EVEN MORE EFFECTIVE.  In fact, the person that created the petition is a major part of our organization.  Oh, and don't worry; if you've already signed the petition, it WILL be sent to Vivendi.  However, we still need you to write a letter!

Visit our webpage for the mailing address to VU Games.  Stop by the forums and say hello.  Let's make it known that there are a lot of adventure game fans out here that want to see the game released.  We need EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU in order to be successful.

Please, take 10 minutes out of your day to write that letter.  It's the best chance we have to save KQIX!

Take care,

Matt

www.savekqix.org


P.S.  Please spread the word!  We need as many King's Quest fans as possible to find out about our "quest" to save KQIX.

[Scummbuddy]

since im sure you other post will be deleted, since we dont allow double posting here, ill write my response here.

Whats wrong with letting them just change the names of the characters and locations, and then release the game that way?

[Alarcon]

I've never felt so vindicated in my life.Ã,  Wow.Ã,  Could you draw that target on your chest a little bigger and brighter?Ã,  LOL

1) Cheap Melodrama.

I write:

My sense is that the game was being done by a crowd weaned on anime (some of the character designs definitely show anime influences), Japanese RPGs, and David Eddings quality fantasy novels.Ã,  They had a fondness for KQ, sure, but they were warped by those influencs to the point that was most important was telling an epic, melodramatic fantasy story, where the hero goes around declaiming and there are long, elaborate, uninteractive dialogue sequences.

He says:

1) "games should not be melodramatic" I welcome you to look at the FINAL FANTASY series. They may be a different genre that you may not like, but there's a reason why the game is followed by millions of people, including many adventure lovers.

The idea was to take the series to a wider audience that is more used to the EPIC SAGAS of today. However, the game follows a lot of fairy-tales and blends them into the story (Cinderella being one of them). No, THE PLOT/ART IS NOT *COMPLETELY* INFLUENCED BY JAPANESE ANIME [ed: is there any other kind?] (the art truly isn't). I won't deny that I am a fan of FINAL FANTASY / kingdom hearts . . .  KQIX is more influenced by games like The Longest Journey (A MELODRAMA, and one of the best adventure games out there, btw), SAGAS LIKE LORD OF THE RINGS, CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, ETC.

2) No gameplay.

I write:

the hero goes around declaiming and there are long, elaborate, uninteractive dialogue sequences . . .
gameplay wasn't being considered at all.Ã,  My sense is that they viewed adventure games primarily as story-telling games . . . .

He says:

The game script was 1500 pages long. The walkthrough was 56 pages long . . . it had a lot of cutscenes, and was overall very cinematic

3) Just graphics.

I write:

I look at this game [and it] shows us nothing but pretty graphics . . . .Ã,  [T]he same crowd who says that the reason indie games are better than commercial games is that they aren't obsessed with eyecandy wind up touting the most eye-candy oriented indie games as the best.

He says:

Roberta Williams . . . was totally amazed at the screenshots/trailer. So was Ken.

4) Not funny, bad writing.

I write:

So I look at this game [and see] jaw-droppingly lame writing . . . . The only way you can carry that kind of stupid cliche is with a chuckle.

He says:

GRAHAM:    Microwave?
NARRATOR: Sorry, I mistook you for Roger Wilco.
GRAHAM:    Ah, Roger.
NARRATOR:   Graham still remembers the time Roger crashed into his moat after hitting the “Don't Push” button in the original Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter.
GRAHAM:    Funny guy, a little bit out there. He insisted he came from the future.
NARRATOR: It took the Daventry guards days before they could pull that strange device out of the water.
GRAHAM:    What did he call it? Space horse?
NARRATOR: Ship, Graham, spaceship.
GRAHAM:    He kept saying he wanted to be my first knight. I always thought he was good for cleaning the stables. I wonder where he is now.
NARRATOR: Probably crashed at Schloss Ritter.
GRAHAM:   Where in Daventry is that?
NARRATOR:   You don't play too many adventure games, do you, Graham?

5) Totally uninteractive.

I write:

No one should ever make a melodramatic game.Ã,  Such games are invariably lame and always wind up being extremely uninteractive

He says:

DVOICES:Ã,  Ã, (O.S) Yes, Alexander… Yes… Come to us… We are part of you…
VOICE:Ã,  Ã,  (V.O) It may be a hard decision, especially now, when you cannot distinguish what is right and wrong for you. This you must believe, and ponder. In the many years that will come, you may still think on this. But you have no need to ever be afraid, or feel you are strangely different. You are different, but you are not alone in this world.
TIGROAT:Ã,  Ã,  (O.S, in a long scream) Help!
CAPTAIN:Ã,  Ã,  Come back here! You scurrying beast!
Ã,  Ã, Tigroat runs and hides behind Alexander.
TIGROAT:Ã,  Ã,  Please, mi amigo, you have to help me!
ALEX:Ã,  Ã,  What…?
TIGROAT:Ã,  Ã,  He wants to kick me out the ship! And I need to go home!
CAPTAIN:Ã,  Ã,  There you are! I was very clear no one steps on my ship without an admission letter!
TIGROAT:Ã,  Ã,  But I am a citizen of the Endless Forest!
CAPTAIN:Ã,  Ã,  That is not of my business. No letter, no ride! Now come with me!
Ã,  Ã, The captain tries to take him, Tigroat hides behind Alexander, and Alexander moves up and down funnily. Finally, the captain takes him and starts carrying Tigroat away.
TIGROAT:Ã,  Ã,  (to Alex) Por favor!
ALEX:Ã,  Ã,  Stop there, captain.
CAPTAIN:Ã,  Ã,  Huh? (he turns around).
ALEX:Ã,  Ã,  He's with me.
CAPTAIN:Ã,  Ã,  Pets are not allowed in the academy.
TIGROAT:Ã,  Ã,  I am n-not a p-pet!
ALEX:Ã,  Ã,  He's… he's right. He's… this is actually top secret information, but I can assure you that if he doesn't make it to the Academy, you are going to be in big trouble.
CAPTAIN:Ã,  Ã,  I didn't receive any notice of this!
TIGROAT:Ã,  Ã,  That's because it's top secret!
ALEX:Ã,  Ã,  He's right.
CAPTAIN:Ã,  Ã,  Arr! Aight! But you better keep an eye on him. I don't want no kitty fur anywhere on my ship!
TIGROAT:Ã,  Ã,  I am a tiger (roars and tries to scratch him), not a kitty!
CAPTAIN:Ã,  Ã,  You look like a damned overgrown kitty to me. Now, you heard me. No fur!
Ã,  Ã, He drops Tigroat and leaves. Tigroat cleans himself and then walks to Alexander.
TIGROAT:Ã,  Ã, Gracias. (beat) It means thank you. (Alexander doesn't respond). What are you gonna do in the Academy? Are you a big wizard? You don't look that old, though. I'm Tigroat, that's T-I-G-RRRRRRR-O-A-T. I come from the lands of the Endless Forest.
Ã,  Ã, Alexander looks down and can't help but smile.
ALEX:Ã,  Ã,  I'm Alexander.
TIGROAT:Ã,  Ã,  I could tell you a lot about the lands you are going to. It's your first time, right? Well, there's this… (voice fades).
Ã,  Ã, The ship starts pulling towards the horizon.
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  (CUT TO)

Note the ominous "cut to," which means that even more bad writing awaits with a new mediocre rendering!Ã,  Hooray!

------

Let me tell you what your "game" would have been: a lame and tedious 3D cartoon, eighty percent stupid melodrama and twenty percent stupid jokes.Ã,  Sure, I'm not surprised that Roberta Williams is flattered that so much time and effort was being used to resuscitate a series of hers that has long since died.Ã,  If someone put that much work into turning one of the awful stories I wrote in middle school into a three act play, I'd be flattered (if amused) and I'd throw cheap compliments their way.Ã,  Of course, if I'd sold the rights to that story to a company, I might also drop them a line to know that thieves were stealing their intellectual property, which, perhaps, is that the Williamses did.Ã,  I hope not, but who knows?

Let me help put into perspective just how tediously uninteractive this game was going to be.Ã,  Final Fantasy Tactics has a script that is 200 pages long.Ã,  Xenogears, the only more obnoxiously melodramatic and uninteractive jRPG to my knowledge, has a script that is 1300 pages long.Ã,  (Of course, page counts are for idiots; word counts translate much better.)Ã,  That makes KQIX's script as long as Final Fantasy Tactics's and Xenogears's combined.Ã,  All that in a game that offers a few days worth of puzzles.

Can you imagine anything more boring than all the length of those two bloated embarrassments, written even more poorly, even more self-indulgently, and accompanied by some amateur voice overs?Ã,  God . . . .Ã,  That's not the stuff of dreams.Ã,  It's the stuff of nightmares.

"Bittar" fruits indeed.

[Gilbert]

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

With a shamelessly depricating attitude like yours Alarcon, don't be terribly surprised if your stay here is short lived and your departure welcomed; it's one thing to have a negative opinion (however well informed) about something, but it is an altogether different matter when all you're doing is slamming a project and spouting vitriol.  Your previous post comes off with such unbridled arrogance and smarm that I find myself despising you already.  Was that the reaction you were after?  Congratulations!

[modgeulator]

There's just something about seeing someone rip to shreds the well-intentioned hard work of amateurs that makes me feel a bit queasy.
It's strange that Alacron seems to have only registered in order to come and dump all over the KQIX project. Does he have some sort of grudge?

[Kinoko]

Man, that rocks Gil! I was falling asleep at my desk and you gave me a much needed laugh.

My own 2 cents: I read cesarbittar's reply and I was like, `Wow, that's pretty impressive!`. Then I read alucard's reply and was like, `Hmm, he makes a damn good point`.

I never even knew about this game before it was cancelled, let alone followed it so I never saw any of it for myself. Okay, Al is being harsh but at the same time, he's entitled to an opinion. You guys don't have to get so worked up about it.

To be honest, if someone was doing a remake of a game I held true to my heart and putting a HUGE amount of effort, and yet was taking it in a direction I didn't like, I'd be pretty annoyed.

An amateur game author has every right to do whatever the heck he likes with his own game, but respect that other people have every right to an opinion. Just because it isn't soft like, `Oh, it's pretty good! but... `, that doesn't make him a bastard. He has an opnion, you can disagree with it but you don't have to hate him for it.

Of course, it's your right to hate him...

Still, guys, we're talking about a game here. Remakes always stir up controversy and differing opinions. To be honest, I read that dialogue and thought, `Bleagh!`. To me, that doesn't fit in with a KQ game at all. My opinion, and I mean no disrespect to the game author, it was my natural reaction. I may well have enjoyed (/enjoy) the game if it came out (if it comes out).

[Alarcon]

don't be terribly surprised if your stay here is short lived and your departure welcomed

Well, as modgeulator noted, I'm just here to slam KQIX and leave.

Does he have some sort of grudge?

Yup. Ã, But it's not personal to Cesar Bittar or particular to KQIX, which I hadn't even heard of until it croaked. Ã, My grudge is with the trend to lionize eye-junkfood of the sort peddled by Phoenix Online Studios. Ã, It bothers me that well-written, well-designed games that don't have sexy graphics and don't bootstrap themselves to famous IP get entirely overlooked, or at least relatively ignored, while games like KQIX suck up tons of resources. Ã, What resources? Ã, Well, they drag in a huge percentage of willing artists, composers, and the like. Ã, They erode the potential fanbase of other projects. Ã, And they, accordingly, crush the spirits of people who are trying to be creative.

Honestly, I don't have a dog in the fight, since I don't make games, no longer have an interest in doing so, and tend to play commercial games almost exclusively. Ã, But the hypocrisy I noted earlier, of indie gamers bitching about how all game publishers care about is glitz and then turning around and slobbering over games like this, gets me agitated. Ã, KQIX's forums have roughly 150,000 posts. Ã, Can you imagine the energy that kind of fanbase would give to developers making interesting, fun games, rather than meldromatic wanna-be anime cutscene fests?

As a last note, it vaguely upset me seeing KQ, a series I was quite fond of as a kid, reduced to the point where this kind of crappy sequel is lauded as a great comeback. Ã, It's little better than FO:BoS.

---EDIT---

Thanks, Kinoko.  You can find pics and animation here: http://www.adventure-eu.com/index.php?option=com_repository&cat_id=3&game_id=42&file_id=31  The only character who really looks anime-ish is Alexander.

A last quick comment -- I was also more than slightly horrified to hear about how the cofounder and original writer was put out to pasture.Ã,  And that horror was magnified when I saw the way he was treated on the KQIX forum.Ã,  (I can't find the post now, it's in the shut down thread.Ã,  He's insulted and yelled at and mocked by the forum attack dogs.)Ã,  My sense is that he was ousted because his vision was of a play-driven game truer to the series's roots.Ã,  Who knows, though?Ã,  Maybe I'm projecting there.

One more thought is that the kind of blind obsession fan projects like this generate offends the rationalist in me.

[Kinoko]

Can someone post some screenshots or something (seriously, you won't get sued for that. A couple of pictures - call it `satire` and everyone's happy). I'm really interested to see what the characters look like since some people say they're anime inspired and some don't.

I'm an expert so I'll settle the debate ^_-