Heroine's Quest: The Legend of Fair Spring (NEW DEMO!)

[Dmatrixone]

Heroine's Quest: The Legend of Fair Spring has a NEW demo!!!

Game Website: http://www.corbydesigns.com/hq/
The website is getting an overhaul in a few days.

Download the new demo: http://www.corbydesigns.com/hq/hqintro.zip (12.5 Mb)

Background Story:

Many years have passed since Queen Vivienne broke her neck when thrown by a horse. King Gareth died a month ago from a wasting sickness. A month of mourning was observed before the coronation for Crown Prince Marcus was scheduled.

However, on the eve of his coronation, Marcus has disappeared. There is some evidence of a struggle in his chambers. No one knows where he has gone, and the entire city is on edge.

Worse still, an army of undead soldiers is attacking the kingdom. They are being led by an evil warlock who is constantly raising more undead to join his forces. Prince Edmund is commander of the Kingdom's army and so far they are valiantly holding back the invading forces. But information from the front line is not making its way back to the city, so no one is certain which way the tide of the battle flows.

The entire populace is on edge, what with the abduction of Crown Prince Marcus and the menace of the undead army. There is only one way in and out of the valley, and that is where the battle is taking place. No-one can get in and out of the valley, as a blockade has been set up to prevent civilians from wandering into the battlefield.

However, stray undead soldiers have been finding their way into the valley â€" it is not safe to leave the city at night. The daytime is no safer, as many monsters menace the valley.

Our heroine has grown up in the countryside in a small cottage with her family. One day a strange old wizard arrives, seeking a champion to serve as a hero to the town of Fair Spring. An old friend to the heroine's father, the wizard convinces him to allow his daughter to travel to the town, claiming it to be her destiny. Reluctantly, he agrees.

Check out the screenshots:





All the artwork featured in the game is original, by Corby LaCroix and Love Fagerstedt.
All the music featured in the game is original, by Dmitri Zavorotny.

Don't forget to stop by our forums and give us some feedback and report bugs.
http://corbylacroix.proboards36.com/index.cgi

Enjoy the NEW DEMO!

[Darth Mandarb]

I remember this art style from awhile back in the Critics Lounge!

This game looks great!  I'm DLing the demo as soon as I have the time!

[Pet Terry]

Sweet. It really reminds me of Quest for Glory IV, graphically at least, which is one of my favourite games by Sierra. Though I must admit I'd prefer it if the game was fully in resolution 320x240.

Nice job on music... it is really original and very atmospheric. Heh, the tune in wizard's shop reminds me a bit of 'Richard Longhurst and Box that Ate Time', but it works fine in that room.

The sound effects when exiting and entering rooms (the door sounds) are too loud, I think. I'd say make them a bit more quiet. Oh, and animate the cursors!

Keep it up, I'm waiting for the full game.

[Gregjazz]

Very nice!

I'm going to play the demo, and I'm excited!

[Pod]

Wow. That artwork is absolutely ----ing gorgeous! I'm downloading the demo purley because of it!

I hate to be a bit of a git, but the transition between trees and town is too blured. It could use more contrast and definition of what is what. Still, it's amazing! I wonder what the characters look like!

[Iv4n]

Wow!  :o Can't wait!

[Corby]

Thanks for the suggestions and comments! 

[splat44]

Great Game,

Is the demo allows going to Garden of Peace?

I simply cannot find it.

[Corby]

It's south east of the town.

[splat44]

Thank Corby,

I certainly cannot wait for full game.

splat44

[Lazy Z]

One word: Wow! Excellent job! The graphics are among the best I've seen in an AGS game, and the music is simply magnificent! The story sounds really interesting too. One minor complaint would be that the animation of the heroine is a bit choppy, but seeing that this is a demo, I can't really complain about it yet . One question though, did you use SIMposium (or whatever it's called) for the sprite of the heroine? The way she moves kinda reminds me of that.

Really looking forward to the finished game!

[Corby]

Thanks! The Hero sprite is just a placeholder. She'll actually have a whole new look in the final game. I animated her by looking at an AGI version of Roger Wilco. It was my first real walk cycle I guess.

[Corby]

Hello,

Heroine Quest has a new demo.
Try it out here: www.corbydesigns.com/hq/hqintro.zip (12.5 Mb)

Enjoy, and we'd welcome some constructive feedback.

[aussie]

That's the second good-looking demo released this week!

Congrats, I love your art style.

[Erenan]

This... is... beautiful...

I loved the Quest for Glory series, and this is exactly the sort of thing I've been dying to play. I want the rest of it NOW.

But do take your time so that it's as good as it can be.

[Iv4n]

I've been waiting for the next demo/intro so long, that I can't wait for the "polished" version. So here are some thoughts about it:

First to say - woah! I'm amazed of this intro demo! You've put a lot of work and effort in it. When the game ended, I can't believe it happens. I was just more and more excited, wishing it wasn't a demo.
Ok, you really proved to be much talanted. I like those forest graphics most. I like those portraits and inside the house decoration. I like those transperantcy text effects.
However, some complainings .
The room to the right of the kitchen - there is no clear indication that the door out is down below. When you climb up the stairs, the heroine keeps the same size.
Then, outside suddenly comes Gandalf! Yeah, LOTR reference? heh. Then, the story turns in the way we've heard a lot of times - the innocent girl, who doesn't kwow anything untill a suddent moment. And then she get the enlightenment that only she can help people blabla ...and have to save the world.
When the father and the old man says to Kiara the current situation (her quest), you've rush through the dialogues. I mean it's a important moment and it should be more dramatic. But these all are small things.
Oh well. Don't listen to me  .

[splat44]

Hi

It's an excellent demo.

I agree with Iv4n regarding the room to the right of the kitchen comment.

I do recall playing the first demo and gathering some items for wizard's friend.

Questions:
1) Would action from first demo be included in full game?

Once again great work.

[Corby]

Thanks for the kind words! Yup, the plot is a classic story, hope no one minds.
The full game may/may not have the quest seen in the first demo. The town of Fair Spring will also be completely changed, with a whole new look, and a bit smaller and less confusing.
Glad everyone likes the animations and backgrounds! 

[Kinoko]

ARGH! This game actually looks fantastic! I mean, its one of those particularly rare ones that really has a proper professional game look to it. Im very much looking forward to this.

Youre on my list, man.

[Dmatrixone]

Thanks everyone for all your kind words!     I know that it took a lot of effort, patience, and creativity just to make a small demo such as this, so all the kind words really help! 

As for the complaints -- please check out the link to our game forum where you can post complaints, corrections, bugs, and other stuff that we can fix.  This just makes it much easier to work on a polished version (due out in a few weeks I hope).

Any more feedback, good or bad would be much appreciated.

[misterskipperdoo]

No no. Really. This looks AWESOMELY good.

Show those commercial games what-for!

[Iv4n]

I dunno if the main screen (http://www.corbydesigns.com/team/logo2.gif) is appropriate. Maybe there should be some kind of tree with mountains background, instead of a black one. And maybe the heroine's head shoudn't always pointing at up.

[Chicky]

Or maybe not. This isnt the critics lounge and the title screen is perfect as it is.

[Floskfinger]

I dunno if the main screen (http://www.corbydesigns.com/team/logo2.gif) is appropriate. Maybe there should be some kind of tree with mountains background, instead of a black one. And maybe the heroine's head shoudn't always pointing at up.

This image is still in progress. There should be story related stuff in the  background to fill up some of the black.

[deadsuperhero]

This looks excellent. I was skeptical at first, seeing as that I didn't really enjoy the old old old old demo, but this looks very professional. I salute you, Corby and Co.

[Dmatrixone]

Thanks, Alliance!  We have a couple of very good artists on the team and they worked their butts off for this demo.

UPDATE: We've finally updated the main website with new screen shots as well as an update on the progress.

[splat44]

Dmatrixone,

It great you've updated your website with screenshots and progress.
However, you might want to remove old link leading old demos.

[Corby]

Ya, the links to the older demos are down, until I re-upload them. This was due to the website updating.

[Mordalles]

love it! finish it! i wanna play it! *applause*

[Klytos]

Looks great!

[Wellington]

Just played through the intro, then replayed it so I could comment more carefully.

It's looking very promising.

What's good:

The background graphics are spot-on; I really feel like I'm playing a new Quest for Glory game.

Mouseover text on objects. MOUSEOVER TEXT ON OBJECTS! YES! YES! WE NEED MORE GAMES WITH THAT!

This game is generous with details. Little things like the way Tim's feet kick a little when he's casting spells from the carriage, the mother's tears in the goodbye scene, and the door sounds add a lot.

What could use improvement:

Tim the enchanter. There can be a Monty Python reference, and there can be a Lord of the Rings reference, but placing them in a plot-central position breaks immersion. When he enters, I'm not playing a game with its own story anymore. I'm playing a LOTR spoof, or a generic fantasy. It's probably too late to change Tim all that much, but he should probably be more clearly defined as either a parodic LOTR reference or an interesting character in his own right.

The dialogue is terribly wordy. Cutting down the Father/Tim dialogue by 50-75% would be wise; telling the player so much in the opening keeps the game from building momentum. At the very least, the exposition could be spread out into the wagon ride a little more. It's an old axiom of writing: Show, don't tell.

(Would the early scenes of Fellowship of the Ring have worked quite as well if, instead of flinging the ring into the fire, lighting up the runes, and riding away, Gandalf had said, "This ring is far more powerful than you imagine, and possesses great secrets! I will tell you this: in fire it was born, and in fire it must be destroyed.")

Like the dialogue, the object descriptions tend to be a bit wordy. But the problem isn't as severe here.

The line about having heard "no rumors" of "an encroaching undead army" is perhaps funnier than it was meant to be.

("Hey, Tim! I heard that zombies just ate the next town over!" "Pshaw! Gossip!")

The music for the forest ride grows repetitive quickly, though this could just be a result of my having to sit through it during the last few teaser screens. The ability to skip cutscenes would be welcome.

The splash screen of the heroine calls to mind the QFG3 splash screen, in a good way, but it would work better if we could see the heroine's eyes. See comments by others, above.

The dialogue pictures vary strongly in quality. Mother is sketchy, while Father is excellent and Keira is passable-to-good. The contrast of the figures on black backgrounds is also a bit jarring; father's hair looks a bit weird that way.

Other comments:

Just as we know ET is being referenced if we see somebody fly in front of a full moon in a movie, the amulet-on-woman's-chest shot in an adventure game is a nice wink to people who've played Fate of Atlantis. It's good to know that adventure games are, like movies, building up a vocabulary of famous scenes.

I am a big QFG fan, and am very happy to see people trying to carry on the series legacy. Good luck.

[PsychicHeart]

incredible. what program did you use for the graphics?

[Mozesh]

Looks fantastic! Keep up the good work.

[Ozzie]

Yep. very professional graphics, there must be many work hours behind them.
Also like the idea of descriptions when the mouse hovers over hotspots. That's something I planned to include in my game, too.

[Dmatrixone]

Wellington - you can check our game forums for my response.  Thanks for posting!

Flukeblake - I believe that both our background artist and our sprite artist use Adobe Photoshop.

Mozesh & Ozzie - All I can say is thanks!!!  We're lucky to have two very talented artist on the team.

[Stefano]

Whoa! Can't wait to see how the RPG thing is going to work.
The heroine brought back the image of Elaine from the earlier Monkey Islands...

Keep up the excelent job.

Cheers,
Stefano

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

Wow... out of all the QFG fangames I have ever seen, this is the only one with actual potential... no joke.  I checked hero6 once in 2001, now it's 2005 and it went no where.  (aside from a few pieces of concept art)

Really, truly great.  My only complaint is the character selection screen, the fighter animation could be better... perhaps a bolder grasp on the sword (she looks like she's thinking "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?!")

[Floskfinger]

the sprites are made in Image ready (most of them but some stuff in photoshop and some in MSpaint).Ã, 

The fighter animation (char select screen) will be redone.

[Corby]

Wow! Great comments!
The heroine should remind you of Zanthia actually.

[LucasFan]

The heroine should remind you of Zanthia actually.

Maybe a little bit too much. Try to change her face a little bit or people might think it's an Kyrandia sequel. Here are two examples.

[big brother]

I know this isn't the critic's lounge, but her hair color (and the shading on it) reminds me a lot of Sophia from FOA.

[Bigryan]

Well hero6 is still moving.  We've been going far too long and only have gotten about 1/2 way through (which is quite a bit seeing as there are many ambitious people on the team).

In fact, I was going to go through this one a little bit it seems quite cool.  Anyhow, if anyone is interested I'm looking for a couple people to help me debug hero6 a bit.

So anyone that is a big fan of the original and doesn't mind playing a half finished game(and by playing I mean actually helping out with some trouble shooting).

Give me an email.  email_ryant(at)yahoo.ca