The Journey of Iesir *Demo*

Started by Daniel Thomas, Tue 27/09/2016 22:02:45

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Daniel Thomas

We estimated it to be around 2-3hours based on our testers playthroughs.
Check out The Journey of Iesir Demo | Freelance artist, check out my Portfolio

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#21
Look at all these masterfully drawn sprites and delightful sets! 'The Journey of Iesir' will be remembered - as a real hero's journey of fellow adventure dev's.

Mandle

Quote from: Daniel Thomas on Fri 30/09/2016 16:41:03
@Mandle: I Don't see the point really, the demo is available for free and it has the 2-3hours already, so just play it and enjoy :)

My point was that you and your team could see some kind of monetary reward for a product that looks superior to many professional studio games. Also it would reach a wider audience as the majority of players are not interested in playing a game that they know will leave them hanging. It was just a suggestion of course... No stress no worries! :)

CaptainD

#23
Quote from: Mandle on Sat 01/10/2016 00:57:30
Quote from: Daniel Thomas on Fri 30/09/2016 16:41:03
@Mandle: I Don't see the point really, the demo is available for free and it has the 2-3hours already, so just play it and enjoy :)

My point was that you and your team could see some kind of monetary reward for a product that looks superior to many professional studio games. Also it would reach a wider audience as the majority of players are not interested in playing a game that they know will leave them hanging. It was just a suggestion of course... No stress no worries! :)

I did consider whether we could make this (which is part of what was going to be "Act I") into a standalone adventure, but decided it wasn't worth even discussing with the team too much.  I don't know how much time Marcus, who was writer before I joined, had spent on creating the overall story arc initially, but I do know that I spent many hours on the overall plot synopsis and making sure that each aspect, and each character, had a tangible meaning and importance in the game, along with trying to put across the message of a voyage of discovery for both Mikael as the player character and for the whole subcontinent of Iesir as a whole, which was (my understanding of) Dan's main vision for the game.  To try to condense this all down to what would have been probably about an eighth of the envisaged full game would have felt incredibly cheap on our part.

I think in some ways we were guilty of wanting perfection too much - at some points we should have said "hey you know what, this is really good, let's move on to another part" instead of always saying "this is really good, but how could we make it even better?", but trying to condense the whole package into a fraction of its original intention was not one of those mistakes.

We did of course consider episodic release, but we really wanted to make the complete game - and as the recent poll on my Troll Song dev blog has shown quite clearly, players much prefer this as well if it's even vaguely within the realms of possibility.  How many of us would have remembered classics like The Secret of Monkey Island, Zak McKraken, The Dig, Sierra's Quest games, or whatever, even half as fondly if they're been episodic?  Sometimes a studio / individual is pushed into using episodic or split release forms (including myself), but where a full game is possible, it's always preferable.  I would cite Ceville and the Tales of Monkey Island series as examples - in terms of overall quality they are rather similar, and of course if you put together all the episodes of ToMI there is much longer gameplay overall, but I remember Ceville much more fondly because it tells a complete story, along with being an insanely fun game.  (I'm not even factoring in the incredibly awful movement interface of ToMI!)

Sorry for rambling a bit but yeah, in the end we did discuss a couple of ideas and probably also had our own ideas for getting some money back - after all most of us have spent MANY hours on it - but in the end fidelity to the project itself turned out to be more important than earning something from an incomplete development.

In truth I think all of us hope that somehow it will become possible for us to get the funding needed and make this game, but considering even the likes of Bill Tiller have had difficulty crowd-fundraising the amount of money we would have needed for an adventure game, I don't think a Kickstarter is particularly feasible.  Among other things crowd-funding is something we have considered as a team, and put effort into properly costing the project, as well as assess the likely chances of a success.  I think we would be able to get a fair amount raised, but nothing like the amount we would need for 4 of us to work full-time on the project for a year, plus some part-timers, plus other expenses.
 

Mandle

Cheers for the thoughtful and detailed reply CaptainD! A very interesting read!

Snarky


CaptainD

Quote from: Snarky on Sun 02/10/2016 15:50:35
*Bill Tiller

Oops yeah thanks, corrected that (and "Zek" McKraken!!).
 

COWCAT

Simply gorgeous! I wish I could make art as beautiful as this :)

Who did the art?
French indie PC/consoles game developer
https://www.cowcatgames.com

CaptainD

Quote from: COWCAT on Mon 03/10/2016 08:21:33
Simply gorgeous! I wish I could make art as beautiful as this :)

Who did the art?

That was Dan (Daniel Thomas).  I think he said the backgrounds took on average 20-40 hours depending on the size.  He's an incredible artist.
 

Mr Underhill

Guys. Guys. This is so beautiful and sad at the same time. I just launched the demo and am in love with it, and it pains my heart it's not happening. Why not reconsider crowdfunding? I think there are a lot of people, myself included, who would be happy to help make it happen. I can't remember another game in recent memory that gave me such strong Curse vibes, and that's one of my favorite games ever. Please make it happen! :~(

declerfayt

This game looks awesome!!! :) Have you though of launching a Kickstarter campaign guys?
Lancelot's Hangover : A whole life to find the Holy Grail. One alcohol night to lose it.

Play free beta // Video trailer // Website

Viking

Quote from: Mr Underhill on Mon 03/10/2016 09:56:41
Why not reconsider crowdfunding?

Quote from: declerfayt on Mon 03/10/2016 18:26:14
Have you though of launching a Kickstarter campaign guys?

We did consider it, but unfortunately after doing some calculations, we determined that it would cost a very large amount of money to pay people to work full-time on the game for long enough to finish it with the same high quality we started with.  So much, in fact, that we couldn't really see that it would be feasible to raise that much via crowdfunding, even if we had all the resources and prestige of Ron Gilbert or Bill Tiller.  CaptainD explained in more detail in his reply.

LeonDaydreamer

Wow, that looks beautiful! Really nice character designs and the backgrounds are gorgeous.
Nice work!  :)

Shadow1000

I just finished playing. All I can say is hats off to you guys for such a stunningly excellent job. I think that we are all sad that the reality is that it will never see completion but nevertheless, an INCREDIBLE job.

SHADOW

LostTrainDude

To be a tester on this game was really fun and interesting, I remember having the feeling of being part of a great project, not just in terms of scope but also in terms of quality - as all of you can now see :)
I was very happy when Knoodn asked me if I wanted to be a tester, after I did the same for his great game UNGA Needs MUMBA. I felt like I got a promotion! (laugh)

As others said, hats off to all the devs and I wish you all the best in whatever project (gamedev related or not) you decide to dedicate yourselves to.
"We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing."

dactylopus

Great game.  Here are my thoughts now that I have completed this.

I think that this is one of the most visually appealing AGS games I've ever seen.  I love the art style, it works really well.  The quality of the backgrounds, characters, and animations are all excellent.  Even the UI Art is very well done.  I'd love to see more games done in a similar style in the future.

The production value overall is fantastic.  The music and sound effects are both very well done.  I had some of the music in my head long after I stopped playing.

My complaints are few, but noteworthy.  I found some of the puzzles to lack intuitiveness.  Examples in the spoiler below:

Spoiler
I had a hard time figuring out how to open the voice box, as there was never any clue to right click on inventory items before this.  I also found the controls for the bug inside the voice box to be confusing and practically nonsensical.  I only managed to solve this by clicking wildly and getting lucky.
[close]

I also felt that the game was a little wordy at times, but I will say that much of the dialogue in the game is fun and well written.

Despite those few flaws, I would say that I really enjoyed this game.  It was a great experience, and I would really love to see where this would have gone after the demo.  Thank you for sharing this with us, and I wish the team luck in the future with this or any other ventures.

The Fool

Amazing on all levels... Are you sure there is no way to make full version happen? :(
:)

Stupot

Gotta say, I've already managed to get a good 3 hours out of this demo and still haven't finished. Not that I'm totally stuck. Just taking my time and lapping up the gorgeousness.

Sorry if you've mentioned this elsewhere but how much of the full game does this demo represent? It feels like just an intro, but I've already got so much gameplay out of it. I get the feeling the full game would have been humungous!

Have you thought about touting it to Daedalic and seeing if they can't help you finish it up?

Daniel Thomas

Thanks everyone who gave it a go, and even better that you enjoyed it!

@Stupot+ : The demo was around 75-80% of the first Act, we had 3 or 4 acts planned.
We contacted Deadalic, among other publishers, no dice :)
Check out The Journey of Iesir Demo | Freelance artist, check out my Portfolio

arj0n

Wow, Daniel, that's a blast from the past! I remember testing this back in the end of 2013 :)

Easily one of the best games ever created using ags.
And not only because of the awesome hi-res graphics and animations and effects, but also because of several very well thought-out puzzles this game contains.

And yes, although considered a demo, this gem could easily be considered being a small but full game.

Sad news there will be no full game (covering all acts) but:
awesome to see you guys still have taken the time and effort to wrap up en bring us a demo covering act 1 after all! :-*

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