The End is Near

It was quite the journey getting to this point in the Kickstarter campaign. We've made some great friends and have grown. Many of you have shared very valuable insight and have given greatly appreciated suggestions. We have less than 57 hours before the funding deadline is hit. At just under 23%, it will be tough to hit that mark. Regardless, we will develop on!

This is our last two days to raise the funds. Let's make it count. We need your help. Promote Heroes of Forevia everywhere you can. Even if the funding goal isn't reached, additional exposure can help insure this thing is done right, and done soon.

The Video

The video is the first glimpse of "in-game" footage. It's very important to keep in mind that those two game instances are on two completely different game engines, and were my own personal test levels for my own part of the development. To put it bluntly: I'm not the artist of the group, so don't be shocked at the fugly artistic flare. Instead, focus more on the small things like the camera view, fluid-ness, and the simple fact that there actually is something there. Many of the game mechanics are in place and ready for the artists hand (which has already started).

You also got a glimpse of what the new popflame.com will look like. PopFlame.com will be the place where beta users (and all others at launch) can keep track of their characters as well as see what their friends have been doing in HoF. Stat tracking is a major focus for multiplayer because knowing how many skeletons you've re-sent to the grave is important to know. Especially when it's important that you've sent more back than Pat.

So...

Get out there, promote the project, and even if this Kickstarter effort fails, you will still be able to keep up to date at popflame.com . There is still a shot at hitting the funding goal, but it will take the help of our backers to get there.

- Anthony

Hello again everyone!

It's been a wacky week, and it's time to update you all now that we're just a week away from our funding deadline.

First I want to touch on why there is an utter lack of in-game screenshots. The bottom line is that we discussed it again just before we were going to post some, and decided that posting anything that wouldn't end up representing our finished product would be premature, and would cause more confusion than clarity. We are working toward it, but giving out and ETA (as I've tried before) just isn't a bright idea.

Now, let me start by stating why I (Anthony) am here.

Like many of you I grew up playing and loving video games. From Atari to Phantasy Star all the way through Goldeneye and Borderlands. I like all sorts of games. My love of gaming lead me to my goal of being a game developer. I set out at a young age to learn what it took. My journey started out with numerous books on C and C++. Which then lead to OpenGL and on to using various game engines such as Genesis3D, CrystalSpace and then Ogre (among the free ones).

Sooner or later, Pat and myself began developing a simply multiplayer shooter that ultimately didn't get out of our idea phase. I did get some basic multiplayer modes developed, such as king of the hill, deathmatch and even a capture the flag mode. One of the things we wanted was an online score tracking system (which really wasn't that common at the time). I had no real knowledge of web development, so I set out to learn what I needed to do so. That lead me to my eventual career path as a web developer. It would be years until I made the attempt to take on game development again.

Things have changed recently for myself. I have a 3 year old with kidney failure. He's on dialysis every night, which ultimately limits what I can do in terms of heading in to an office on a regular basis. It's a hurdle, similar to many we all face often, but with it has come an opportunity. I now have the needed free time to get back to why I ever became a programmer in the first place: To build a fun game with a great team.

But there's a new problem. Game development is getting more and more expensive. When I first saw Kickstarter I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for an indie game dev team like ours. I quickly found out otherwise. Kickstarter isn't exactly for the new guys. Even though we may have the skills to complete a wonderful product, being a true indie means we lack the name recognition needed to make you, our awesome pledgers, comfortable with the idea that we really can finish our game.

Gamers take games seriously, as they should. Now, it's up to us to get this project where it needs to go. We're finishing this game no matter the outcome of Kickstarter, our indie game development lives depend on it.

Can we still get funded?

Absolutely we can. If you believe in our idea, you can help it become a reality and be a part of it's development. We need all the help we can get. We've already got great help from all sorts of our pledgers, but we need more. We need help spreading the word, telling our story. This is about more than just a great, Gauntlet Legends inspired game. It's about the journey from where we are now, to actually shipping our first game. For me, it's a chance to prove to my little boy that if you want something enough, hard work and dedication is all you will ever need to get it.

Hello everyone!

First off let me thank each of you again for your support thus far. This weekend is the start of our push.

As you may have noticed on the project page, we have posted the first piece of concept art from Geoffio for Heroes of Forevia. The particular scene depicted is the final realm leading up to the final boss, just a taste of it anyway.

As for screenshots, we will be posting some very shortly. We want to make sure we make the parts we screenshot more presentable than what we have running in our alpha, and we are just about there. The new popflame.com website will be up tomorrow as well.

Linux Version

Will there be a Linux port? Well, if we can reach $20,000, there absolutely will be. We've been developing the game on Windows and Mac, but we all have Linux installed on a personal device of some flavor (Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.). We think a Linux port would be awesome, but it would also be a little more costly, because let's face it, the game development tools on linux are lacking. That doesn't mean we can't do it, just that it will be more costly in terms of time and resources.

That means, if you guys can help us reach double our target goal, we will support:

Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS Tablets and Android Tablets.

When we first thought up Heroes of Forevia, one of our primary goals was to make a game that would look good, yet something that could be ran on a wide range of hardward. A delicate mix of beauty and performance, not unlike Pat.

The Wrap

That's a wrap on this update. You will see another on before the end of the weekend. Thank you all again for showing your support so far, and we look forward to the fun times to come.

Hi everyone,

We've been listening to your feedback and we agree, we need to have some screenshots of our progress up.

You're in luck, we'll have some screenshots and concept art for you posted very shortly. We will post an update when we have them up.

Until then, please continue to offer your comments, they're appreciated.

As for the PopFlame.com site, expect it to be updated often. We're always working on PopFlame.com as well as Doneish.com to make sure you have a smooth experience.

Keep checking back in the news section for our latest updates. All updates will also be posted on the PopFlame.com forums.