Quest for Glory Creators Launch Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption Kickstarter

Even if you haven’t heard the names Lori and Corey Cole before, it’s likely that you’re familiar with some of the titles they were responsible for, which include the Quest for Glory series. Considering the recent Kickstarter successes we’ve witnessed, it’s not surprising then that they have decided to go for a Kickstarter of their own, Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption.

For $400,000 the game designing couple promises to develop a turn-based RPG with adventure game-like puzzles and a deep story. The team is developing the game on Unity (which shouldn’t be a surprise given how popular a choice the engine has turned out for these Kickstarter campaigns) and targeting a Fall 2013 release date.

Here’s the Kickstarter announcement video:

Here’s a snip on what the game is:

Lori and Corey Cole are happy to present Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. Our new game combines role-playing, puzzles, an immersive story, and rich character interactions. As in our acclaimed Quest for Glory series, every element works together to create a unique game experience that you will love.

In Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, you will take on the role of Shawn O’Conner, a would-be Thief who has had a rough life. As Shawn, you will attend Hero-U, a school that tries to teach young adventurers to be heroes. Shawn can continue his quest to join the Thieves’ Guild, or he can strive to become a Rogue Hero. He has a lot to learn to succeed at either path.

Hero-U plays like a classic RPG, with turn-based tactical combat and exploration of the environment on top-down, 2D maps. There are traps, obstacles, and enemies for you to overcome as you explore the school and the ancient catacombs beneath it. Key scenes feature beautiful painted backdrops to let you see from Shawn’s perspective.

And an excerpt from the first update, which shares some information on the game art:

Concept vs. Final Art

Most of you understand that games are developed using “placeholder art”, but I am adding this since we’ve seen some complaints about the “test dungeon” art in the video. In previous games, we sometimes represented a character with a grey box or a red “X”. The “game images” you see in this Kickstarter project are all placeholders. Some of them are really beautiful placeholders, but they may or may not be representative of final game art.

In particular, the 2D top-down image included in the video is a concept piece. That is the point of view you will have in the game, but the actual image is a placeholder. The actual Hero-U game will give you the freedom of movement and tactical actions that the top down view allows, but it will be carefully crafted to look Really Nice in the game. As it is, our prototype is way nicer than boxes and X’s. 🙂

We will also have closeups of characters for dialogue and combat, and beautiful background screens for key scenes. The number of background screens we can afford will be partially dependent on the budget we raise from this Kickstarter project.

We will share more concept art, design notes, and other information about the game in future updates. We will also have links to press coverage and our blogs, testimonials from backers, and Other Cool Stuff. Thank you for reading this!

So far the campaign has already raised $90,449, almost one fourth of its funding goal.