Hero's Song by John Smedley - ARPG/MMO Lite

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Siliconemelons

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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he seems surprised that FoH is alive... he didn't know about us :-( /slit the illusion is over! QQ no one loves our community!
 

Janx

<Silver Donator>
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I miss the Troll army (Kaz and Krim). Pro peeps. Doesn't compare to the halfling army but what does.
 
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Mur

Trakanon Raider
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Haven't really even looked at this since I first heard about it.

Interest Piqued. Think this could be a fun diversion for a while.

Be cool if this was just a PoC for an actual MMORPG. Their world/lore building would seem to support that.
 

Muligan

Trakanon Raider
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I don't know why but it reminds me of Legends of Kesmai... lol

I still can't see this game really finding it's place. Maybe i'm wrong...
 

zero_name

Golden Knight of the Realm
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I hear this company is about to tank. Sales on Steam are horrible.
 
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Muligan

Trakanon Raider
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No surprise... if you have an idea, especially something niche, you gotta have the resources (especially the money) to see it through. The gaming culture/industry have too many delusional, possibly spoiled, business people that think I guess because it's them and their idea that someone will just fork over the money to make it happen.

Maybe i'm getting old but I miss the days people use to make things in their garage, dorm rooms, whatever and practically live on nothing to make it big. You would think with that drive and passion, teamed with the technical resources such as Unity, Unreal, etc. great ideas could surface much easier but it's simply not happening.

Again, maybe i'm just off on this but most of these things I read about just have no chance of making it to see the light of day. Maybe something will come through for them but i'm still waiting to see something more inspired to come down the pipe by people i've never heard of...
 

Melvin

Blackwing Lair Raider
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Maybe i'm getting old but I miss the days people use to make things in their garage, dorm rooms, whatever and practically live on nothing to make it big. You would think with that drive and passion, teamed with the technical resources such as Unity, Unreal, etc. great ideas could surface much easier but it's simply not happening.

I think the garage/dorm/whatever projects still happen, but they end up in the android and ios stores way more often than they end up on steam. You're right that it's easier than ever before for small teams to make professional products, but it's also true that people nowadays have way bigger expectations of console and pc games than a small team can produce in a reasonable amount of time. So the small teams make small games that sell for small amounts of money, because it's a much safer strategy to ensure a return on the investment of their time.
 

wilkxus

<Bronze Donator>
519
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Cool ideas are not enough to fund, make and launch viable games. This game never looked viable enough to fly on its own with a team as heavy on experienced professionals as they had, surprised anyone threw money at it knowing how top heavy they were.

Edit. Perhaps with a slimmer team they could iron some wrinkles and sell the tech to make a game for a bigger market? DO their ideas have any legs based on the steam version out ATM?
 
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yamikazo

Trakanon Raider
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I love to hate on Smed just as much as the next guy, but I'm shocked to hear this.

Hero's Song was obviously meant to be an influx of cash and a way to entice big budget investors into their company.

How such a "prolific" (in terms of job titles at big companies and presumably large paychecks) team in place, I simply cannot understand how their plan to self-fun through Game 1 fell through. They were an "indy" publisher in name only - this team should have had the resources to hole themselves up and develop Project Alpha, if for nothing else but resume experience, without hiccups. They cut corners wherever they could, and if the project still fails it is a business calamity.
 

Palum

what Suineg set it to
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This was the mini version of 38S, replace Rhode Island with crowd funding. I mean they even had the overly hyped involvement of a fantasy genre has-been writer to suck funding up.
 

Mughal

Bronze Knight of the Realm
279
39
Is it over?

It was already over in November. They had ran out of money then and now people are getting jobs elsewhere. No idea why Smed waited so long to come clean about the fact that they blew millions on something that is not playable. Unclear with those sales and the current status of the game if it can be turned around or if at this point it's like just throwing more money into a dumpster fire.

EDIT: just to be clear, it's not that money is "tight" - the money is over. Instead of building a playable release with 25% of their funding and see if it was fun they used 100% of their funding to make 25% of a game
 
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Kharzette

Watcher of Overs
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4,270
The world creation stuff is cool, but yea the numbers don't add up.

I can do a side gig here in my small town and have enough money to live for a year. Small remote teams working from home in low cost of living areas is the way to go these days. Especially if you have people that can wear lots of hats.
 

KCXIV

Molten Core Raider
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The world creation stuff is cool, but yea the numbers don't add up.

I can do a side gig here in my small town and have enough money to live for a year. Small remote teams working from home in low cost of living areas is the way to go these days. Especially if you have people that can wear lots of hats.
Problem is most of the guys on the HS team are former daybreak employee's living in San Diego. There was no low cost of living area's for people on the team.
 
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Itlan

Blackwing Lair Raider
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I actually liked what I saw from a development stage. It needed a lot of work, but I liked the general idea. Oh well, typical Smed.