We've got a treat for you all today, a new Defender's Quest II story post courtesy of our writer James Cavin, a preview of the latest art, and -- the first of several tracks composed by legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu!
Yes you read that right, several. Our initial deal with Nobuo Uematsu was for just one track, so we were surprised when instead we got nine. Some of these were short little diddies (think of a "Victory fanfare" or "going to sleep at the Inn" tune), but a few were full-length songs. So today you'll get to listen to one of the latter :)
Some quick housekeeping updates:
We just released Spanish and Italian translations of the original Defender's Quest.
The HD remake of Defender's Quest (see here and here) is nearing completion.
The HD remake will be a free update for existing DQI owners
It will use existing Steam/GOG/Humble store "slots"
Save files will be tested for seamless compatibility
You will still have access to the old "legacy" Defender's Quest build if you want
DQHD is a native C++ app, so no Flash or AIR in any shape or form on any platform
Yes, this means our Linux builds will finally not be a huge pain to install.
Since DQHD is powered by the DQII engine, DQHD's release will mark the end of foundational DQII engine work. After that "all" that's left for us to do will be to finish DQII content. Here's a rough schedule:
Next month or two: public demo of DQHD
End of 2015 (tentative but looking good): DQHD release on PC (Mac/Windows/Linux)
Q1 2016: DQHD release on certain home game consoles (unless there's certification delays)
When it's done: DQII
As for the rest of it, you can check out the full information at our blog:
Today's 1.1.50 patch includes a full Italian volunteer translation. (Windows/Mac for now, Linux version coming soon).
More updates on the way soon! Stay tuned!
Defender's Quest now available in Spanish! ¡Ahora puedes jugar a Defender’s Quest en español!
Today's 1.1.49 patch includes a full professional Spanish translation.
(Currently we only have version 1.1.49 available for Mac and Windows. The Linux version will follow in a few days.)
It also fixes a long-standing bug where players who had gained a "hero mode" achievement would appear to lose it if they later recruited a generic character. This was only ever a visual bug in the in-game achievement menu (your steam achievements should have been unaffected), but this patch should fix that problem, or at the very least prevent it from happening in the future. Let us know if the issue persists.
We have some more exciting announcements on the way, look for new updates in the immediate future :)
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El parche 1.1.49 de hoy incluye una traducción profesional completa al español.
(La versión 1.1.49 actual solo está disponible para Mac y Windows. La versión para Linux estará lista en unos días.)
También se ha solucionado un error que hacía que los jugadores que habían conseguido el logro «Modo héroe» lo perdieran aparentemente si reclutaban un personaje genérico después. Simplemente se trataba de un error visual en el menú de logros del juego (tus logros de Steam no deberían verse afectados). Este parche soluciona el problema o como mínimo evita que se produzca de nuevo. Podéis poneros en contacto con nosotros si el problema persiste.
Tenemos otras interesantes sorpresas preparadas, así que estad atentos a las próximas actualizaciones porque llegarán muy pronto :)
Don't let Final Fantasy V happen to you - Do HD Remakes the Right Way!
We're hard at work on the Defender's Quest II engine, which will also power our upcoming HD remake of the original Defender's Quest. We've learned a lot of cool tricks in the process, which you can read about right here in this new in-depth technical analysis:
The inspiration for the article is the recently released Final Fantasy V HD remake that, in our humble opinion, misses the mark in a lot of key ways. Our article provides a detailed list of best practices based on our own experiences that can hopefully save other developers from "pulling a Squenix":
Defender's Quest 2 - Weaselmancer and Cast Preview
Defender's Quest 2 - Weaselmancer and cast preview
Last week we posted about DQ1HD and DQ2's milestone plan. Today let's supplement that with a sneak peek at some characters for Defender's Quest 2.
A while back we posted a little bit about Javir, Terevan and "New Guy" but let's add a few other characters to the mix. Today we're officially revealing the Weaselmancer and a preview of the rest of the cast.
SPOILERS???
I wouldn't consider the material in this post any more spoiler-ific than what you'd find in an old-school instruction manual, but if you want to know absolutely nothing about Defender's Quest 2 before release, feel free to skip this post.
Anyways, here's the Weaselmancer:
Cleverness Firstwatch, Weaselmancer
Explore Everywhere. Fight everything that moves. Steal everything that doesn't.
Age: 21
Height: 6'6" (198 cm)
Home: A weasel-filled cave
You know, a lot of people would consider being trapped in a cave-in with nothing but ferrets for company for a year and a half to be a negative experience, but Cleverness is a positive kind of person. How many people get the opportunity to experience all the health benefits of the cave lichen and dead bat diet? Or learn to talk with weasels? Or train weasels into a vicious, organized army capable of conquering a vast subterranean empire? Or feel the feeble social constructs of your upbringing slip away as you begin to adopt the values and practices of the culture around you? Or sit on a throne made of the pelts of conquered creatures as Ferret Warlord Goddess, master of all you can see (which is like, 35 feet, since you're in a cave, but still) as your weasel captains lavish you with the shiniest objects and tastiest morsels – you, their Queen and God?! Who would ever return from THIS?
What's that? A rescue party?
…Well I'm sure the whole reintegration-into-society thing will go off without a hitch.
In battle she uses her army of ferrets to help friends and harass foes. Outside of battle, she uses them to harass everyone.
Next, here's a sneak preview of all 14 Defender's Quest 2 hero characters (well, maybe 13, as Javir and Bitey the turtle-tank kind of count as one character in battle). Remember, in DQ2 there will be no "generic" soliders like in DQ1, but there will be trained monsters that certain characters can summon that will sort of take their place.
Please note that this art is very much work in progress and quite likely to change before final release. Colors and details especially.
One thing we've tried to do is create several distinct cultures, something we'll talk about at length in future posts. The first four characters are "domed city dwellers", the next four are "miners", followed by three "sky islanders", and the last two are "rogue scavengers."
The character classes from left to right are: Capsule beast and Pilot (the "mcguffin" that replaces Azra), Fighter, Duelist, Beast Master, Weaselmancer, Guard Herald, Demolisher, Champion, Sky Whaler, Archer, Healer, Gunner, and Hermit. Big thanks to artists Blake Reynolds, Vladimir Gerasimov, and Kiryl Kahan for the awesome animations.
Here's Javir, Terevan, and "new guy" from the previous post, in animated form:
And here's a few gifs of some of the other characters we'll talk about in upcoming posts:
As always, you can pre-order Defender's Quest 2 here. Every pre-order comes with a FREE copy of Defender's Quest 1, which is available right now, and will be receiving a free HD upgrade in the coming months (as soon as the DQ2 engine is done).
디펜더즈 퀘스트, 한국어 다시 지원 (Korean Translation is being restored!)
문제를 해결했습니다! H2 인터렉티브 사의 도움으로 심의를 받았습니다. 이제 다시 Team.SM이 번역한 한국어로 여러분들이 플레이 가능합니다. 또한 Windows/Mac/Linux에서 플레이 가능합니다.
만약 한국인이시라면, 게임 내에서 한국어가 제대로 표시되는지 확인해주시면 감사하겠습니다. 이번 업데이트로 Team.SM으로부터 받은 새로 검수/교정된 파일을 적용하였습니다. 문제가 발생할 수 있으나, 빠르게 수정하겠습니다.
We've resolved the situation! H2 Interactive will be handling the Korean rating stuff for us, so we're able to restore Team.SM's Korean translation again. It's live for Windows/Mac/Linux.
If you speak Korean, please give it a test to see if it works properly. We've also included the latest patches/corrections from Team.SM to update the translation. There weren't any immediate problems in the beta branch but I can revert it temporarily if anyone has an issue.
Thanks for bearing with us.
(If you speak Korean and would like to provide a translation of this message, please do so in the comments and I will edit the OP).
DQ2 Update and DQ1-HD Announcement
Two things:
News, Art, Characters, and Music from DQ2!
Announcing Defender's Quest 1 HD special edition upgrade
New Soundtrack files, temporarily removed Korean Translation
Hey everybody! I've got good news and bad news.
Bad news first:
Apparently some new law has been passed in South Korea that requires all games sold on Steam that support the Korean language to be officially rated by the Korean game rating's agency, or GRAC. When I got notice of this, I immediately got in touch with our Korean fan translators, Team.SM, to see what the process would be.
Team.SM seems to be unhappy with the new law, and in an apparent protest have (politely) asked us to remove their fan translation from Steam. We will respect their wishes and do so -- the files will be removed shortly in a new update.
To be clear - Level Up Labs has no official position on South Korean politics, South Korean game rating policies, or the law in question. We're just respecting the wishes of our fan translators.
I do hope that in the future we can restore the translation, and if the situation is resolved somehow, we will immediately restore the translation files.
EDIT: If you were using the korean translation and now the game is crashing, the fix is here:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/218410/discussions/0/620695877224771774/
The Good News
So, we have always shipped the game's original soundtrack with the game files, but it was hidden away in your game files as a nondescript .zip file. With the recent addition of Steam's music player, we have pushed an update that will make Steam auto-detect the soundtrack in the music player! Check the "Music" section of your library.
Also, we have a major announcement coming soon RE: Defender's Quest 2. Stay tuned!
Defender's Quest in "Leading Ladies" Humble Weekly Bundle!
For all of those who have Defender's Quest on your wishlist but haven't gotten the game yet, well, now's your chance!
Defender's Quest is featured in this week's Humble Weekly Bundle:
https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly
Also be sure to check out the other awesome titles in the bundle!
Hey Defender's Quest fans! Now that Steam has gotten it's fancy new face-lift, we've jumped aboard the curation train since that seems to be what all the cool kids are doing.
If you like our way of thinking about games, you can get the latest recommendations from our own Lars Doucet right here:
http://store.steampowered.com/curator/6856238/
You can also check out Anthony Pecorella's picks here:
