I haven't been posting much lately; we've all noticed it. The temptation will be to assume the worst of me - that I've succumbed to laziness or apathy, or outright disdain for you, specifically.
But consider:
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The day has finally come. The three minute animated Kickstarter pitch video that Autumn Moon has been working on since April 2012 is finally finished, and A Vampyre Story: Year One is now live on Kickstarter!
The game, which is a prequel set in the first year that Mona is captive in Castle Warg, begins when she first meets Froderick the bat. It is an episodic adventure for Windows (on Facebook, Bill Tiller mentioned that the first episode will tentatively be called Spring, with the other three being the remaining seasons of Year One), using 2D backgrounds and 3D characters with a Curse of Monkey Island style verb coin interface, just like the original game. The first episode should be about one third the size of A Vampyre Story, and have about five total hours of game play.
The Kickstarter goal is $200,000 for episode one, and (according to the afforementioned Facebook page) the other episodes could be funded through this kickstarter as well, depending on how much money is pledged.
The minimum tier with the download of the first episode (for Windows, but Bill Tiller has stated that Linux, Mac, and iOS versions are a possibility if the Kickstarter does well enough) is available for only $8 (with beta access included!). If you pledge higher, you'll get a digital download of Pedro Macedo Camacho's soundtrack for the game at $25, a digital artbook at $50, a special collector's "big box" version (made with the dimensions of the Curse of Monkey Island box) at $100, a hardcover art book at $500, and even more goodies at the higher premium tiers. So, choose your tier and pledge your support for this classic style adventure game.
For those of you wondering about A Vampyre Story 2: A Bat's Tale, the reason that one's not being Kickstarted is because the rights lie with the publisher, Crimson Cow. But, Bill Tiller did mention on Facebook that if this Kickstarter does well, the chances of A Vampyre Story 2 coming out soon ("fall 2014 or sooner") go way up.
Update: Bill thinks Monday Thursday.
As has been his way, Bill transmits his latest update on the A Vampyre Story: Year One Kickstarter launch via Facebook.
Hi all, not much to report other than we are still working. Pedro on the music and me on the Kickstarter web page and AVS Y1 web page, and the rewards. Pedro last I heard was very close to being done. And I just got the art for the front page of the web site done. Here is a small sneak peak.
Until the next hang-fire!
Source: AVS Facebook page
Our coverage of an upcoming three-minute video continues into month twelve with this latest update from Bill Tiller:
Music and sound FX are still inprogress for our animated video. Pedro says he will be done this week. So looks like April 24-ish will be the soonest we can start the Kick Starter Campaign. Working on rewards, budget and web page today. Custom puppets are out. sorry. The puppet makers said they couldn't do it. :(
Saying that he hopes to have the awards for the AVS: Year One Kickstarter "set" this week, Bill reveals via photograph what one of them will be: a physical box for the game.
Judging by his referencing the CMI box's dimensions, it looks like we're in for a classic big box as opposed to the modern miniature flavor, a resort which is, needless to say, making me all sensitive beneath the skirt.
Source: Bill Tiller's Twitter
I mean, if the Kickstarter for A Vampyre Story: Year One wasn't fairly close to launching like, totally for real this time, why else would Bill be offering this little clip of animation for the pitch video? Just to hurt you?
In his narration, Bill states that "hopefully in a week we can give it to Pedro to do the sound and music," so this thing is clearly in the birth canal. You clowns better not have blown all your disposable income on Ragnar Tornquist. >:
Source: AVS on Facebook
Maybe we should have noticed this before, but this past Halloween, dtp entertainment proposed Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island on Steam Greenlight, the facility where publishers encourage Valve to consider their game for inclusion on Steam by attracting sufficient community support.
The absence of Autumn Moon's two games from Steam is glaring, considering they're available from every other digital outlet known to man. Bill revealed that the games failed to pass Valve's quality standards; this baffles me, as A Vampyre Story and Ghost Pirates are way more polished than some games you can find on Steam. At any rate, the engine changes that would have been required to satisfy the gatekeepers rendered the pursuit non-viable for Bill.
So if you have a Steam account visit this page and click the "Yes" button. The worst that will happen is nothing. Bill once speculated that Ghost Pirates was a break even game for dtp, so they haven't exactly been pounding down his door for him to deliver the planned sequel, but if it didn't lose money, perhaps every additional sale or show of support will prevent the candle of hope from being snuffed out.
Source: Steam Greenlight
Want the absolute latest on what Bill Tiller's been up to? Well, don't check his Twitter, the Autumn Moon web site, either of his blogs or Facebook - Bill knows that if you want maximum exposure, you want the Adventure Gamers forums. There he contributed to a thread rightfully exalting his well-known SCUMM Bar painting and went on to share some updates on the A Vampyre Story situation.
Cliff Notes: the Kickstarter video is 80% done, the campaign will launch "after New Year," and Bill is semi-hopeful that A Vampyre Story 2 could be his next project after Year One. He is also apparently full-on freelance again, having completed his stint as staff art director at MunkyFun.
Source: AG forums
Yesterday, Bill Tiller uploaded a picture (as seen below) from the making of the video for the upcoming A Vampyre Story Kickstarter campaign. There's also a small video clip available of Froderick.
Bill Tiller revealed today that he's still working on a video for a future Kickstarter to fund the prequel A Vampyre Story: Year One. The plan is to launch it in September.
He also posted an image of a prop that will feature in the video:
Source: Bill's twitter
Autumn Moon will jumping on the Kickstarter bandwagon soon. This is not conjecture, or have you not seen Bill's Twitter?
Autumn Moon plans to going to get back to making games soon with the help of Kick Starter. We are currently working on our pitch.
I presume that A Vampyre Story 2 is still tied up with Crimson Cow and that this would be for the prequel and/or altogether new Autumn Moon projects. The Double Fine Kickstarter has inspired a saturation of copycats, but it had the unparagoned advantage of Tim's celebrity status within the industry combined with the ridiculous amount of goodwill his studio has accreted over the past ten years that has expanded beyond niche circles. With household adventure icons like Al Lowe straining to raise half a million dollars, I hope Bill Tiller sets a reachable goal when he joins the fray.
I hate to be cynical, though, and it's hard to be when there's any indication that we'll be getting more graphic adventure games from Bill. The Autumn Moon logo has been collecting dust for three years too many, and I know my wallet will be opening to the cause.
Source: Bill Tiller's Twitter
If you've played either of Autumn Moon Entertainment's two games, A Vampyre Story and Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, you know that their composer, Pedro Macedo Camacho, is a name that already belongs in the pantheon of great adventure game maestros, worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Land or McConnell. The collaborations between his music and Bill Tiller's gorgeous illustrations, hopefully to be continued, have resulted, in the estimation of this humble poetry reader, in some of the most captivating game scenes in the past several years.
That would be why we kidnapped Pedro from his birthplace of Portugal, locked him in a castle dungeon. beset him with a series of prying questions, and tortured the answers out of him for your amusement. Tortured him, that is, with the instrument of love.
Behold the exhaustive interview we pieced together from what Pedro managed to enunciate between screams and blood-gurgling, the responses covering everything from his time in music school to the way he landed the Vampyre gig to how his future stubbornly refuses to show any signs of dimming.
Unfortunately, Pedro ate a fatal amount of manifestly inedible Skink Toes and Eau d'Mojo we offered him after the ordeal as a peace offering, and he passed away soon after. Still, why not lift your spirits to the treble clef and go read our interview with the late, great Pedro Macedo Camacho that was one-and-a-half years* in the making?
*No, that's literally the case.
Crimson Cow Games, who hold the publishing rights to the first two A Vampyre Story games, have made a post on their Facebook page regarding the sequel, which has infamously been in a state of arrested development for three years. Unfortunately, the post is in German, so the best I can do is the best Bing can do:
Hereby, as we increasingly addressed story 2 lately on A Vampyre, we want to take this opportunity and keep you up to date. Unfortunately, there were various disagreements between developer and Publisher which resulted in that AVS 2 until today could not be published. But we work under high pressure to find a solution. This, especially your opinion interests us. What about her on the subject of episodes?
Source: Crimson Cow Facebook
A bleak report on the status of A Vampyre Story 2: A Bat's Tale has been making the rounds, and while it's not super-revealing if you read Mojo it does bring the source of the project's ailments into a bit more focus. While updating PC release dates, German game site GBase contacted Bill Tiller for a more accurate target for the trouble sequel. Here's the translated response they received that's been spreading across the internet:
AVS2 got 30% done. Then due to a couple of game companies that failed to do what they the said they would with our engine they ran us over budget and so neither AME or Crimson Cow had the money to finish it. So Crimson Cow has the rights to do it, and they have tried to get it funded a few times and are trying now, but so far no luck. So call it on hold. It could be cancelled soon though. I'm not sure.
A few sites are jumping on Bill's case for describing the game as been 30% complete when earlier he apparently estimated it at 40%, but that seems kind of pedantic. Bottom line is that while both the developer and the holder of the publishing rights would like to see A Vampyre Story 2 made, its fate is predicated on the materialization of an investor, and there's possibly a closing window of opportunity (else why the threat of cancellation?). Any takers?
Source: GBase
No doubt in response to relentless pestering by us that he was too polite to identify as such, Bill Tiller has used the A Vampyre Story Facebook page to deliver a status update on the A Vampyre Story series. Let's read the whole thing, won't we?
Hi All,
Got a request for an update on all things AVS.
AVS2- on Hold. Waiting for funding. There is some progress in this area, but nothing final nor confirmed. That is all I can say without violating any NDAs. Crimson Cow owns the development and distribution rights for AVS2. So it out of AME’s hands.
AVS Year 1: When Mona Met Froderick- On tentative hold. The idea was to do this game back a year ago when I was free to focus on it, but in order to pay my bills I have started working on a really fun first person shooter for the iPhone and iPad with Munky Fun, the old Force Unleashed team who worked on AME’s game engine. So the project isn’t abandoned, it just not getting 100% of our time. But much progress has been made on it. We just need to script it, animate it, paint the backgrounds, and model the props. The game is designed, written, all backgrounds are drawn, and all character models are all built. There is some interest by Munky Fun in possibly developing it with me, but discussion on that won’t conclude till after the current game I am working on is complete. The game will get done regardless of whether MF doe it or not, but it will get done a lot faster and better with MF involvement.
AVS1 on Steam- Steam wants some major bugs to be fixed before they will put it on. Crimson Cow nor AME has enough money to go in and rewrite major sections of the engine to make Valve happy. So this will most likely never happen.
AVS1 on iOS- Crimson Cow and AME would like to see this happen, but we can’t agree on major aspects of the conversion process, so we are at an impasse. My guess this will happen eventually.
All these problems would be solved with venture capital money, but with the very sluggish economy and adventure games have a small profit margin, it’s hard to find a potential investor. So things progress slowly. Sorry, I am sure if I were a better businessman things would work out a lot better, but that is not where my talents lie, obviously. I hope you will forgive this shortcoming of mine, and I do very much appreciate you interest and patience.
Sincerely,
Bill TillerSo, not a wealth of information we didn't know or couldn't glean, but it's still nice to get the straight dope from Bill, and hopefully there are happy endings in the destiny of all these various AVS related efforts.
The Steam hurdle they've experienced surprises and fascinates me. I know AVS had a showstopping bug that got corrected in a patch, but what else could be causing it to fail Valve's screening process that is predicated on "rewriting major sections of the engine?" Is the same thing keeping Ghost Pirates off the service as well? Paging that guy who funded Costume Quest PC...
Update: Bill shortly followed up with a brief Ghost Pirates status report as well:
All things Ghost Pirates- No interest from DTP (I think it was a break even game for them) in the sequel but AME owns the IP and distribution rights to Ghost Pirates and the Galley of Doom, so this may well get made if I find an interested publisher or investor.
Source: A Vampyre Story Facebook page
Halloween came and went with nary a hint of news on A Vampyre Story: Year One...at least, not for anyone who doesn't follow Bill Tiller on Twitter. Apparently, Bill has joined up with Munky Fun, another one of those ex-LEC startups, to lend his talents to an iOS5 FPS that he describes as "free, cartoony, fun, and silly."
Bill taking this gig means that production on the AVS prequel is "pretty much on hold till December at the soonest," but it may also translate into quid pro quo. Bill speculates that he and Munky Fun (who assisted Autumn Moon with creating their proprietary engine) may end up collaborating on the completion of Year One after this project is done.
In the meantime, enjoy the latest delay of A Vampyre Story: Year One!
Source: Bill Tiller's Twitter
This time we have two Autumn Moon related features for you: Jason's A Vampyre Story review from 2008 and our second Bill Tiller interview from 2010, also by Jason. Tiller talks about the making of his then newly released second game, Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island; additional back story that didn't make it into the game; and sequels that unfortunately are yet to be released.
As the second feature of our Autumn Moon themed series, we present to you the Bill Tiller chat from 2007. Tiller joined us on December 30th, 2007 in the #monkey-island IRC channel. This resulted in a two hour Q&A session that Gabez edited down to a more coherent format which is again available for you to read! For those that want to read every word typed, the complete chat log is also available in our media archive.
As Halloween is approaching, we'll be bringing back some of the features about the company most closely related to this holiday: Autumn Moon Entertainment. Since Bill Tiller quit LucasArts and founded his own company to make adventure games, Mojo has kept up with his actions. The first feature to return from the dusty Mojo archives is Gabez's interview with the man himself from 2007. Bill discusses his then upcoming game, A Vampyre Story, cancelled Full Throttle sequels (with images!), and takes Gabez out for an action filled lunch!