Hero6

"Hero6" is credited as the first adventure game project ever to be developed freely by fans. Originally founded in 1999 under the pretense of being an unofficial sequel to Sierra Online's Quest for Glory series, "Hero6" received much attention and skepticism from online communities. Despite being criticized by Sierra's website moderators, "Hero6" was largely ignored by Sierra (most probably due to Sierra's acquisition by Vivendi Universal). Sierra's silence was interpreted as doubt towards "Hero6"'s successful completion of an adventure game without financial support. Due to recurring legal fears, "Hero6" changed focus and started development on an original, stand-alone adventure game. Now, only "inspired" by the Quest for Glory series, "Hero6" features unique art, music, story, and, most ambitiously, a custom adventure game engine.

"Hero6"'s open development community was eventually moved to a private website where criticism towards the creation of "Hero6" could be kept within a team environment. Initially, "Hero6" enjoyed as many as 200 volunteers working sporadically under the leadership of a single person. However, due to the scope of the project, "Hero6" was eventually broken down into subsections. Each subsection represented a division of development, namely: plot, art, music, programming, and PR. A manager was placed over each section to efficiently instruct volunteers working in those areas.

A complication within the project was due to the lack of ownership of the "Hero6" plot. Because the majority of "Hero6"'s volunteers worked on the plot, many conflicts often arose concerning the direction of the storyline. Constant story changes and ambitious demands caused an upset within volunteers focusing on other development areas of "Hero6". As a result, "Hero6" experienced a high turnover rate.

Many of "Hero6s volunteers left to start adventure game projects of their own. Most notably is Tierra Entertainment (now "AGD Interactive"), who successfully remade Sierra's "King's Quest 1" and "2", and are slated to release a "Quest for Glory 2" remake sometime in 2008. Other projects include "Struggle for Life and Honor", "Quest For Glory 3D", and '. From those projects, many other projects have been inspired.

Undeniably, "Hero6" can be attributed as the grandfather of fan-made adventure games.

Technical summary and facts

* "Hero6" was founded by Karl Semich
* Eventually, "Hero6" was led by [http://www.rink.nu Rink Springer] -founder of the MAD engine-until his controversial departure in 2000.
* A year into "Hero6"'s development, Adventure Game Studio (AGS) became available to the public. AGS' popularity and ease of use has made it the #1 engine for developing adventure games by amateurs and fans. "Hero6" considered AGS for a time, but continues development under their custom engine: MAD.
* "Hero6" followed the look and feel popular during the "adventure game era" (1991-1996); that is, a low resolution of 320x240, mouse interface, and third-person perspective.

References

*http://www.fortunecity.com/rivendell/everquest/183/news.htm
*http://www.adventure-eu.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=122&Itemid=29
*http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,107
*http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-notable-amateur-adventure-games
*Hero6's 3rd move listed on archive.org: http://web.archive.org/web/19991128213506/http://www.hero6.com/
*Hero6's 2nd location on loirak, listed on archive.org in Aug 1999: http://web.archive.org/web/19990829014544/loirak.com/hero6/ (news listing shows June 2nd, 1999 as website start)

Related links

* AGS homepage: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/
* MAD homepage: http://mad-project.sourceforge.net/
* Hero6: http://www.hero6.com/

Screen Shots