The Queen's Footsteps: Physical release

[DarwinNE]

Hi to all,
as many of you are aware, I worked for several months developing a new text adventure game called The Queen's Footsteps. I already announced it in the "VIC-20 Software Releases of 2020 " topic: http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... =15&t=9559

Today is August 27th, 1904. Nine months ago, you, Emilia Vittorini, joined the Italian Archeological Expedition in Egypt led by Ernesto Schiaparelli, the director of the Egyptian Museum of Turin. You are now back in Genova, Italy: your steam ferry arrived three days ago with 25 wooden boxes containing Queen Nefertari Meritmut's grave goods, a real treasure! They left Genova by train, heading towards Turin, yesterday evening. While they were in transit, you were invited to a sumptuous reception organised by a wealthy art lover, Eugenio Collovati, count of Raligotto, but it would be hard to say that you appreciated the evening.
But the reception was yesterday: now, you must catch the train to Turin and check that the treasure arrived safely. I will be your eyes and ears. Good luck.

I now I have the pleasure to announce that Polyplay is releasing a physical release of the game on floppy disk for the VIC-20 with a 32KB RAM expansion (but many other computers are supported, too). It can be presently pre-ordered from the Polyplay store: https://www.polyplay.xyz/The-Queens-Foo ... 0-Diskette

I would like to thank everybody that participated to the discussion about the beta testing of the game, as I received much support and many useful comments: http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... =10&t=9437

I would like to give a special mention for Kweepa for his very careful proofing of my English language and to Mike for the assistance during the development of the 40 column driver that exploits the font drawn by him.

If you would like the game, of course you can continue to download it freely (no DRM, no evil in-app purchases) from my blog: http://davbucci.chez-alice.fr/index.php ... ge=English

Play it, share it with your friends, post it online on shared archives if you wish. In short: have fun!

[orion70]

Congratulations on this achievement! This may well be the first true, deep, professional-looking adventure game written for the VIC-20 ever, let alone created by an Italian guy. I'm so proud for you! Of course, the order was done in a blink of an eye. I'll be excited like a 15 yo at first date, until it hits my mailbox in April .

Thanks Davide (and all cooperators) for your fantasy, skills, and dedication to the cause of text adventures on our little big micro. Ad maiora!

Edit: wonderful box art BTW

[DarwinNE]

Thank you for the very kind words, orion70!

I have to say that I still can't believe that non only I could write a game for my humble yet trusty and beloved first computer, but that is also commercially released in 2020 and distributed by a professional.

Edit: wonderful box art BTW

I'm of course not objective, but I can't resist to say that find the box art (done by Ralph Niese, inspired by Alphons Mucha "Laurel," a 1901 lithography) utterly amazing, awesome and just perfect for the game. I'm breathless!

Thanks to everybody for the support!

[Mayhem]

Congrats! Tempted to purchase, but I suspect my budget may limit me for a couple months heh

[desiv]

Yep, congrats!
Looks great!

And that's a nice looking 40 column font too!!!

[DarwinNE]

Thank you to both!

The 40-column font has been originally drawn by Mike: http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... f=2&t=9257

[orion70]

[...]Of course, the order was done in a blink of an eye. I'll be excited like a 15 yo at first date, until it hits my mailbox in April .

After some reasonable and understandable delay, the site says

Available from: 25.05.2020

[DarwinNE]

Yes! I noticed that, too

[DarwinNE]

Hello!

The game is being distributed and shipped in this moment

I got in touch with several people that received the Amiga version, Poly.play said to me that if everything is going as expected, they are going to ship the All in One boxes this week

[orion70]

Great news, thanks!

[ka20]

I placed my order in early March but I am still waiting impatiently....it still hasn’t shipped yet. I suspect it has something to do living in the USA and the little virus that’s impacting everything.

[DarwinNE]

Yes, the Covid19 has greatly delayed everything
Polyplay has posted two days ago on their Twitter account pictures of the preparation of the all-in-one versions of the game:

https://twitter.com/polyplay_xyz/status ... 9397350402

I know that the Amiga versions have been shipped (and received, at least in some cases). I hope the versions for the other platforms will be prepared and shipped soon!

[Kweepa]

That packaging and those disks <3

[orion70]

No news from Italy

[DarwinNE]

Try to drop a line to poly.play. I know Sebastian is working on the shipping, but maybe he is tackling one version at the time and can give you some information.

In any case, I am waiting some copies of the game, too.