Knightmare.com

Hey all. What an awesome pilot! I'm sorry for lameness here, but because I spent such an irrationally long time writing an article about the pilot for my blog (which nobody will read), I'm going to save time and effort by linking here, and hoping it might attract a click or two. I even made a little promotional picture to go with it.



"Through My Eyes Only: Aegis Quest"

Admittedly, this is considerably more about than on the pilot. I think I largely agree with what has been said here. It looks intriguing and a clear challenge. It reminds me a lot of early S8, not only with the consistent aesthetics of the environment, but also when the first team perished quickly as a statement of intent. The characters come across great (as we knew they would), although I think the close-ups on Ward are awkward (I agree, Ben, that it seems a bit unexpected). Ward just doesn't have the presence for me, although I think the voiceovers are better.

But I'm also pleased that I'm not the only one that believes that, despite its clear and conscious efforts to be recognized as a separate project from KM, there are many positives to be garnered from recognizing the tropes of similarity. From a marketing point-of-view, I think one of the only ways to push views from the hundreds to the thousands is going to be to let it fall under the shade of a new KM, as opposed to something that is distinctly not-KM, even if only temporarily. I'm not a big RPG gamer outside the realm of Knightmare, and I think to myself this evening: there must be loads of RPG style projects going on out there that I have never yet come across, and probably never will. I do not go searching wide of Knightmare - that is very much my vogue. AQ fills a unique gap in the market as being able to go where KM always wanted to, and never could. I figure that 'to boldly go' is the way, because nobody wants a meek and empty retreat into the wilderness.

Want to join Pooka in thanks: to him for the creative, to Forester for amazing effects (and for making potentially awkward moments vanish), and to Alan for the project (and for letting me play Quester). There's nothing quite like playing a Guybrush Threepwood. If only I'd said to Maraki, "You fight like a cow!"

Visually it's superb. I certainly wouldn't worry about the backgrounds being dark. It wouldn't be the Dungeon if it were any different.

The sound quality is not so good. The dungeoneer seems to be delivering his lines by telephone, while breathing on the mic a lot, and there's a very 'wooden' echo when the NPCs are speaking, which breaks the illusion of being in subterranean caverns.

Some of the dialogue could do with a redraft; it's colourless and humourless - not necessarily a problem as it has a pseudo-medieval quality that is quite appropriate - but also there seem to be some abrupt 21st Century words forcing their way in. For instance, Ward asking, "Are you okay?" is a bit of an Americanism. By the way, it's a bit rough of Ward to snap, "Come on, get up!" to a guy who's out cold on the cavern floor!

Is the answer to the riddle "A promise"?

Pooka wrote:- The character we saw in the stinger - would you trust him? And who's that mysterious skeletal man hovering with a dagger just before him? Just so you have something to wonder about...

Where did you find this guy to play him? I don't normally get spooked easily, but good grief....

Overall, I glad that the pilot is finally here for everyone to watch, and I echo KaM's opinion that this will be a fantastic opportunity for people to actually have the feel of playing in a 3D enviroment of a quest that is of a nature similar to Knightmare.

The website Kickstarter is about to launch in the UK. Have you considered using that to try and bolster support for Aegis Quest, Mystara?

That's certainly worth knowing. Once I have some solid ideas as to costs, I'll see if I can go about putting a kick-starter up.

Having just watched the pilot, I do like the way the riddle is actually a riddle rather than a general knowledge question like the riddles always were in Knightmare. Good acting throughout, although Ward's delivery felt a little stilted. This may be deliberate, and his performance certainly wouldn't put me off watching the show when you manage to get things up and running.

Indicating who's talking, if the advisors are on set, it might simply be a case of 'point a camera at them and occasionally cut to them talking/putting an in-vision view of them,' not sure how that would work with the lore you set up, unless Ward's magic connection to the advisors is done by creating magic realm where they can see what the dungeoneer would be able to see... And if that sort of thing doesn't fit with the lore, it might improve the overall product if you bent the lore until it did - It might even be solved simply by having the dungeoneer name the advisors so that Ward can establish a connection with them.

"I can establish a connection to two people from your world, but you have to visualise them in your mind, and name them," that sort of thing certainly helps for figuring out who's who in audio podcasts, and should also helps establish a connection between Dungeoneer and advisors, even if no such connection exists in reality, which I suspect will help the lore of the show. Otherwise it's a bit of a case of 'who are these people Ward's randomly put the life of this unfortunate person in their hands, and why would the dungeoneer trust them' as far as the show's internal logic is concerned - This will also help establish a connection between the advisors and the dungeoneer in the viewer's mind, even if no connection exists in reality. This helps the verisimilitude of the viewing experience, which for semi-fictional sorts of things is probably more neccessary to help us buy into the fiction by making it easy to suspend our disbelief than pure drama. (As for them sounding a bit similar - I hadn't even realised there were two until reading this thread)

For darkness of environment being different on different computers, this both can't be helped but you can easily help deal with it. There are brightness/contrast callibration guides online, I'm unsure which are good and which aren't, but if you callibrate according to one of those, design on the assumption that the viewer will be watching standardised to it, and then provide a link to the callibration, that at least allows viewers to know how they should be adjusting their monitor settings for best viewing experience, even if they choose not to, a bit like a test card, really. (And, yeah, some people's monitor's factory defaults aren't that hot, and if they decide to adjust for your show, it might improve their computer experience across the board)