The Lost Heir Trilogy

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This is a thread to discuss The Lost Heir.

I started this game many years ago with the hopes of it becoming my next title. It was my plan to make a game like Life of a Wizard with the immersive story and cast of characters like Zombie Exodus.

I even did a closed beta test for the first-third of the game, so there were about 50 people who saw a portion of it. Unfortunately, I ran into some glitches and got disheartened over how it was progressing. On November 1st, 2013, I stepped away from it to write Life of a Mobster.

I had a few friends ask me about it as I worked on Mobster. With the ability to play over 10 classes of characters (at the time), a full inventory system, an epic storyline and a solid cast of characters, it had the potential to be something really good.

If Life of a Wizard was more game than story, the Lost Heir was to be my rebuttal, bringing a full story into the game.

And so, after Life of a Mobster released, I returned to it.

This thread began with the question:

The game itself is to be a trilogy. And so, that’s one of my first questions. What should the full title be? I’m thinking something like this: The Lost Heir: Part One: The Fall of Daria

Or, should I not name the first installment, just calling it The Lost Heir? If I did that, would people be upset when they reach the end and realize that it’s not over?

The games have all been released, but I’m still collecting errors and bugs for future updates. Please use the following three threads:

Lost Heir 1 Bugs: The Lost Heir 1: The Fall of Daria - Errors and Bugs

Lost Heir 2 Bugs: The Lost Heir 2: Forging a Kingdom Bugs and Errors

Lost Heir 3 Bugs: The Lost Heir 3: Demon War Bugs and Errors

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I loved this beta. But people in app stores are stupid, at least the ones who post this is a scam where is the rest of the game??? . So you have to put Vol 1 or something. This game remember me to dragon age origins noble origin.

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I think there should be some indication that it is a part 1. When I buy a game I expect it to be complete unless it’s stated otherwise.

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Haha! @Lucid, I was going to ask, “What’s next?” In the Life of a Mobster thread but: a) I didn’t want to derail the thread, and b) I thought you deserved a break/vacation!

I’ll be checking this out this weekend hopefully when I have an hour to myself.

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Can you give a overview of the story please. In case it has differed from the original in any way

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The possibility for a story to be abruptly dropped is always there, so I like to know the kind of deal I am about to commit to. If each part is written as a standalone, I guess you can go with The Lost Heir then The Lost Heir 2: blabla. But if you plan to bring the whole thing in a trilogy, I would want to see it somewhere. Long story short, I second @Victoriya’s opinion.
And I think it would be interesting to know why you are hesitating.

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You are the Prince/Princess of Daria and sole heir to the throne. A group, led by Alexander Zusak, comes to the castle from the Consortium of Planewalkers, which common people rudely call Demon Summoners. One of his associates, a woman named Selina, poisons the banquet while a second, Thuja, uses his mercenaries to free the prisoners from the dungeons. Your parents are killed and Zusak steals a Demonstone from the royal treasury.

You escape with one of four people who becomes your foster parent (Sir Grady, an old knight. Amos, a thief from the dungeons. Sister Geri, a bald monk. Or Lady Emaline, an old lady who is actually the royal assassin). In the escape, you steal several of Zusak’s Demonstones, allowing you to later learn the art, if you wish. The murders and robbery are blamed on the escaped prisoners and the Kingdom is torn apart. Four duchies take its place, with Selina ruling one of them. You grow up in exile, learning a trade of your choosing (bard, squire, assassin, monk, fighter, wizard, ranger, druid, sage, guard, scribe, good/evil priest… they all open up over time and I try to make them all individually meaningful).

You join up with a childhood friend (cleric or thief, your choice), another friend you met in exile (an archer), a large fighter and a spell caster with a dark past. With varying success, you can find magical artifacts and learn to summon demons yourself as you plot to confront Zusak and his companions while unraveling the reason behind your parents murder and the nefarious plans he has in store for the fallen kingdom.

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@tehani The hesitation to not call it Part One is merely common practice. It seems that most multi-episodic games don’t include Part One in the title.

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I would say put the info of it being the first part of a series in the description if u don’t want it placed on the title, so if people find out it didn’t end it would be 100% their fault for not reading up before buying. For title I was thinking The Lost Heir: The Fall of Daria, it would sound like your game will be The Lost Heir series(like a book series). Unless you plan to change the title for every part i don’t know.

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Jealous I didn’t test it

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The Lost Heir: The Fall of Daria
The Lost Heir: Forging a Kingdom
The Lost Heir: The Demon War

Perhaps including the Part Number just in the description then? They have definite break points, so it should still feel like individual games, but the story is definitely overarching all three titles.

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Well then, if they should still be considered as individual games.
Just do it that way

The Lost Heir: The Fall of Daria
The Lost Heir 2: Forging a Kingdom
The Lost Heir 3: The Demon War

You might still want to make it clear that it is intended as a trilogy in the description, but to me it would be clear enough.

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@Lucid
I have to agree with Altan. It’s definitely a good idea to include the volume number somewhere in the title. Even though I explicitly said in the author’s note that there were several sequels and the title of the gamebook is “Trial of the Demon Hunter - book one of Demons Among Men” I had several people who apparently didn’t know it was the beginning of a series xD.

Btw, I love the titles you’ve got for your trilogy.

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@Lucid I actually really like the names but you do need to make it clear that it’s only the first part of the game and also now that i’m talking about the game it sounds pretty cool from what i’ve heard.

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@Lucid Ooh, I understand. Due to their format, I see the CoG games as if they were more related to books. So the addition of a numbering in the title was kind of natural for me. But I can agree that the “rules” to name videogames aren’t the same and this leads to more thoughts. I don’t know enough to be sure but I would say that if a series of games do that it is because the first episode IS a standalone (I only have Mass Effect to contradict this, but there could be enough others to shove this sentence down my throat).

This being said, I don’t know if it would really damage anything to place a “1.” in your title. I agree with @Azul with the “if people find out it didn’t end it would be 100% their fault for not reading up before buying” but I am not sure that the goal is to put the blame on someone who could feel cheated or to avoid this situation.

Edit: wow, it took me too long to post this. -_- Well, all I wanted to say is in @Altan’s post.
And @Samuel_H_Young Wow, with such a title the people who couldn’t tell that it was the first book are the proof that the human mind can act in unexpected ways. It is funny and amazing. ^^

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Oooh this is really good. I agree with ghostface22; I’m jealous I didn’t get to test it. I look forward for this :smiley:

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@Tehani
It was a shock, to be sure xD

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@altan

I like this:
The Lost Heir: The Fall of Daria
The Lost Heir 2: Forging a Kingdom
The Lost Heir 3: The Demon War

With mention of the word trilogy in the description. It should feel long enough for people to feel that it’s a regular sized game all on it’s own (and by the time I finish, it’ll be around the 150k mark, so it WILL be full sized).

I’m hesitant to start with:
The Lost Heir 1: The Fall of Daria

Or it seems TOO sequential. I don’t want people to avoid it altogether, or feel the need to wait, since all three won’t release on the same day.

From other people’s posts, this method seems to be the most popular.

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@Lucid
The Lost Heir 1: The Fall of Daria seems like the 1 would be unnecessary.

If you named it just “The Lost Heir: The Fall of Daria” then mentioned trilogy in the description most sensible people or even a good majority of the less intelligent app store browsers would assume that its only part one. Plus it being a 150K word game I don’t think they’ll miss anything :slight_smile:

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I agree the 1 isn’t necessary as mentioning it being first of a trilogy in the description would cover most people understanding of being the first. How Altan’s set up of the titles is perfect way to do it.