A new, epic point and click adventure that will lead you through the world!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Update #29: New Kickstarter campaign incoming!!!
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Oct 26, 2022 at 01:13:42 AM
Hi, everyone!
As we approach our new campaign for Roots in the Sky – The Hand of Glory 2, we wanted to give you all some insights about the actual preparation for the Kickstarter.
Let's see what we've been up to!
The Demo of Glory
In this very moment we are busy preparing the demo for the game, and let us tell you: you won't see this coming!
We had a cool idea about the start of the game, something a real fan will really appreciate. We won't spoil it, though, so you'll need to wait for a bit longer, BUT... it will be worth your wait!
That being said, we can't leave you with nothing. Let's see what we can share!
New characters, new clothes
In the past few months we have started designing the cast of characters, starting from the main ones. Here you can see Alice with her new outfit, our main villain and his right-hand man.
Outfits!
As you already know, this time around our main duo will visit some exotic locations, like Palestine and India. It would be a bit weird for them to continue wearing their standard clothes! Therefore yes, they will have an alternative outfit!
A new style for Lars
A new member of the team
While working on The Hand of Glory, our Stefano met an incredibly talented artist, who goes by the pseudonym “Hauptmann”. The team was astonished by the quality of his work (you can find some examples here, and in the end we decided to have him on board for this sequel.
Hauptmann already showed you all his skills painting the background of our key-art, but he has outdone himself with the second background we commissioned him. Take a look at his version of Rome!
A gorgeous view of Rome
The importance of being an early bird
We have planned the start of the Kickstarter campaign for the beginning of February, 2023!
As you probably know, a campaign truly becomes successful if it reaches its minimum goal as soon as possible. A good start means a higher coverage by the Kickstarter algorithm, the press, the socials, the content creators and so on. That is why we're counting on you for an early contribution to the campaign (also keep in mind that Kickstarter collects the money AT THE END of the campaign, not instantly).
Obviously, we will have early birds versions of the digital pledges and, most importantly, of the big box edition!
But that's not all: as a reward for your help, every backer who supported our first campaign that will pledge for a basic Big Box edition of the game within the first 48 hours, will automatically receive an upgrade to the Deluxe Big Box Edition! Be sure to be there when the campaign starts!
A shout-out to another incredible indie project: Foolish Mortals
You've probably already heard about it, but we wanted to spend a few words on this project. Foolish Mortals is an unexpected mixture between Broken Sword and Monkey Island, with a compelling investigation set in a mysterious island, an island dominated by Voodoo Powers, an island with an obscure past that you, as Murphy McCallan, will need to uncover.
We tried the demo (it's free on Steam, try it yourself!), we were surprised by how good it is, we had HUGE Broken Sword vibes, we want the game, take our money now!
Don't be a fool! Back it now!
The project is on Kickstarter right now and it already nailed it, but you still have some time to join the crew!
Till next time!
And that's it for this update. Next time you'll hear from us, we will be in the middle of the Kickstarter campaign. We're scared, but we're also excited, and we can't wait to show you some actual gameplay!
See you next time, everyone!
Update #28: Roots in the Sky - The Hand of Glory 2
over 2 years ago
– Mon, Jul 18, 2022 at 02:25:22 AM
New game announcement!
Dear backers, we were eagerly awaiting for this day to come, the day we would be free to tell you what we've been working on during the last few months. Before reading any further, take a look at the reveal trailer:
Yes, it's true: Roots in the Sky, the sequel to The Hand of Glory, is our next project! Here's the key art for the project:
A message from Stefano
This is a bit personal, and I won't talk on behalf of the team.
Let me be honest: when The Hand of Glory came out, I wanted to work on another game, with different characters and a different story. I already had most of the game written and I was ready to dive right into it, but then...
...we started receiving A LOT of messages asking for more THOG. What we saw was a lot of love for Lars and Alice, people really wanted to know what happened to them.
The thing is, before being a developer and an author, I am a FAN of adventure games, and I've been in that position myself. I'm still here waiting for Gabriel Knight 4 to happen, you know?
For this reason, I decided to listen to you. I already had a clear idea of what would happen in a sequel to THOG, so I took a pen and I did it. And it was sweet.
Having to meet those characters again, having to imagine where they would travel this time, how their life would evolve.
I can't wait for you all to live this new adventure with me!
Power to the crowd
The road ahead is uphill, but with your help we already did it, and with your help we can do it again.
Yes, we will launch another Kickstarter campaign later this year, and we want to make it as epic as it can be! For this reason, we already opened up the pre-launch page. If you want to be a part of this new campaign, please follow us here:
Make a wish!
The Steam page for Roots in the Sky is also available right now, with some extra info and screenshots you can watch! And while you're at it, don't forget to add the game to your wishlist!
Keep in mind that the wishlist is the number one device an indie developer can use to achieve visibility, and you can really make the difference for the project's success!
That's it for this update. In the following months, we'll slowly introduce you to the new project: the locations, the characters, the voice-actors... man, there will be a lot to discuss!
Remember that you can follow us on every social, or join the discussion on Discord.
Update #27: HOT news!
over 2 years ago
– Wed, May 11, 2022 at 11:20:28 AM
Hi, guys! Let's go straight to the point and see what we've got for you this time!
Official Soundtrack released
Many of you asked for it, and here it is!
Wear your headphones, close your eyes and relive the epic journey of Lars and Alice through these 27 original tracks, exclusively composed and arranged by Carlos Leal Valladares.
Those of you who ordered a physical edition of the game that includes the USB drive will also receive a folder containing 38 additional short tracks, the ones we used to emphasize certain situations.
Here's the current situation of the different versions of The Hand of Glory:
As you can see, our work is almost done. The Switch porting is going great, and the development process is pretty much finished. We will need some more time for the submission process to Nintendo, the marketing and other very boring stuff, but in the end we'll manage to do it!
Where's my stuff?
Yeah, we know, it took us a lot of time to produce and ship the physical rewards. This was our first rodeo, and we had to learn a lot of time-consuming things.
But hey, we have good news: we have already delivered all the rewards in Europe, and we have started sending stuff all over the rest of the world! Please understand that the situation is not normal at the moment (we're talking to you, war), and shipments may take more time than expected. We're confident we'll be able to ship the last packages during April, nonetheless!
The Blowtorch Files – Early Access
During our last update, we told you we were about to publish a new game called “The Hand of Glory – The Blowtorch Files”. It's a brief prequel, a textual adventure where you will chat with Lazarus and help him with various puzzles.
The game will be released in May and it will be free but, to show our appreciation for what you have done for us, we thought about giving you early access for it!
Therefore, we'll send you all an email during the following days containing a key for the game and instructions on how to play it!
Prepare yourself for the next update, because it's going to be HUGE!
We will, in fact, discuss about the future!
Viva l'avventura!
Update #26: Christmas Newsletter!
almost 3 years ago
– Fri, Jan 21, 2022 at 03:21:44 PM
Hey, guys, long time no see!
You may be wondering what we did during these past months, and here we are with a fresh newsletter to keep you all updated!
Mac, Linux and Switch
Let's start with a thorny issue: some of you were still waiting for the Mac and the Linux versions of the game. Well, it took us some time, but we finally did it! Here's the current situation:
Mac: released, stable. You can either play it via Steam or wait for your DVD if you've ordered one during the Kickstarter campaign;
Linux: currently in beta, but we haven't received many bug reports, so we can probably label it as “stable”. We'll officially release it on January;
Switch: as this version wasn't promised during the KS, we first made sure that the Mac and Linux versions were ready as soon as possible. Now we will be free to work on the Switch version, but you'll need to wait for the next update to get a release date!
As a side note, some of you asked us for an Android version of THOG. Unfortunately, at this point is very unlikely that we're going to work on this particular porting, but we promise we'll try our best for our next projects!
Rewards
The glorious moment has come: all the physical rewards for The Hand of Glory are finished and readyto be dispatched! During this Christmas holiday we'll assemble and organize them, in order to be able to start sending everything from January 7!
Take a look at some of the goodies that we haven't been able to show you so far:
BigBox: who doesn't love them? Big, colourful, full of collector's stuff. This is the ultimate award!
DVD: smaller, but still cool enough to enrich your adventure games collection! Take a look at the design of the disc itself!
Artbook: our favourite (but most time-consuming) pledge, we worked hard on these 42 pages filled with love, trivia and high-definition images, some taken from the game and some specifically made for the artbook!
The Blowtorch Files
In our last newsletter we promised you another small surprise, and here it is: we're about to release a new adventure game called “The Hand of Glory: The Blowtorch Files”!
This is a project that was released in Italy years ago, during the Kickstarter campaign, and that was playable via the chat of a famous social network. Due to low performances, though, we sadly had to take it down, cursing the aforementioned chatbot system.
But we had the plot and we had the assets, therefore after the release of THOG we started coding the game with Visionaire Engine. Well, the game is almost ready, and we're going to release it in the following months for free!
The Blowtorch files is a prequel, but not exactly a point and click adventure game. It's a textual adventure with puzzles in it, where you'll need to use your eyes, ears... and browser!
Let it snow!
And so it is Christmas, and what have we done? Another year over, another one... is about to begin! And with the new year, new announcements will arrive (sooner than you expect)!
Use this precious moment to stay with your families and friends, just eating and playing all your favourite adventure games!
From Madit Entertainment and Daring Touch, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!
Update #25: The Aftermath
over 3 years ago
– Tue, May 11, 2021 at 02:47:07 AM
Here we are again, with the first update post-launch!
The Hand of Glory has been out for a few months, now, and we're super happy with the reception it received! Let's see what we were doing while you were playing it!
German Language
Many of you were eagerly waiting for the German subtitles to be added in the game. We promised them during the Kickstarter campaign, and our translators worked hard to deliver the best work they could. Considering the HUGE amount of text they had to face, they're like HEROES to our eyes!
After a few months of translating and some problems during the actual implementation of the subtitles in the game, we're happy to tell you that the moment has finally arrived!
Today, May 10th 2021, the German subtitles for The Hand of Glory are available!
Yay! German!
Mac, Linux and Switch
Mac and Linux players, we hear you! Here's why we haven't released those versions yet: during the tests, we encountered several problems we weren't able to solve due to the Visionaire engine version we were using. After many discussions, Insult Sword Fights™ and a few sleepless nights, we took a hard but necessary decision: rebuilding the entire game with the newest version of the engine.
There is a lot of work to do, but we're happy to report you that the latest tests are very promising, as we encountered only minor bugs while we were finally able to solve the biggest ones.
This new version of the engine will also allow us to develop the Switch porting of THOG, therefore from now on we're aiming at a (almost) simultaneous release of the MAC, Linux and Switch versions of the game. We don't have a precise release date for you, but we'd like to publish them after this summer!
Let's get physical!
While we were waiting for the German translation and trying to solve the aforementioned problems, we were also working on the physical rewards! Here's the situation so far:
Custom USB drives are ready and filled with exquisite contents! Take a look, aren't they great?!
Memory sticks look dope!
After a few tests we've decided the look of the T-shirts. During the entire process, we only had a question on our minds: “Would we wear that?”. Looking at the final result, our answer is “Bucatini smanicati, we'd definitely do!”
What do you think about the T-Shirt design?
We've already printed the poster and it's looking good. We used the classic cover image of the game, but we reproduced it at a bigger, cleaner resolution so that you will be able to hang it on your wall and show it with pride!
We're super-proud of how the Mysterious Scroll turned out! It's a real collector's item and a cool way to play the game without being inside the game itself! Let us remind you that the scroll hides a secret you'll need to uncover... and yep, you have a digital version of the scroll within the game, but nothing can compare the feeling of unrolling an ancient scroll and trying to decipher it with pen and paper, the old style!
The secret scroll!
Pins are ready to be delivered too! Can't you wait it to wear it, bringing the word out there? “I'm a THOG supporter, look at my pin, you lazy FPS player***!”
We know you were waiting for this: the physical versions of the game, DVD and Big Box editions! Now, the reason we haven't produced those yet is actually very simple: we were waiting for the German translation to be ready and tested! Now that the moment has come, we'll start printing and assembling them as soon as possible. They will both come with a game manual!
Last but not least, what happened to the Artbook? Well, this is probably the hardest reward to produce, and it's going to take some more time. This means that those of you who purchased a pledge with the PHYSICAL artbook included will need to wait a little more. But the good news is, it's going to be good! About 50 pages of wonders, high definition images and curiosities! Here's how a page will look like
Here's the artbook!
*** No offense to any FPS player was intended. We love you. We even play them (but we suck)
¡Sorpresa!
Wait for it, we have another surprise in store for you!
Thanks to an agreement with a dear friend of us, Javier Cadenas from enComplot (developer of The Season of the Warlock, an upcoming adventure game you should definitely check out) we will be able to add another language to THOG: ¡Oh, sí, hermanos, subtítulos en español están llegando!
Now, we are not able to give you a release date as we don't want to hurry the process, but we're aiming at having them ready for when the Switch version of the game will be out! Stay tuned!
See you soon
That's it for this newsletter. It was explosive, wasn't it?
To be completely honest, we would have another small surprise for you, buuut... we'll keep it for the next update!
Keep following us on our socials (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) for more news, and remember to leave a review on Steam if you've played The Hand of Glory (we really, really, REALLY need it)!
