Posted March 16, 2018
There is absolutely nothing shady about Redshift. At all. The "paid mods", "microtransactions" or "DLC" are not what you think they are.
Back when The Quest was first released, in 2006, it included an excellent, easy to use free editor, where users could make their own maps and share them, if they wanted. Some users gave their work away for free, others decided to sell it.
This was completely independent from Redshift, though I imagine that users who decided to sell their expansions had to make a deal with Redshift.
Apparently, this was profitable enough for a couple of users that they decided to create quite a few expansions for The Quest. http://zaristagames.com/
Again, this was back in 2006, for the original release of The Quest for PocketPC and PalmOS, with a later windows port.
A few years later, when Redshift ported The Quest to iOS, Zarista Games again sold their own expansions on the platform. This is what is being ported to and sold on Steam - user made expansions, with no input from Redshift.
If you want to accuse someone of being greedy, I guess you can shame the people who spent countless hours creating multi-part expansions for those who couldn't get enough of Redshift's excellent engine and ruleset. You know, if you want. I certainly won't.
The fact that after all these years they are still working with the Redshift guys, must mean they are pleasant enough that such a partnership is still very much healthy. According to my own personal experience of speaking with both Redshift and Zarista people, this is quite true. They are all very accessible and courteous professionals.
The game itself is Redshift's third game. The Legacy, their second game, also came with a similar editor, and there were many free & commercial maps available back in the day. I managed to collect and buy them all, and not once have I felt ripped off. Again, Redshift's engines and rulesets are a pleasure to play, and though I do not want to take away from the effort of the people who created the many hours of gameplay, you'd have to monumentally screw up to make a bad game using Redshift's tools.
The Quest itself plays pretty much like a sprite based Legend of Grimrock, though it came out 6 years before it. It's the first Redshift game to have animations outside combat, and though they aren't anything special on PC, they looked pretty damned good on the Palm. The world is huge for a mobile game, with many hours of exploration both outside and inside dungeons and caves.
Far from being a lazy port, the artwork was all cleaned and redone for the Steam version.
If you like games like Wizardy, Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, Legend of Grimrock etc., I'm pretty much certain that you'll love The Quest. I know I loved their games enough that I still keep my N-Gage around and even bought a Palm TX especially for playing Redshift games (a couple of years ago, at a very low price, of course).
To anyone who played the game, it is mind-boggling that GOG declined it.
Back when The Quest was first released, in 2006, it included an excellent, easy to use free editor, where users could make their own maps and share them, if they wanted. Some users gave their work away for free, others decided to sell it.
This was completely independent from Redshift, though I imagine that users who decided to sell their expansions had to make a deal with Redshift.
Apparently, this was profitable enough for a couple of users that they decided to create quite a few expansions for The Quest. http://zaristagames.com/
Again, this was back in 2006, for the original release of The Quest for PocketPC and PalmOS, with a later windows port.
A few years later, when Redshift ported The Quest to iOS, Zarista Games again sold their own expansions on the platform. This is what is being ported to and sold on Steam - user made expansions, with no input from Redshift.
If you want to accuse someone of being greedy, I guess you can shame the people who spent countless hours creating multi-part expansions for those who couldn't get enough of Redshift's excellent engine and ruleset. You know, if you want. I certainly won't.
The fact that after all these years they are still working with the Redshift guys, must mean they are pleasant enough that such a partnership is still very much healthy. According to my own personal experience of speaking with both Redshift and Zarista people, this is quite true. They are all very accessible and courteous professionals.
The game itself is Redshift's third game. The Legacy, their second game, also came with a similar editor, and there were many free & commercial maps available back in the day. I managed to collect and buy them all, and not once have I felt ripped off. Again, Redshift's engines and rulesets are a pleasure to play, and though I do not want to take away from the effort of the people who created the many hours of gameplay, you'd have to monumentally screw up to make a bad game using Redshift's tools.
The Quest itself plays pretty much like a sprite based Legend of Grimrock, though it came out 6 years before it. It's the first Redshift game to have animations outside combat, and though they aren't anything special on PC, they looked pretty damned good on the Palm. The world is huge for a mobile game, with many hours of exploration both outside and inside dungeons and caves.
Far from being a lazy port, the artwork was all cleaned and redone for the Steam version.
If you like games like Wizardy, Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, Legend of Grimrock etc., I'm pretty much certain that you'll love The Quest. I know I loved their games enough that I still keep my N-Gage around and even bought a Palm TX especially for playing Redshift games (a couple of years ago, at a very low price, of course).
To anyone who played the game, it is mind-boggling that GOG declined it.
