So, I know you've been waiting patiently for Defender's Quest HD. Although we're not releasing the full version today, we are releasing a demo version available for you to try, right now! It encompasses the same amount of content as the original demo.

It's not perfect, and it probably has some bugs, but we figure it's better to get it out there in front of a small audience now, collect feedback, and fix as many things as we can rather than continue to noodle on it in private and suffer from tunnel vision.

You can find builds for Windows, Mac, and Linux here:

Defender's Quest HD Demo: Initial Public Test

Do note that the graphics are not in a 100% final state, and that controller support still needs a decent amount of work. It also has a crash report logger that we'll remove from the final GOG version. But this should give you a pretty good feel for what the new engine is capable of.

Keep in mind that this is also literally the Defender's Quest II engine, it's just running the game content from Defender's Quest I. So this also represents a huge milestone towards the completion of Defender's Quest II, as well.

Please let us know if you have any trouble with the builds, there's instructions in the linked blog post for posting feedback and bug reports.

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In semi related news, I wrote this other blog post the other day some of you might find interesting, it includes details about the HD remake process for DQHD:

http://www.fortressofdoors.com/doing-an-hd-remake-the-right-way-ffvi-edition/

How did you know? You must be psychic or something! ;) On a more serious note, I have been checking the DQ2 site frequently - more than most I'd wager - and the progress of the rejiggering of the first game, only to be met with yet another progress pushback. Still, it was/is something to look forward to, so... Yay! I'm very much looking forward to the sequel as well.

I'll be sure to give the test build a whirl on me Mac mini.

I'll give this a try... Although to note, i really hope it isn't using Adobe Air...

If you recall, it was removed years ago...

To my knowledge that's wrong. The Phoning home was removed which people complained about, however Adobe Air was the flash player needed to make the game run.

Copypaste from the official site:

Note: As of Version 1.0.72, the Windows and Mac versions of Defender's Quest no longer require Adobe AIR to be installed.

Also the HQ update is based on a new engine which I don't think uses flash at all. Don't worry about it. :)

Installed separately no... But it's still included with the game as a dll package.

On the other hand giving the demo a quick try, it feels much better than the original's (and looks better too) I'll have a comparison photo soon.
So initial impressions. Played through the first several battles.

Pros:
1) Loads quickly (on a ramdrive so maybe biased)
2) Supports 16:9 resolutions
3) Graphics/Sprites look much improved, smoother and more hand drawn feeling.
4) I could actually zoom through the fights at 16x and it feels fast!
5) No hint of Adobe Air from the files

Cons:
1) During loading it loads 4-5 commandline programs for a few moments that pop up and then disappear. Also happens when changing the screen. As it's a demo it's probably a workaround for something else.
2) The images (jpeg&png) files can probably use better optimization, but not really a con more a pet peeve of mine that's unimportant in the long run.

Overall: Love how it's looking!


edit: Went through optimizing the images. With optimized PNG/JPEGs it went down to 252Mb and with optimized JPEG and uncompressed PNG it was 200Mb. Of course having 4Gigs in png's is sorta a waste of space and only useful during transit, afterwards needing some minimal compression when installing, which i don't see happening too much...

Defender's Quest II engine doesn't use Air. This is addressed under limitation 5 in the Demo blog entry if you bothered to read it.

Sounds great! And when can we expect it to be finished?

I don't want to nail you down on a specific date but it would be nice to know if we can expect the final in around 2 weeks, 2 months or half a year.

I would also be interested to know if there is already a planned release date for DQ2.

DQHD will be done early 2016. Late January would be nice as that coincides with our original release anniversary but it's hard to say until I finish a few more things.

I can say however it will be a staged release. We might not ship with full mod support or every localization the original had, for instance. Instead we'll start with a complete english-language package sans mod support, then add those other features in as quickly as we can in the weeks that follow.

DQII will release "when it's done." I'd like to make 2016 but we'll have to see. At the very least, the major slog of engine work will be done for DQII when DQHD is out and then it's "just" working on content.

Awesome. I discovered DQ1 a few months ago and couldn't put it down for a week. Love the fact that it's got quite a bit of extra content as well with NG+.

Looking forward to the next game!

Thanks for the heads-up.