Does anyone have any insight on this? They seem to have released Mage's Initiation (an excellent Quest For Glory style game held back *only* by grating main character voice acting) and then quietly faded away.
I've been a fan ever seen I was a wee bairn reviewing their freeware games for Gamehippo.com (RIP). As far as I'm concerned, their iterations of King's Quest I and II and Quest For Glory II are the definitive must-play-if-you're-gonna-play versions, and their version of KQ III does an awesome job of making a very challenging game (by 2026 standards for sure) more accessible.
Many many years ago I would frequent their forums to discuss their games and adventure games, but those have had nary a post in a very long time.
I backed the Mage's Initiation Kickstarter (this had to be around 2009) and the game released in early 2019. I never received all the physical backer perks (physical game, book, etc), which doesn't bother me. I'm sure the Covid lockdown put the kaibosh on manufacturing and shipping all that stuff, I get it, and I'm just happy to have played the game. The last time they replied to a Kickstarter comment seems to have been 4 years ago, but I don't think there have been any updates to their website or Facebook pages in even longer than that.
So...does anyone here have any connections with the studio or any insight into what happened and what's happening with Himalaya? For a while they were *the* post-2000's classic style point and click creators, as far as I'm concerned. The Wadjeteye before the Wadjeteye, if you will.
I've been a fan ever seen I was a wee bairn reviewing their freeware games for Gamehippo.com (RIP). As far as I'm concerned, their iterations of King's Quest I and II and Quest For Glory II are the definitive must-play-if-you're-gonna-play versions, and their version of KQ III does an awesome job of making a very challenging game (by 2026 standards for sure) more accessible.
Many many years ago I would frequent their forums to discuss their games and adventure games, but those have had nary a post in a very long time.
I backed the Mage's Initiation Kickstarter (this had to be around 2009) and the game released in early 2019. I never received all the physical backer perks (physical game, book, etc), which doesn't bother me. I'm sure the Covid lockdown put the kaibosh on manufacturing and shipping all that stuff, I get it, and I'm just happy to have played the game. The last time they replied to a Kickstarter comment seems to have been 4 years ago, but I don't think there have been any updates to their website or Facebook pages in even longer than that.
So...does anyone here have any connections with the studio or any insight into what happened and what's happening with Himalaya? For a while they were *the* post-2000's classic style point and click creators, as far as I'm concerned. The Wadjeteye before the Wadjeteye, if you will.
I loved their vga remakes of KQ & QfG too! KQ1 was a spot-on 1-1 translation (with Josh Mandel!!) KQ2 fleshed out some of the plot holes (or lack of plot) in the original. 3 was ambitious, but took it in a bit too different of a direction, but still well made. QfG2 was really well done. I never got to play Mage's Initiation. I'll have to give it a try!
I'd assume that the simple reason is the age old money question.
When they started they seemed to be a team of volunteers and I'd assume they were somewhere around my age (born in the 80s). So they were all likely in either high school or college-aged. When they attempted to make it on Kick they were likely out of college looking to see if it could work, but clearly funding was an issue already with Mage's Initiation considering it took a decade to complete, and nothing against the game as such, it clearly wouldn't have taken a decade to do so if they had been able to at least work on it part time. I'd assume that today they're all somewhere in their mid-30s-to-mid-40s, with homes, careers, kids etc and don't have a lot of free time to think up games that, ultimately, aren't going to be profitable.
Wadjet Eyes seem able to do it because it's a one man operation where Dave Gilbert seem to hire talent depending on his budget. He was able to build up his business and following slowly while Himalaya (Tierra) seemed to start out with a group of volunteers. While the indie scene has been good for the point-and-click adventure game to keep it from dying off like the dinosaurs, it's still hardly big business.
When they started they seemed to be a team of volunteers and I'd assume they were somewhere around my age (born in the 80s). So they were all likely in either high school or college-aged. When they attempted to make it on Kick they were likely out of college looking to see if it could work, but clearly funding was an issue already with Mage's Initiation considering it took a decade to complete, and nothing against the game as such, it clearly wouldn't have taken a decade to do so if they had been able to at least work on it part time. I'd assume that today they're all somewhere in their mid-30s-to-mid-40s, with homes, careers, kids etc and don't have a lot of free time to think up games that, ultimately, aren't going to be profitable.
Wadjet Eyes seem able to do it because it's a one man operation where Dave Gilbert seem to hire talent depending on his budget. He was able to build up his business and following slowly while Himalaya (Tierra) seemed to start out with a group of volunteers. While the indie scene has been good for the point-and-click adventure game to keep it from dying off like the dinosaurs, it's still hardly big business.
Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman’s Mine is one of my favorites - that game was revolutionary in terms of how interactive the game world is. In 99% of adventure games, if you “Talk” or “Use” (for example) the sky, it’ll give you the same generic response every time. Not in Al Emmo - not only does it give you a different response for each action on the sky, it also gives you a different response on every new screen!