Sorry for the lack of updates. But I prefer less nonsense announcements and more accurate announcements. I guess a glorious moment to reach this milestone: A 'finished' game, some what. I'll spare you all the nonsense explanation and give a short summary.
Not all assets of the game were able to be finished on time. Because I was racing against a deadline, I had no time to keep fooling around with certain things. From one side, the feedback from the testers were crucial and needed to be processed but on the other hand I also have the replacement of images, like sprites. How awful as it might be, (and I fully blame myself), the game isn't perfect. Yes it is done. Yes it is playable, but some spell cards / noncards feel weird, weak or perhaps not proper balanced. Unforgivable at maximum but doesn't make the game unplayable, perhaps bit annoying. So eventually I had to bite some dust to drop parts of the game like a proper scoring mechanism (unrefined and weak), spell practise (almost done but was buggy / crashing). These issues will be processed and eventually released as an update/patch. Because they are important. I am sorry for failing this part. Truly I am.
Enough /emo crap, tell us some good stuff!So is the Reitaisai 12 release version a fail? No. Actually I am quite proud of it, hopefully the helpers/testers are too for now, despite I had to hold their critics. Speaking of our helpers/testers. We should name them and thank them. Can I have an applause and most of all my own personal thank you to:
Drake - He has been like my personal teacher and duplicate. Helped me solve some things where I was crashing my head. I know we have the forum for help, but exchanging the code was necessary here and I cannot just toss in my entire project online now can I? :V I am not sure how I can repay Drake back for his efforts and assistance. I need to think about this.
Jaimers - Respected and well known player. He isn't afraid, he isn't tired and helped me improve and understand many things. Having Jaimers as one of the active testers until the end was an honour. Not because he is just a fellow Dutchy you know!! :V
Erppo - Respected and well known player. Erppo has his unique way of giving feedback and as Jaimers and Erppo both used different player characters, it became even more intersting. Let's just say he has a weak heart towards the Border Team in my game and was quite annoyed when I was not proper fixing their damage rates. I am sorry :ohdear: though Warugaki at least didn't let you down with his art, right?
Shimatora - We brain stormed a good hour for scoring / mechanics and other things. Sadly, due to RL stuff, Shima-chan had to drop from the further testing. But that doesn't mean her feedback went in vain, it is still present and I am sure she will continue the discussion when things better. Hang in there Shima-chan! :]
ExPorygon - He has actually been one of the most key persons in my life for this game. Since I couldn't receive permission for Lemuria for the Flying Drunkard, I had to find either another song or cover it. But there was simply no time! And then came ExPorygon. With high fever he covered and composed the track. And I can tell you this: I - was - f**** happy and full of joy. Almost cried manly tears. Cheers ExPorygon! I hope I can also receive your permission to use it for my online release?
Masuo-san - He isn't on MotK nor known among us. He is actually a good friend of N-Forza who out of said 'Sure' when I asked him to help me with the translations. I showed him a few Warugaki artwork and he was immediately in love. Masuo-san is responsible for the immense Japanese dialogues for this game. He translated them all with supreme quality. Warugaki even personally noted how well it was all written. So this game is enjoyable in two languages!
N-Forza - He helped me getting in touch with Masuo-san and also yesterday helped me with the CD artwork upload + placement of order. We're probably burning about 200 copies of Touhou Hou Enbu for Reitaisai. It isn't much but the impact on my wallet is quite huge. As said: I don't expect anything in return, because this is all solo funded.
Warugaki-san - Of course I shouldn't forget my good friend and supporter Warugaki. He drew the art, the portraits, the sprites for the bosses. Extreme high quality and that with immense speed. I keep being fascinated when he draws on Skype while discussing our sketches. It is just godlike.
koutaq-san - He gave me personal permission to utilize a few songs from one of his albums. But the permission only goes for the Retiasai physical release. I am not sure if he will allow me to do an online version, this will be discussed post-Reitaisai. Thank you koutaq-san for this honour and your album is supreme. I would definitely recommend people to buy it. It is called Sensitive Heart 月射録 ~ The Moon-shooter and is based on Imperishable Night.
Infinity - He helped me translate important e-mails to few Japanese persons regarding permission for material usage and also replies from locations. Infinity also helped me fully translated an informative document which will be added to the CD. Thank you Tanaka!
Monhan - Helped me translate important tweets from also few Japanese persons regarding permissions. One of them was a member of the Drinking Party who made Uwabami Breakers. It seems we got their attention for this game too. I hope we won't let them down!
They couldn't help out due to busy RL but I think I should name these people too:
Emuser, Naut, Sapz. I still thank you for listening to my offer. Please look forward to the Online release.
And last but not least, I need to thank our forum community. You're all
awesome. The scripters, the players, the casual roamers, the elitists. Thank you for your interest and support so far.
So, what is next? REITAISAI DA ZE. In 12 days I will be flying to Japan. First I will be fooling around but on 8th of May, another epic meeting shall take place with Warugaki and Vegas-san too! Yea, that is right. The party is hot. And slowly, as each day passes I am getting more and more excited. Tomorrow I will be presenting the game to Warugaki himself fully. So yea, things are getting quite fever-matic.
My ultimate goal for this Reitaisai mission: Hand over ZUN a copy of my game together with Warugaki and hopefully get a photo of us three. My dream is then complete.
Enjoy the three updated screenshots on the first page!
--Helepolis