News
Beta Test Enrolment Form now Live!
Date: 14/01/2010
Hi Folks,It's been a while hasn't it? Well in regards to me writing a post to you all it has!
With great pleasure I'd like to announce our Beta Testing Enrolment Form is now live!
The form will give some of you the opportunity to join in with the final Testing phase of Pier Solar.
Oh but wait, I haven't told you where the form is... well that's for you to hunt down!
Chow for now,
Matteus and the Water Melon team
January 2010 update
Date: 10/01/2010
Hello,Hope you had a nice holiday and a great start of the new year :).
People on the forums are starting to beg.. hrmm ASK!.. for updates again, so I have no other choice but to get Tulio's permission to write an update. He gives me access to this blog and here I go. Although we are at the same development state, things have progressed a lot.
Finally, the soundtrack is 100% complete. The Mega-CD soundtrack tunes were composed and mixed a long time ago, but the conversions to FM/PSG (Mega Drive sound) had yet to be done. The last of them (which total to about 50) are now made by Tulio. He has also enhanced some of the older tunes.
Graphics are almost done now too, with the last battle backgrounds drawn and inserted into the game a few days ago. They look fabulous, very detailed and colourful. The demo backgrounds can't hold a candle to them. What's left to do are mostly tweaks and polishing.
What we are doing now is inserting everything into the game that hasn't been inserted yet. It's pretty much only battle stuff and the translations left. All battle code is written since long, we just have to do the parameters, the curve of EXP, enemy statistics (character statistics are done since long) etc. I will do this personally with Fonzie.
My current task is playing through the game, checking through the maps. Bugs are pretty much non-existent, but there are some background priority issues here and there that requires me to play the game to see them. After that, it's the battle parameters and some testing, and a final look at the script. There are also some other minor things left, but it isn't much, we are really getting there.
So to the million dollar question... when are we done? Sorry to say it, we don't know. We are still talking about months. But rest assured that we are putting many hours every day to make sure the game is out as we want it and you expect it ASAP. Apart from Christmas, there has been no rest days since long before the pre-orders began. For me, a week of vacation is now ahead. A week of no work, but a bloody lot more of Pier Solar!
Take care people, and play the English translation of Barver Battle Saga while you are waiting (http://www.romhacking.net/trans/1467) :).
/Zebbe, Water Melon team
Insider news
Date: 06/10/2009
Hello friends of Pier Solar.This is Tulio speaking with some cool news. Finally, 1 year after a big punch when we lost much of our pixel art, we finished the development of all critical pixel art and move on to final graphical touches. Also, after 1 month confined with Fonzie in a "bootcamp" experience I'm very happy to say that the main game programming (so called game scripting) has been completed. With those two steps, the game now moves on to the phase of internal testing, or as I'll call it, final beta stage.
That's a very important mark as it means that the game scope is closed to additions and improvements (oh my God, there were so many). We implemented all the new features that will bring Pier Solar to excellence both as Software and as a game.
First fast run on the game took us more than 10 hours to complete. Mind you, a fast run means game without enemies, without ambient NPCs, without extra chests, just what you need to travel between all cities and all dungeons to complete the game without stopping to learn the story, explore for treasures, etc. We're positive that the game will render at least 30 hours of game play considering the rich environment that has been created on every town and the complexity of the dungeons as the game advances.
Next phases on Pier Solar development will go as follow:
- Play test
- Final Pixel Art insertion
- Bug fixing
- Monster/items/magic calibration
- Bug fixing
- Translated texts input
- Bug fixing
- Battle frequency and difficulty calibration
- Bug fixing
- Items price calibration
- Bug Fixing
- More beta tests
- Bug fixing
- Proof reading of all languages
- Bug fixing
- Bug fixing
- Bug fixing
- Bug fixing
- Bug fixing
- Bug fixing
- Bug fixing
- Bug fixing
- Bug fixing
- Bug fixing
- And maybe more bug fixing.
- Release to manufacture
- Shipping
This doesn't mean that the game is full of bugs, on the contrary, it's playing clean from beginning to end. However, players often do the most unexpected actions and that's what we must cover for. We just want to be sure that we'll test the game as much as it takes to get it on commercial grade bug free status. It's really annoying having to wait a little longer for the game to be completed because there is so many tests and re-tests going on, but hey, it's even more annoying to think of the possibility of the player doing something he's not supposed to then save the game and get it locked forever.
We don't want to allow such thing to happen with Pier Solar so we're insisting on this once more: There will be no rush on the release, it must be perfect. This is not like PS3 games that you can release with minor bugs then update it later... once it's written to the ROM chip it's written forever, so we must be sure that it will be perfect. I know it's boring to wait but trust me: You'll thank me later.
Best regards!
Help Wanted
Date: 16/09/2009
Lots of goings on in the Pier Solar world today. Our venerable coding team have been officially locked in a single room and won't be let out until the game's done.I know I've said that before in jest, but now I jest not. I am presently jest-less.
The Fonz and Tully have officially gone underground and are working day and night (in the same room no less!) to complete the game. I've been privy to their progress and the game is looking rock solid.
However!
As you know, we're offering the game in multiple languages and our translators have been tireless in their attempts to encompass the whole of the linguistic spectrum (or at least five languages) but our Japanese translation is in need of a helping hand. Our current Japanese translator is feeling the language's might and is in need of a knight in shining armor. Or at least someone to hold aggro.
So! If you're up for the challenge and are fluent in Japanese drop us a line on the boards or through the contact form in the About section of the site. All translation work is volunteer but you will be compensated with a free copy of the game, a credit and a reference if you happen to have chosen this as your likely career path.
You'll mainly be doing proofreading - a simple but never the less time consuming and important task.
Oh and before anyone asks: No. The Japanese language option is not going to be cut.
Also: It looks likes like the final chunk of enemy assets are about to be polished and we can finally finishing implementing and tuning the battle system. Then we can start breaking it. Ah, game design is so much fun.
Take care all!
-WM
Thanks for your Support!
Date: 11/08/2009
A quick post today but we thought we'd drop official word that the European version of Pier Solar has SOLD OUT. That's fantastic news for us, and it's all thanks to your unending support for this project.For those of you who are disappointed that the European version is no longer available remember you can still pre-order the US and JPN versions. They're region free so they should still work on your console but some language options will be different. (Sadly we can't fit all languages on to one cart).
So again, thank you! We're continuing to work hard to deliver the game to you all as soon as possible and we look forward to your feedback once the game is placed (gently!) into your Genesis. Unless of course you don't like it. Then you can keep your fool mouth shut.
POWA!
- WM
