January 2010 update

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