Help Wanted

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

Around the World in Forty Builds

One of the cool things about working on Pier Solar is the increasingly global nature of the project. It was obvious at the beginning, with team members hailing from the US, Sweden, France and even the cold desolate landscape of Canada - where the polar bears roam free and some consider the CBC worth watching. As more members jumped on and the game finally began to take shape we began to realize how much our networked existence is beginning to change things.

None of us have ever met, and most of us have only heard each others' voices on rare occasions. Yet here we are, with an almost complete video game produced at cost, with no development house, no round table meetings, not even a hand shake between members.

Pier Solar, along with other indie titles, might be among the first wave of nation-neutral entertainment. Final Fantasy belongs to Japan. Fable belongs to Ireland. Mass Effect to Canada.

Us? We're international baby. Pier Solar could actually be a catalyst for world peace.

Maybe not.

Speaking of being international, I don't think the heartless slave drivers at Watermelon have formally thanked our small army of volunteer translators. Also hailing from everywhere, these guys have been working incredibly hard to bring you the game in as many languages as possible.

And truthfully? They're doing an INCREDIBLE job. They all have great turn around rates and always deal with the myriad of changes we dump on them with incredible professionalism.

That is of course, assuming that they're translating everything accurately. If any Japanese players notice that the game's plot seems to be about the joyful mass extermination of a major ethnicity drop us a line. It may be a localization bug.

-WM

Praise be to the Fonz

Fonz our graphics designer that is, not THE Fonz. Then again, I suppose the illustrious Happy Days character deserves some praise - if only for the thousands of research hours he saved by collecting the rarest of STDs.

Um... where was I going with this?

Oh! Right! Our Fonz! The adorable Frenchman whom you will know from the credits as Gwénaël Godde. Why is he the titular character of this post? You shall be informed! You see, on top of slaving away on the actual game part of Pier Solar, Fonz is the man responsible for the glorious packaging we introduced to you weeks ago. Most of us, however, had only pictures to partake in, but lately we've been tossing the complete boxes back and forth - checking for sturdiness, style, and gently caressing them as we fall asleep. While the pictures are lovely, they really don't do the boxes justice. I was shocked at their quality and, not to put too fine a point on it, amazed at how much better they are than most professional game boxes. I estimate that when the product arrives in your hot little hands, you'll spend just as much time with the box as you will with the game. It's really damn, damn, DAMN sexy.

Now that the script is finished, our translators are diligently working away so those of you not blessed with speaking "da english" will be able to enjoy the finely crafted narrative within.

In the coding department Tulio has been chained to his desk for days, busily scripting the remainder of the game. Every time he slows down we have him whipped. Or, at least, we did until he started to like it. More info than you needed I'm sure, but it wigged us out too.

Finally, I know I said I'd try to get some in-game music for your listening pleasure but I just couldn't track down our composer in time to get the files. My bad.

I might need to be whipped.

*Cough*

-WM

A new teammate and major redesigns

The last weeks have been buisy with preparations for the demo and the final game. Helping us improving what we already had, Victor Gomez, a professional designer from the industry and die-hard Sega-fan has joined our team and given the main characters a major visual overhaul. He has proven a great help to us, and we are sure the result will now be even better than ever imagined. Of course this has given us some new work, as sprites have to be redone, but it´s all for the best of the game, and the planned release date is still standing! Stay tuned!

Tulio turns 28

Today is a special day; our dear Tulio´s birthday! With the biblic age of 28 he is now officially one of the weirdos who can´t let go of kid´s play like the Mega Drive although he is physically an old man! We wish him the best of luck for the little time he has left in this world...donations to the Tulio-retirement-home-fund are always very welcome!