Battles with motivation, real life, and menu text (November 23, 2009)

[Cless]

It's been a few months since the demo release. The response to that has been pretty positive, and we're pretty glad that people have been enjoying it. There was a lot of energy leading up to the release of it, but you might have noticed that it seemed to have fallen straight off in the wake of it. As much as I hate to admit it...that's almost exactly how it is.

Here's a "not dead" update, with the status of the active staff members.

Me: I did a good chunk of work on the script in the month following the demo's release, getting this current draft up to ~54%. Before I stopped, my motivational levels started declining sharply (likely due to reasons I've already made clear elsewhere on the forum). The fact that it was taking me forever and a half to come up with new line rewrites (I still feel there is even more room for improvement!) wasn't helping. I stopped when I felt that the floundering about seemed like a waste of time.

As of now, I still haven't really arisen from this little slump. I've had periods where I feel I might soon be able to resume, but I can't say for sure when that's going to happen. Hopefully not long from now, of course.

nusakan0: I sent him the edits I was working on as I went along, to double-check them. He finished that workload. While he waits for me to get back on track, I've given him permission to do a little more creative writing in places he feels would benefit from it (currently with a focus on making shopkeeper dialogue a little more variable and occasionally more interesting).

Habilain: Lots of IRL stuff going on for him. "Absolute chaos," as he puts it. He says he's taken some stabs at certain hacks but hasn't had the time to complete them. He believe there's a chance that may change soon, though. But that sounds like a pretty big maybe...

gogs: Some really good news here! According to him, he, at last, completed the menu text edits we've been waiting what seems like ages for in September. Along with that, he's also done work on the non-skit subtitles. Since finishing those, he's been doing his own editing/checking of the skit script. He'll have more free time to spend on that in a couple more weeks or so.

I haven't received these edits from gogs yet, but if I get them soon, I might be able to gather up the energy to at least get that stuff inserted in the game. But for now, the script still feels like too much of a monumental task.

Maybe some have noticed, but at some point I put ToP in my "Now Playing" list on Backloggery. I'd been using it for others to track what I'm doing with the game, or at least, where I've left off. I realize Twitter is probably a better application for this sort of thing, but eh...I don't really want to make an account over there.

[Demon000]

I think this project has the potential to be one of the best (if not the best) translation/hacking projects. You've put a lot of time on it and I hope you find the motivation to complete it. Think about how good it will feel to see the product of all your hard work finally complete

[CloudHiro]

there are several ways to tend to motivation issues, usualy what I do when im working on something and I feel unmotivated I switch to a diffrent project for a little bit. then when I come back I feel refreshed and ready to do 5 times the work I was doing previously

[Cless]

My motivational problems right now have much less to do with project burnout than they do with things in general.

[Soldatoflife]

Cliché note:

I have been following this project since 2003, or somewhere along those lines when my friend talked to me about this project.  I initially tried to play the original Tales of Phantasia, though getting stuck in the Dwarves cave gave me a stump.  Since then, I have been waiting for your release.  My friend more or less gave up on waiting for the release, but I'm still patiently waiting, checking once every three days to see if somehting more was done.

All in all, we all have projects that we tend to little by little or more.  Sometimes it goes along fast and well, and other times slow and dreadful.  I read mostly what was to be read on the forum.  All I can say on this is congratulations on the long breathed run and may you see an end to all the joy, the pain, passion and so on one day.  Till then, have fun

P.S.: My current project is a small convention in my University that might grow very big in the following months.  *crosses fingers and continues to make calls and seeing people*

[AHPD]

I've been following this project since 2006. Back there to nowadays, the tech stuff achievements so far is amazing!

The script took too long to be translated. The script was dumped ages ago, but find someone willing to translate it is very hard, that's the reason this project struggled for a long time, not forgetting technical difficulties.

Reviewing the entire script making drafts to see if the translated script still has room for improvements is a tedious work, we all know. All we can do right now is keeping cheering and waiting for this ToP translation to finally see its daylight!

So far, the best translation attempt so far, rivals with the best localization made by professionals. But regarding motivation, i would try to put the phrase "satisfaction on seeing a project complete" instead of "trying to be motivated and go on"...

Best regards.

[steamwolf]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llxSoKLG-i4 <----My thoughts about this project

Edit: The video expired. Ruined my joke/sad statement