The final version

[Looking Around]

When will the final version come out?

[Squall83]

http://www.supershigi.com/forums/index.php?topic=387.0

[Squall83]

When will the final version come out?

I hope I don't get on your nerves (Laura) by asking that question myself now.

[Omni]

When will the final version come out?

I hope I don't get on your nerves (Laura) by asking that question myself now.

Well, she set one of her New Years goals to finish Melolune, so hopefully before the end of the year, or not long after?  Maybe she'll at least have a complete (play through to the end of the story) beta version.

[Poyomon2]

I'm willing to bet that a lot of people are thinking this question.

[Squall83]

Thanks for the info.

@Shigi: Would you like to tell us how the game is progressing so far?

[Squall83]

Wow, the Melolune subforum has lost quite a bit of activity. Well, the last update about the game is more than 2 years old, so what's the current status, Laura?

[supershigi]

Hi Squall! Long time no see, how have you been?? A lot of folks have been asking about this, so I'll just copy and paste from an email I wrote recently. Basically, I'm working on Rakuen now (which I will make a public thread for soon), but here is the long answer:

Thank-you for asking! Melolune is postponed for the time being... I actually just posted about it on my website.  But basically, I stopped working on it for about 2 years because I accepted a job at EA/PopCap as an Audio Director.  Although they allowed me to continue working on it (and to keep the rights to it), I never had much time to work on it.  After the Plants vs. Zombies team was laid off, I didn't really want to be at the company anymore, so I left last November.

At this point, I tried to finish up Melolune... but you know how when you play an rpg, and put it down for a while, it's kind of hard to remember where you last left off?  I learned that it's like 100x as hard when you're *making* an rpg, haha... I had 20 hours of playable content, and I was very overwhelmed.  I spent a few weeks just playing through the game and trying to figure out what I needed to do next!  I had promised myself that I wasn't going to start anything new until Melolune was finished, but I realized that working on a smaller scale project (that I was really inspired to do), would be a great way to get back into game development.

So hopefully after Rakuen is finished, I can jump back into Melolune again at some point

[Squall83]

Hey Shigi! ^^

Thanks for the quick reply! I understand your problem. I've worked on a few RPG Maker 2000 projects a decade ago and from that I can extrapolate how huge projects must be like. You need to remember which switches and variables are needed for which tasks and why you programmed something like this and not like that. As a programmer I face this problem every now and then and if I didn't explain it in detail by using huge comments, then I start changing the code to what seems more efficient and when I'm 50% through I notice "oh so THAT's why I didn't do it like that." and then I backtrack. And THEN I write comments.

I went to your HP to check and found that the news you're referring to are from 16.10.2013, i.e. just 1 week before I asked. What a coincidence, after 2 years. I like it when something like that happens.

What do you mean by "allowed me to continue working on it (and to keep the rights to it)"? Does the company theoretically have the right to forbid you to work on it and are they allowed to take away your rights? Is this about "you may not create products that are competitive to ours" or something?
But it was a good decision to leave a company which just fires a team that has developed a great and successful game like PvZ. That's so American.

Rakuen looks interesting. I'm looking forward to playing a game where a hospital is an actual hospital, in contrast to what you typically see in games like Outlast. How much will it cost?

I am fine, thanks for asking. The two biggest changes in my life are:
1. I joined the German Pirate party, because chaos and transparency are the way to go to fight bribery and blackmail.
2. I became a Brony, because I love media with a positive atmosphere, if I get the feeling that the author loves his/her work and doesn't just do it for money.

[Squall83]

Shigi?

Are You Still There? - Portal