Just this very morning I loaded a save-state where I left off - a remote village the Catastrophe changed from a snowy landscape into a mud-hole. I had half-polished my story line in this village. The other half consisted of my original rough translations. I reviewed the scene in which two children were engaged in a mud-ball fight, unsure if the little girl was enjoying them or was tired of being muddy all the time. So, I did what I always do while progressing inside this game. I pulled out Gerb's files and viewed his translations of the matching block. Gerb had made the scene perfectly clear. I wrote that exchange accurately and moved on to the next village scene. That's basically it. As of today, I'm moving forward with SSMS-II again.
In the meantime, I found time to keep a deadline commitment I made to Taskforce regarding Princess Minerva. I have also played through La Wares twice and polished that game's story. When Bongo`'s ready, I'll forward a fairly small bug report. Once he's addressed those issues, this one will be ready for in-house beta testing and beyond.
I've done the same thing with Aretha-II. The story and features are finished, and I re-formatted it for long names. I thought I had it ready for in-house testing, then I found a Japanese website that explained how to find several amazing, well-hidden "Easter eggs". Once located, I discovered that one item contained a menu that looks like we never dumped or translated it. A second bug was caused by excessive data that when translated to English, it overwhelmed the screen and corrupted the game's over-world graphics. These two reports have also gone to Bongo`. I've already reformatted Aretha-II for long names. When we fix those two Easter egg bugs, this game will also be ready for testing.
90% of Aretha-I needs to be reformatted for long names. When that's done, this game will also be ready for testing. Additionally, Bongo` is reviewing the space to see if we can still possibly have 2Line support like we do in the sequel. That would be nice but not essential.
Reason for my hiatus: I am the guardian for two disabled family members. Managing them has been more than full time, seven days a week these past two years. I have had lots of outside support from other family members, doctors, institutions, social services, and the like. Recently, we moved one member into what's called a "Memory Care Unit", within a retirement community, meaning she is almost as helpless as an infant now. The other is receiving mental health services for the first time in his life. Recently, we moved him into a state home with a lock-down policy. That means he is now receiving the services he has always needed and no longer has the total independence to wander impulsively, day or night, placing himself in potential jeopardy - requiring a number of people to venture out on short notice and go searching for him. Sure, I had spare time here and there but was never free of the distractions, actions, and administrative burdens this work caused - never able to find adequate periods of time in which I could immerse myself in projects and screen out the whole world for days at a time.
This doesn't mean I'm completely free of family responsibilities. A crisis with one or both could occur at any moment, but I no longer must oversee them daily in an independent living arrangement and provide most of their transportation needs. Why did these duties fall to me? Years ago, I made a promise to do so if someday the need arose. That time came, and I kept my word. Simple as that. Now, I'm back. Until caught up, I will spend most of my available hobby time working on my backlog. Later, I will try visit with folks on the boards more often. I plan to keep writing stories indefinitely. Everything in our future depends on the inclinations and schedules of all of us in the core group.
BTW, I have really enjoyed playing Minerva, Aretha-I, Aretha-II, and La Wares from beginning to end - recently - and in English. When the time comes, I hope all of you will feel the same way. At this time we have no release schedule, but we can speculate that at least one game may be ready fairly soon.
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