Hoping to make your life's design a bit more dynamic!

Alright. A new update! It was with much delight that Nightcrawler has posted a new update around 4.5 months after his last. I was actually expecting something from him up till the end of this March! So this was good. However it was upon reading through the start a bit that it started to feel horrible!
But his projects' ongoing progress are good though. Two incomplete projects are close to completion. And a new full-fix patch for Dual Orb 2 thanks to the work done by somebody else.

Now one more thing... We do have to worry about a Gideon Zhi. I'd been checking his Twitter feed a few times last year & this. While it's nice that he's enjoying playing some new games I think he is distracting himself with too many issues that may prevent him from ever dedicating himself to some of his incomplete projects once and for all! I mean after having done about 80 projects (legendary in itself) it'd be unfortunate if he kinda stained his own rep for not ever touching any of his 40 inactive ones or offloading them to others. A bit topsy-turvy really.

We've always had sort of an unwritten agreement in this community since 1997 that by and large serious translation groups respect staked turf. Disputes always arise, but this is what I've observed. Most of the people who I've witnessed through the years displaying unpleasant manners and renegade attitudes lack the work ethic, fortitude, and character traits to complete major projects. The secret is to keep it fun, work with fun people, and impose no time limits. Regardless, burnout does occur, and that is not something a person can just flip on and off like a switch.

Princess Minerva should be our next major release. Hopefully, that will be enjoyable for all of us.

I have to be honest here.. my personal feelings about AG having SO MANY projects on the go is a bad thing, he just seems to be adding more and more projects to his list to stop others from taking up the projects on some of the, what looks to be, best RPG's on the Snes.. GD Leen, Heian Fuunden, Lady Stalker, Madara 2, Majin Tensei 1 & 2, Metal Max 2, Rejoice, Romancing Saga 2, Solid Runner, Sugoro Quest++ Diceniks, have all been in that list for a couple of years. To me, he really should think to start offloading these to other groups if they'd take up the projects and stop adding MORE to his list until he can actually get any completed. IF by some chance he has hit some snags on projects, ask people if they can chip in and help on other forums instead of the project just being left alone and just shelved. Other groups WILL NOT usually take on the same projects, so he should at least think about handing some of the more popular ones that people want translated over to groups who are willing to finish them on a quicker timeline, HECK! i'll be dead before I get to play any of the above mentioned, IN all.. my thought are that he should just open source at least 30 of those projects and NOT bother with them and let others finish them off so he can concentrate on getting some actually finished.

Sorry if I seems to come across a little bit of an A-Hole on this subject BUT it's what I think.. he's just taken on WAY TOO many projects, they are piling up and they will all never get finished. His LAST release was back in 2014, Lagrange Point, you can't really include Dark Half as a major release cos THAT game was already finished.. it just had a few bugs it needed ironing out on the original project BUT to be fair they did rework the whole script and re-hacked the entire game over SirYoinks original work, reworking it all to make it even better. It seems to me that some of those projects are just sitting there to stop other groups from taking up the projects and this is done on purpose to stop others working on them themselves. I cover AG's ongoing translations on "snesrpggaming" and by the looks of it.. the MOST active releasing Snes groups at the moment is *cough* Nightcrawler *Cough* HAHAHAHA.. JOKE! it's you guys.. Dynamic Designs.. you lot might not have a TON of translations completed BUT you sure give quality and fantastic translations in every project, I look forward to playing MORE of your releases in the upcoming months, especially, Aretha 1 & 2.. Princess Minerva.. G.O.D.. Oni 2.. and La Wares, BRING EM ON!

P.S. Nightcrawler works hard on his projects so i'm not knocking him for that.. My only gripe with his work is he just needs to give more updates about his projects.. NOT one update every 4/5 months.. LOL!

For those of us who are anxiously waiting for these projects, it's understandable that there are some frustrations. We are looking forward to these projects and it doesn't seem like progress is being made as soon as we would like. That's human nature. We have to always remember though that this is a hobby that AG and Nightcrawler and Dynamic Designs and everyone else does in their spare time and shares their passion with us. We should always be respectful and appreciative of that.

When it comes to AG, again I see some of the frustration, but look at the number of projects he has already completed. Just like Dynamic Designs, there comes a time when things slow down (real life) and if you follow Gideon Zhi's Twitter you would see that there were a lot of real life events that have kept him from doing the hobbies that he loves to do. He has even stated how bad he feels that he can't work on his projects right now. Just like when Wild Bill had real life issues that kept him from working on the projects here, so did Gideon and so has every other translation group or individual have things pop up that slowed them down. I don't think it's fair to criticize AG although again, I can understand the frustration. That's how the man has always worked. Multiple things at once. His record proves that it's a very effective strategy for him. Look at all that he has contributed and given us; we need to support him. I for one am looking forward very much to when Gideon picks up steam again. The only thing I would ask of him is when he does get the fire again and has the time to do so, update his project lists on his website. I really appreciate him and all the other hackers, translators, and contributors for sharing their time and talents with us.

Far be it from me to impinge on anyone's freedom of speech!

However, for anyone who is part of D-D, we sort of have a unspoken and (until now) un-discussed policy toward other translation groups, and that is to not criticize them harshly in public. Remember, this is supposed to be fun!

Maybe these concerns could be voiced differently, such as, "Gee, I wish so-and-so would finish such-and-such or open it up for someone to start or complete the work."

An informal way to do that now is for someone to post a notice of abandoned project(s) at another group's website. That's how we picked up Super Shell Monsters Story-I!

Cheers, everyone! Minerva is going well! Thanks to everyone who helps make D-D special!

Yeah, I agree with you about not criticizing other groups. As for the previous messages Wildbill and SylarDean are right. I think there is a real sign that poor Gideon is so totally burnt out from his rapidly-chewing through the projects that I can understand why he may feel wasted or not feel good enough at all at the moment. So let him have some time till he may get back into his romhacking activity if ever.

I have an idea. I propose that we create a thread in this forum or elsewhere holding a vote for the first incomplete project from GZ we'd most like to ask a DIFFERENT person to resume working on. I can ask around, but I think all SNES romhackers outside here are preoccupied with their own projects for this year. But we could start with Nightcrawler who is nearly completing just two named projects. So maybe you, Implicid, could ask him since you're in contact with him and he seems to be good friends with GZ. So why not? Ask him if he thinks he can pull a project out of GZ's hands. Sounds simple, no? We just vote on our overall favourite pick in sequential order!

I have also seen a comment from Nightcrawler on his forum where he thinks he may open-source his future unknown, unannounced projects. I think that'd be good. It's coz he wouldn't want a repeat of the past 10 long years of slowly completing projects one by one (some perhaps taking up to 10 yrs!) But the translation editing file would probably have to be on his Google drive account separate from a romhacking source like github, for example.

Blah.

I can appreciate this. I get that there's frustrations, and I apologize for that. One thing you have to realize though is that I've been working a 45-hour-per-week job (plus two hours of commute each day...) for the last two years. While I generally only spent eight hours in the office each day my evenings were bifurcated by a 45 minute call to India that happened pretty much every working night. It even happened on Sundays until I put my foot down. What I've been doing in my off-time I do to help keep myself from completely burning out on *everything*, not just romhacking. Further, if I'm going to spend some time on a translation project I want to be able to have several uninterrupted hours at once, and having my evenings split like that is actively harmful to anything requiring a significant time investment. All this while trying to maintain at least some semblance of a social life.

The good news for you is that yesterday was my last day at that job. It was doing terrible things to my mental state; the people closest to me have already noticed that I'm in a significantly better mood than I was even just two weeks ago. I'm not going to promise that there's going to be more time for stuff like this (and begging me to work on any given game is a sure-fire way to kill my motivation) because I'm going to need to spend time on the freelance localization contract I've picked up in the meantime, on brushing up my code skills, and on hunting for another full-time job. But my hobbies have been more on my mind of late.

Also please understand that I've been at this for nearly twenty years. AGTP has been around for more than half the amount of time I've existed on this planet. My personal life has undergone a lot of significant shifts: from high school, to community college, to actual college, to a year as a NEET alone at home, to three years of full-time employment in mental health, to three years of full-time employment in mental health AND full-time college at the same time, to two years of this latest job. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster, and there just hasn't been quite the time for romhacking that there used to be. But this doesn't mean I've given up, it doesn't mean that I'm quitting, and it doesn't mean that the stuff on my list won't get done. It just means that I don't quite have the energy I used to. As Agent D said in MiB, "The spirit is willing, but the rest of me..." I fit it in when I can and when I'm not so frustrated by other things.

To reiterate: I have no intention of quitting or retiring any time soon. I have Plans for a lot of the games on my list, several of the ones mentioned in this thread even, which I'm hoping to start executing on now that I no longer have my old job to stress about. You'll hear more about that when it happens; I expect the news to make a bit of a splash. I am as passionate about romhacking and localization as I've ever been, perhaps moreso, and I'm doing my best to find ways to make more time for it. If I can pull this off, I'll have a lot more time for it. I've shared my plans with a few central romhack folks, notably Nightcrawler, Kitsune, Garrett, and byuu, but I'd be willing to share with Taskforce, Bongo`, and Bill over private messaging because there's potential opportunities for partnership here. But I'm not going to say anything publicly until I'm 100% sure that it's going to happen.

I am not a machine. I'm a person, like everyone else, and a very, very, very busy person at that. I do what I can, when I can. And yes, I have asked for significant help on a couple of things. Just because I'm not posting about progress doesn't mean it isn't happening.

Peace.

Hi, Gideon! Good day to you! Yeah I'd read your Twitter feed over the last two days just because. What good timing of me!
Yeah I know there's been a bit of an uproar over here. But I hope you weren't too perturbed by it! It's the attention that counts I guess.

That's nice that you're now communicating with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ( ). Will you post a new thread here with a link to your campaign for a game idea presentation project? Would be easier for us to check up on it. You deserve to do and enjoy doing something esp. after your last job that took up unnecessary extra/random time out of you.

You can just choose whatever projects you want to touch on first and don't let any of us demand which ones upon you. But it'd be nice to match the RS 2 project with the Japanese PS Vita release of the first SaGa title in almost 10 years or later!

RS2 is one of the games I'm getting some help with. Problem is that the guy who's helping out is almost as busy as I am.

If my Plans turn into something you'll certainly hear about it. I keep it quiet out of necessity at the moment, but the moment it solidifies into something more concrete I guarantee that I'll be shouting about it from as many rooftops as I can scale.