concerning the update and the new flash game Back

[Noa]

Made this topic to let anyone who's still viewing the forum know that I'm still alive and that I still intend to work on Elona once the flash game is finished. I've been telling everyone this dicey statement but now that the flash game is close to completion, I can provide you more detailed info on when to expect the update for Elona.

First off, about the new game. If you're not interested, please skip it. The game is called "Elona Shooter" which by the title you can obviously associate the relativity with Elona. But don't expect too much :) It's my first flash programming and my first action game. Some of you may don't like the idea but the game is getting sponcered. It's not much, maybe a bare minimum to make a living at the very best. But since I realized that I can be satisfied by just creating some games without any other luxuries and temptations, I'm actually concidering of quitting my day job and devote myself to the indie game scene depending on the result I get.

Anyway, all that's left to do now is to add some more items/enemies and some balance adjustments which would only take about 15-20 days. You can expect the update for Elona to come out later this month or at the beginning of April even.

[Viriatha]

There are still people here and thank you, Noa! We appreciate the news quite a bit :)

[Maverik]

Yeah, we appreciate the news, and I for one am also interested in your flash game. Action games entertain my short attention span, so I'll probably enjoy the thing, no matter how simple it is. Can't wait to see it.

[Elvenspirit]

I'm worried about you quitting your day job, if Elona is an example you can make some amazing games but make sure to take care of yourself too.

That having been said I'm greatly excited to hear that there's another update coming, I played the game in all my spare time for 100 hours straight which is more than most professional games (excluding morrowind but even that's with mods).

Do you have any interest in expanding the world? Not being specific here rather than giving examples of what i mean but stuff like fleshing out npc's dialogue or improving the background lore and such or adding towns/expanding the map?

I'm asking out of curiosity, i sometimes for lack of a better word dream that one day the world would be bigger or more fleshed out while playing elona - it's kind of thanks to my morrowind addiction i guess -.- I'm not suggesting it - by this i mean if it's not in your plans don't take it as one, rather than asking if your fairly sure that you intend to work on such things if you could give us more information. (sorry for the edit - worded the end poorly)

[Noa]

Thanks everyone.

@Elvenspirit

The first update would be something I had been working(and which I've never had time to finish it) before I moved to the flash project. There're still things to put in but I'm planning to do only slight adjustments and release it asap.

As far as my memory can tell, the main feature was differentiation of the effects between blessed scrolls/potions and cursed ones. Cursed items will have own negative effects which however can be exploited if you know what you're doing. The negative effects can be really bad, like reading a cursed scroll of return will sometimes put you in a jail where your skills slowly degenerate. I'm not sure whether you can exploit in this case thought :)

There're ofcourse many bug fixes including somewhat devastating bug(When a townie vomits, certain value of an item in your inventory could have been modified). There're some misc additions too , did I mention a Jail!

About expanding the world, no big improvement has been planned yet but you can expect an unique town or two in a future. There's also an idea of making a random generated uninhabited island where you have to make a living within limited resources. It would be something like my favorite freeware simulation "stranded 2". But oh boy! This surely takes some time to put in.

Finally, speaking of TES series, I too am a fan of the game, its atomsphere and the idea of modding. There's also a good news and a bad news concerning modding Elona. The good news is that I've recently been told the compiler of the programming language Elona uses is now permitted to be included in the game. This means anyone can modify the source scripts and add whatever they like. The bad news is that the Elona community is in the very downhill it seems. I've already introduced it to Japanese people but only got few mails so far.

Anyway, thanks for the activities in the forum. I hope the post provided some visions.

[Elvenspirit]

You can't be sure thing's won't pick back up though really, sometimes you can be surprised how many people an update lures back ^.^

I definitely see more activity in Elochat (which requires 1.14 afaik) compared to forums although that's only counting posters and mostly registered names. I'm sure there are those who don't die often due to high levels and such or do to less legitimate reasons ^.^ But hey it's their game.

Anyway we will see eh?

[Trorbes]

Indeed, I'm certain that activity will increase once you start updating again. A lot of people were afraid that you had abandoned the game (or worse) and I think that the recent spamming the forums got scared away a lot of people. I myself have been taking a break from the game, but am planning to get back into it once you start updating it again.

[Shin Majin]

So the source code is gonna be released! That's awesome! (Assuming I can actually get it properly compiled for once...)

[Kyoko]

Noa, you should release your shooter game on Kongregate. You can make a nice bit of cash as well as spread awareness about Elona. Kongregate is an American website, but many Japanese players visit as well. If you need help I can give you as much information I can.

[Elvenspirit]

I've visited kongregate in the past, pretty large collection of games and the achievements are interesting also.

[Guest]

YEAH!
Noa, don't drop development of Elona.
It's one of the greatest roguelikes today.
And one of the few that still getting updated.

[Elvenspirit]

*pokes guest* he did not say he was dropping development you silly quickling ^.^ read the post next time instead of speeding over it.

[Kyoko]

The big thing with Kongregate is that it grew into a behemoth virtually overnight. It was a genious idea to actually start to market off of the internet's flash games rather than your own private company's. Sites like Addictinggames.com just can no longer compete. Official company-based flashgames are hosted on their own sites. For everyone else, its Kongregate or nothing.

[Noa]

@Guest
Don't worry about me for now. You'll get an update this month.

@Kyoko
Yeah, Kongregate is where I'm planning to publish the game, plus some sponsor like armor games if possible. My first game might not be fun enough to pass their qualification. I've got a nice plan which has been cherished for years for the next game though! Okay, back to the work now...after watching Heroes 2nd season :P

[Elvenspirit]

I'm getting kinda off topic but I'm curious since you mentioned you are a fan of the TES games but...

What are your favorite video games Noa?

Besides Elona my favorite roguelike (which is a console roguelike) is Azure Dreams
My favorite rpg is lufia 2 and then dragon warrior monsters 2
Favorite side scroller is SOTN
Favorite strategy game is dungeon keeper 2

I left out a lot of games, some of which to me are under different genres (in my ranking system) like elderscrolls 2-3 (technically elona also) since i rank them under sandbox rpg's and "edit to be clear" sandbox roguelikes which there's not really much competition against in my list.

[Kyoko]

@Guest
Don't worry about me for now. You'll get an update this month.

@Kyoko
Yeah, Kongregate is where I'm planning to publish the game, plus some sponsor like armor games if possible. My first game might not be fun enough to pass their qualification. I've got a nice plan which has been cherished for years for the next game though! Okay, back to the work now...after watching Heroes 2nd season :P

Fun fun. you get 15% more payment if your game is a Kongregate-exclusive though (You're also permitted to have the game on your own site, but no other). Hopefully with the assisstance of 4chan's /v/, /a/ and /tg/ boards your game can get 3+ stars. You know they love Elona over there, right?

I still need to watch Heroes as well... I also still need to work on my Japanese... I need to write a page introducing my family and my life. bleah.

[jdstroy]

@Noa: I'm still lurking here, and I'm definitely interested in the update of Elona. I'd love to help, too, if possible. I'm not sure how much help I can be, since I'm usually pretty loaded up with work, but this game (Elona) is really superb, and I'd love to see it grow.

[SuperRitsu]

I'm glad to hear that you're still here to update Elona. Although I haven't played it since Dec. '08 I've still been peeking in the forums every once in a while.
If you update it with new content, I might finally have things to add in the Wiki :)

Hopefully with the assisstance of 4chan's /v/, /a/ and /tg/ boards your game can get 3+ stars. You know they love Elona over there, right?

Don't forget the /jp/ board! I remember them having a part 26 Elona thread due to the inevitable auto-sage feature. They love Elona too.

[Viriatha]

Soemthing Awful goons had a thread on it once, too. My bf has an SA account, and that's how we found it.

[erdraug]

You can expect the update for Elona to come out later this month or at the beginning of April even.

Sweet, can't wait for april - hope this won't be an elaborate April Fool's :-)

[jdstroy]

@Noa: I forgot to mention... quitting your day job sounds like a scary prospect. I mean, one needs to pay the bills (ha-ha!), still. (Paying bills IRL versus paying bills in-game...) That ... concerns me. But if you're determined, I can't stop you, now, can I?

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more updates to Elona. :) Thanks yet again for an excellent game. (Is the artwork original, by the bye?)

[Noa]

Sorry, I'm late to reply(as usual).

@Elvenspirit
I've never heard of Lufia so I googled and found out that's the famous "Biography of Estpolis" series in Japanese. My cell phone has a roguelike version of the series installed and I play it sometimes while waiting or something :) But Isn't Lufia 2 a SNES platform game? We've gorwn up playing SNES and I like those nostalgic retro games. I've never bought a new game platform since PS2 so it's hard to answer your question but FF,DQ,harvest moon series are my favorite console games.

@Kyoko
Yup, kongregate-exclusive seems my only option. If you know any better plan, I'm all ears.
4chan is a funny place. I rarely check out other forums but when I did, I remember them calling their pets loli! loli! over and over :) It made me laugh and smile everyime I saw that word for some reason. I've rented 3 volumes of Heroes 2 dvds this week. It kind of reminds me of JoJo's Bizzarre adventure if you know what I mean.

@jdstory
Your help would be appriciated and I'm certainly glad to see some familiar names still around here. I'm not so determined about the job and worried about lots of things. But I say it's a go as long as I don't starve. I'll be able to spend more time on Elona too. As for the artwork, Most of the resources Elona use depends on free resources. Some are provided by fans and some I've paied to download from a clip-art site. You can see the credits and the links in the Japanese readme.txt file.

You can expect the update for Elona to come out later this month or at the beginning of April even.

Sweet, can't wait for april - hope this won't be an elaborate April Fool's :-)

Now you spoiled my plan!

[Pok]

I think a lot of people are just waiting Elona to be updated before jumping back into it ( and word of mouth travels fast); me included. The ability to be able to mod elona is really exciting to say the least; I'm curious, how will that work by the way? is it going to be modular, or does it involve altering base files?

The art in Elona still looks fairly consistent and not particularly out of place with itself considering the different sources. That's really nice. Will Elona still need more resources in the future?

Thanks for such a wonderful game.

[Elvenspirit]

Sorry, I'm late to reply(as usual).

@Elvenspirit
I've never heard of Lufia so I googled and found out that's the famous "Biography of Estpolis" series in Japanese. My cell phone has a roguelike version of the series installed and I play it sometimes while waiting or something :) But Isn't Lufia 2 a SNES platform game? We've gorwn up playing SNES and I like those nostalgic retro games. I've never bought a new game platform since PS2 so it's hard to answer your question but FF,DQ,harvest moon series are my favorite console games.

All the one's i mentioned are pc or ps1/earlier

Other Life: Azure Dreams
ドラゴンクエストモンスターズ (dragon warrior monsters 2 in america)
エストポリス伝記II (lufia 2 here) I knew it's Japanese name as Estpolis Denki II though but I'm not sure of the difference in translation (if there even is a translation)
悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲 (Castlevania: symphony of the night here)
and Dungeon Keeper 2 is a pc game

I'm sorry i forgot about the translation difference in the names, i should have mentioned their Japanese names.

If you like Harvest Moon you might like Rune Factory ルーンファクトリー -新牧場物語, it's like harvest moon mixed with a little bit of zelda style fighting (although the combat system is kinda faulty imho, but it's enough to keep my attention where Harvest Moon loses it)

Unfortunately the Dragon Quest games get horrible attention here compared to FF... Although in my opinion they have gone downhill recently, Lost Odyssey for 360 seems to be the best i have played recently along that line in a long time
Star Ocean スターオーシャン is one of my favorite series also.

I realize some of these translations are really unnecessary but call it overcompensating for my forgetfulness earlier considering i knew Lufia 2's JP title, unfortunately back when it was out on SNES i never met anyone else that played it and now everyone i meet that has tells me oh i played that rom -.- shame it went downhill after lufia 2 >.<

And it's not really hard to answer my question ^.^ i have more knowledge of ps2/prior games than i have of the newer ones really. I don't own a newer console than a ps2 myself (excluding a DS which my brother sent me as a gift) although my brother's both own a 360 each and one of them does have a wii (which i have never touched)

That reminds me, i have to check out morrowind's Japanese mod's one time.

Oh and out of curiosity does Loli mean the same thing in japan? *Walks away innocently whistling* [url]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita[/url]

[Blaze]

All the one's i mentioned are pc or ps1/earlier

Other Life: Azure Dreams
ドラゴンクエストモンスターズ (dragon warrior monsters 2 in america)
エストポリス伝記II (lufia 2 here) I knew it's Japanese name as Estpolis Denki II though but I'm not sure of the difference in translation (if there even is a translation)
悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲 (Castlevania: symphony of the night here)
and Dungeon Keeper 2 is a pc game

I'm sorry i forgot about the translation difference in the names, i should have mentioned their Japanese names.

If you like Harvest Moon you might like Rune Factory ルーンファクトリー -新牧場物語, it's like harvest moon mixed with a little bit of zelda style fighting (although the combat system is kinda faulty imho, but it's enough to keep my attention where Harvest Moon loses it)

Unfortunately the Dragon Quest games get horrible attention here compared to FF... Although in my opinion they have gone downhill recently, Lost Odyssey for 360 seems to be the best i have played recently along that line in a long time
Star Ocean スターオーシャン is one of my favorite series also.

I realize some of these translations are really unnecessary but call it overcompensating for my forgetfulness earlier considering i knew Lufia 2's JP title, unfortunately back when it was out on SNES i never met anyone else that played it and now everyone i meet that has tells me oh i played that rom -.- shame it went downhill after lufia 2 >.<

And it's not really hard to answer my question ^.^ i have more knowledge of ps2/prior games than i have of the newer ones really. I don't own a newer console than a ps2 myself (excluding a DS which my brother sent me as a gift) although my brother's both own a 360 each and one of them does have a wii (which i have never touched)

That reminds me, i have to check out morrowind's Japanese mod's one time.

Oh and out of curiosity does Loli mean the same thing in japan? *Walks away innocently whistling* [url]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita[/url]

I tried Rune Factory, the battle system is a welcome difference to HM's talk,pet,brush,milk,repeat system. The only problem being that RP doesn't increase.
Lufia 2 was subtitled Rise of the Sinistrals right? I think there's a ROM of that somewhere.

I think "Loli" has two meanings in Japan, one being "Lolita" and the other being "Lolicon(Lolita Complex)".

[Elvenspirit]

I tried Rune Factory, the battle system is a welcome difference to HM's talk,pet,brush,milk,repeat system. The only problem being that RP doesn't increase.
Lufia 2 was subtitled Rise of the Sinistrals right? I think there's a ROM of that somewhere.

I think "Loli" has two meanings in Japan, one being "Lolita" and the other being "Lolicon(Lolita Complex)".

:S roms... I think they should just port the games in packages for younger gamers to be able to try what they missed -.-

Oh and loli as far as i know in japan is a fashion style

[Noa]

@Elvenspirit
It's a shame I don't have DS. Rune factory looks pretty fun as far as the official site tells. I like those games which let you make a living in their worlds, like the sims for example.

Loli, which might be Japanese-English from lolita, means the same thing in Japanese but come to think of it, like Blaze said, I guess it's more often associated with the latter meaning(Lolita Complex) in Japan. Maybe it was one of the reasons it sounded funny for me that people calling their pets "loli".

[Elvenspirit]

@Elvenspirit
It's a shame I don't have DS. Rune factory looks pretty fun as far as the official site tells. I like those games which let you make a living in their worlds, like the sims for example.

Loli, which might be Japanese-English from lolita, means the same thing in Japanese but come to think of it, like Blaze said, I guess it's more often associated with the latter meaning(Lolita Complex) in Japan. Maybe it was one of the reasons it sounded funny for me that people calling their pets "loli".

Well Americans are a bit more funny about the age bit is all i guess, If you start talking about Loli's here people start thinking Pedophile - But to be fair I personally have only seen the word used to describe a certain 4 letter word that you blocked in the censor recently here.

-

Anyway Rune Factory is very close to harvest moon, a little less cutesy imho (the difference between Pokemon and Dragon Warrior Monsters roughly) which also makes it more appealing to me. I tend to play my DS when it's dead at work so i occasionally have time to spare - Also i think you guy's work longer hour's than us over there, it's about a 40 hour work week here for us.

Well anyway i mentioned that one partially because Estpolis was developed by the same company and that's why i tried it.

[Kyoko]

America has the largest work time amongs all developed nations.

Also, 4000 post GET!

[Elvenspirit]

America has the largest work time amongs all developed nations.

Also, 4000 post GET!

Everything I've ever seen put's japan ahead of the US in work hour's Kyoko? Granted only slightly but *Shrugs*. And you don't consider South Korea a developed country? I thought they had some really high work hours if i remember correctly?
I have not seen report's for 2008 of the US and Japan work-hours though so i plainly admit i cannot say for sure. *Shrugs again*