Maybe you could ask for help over at
Fan Translators Inc. Discord.
Cool, I didn't know about that resource. I might just join it to see what is going on in the rest of the fan translation world.
We're actually done with the translation (NOTE: of the game, NOT the 300+ page book and we're just giving people the answers to the book-required riddles) and have been for a couple of months now, which I think is why the forum is getting a bit impatient. Also because I said something dumb about being done in the spring sometime (can I pretend it is still spring here in Canada in June?) and didn't realize how long playtesting (and re-re-re-re-replaytesting) a game like this takes even with save points and even with all the cheats in the world (I sometimes have 2 turns in a battle before I beat a boss with all of my cheats turned on, and yet... so much time...).
From one salty old rom hacker to a new one:
1st off - NEVER apologize to anyone about how long you take on something, and NEVER feel guilty or obligated to reply to people demanding (or even asking nicely) for updates.
Thanks for the heads-up on that one... as a Canadian I am culturally predisposed to apologizing, and in general I'm one of those people that even my fellow Canucks say "Stop apologizing!" to which I always say, "Sorry. I mean, sorry. Augh! Sorry, I'll stop! Wait, no! I just! Awwww.... Sorry guys... NO! DAMMIT! *heavy sigh*"
2nd - Famous last words of any dev ever is "Hm, this looks easy enough"
As a dev at my day job, I never give estimates on things that I haven't at least had similar expertise with. Somehow that paranoia and caution didn't manage to sneak over into my translation of games *or* manga, which is how I get so far behind on things at times. I'm slowly learning, but... it is slow.
3rd - And finally - Thank you for all the effort you are putting into this.
Aaaaaand... now I'm all flustered and speechless. Thank YOU for taking the time to give me a bitch-slap of being really nice and having experience with this and also reaching out an olive branch and stuff... Ha... Yup, I suck at words now because of someone being nice. I will blame you for all typos that slip through my fingers from here on out.
It's fine to set personal goal deadlines for yourself - but be careful in announcing them in forums like this (especially this one). Personally, I don't care if you don't have this out until well after next year. If you're a fan and care about a project, you buckle in for the long haul.
above
ALL else... have fun doing this
Thanks, it *is* fun! And I'll try to answer more to my own standards and less to the demands of the forum. That is solid advice. I'll try to not totally forget it in the last part of my message as I try to calm the curious masses.
For everyone who is wondering about the
project progress:
We will 100% get this game out eventually. For anyone getting antsy about that, I promise that it'll come out
long before you can take yourself from "Kore wa pen desu." (standard beginner level useless textbook Japanese) to playing the game in Japanese yourself and being able to debate which town name option is punnier to people of which English dialects (oh, and the argument about whether to use Brit or Yank spelling is especially fun when I'm Canadian and switch between "colour" and "color" based on how lazy I am on that day, or what my spellcheck is set to). If you prove me wrong and become fluent first (assuming you started at nothing), then I'll congratulate you on your amazeballs Jgo and then probably ask you to double-check all the kansai-ben shit talking that Shizuku does, or the hick talk that some of the townspeople use, or the annoying self-talk weirdness that the Catnap king uses, or some similar thing.
Oh, and I might not update for a couple of weeks. My country is a young one, but we throw a good party on the first of July. My mom and my country share the same birthday, so we're doing a large celebration and I might not be checking the forum much, even if I'm playtesting the game at airports and on trains and buses.
Have no fear, for Jabou will still be stealing souls even if I'm not talking about it.