Festive Farewells

Hello everyone.

I'd like to offer all of the kinds souls who have given us their wholehearted support a belated Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.  It's because of you that I have enjoyed lifting the curtain and sharing with you my thought processes and the rationale that goes into my many localization decisions with Rosenkreuzstilette.  You are the reason why I was able to endure, even when life pummelled me with insufferably melodramatic plot twists.  Honestly, I was extremely tempting to just end it all and be done with it many, many times.

No, I don't mean suicide (though the thought has crossed my mind).  I mean giving up on what I thought was my calling.   What, until recently, had been my passion and motivation in life.

I'm disheartened to say that this will be one of my last posts on this blog.  It's a long story that will be difficult (in many senses of the word) to summarize, but I feel it's necessary to share with you some of the traumatic events that have played out these past few years (and the subsequent events that forced me to postpone writing about them).  It's within this context that I was attacked by one of our own, and why I have decided that the struggle just isn't worth it anymore.

Thank you again for all of your support over these years.  My crew and I couldn't have come this far without you.  I'll be back to lay things out as soon as I've found the right words to communicate how I'm feeling right now.

Closing Out a Looooong Year...

"

"I'd like to get off now.  Please!
I WANT TO GET OFF!"

Hi, everyone.  It's been a long time -- much, much longer than I'd anticipated when last we spoke.

The year 2020 has been -- let's not mince words -- a raging dumpster fire for every sensible human being on the planet.  I hope you all are hanging in there as best you can despite everything the world is throwing at you.

I'd like to think that the hell I endured in the previous two years (more on that in my next post) left me better-prepared to deal with the disastrous fallout of two self-obsessed presidents and their vain attempts to hide their own incompetence.  Though I've never lived in China or the United States, many of my friends do.  I can only offer my sympathies for those caught completely off-guard by the CoViD-19 pandemic -- and offer my sincerest gratitude to those who saw it coming and did their best to control the damage despite their warnings falling on deaf ears.

That said, I wish you all Happy Holidays and hope you all pull through stronger and wiser than before.  I've heard that those who have endured true pain understand the real value of kindness.  I'd like to think that this hellish experience will make the majority of us come out better people in the end -- kinder, more thoughtful, and far more sympathetic.  That may be naive thinking, but I'd rather hope for better days than let despair consume me any longer.

I look forward to catching up with you all very soon.

A New Year, A New Start

Happy New Year, everyone!

As some of you have already guessed, 2019 has been an incredibly eventful year in my neck of the woods.  I've been dealing with the aftermath of many personal and professional issues that have popped up since 2018 (and a few spilling over from 2017).  Some of these issues have thankfully been resolved, while others are still being worked out.  It's a long story -- one better suited to a bad soap opera than an indie game's localization blog.

Frankly, it's a long line of dominoes that, for a while, made me despise thinking about anything related to RKS (hence the year of silence).

There's a lot to say that I'd like to go over with you in due time.  Given some of the reactions I received the last time I publicly opened up about my problems, I'm not particularly looking forward to giving shitposters ammunition to use against me or my team.  So, please be patient with me as I try and figure out what to share and when.

That said, I wish everyone belated Season's Greetings and a Happy New Year on behalf of Darkside Translations and Schwer and Schwer Alike.  There's a lot to look forward to, and a lot to look back on, in the coming year.

Until next time!

'Tis the Season to be Jolly...

Hello, everyone.  It's been far too long since my last post.

I'm sorry to have left you all on such a depressing note back in April.  Since then, I'm afraid that things haven't gotten much better in my neck of the woods.  I have plenty I feel I need to share with you in the near future.  For the time being, though, I think it's for the best that we enjoy the festive mood of the holidays while we have the opportunity.  Today is the first day I've had to myself in what feels like forever, and I'd rather spend it resting up and preparing for the new year than cursing Lady Luck for her terrible sense of humor.

On behalf of everyone at Darkside Translations, the real Darksquid Media (more on that next time), and Schwer and Schwer Alike, I wish you all Happy Holidays, a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

See you soon!

Happy Holidays!

Hello, everyone!

It's been one hell of a year on our side of the pond, with two game releases, two lost loved ones, and a whole lot of pushing ourselves, heartbreak, and faits accomplis all around.  A year ago today, I promised that 2017 would be a big year for Rosenkreuzstilette.  I'd like to think that we've made good on that promise, but I'll leave the final verdict on that one up to you.

With things wrapping up on RKS, it's reassuring to know that there's plenty to look forward to in the year to come.  In addition to the RKSF Developer Diary (you'd have to kill me to stop me from finishing these -- I must admit that my day job is doing an admirable job trying), I have a few pet projects that I hope to see through to completion before a certain someone's 30th anniversary celebration has concluded.  It's a bit too early to announce exactly what just in case it doesn't end up being feasible, but it's something I've wanted to do for a long time now.

That said:

On behalf of Darksquid Media, Darkside Translations, Schwer and Schwer Alike, and Active Gaming Media, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Fantastic New Year.  See you in 2018!

Updates and Happy Holidays!

Hi, everyone!  Merry Christmas!

Good god, the past while has been brutal.  One of my coworkers at my day job (a foreign exchange student) wrapped up his employment to return home to Poland, necessitating a change in the entire crew's schedule.  The day that schedule went into effect, another coworker got sick, forcing me to change my schedule again to cover for her sudden absence.  As luck would have it, I got sick myself, but had to press on since we have no replacements at the moment (our next hiring call is in January).  I'm managing as best as I can despite the health issues; the show must go on regardless.  To top it off, my old Compaq (currently the only fully-set-up internet-capable machine at my place) is effectively dead.  To give you an idea of how fickle the machine is in its current state: roll a 20-sided die.  If you rolled a 1, the power to the laptop won't suddenly die during boot-up.  Keep rolling the die every few minutes as the computer stays on; if you roll anything above a 10, the power suddenly dies.  If you were saving a file at that moment, that file is now corrupt, so I hope you have a backup available!

...I'd be tearing my hair out if I hadn't recently shaved my head bald...

Anyway, our publisher has asked us to have Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel at release candidate status for the end of January.  Rather than struggle with compatibility issues and figuring out which elements of my programming & graphics environment work on Windows 10 (and constantly test my patience with the Compaq), I dusted off my old-but-reliable Proteva tower so I could dive into my work right away.  Unfortunately, this tower is quite old (from 2004), so it doesn't have wi-fi capabilities (and my apartment is completely wireless).  In other words, I haven't been able to access the internet on a reliable basis for the past few months.  So, as a consequence, I haven't had a means of updating this blog in any semblance of a regular fashion (I've replied to comments here and there via my work's wi-fi connection and my phone; unfortunately, the tiny screen and fickle connection don't lend themselves well to properly preparing a new Developer Diary entry...).

On the positive side, that means I've been devoting the bulk of my time to working on Freudenstachel.  I'm happy to say that everything in that department is proceeding quite smoothly, if a little slower than I'd like.  Once the game is ready for submission, I'll be preparing a slew of Dev Diary entries to show off the stuff we've accomplished these past few months.  Suffice to say, I'm damned proud of our work.  I'm also pleased to have fixed some of the issues present in the original game.  Naturally, I'll share the full story on that front when my workload allows me to do so.

On behalf of everyone at Darkside Translations, Darksquid Media, Schwer and Schwer Alike, and Active Gaming Media, I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Wonderful Winter Solstice, and a joyous New Year.  The year 2017 is going to be big for Rosenkreuzstilette; quite fitting for the 10th anniversary of the original game's release.

See you soon!

Season's Greetings

Hello, everyone!

Given the chaos we've been through in the past while, we're taking a short break from work to spend some time with family that we don't get to see all that often (and, in my case, celebrate my mother's birthday). We'll be back in business early next week.

From everyone at Darksquid Media, Darkside Translations, and Schwer and Schwer Alike: we wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a joyful non-denominational winter solstice.

Good Tidings We Bring To You and Your Kin

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Sorry that we've been silent for so long.  Rest assured that there's damned good reason for it.  A few among you have already figured out what's been going on given a few hints scattered here and there.  In the spirit of the holidays, I figure it's about time for an official announcement.

That's right, it's official:  Active Gaming Media, whose work you may already be familiar with if you're an anime or video game fan (BlazBlue, Catherine, Demon's Souls, Final Fantasy IV, Full Metal Panic, King of Fighters, No More Heroes, Soul Calibur, and Steins;Gate, to name a few), will be releasing an official English version of Rosenkreuzstilette via its Playism portal!

Unfortunately that's about all I can say at the moment.  There are too many questions that we're unable to answer at this time.  Not that we don't want to answer them, but we can't answer them.  Not yet, anyway.  Please keep that in mind and bear with us for the time being.

That said, which of these do you prefer?  This, or this?  Whichever you choose, in the end, it'll sound a lot more like this.

From Darkside Translations and Schwer and Schwer Alike, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.