Record of Lodoss War translation finished and lots of other projects (current and past) news.

OK, first lets start with the BIG news. Eien Ni Hen has already finished the Record of Lodoss War remaining translations. This project has now been turned over to Draken for formatting and editing. Thanks also goes to Bongo` for incredible work getting an inserter ready and things ready for Draken at an incredible pace. Look for this project to hopefully progress quickly.

Second news is concerning Aretha I. The translation for this game has reached the 40% mark. Filler has had some time this week and really moved things along with this translation. We appreciate the dedication and getting things to this point. We look forward to working on this when he has it done and I still personally hope we can release both I and II side by side. However, I will note a final decision on this by the full group has not been made. This is just my personal hope.

Next up, Wildbill is finally back to script editing and has resumed work on Chaos Seed. Now, you might be saying "Wait, didn't he already resume work on that a while back!", and you would be right that he did post a news story saying that. Unfortunately after he reported that, stuff happened and it wasn't to be at the time. However, now he truly is back and Chaos Seed work has resumed. He is going to avoid the forums for a while longer so he can focus his energy to getting this project turned back over to Draken.

Then, there is BIG news on a game which we officially dropped some time ago. Bongo` has had time on his hands thanks to other members being stalled due to non-hobby related issues, and since the group working on it is no longer active, he decided to work on Bakumatsu Korinden ONI aka ONI 2. Bongo` did a LOT of excellent assembly work on this game and has gotten a lot of issues handled. Menus are in order, intro and such is handled, and a script dump has even been produced. On top of that, he even created a working inserter. Finally, at least for a while, he had even found a very skilled translator, but sadly at this time this translator seems to be MIA. We will be adding this project back to our active projects list in the future, if his skilled translator reappears or we find a translator via some other means. Assuming we can find one, we'll certainly be happy to pick this game up and run with it to completion. Since this is one of my old projects, I'd like to thank Bongo` for thinking of it while he had nothing to do and working so hard on moving it forward. If you have the skills and would like to help with translation on this project, post us a note in the forums and we'll get you set up. We'd love the help and thanks in advance.

Finally, Princess Minerva is still moving forward. I'm handling initial editing and just generally having fun with it. Work is slow as I have a LOT of distractions but it is progressing. This is a generally silly and fun script and I hope some of you get a real kick out of it as I am.

Just as a quick final note, the group is determined that something will get released this year. We're even VERY Hopeful of more than one project, but we are counting on finishing at least one. Time constraints on all of us are improving and we're determined that we'll see more progress than we did in 2012. However, at this time we wouldn't want to comment as to what will get released. Work is happening on several different things and some projects are harder than others. I'd just like to reassure everyone that we are committed to making more progress in 2013 than we did in 2012 and thank you for sticking with us in or down time as we handled many issues outside of this hobby.

The first 3 screenshots below are from Record of Lodoss War, the next 3 shots are from Bakumatsu Korinden ONI aka ONI 2 and finally the last 2 shots are from Princess Minerva detailing a bit of ongoing work on each.

03/24/2013 - Taskforce

Record of Lodoss War News and General Status Update of Dynamic Designs

It has been a while since we've updated, but I thought I'd take the time to let you guys know what is going on behind the scenes around here at Dynamic Designs. Don't worry, this isn't just a "Nothing is happening, please stand by!" type of report. We also have a major announcement for you that should make things worth while.

And lets save the best for first, haha. The BIG news concerns Record of Lodoss War! Eien Ni Hen has agreed to translate this game for us. This will be her second game translation with us and I can tell you by the first game she translated that her skill is exceptional and the game is in excellent hands. We'd like to thank her for taking the time to translate the game. Its a long hard job with little reward but without these great translators that donate their time, we'd have nothing to release for you to play. Thank you Eien Ni Hen and all of our other translators current and past. You are the real stars of this hobby.

Next, I'd like to address a few other ongoing projects. First, let me start with Chaos Seed. I wish I had great news for you on this project but refinement of the game by Wildbill has been delayed until at least February. We believe things will pick up again then. We thank you for the support on this project and appreciate the understanding in the delays. Real life just hasn't been kind the last few months on the time front.

The next project I'd like to talk about is Princess Minerva. Taskforce has taken on the job of initial editor on this project. Progress however has been slow. Again, issues with time and real life commitments but it is making progress and he should have even more time soon to devote to it. These two games should see a 2013 release, however we just can't speculate as to when that will happen for certain. Please be patient and thanks for all the support.

Finally, on the Aretha I and Aretha II front. Translation of Aretha I has reached 10%. Filler has a lot on his plate so progress will be slow but things are moving. Just as with Eien Ni Hen, we'd like to thank Filler for the dedication to translating. We very much appreciate the hard work. As for Aretha II progress is on hold until Wildbill's return and Chaos Seed has been squared away. The story at this point has been initially edited quite a ways into the game. Unfortunately, I don't have an estimate on how far for you. We still haven't reached a decision on holding Aretha II until Aretha I is done. Once we've made up our minds, we'll let you know.

Any other unmentioned projects are on the back burner at this time. Progress may or may not be happening on them, but even if there is some, there is nothing noteworthy to report at this time. We'll let you know the moment there is.

01/20/2013 - Dynamic Designs Members

Story Refinement Resumes in Earnest for Chaos Seed!

That's been the big holdup with Chaos Seed. In 2011, Wildbill completed refinements on the Scenario 2 story. After a few days of recent work, he has polished about two-thirds of Scenario 3. Wildbill anticipates working steadily until the stories for all eleven scenarios are completed at beta level. Since last year, Draken and Bongo` have been laboring diligently, refining the code, debugging, and producing a fully formatted, playable alpha patch (V0.99). Recently, Draken made the script files available to Wildbill again for this round of finishing touches in the story writing department.

As mentioned, the game includes eleven chapters or scenarios. (Call the initial Lecture chapter Scenario 0). Segments that include cave-building proceed from that Lecture chapter through Scenario 7 (for a total of eight). The final three scenarios are either pure story related or bonus features that a player must unlock. Therefore, the cave-building scenarios are about halfway completed. Once those are done, the final three segments should go faster. Ideally, all eleven scenarios will be in full beta testing around the end of the year.

Chaos Seed is undoubtedly the most complicated and lengthy project this group and its predecessors has attempted. One reason the writing is taking so long is due to copious options when encountering NPCs. Some of us call these "conversation trees". Imagine a huge oak or banyan tree that branches out wider that the tree's height. Then, visualize yourself climbing the truck and taking a narrow path to the side or top of the tree and jumping into a new scenario. That will appear to be the whole game through one player's eyes. But we must start again at the base of the trunk and mid-points, over and over, until we have crossed every single twig. We must take every possible path in the tree, omitting none, then jump to the next scenario. It's entirely possible, therefore, that someone will beat this game and see maybe less than 50% of the script we wrote and inserted.

We appreciate the gaming community's patience as we head for the stretch run with Chaos Seed. Under no circumstances will we release a partial patch, but Draken may be in the market for a few additional beta testers soon.

09/25/2012 - The Chaos Seed Team

Chaos Seed, Aretha II, and Princess Minerva are forging ahead!

Now that Silva Saga II and Burning Heroes are released for your enjoyment. We've freed up some time for our Assembly Guru and Script Guru to work on other things. various people are now working on various things, and forging several projects forward in the process.

Draken is primarily moving forward with Choas Seed work. We've discovered a bit of untranslated text that is slowing down things just a tad while we get them taken care of. He is continuing to edit and whip into shape what he can while he waits for that text. This game is a massive undertaking, probably the hardest project we've done (even over Mystic Ark and Burning Heroes) because of the Feng Shui culture background. Not to mention the sheer mass of assembly support Bongo` has had to give this game.

Wildbill is forging forward with Aretha II, and it is moving along nicely. The consult menu bugs have been hammered out by Bongo`, the rom expanded and progress made at a steady pace. That being said, this game is probably the furthest along and yet the furthest from release. We are debating internally on if we will save this game to release alongside Aretha I. These games are directly tied to one another so we have feelings that go both ways. You can comment on this in the forum if you'd like, but the final decision will be ours. We'll let you know once that decision is final but the group was leaning towards saving it at last discussion. We have a couple screens to wet your appetite though.

Finally, Taskforce is working on Minerva. There was a bit of cleanup needed in the script files. That was taken care of. Then Bongo` needed to do some assembly work to fix some town issues for our intro video. And that brings me to the video itself, sometime within the next week, we should have that long delayed promised intro movie. There is also a new font in the game. you'll see it in the intro video and the screenshots below.

Bongo` is super busy being a new father and trying to find time to support all of us in the meantime. He's so busy he probably meets himself coming and going. He is still doing his excellent assembly work all around however. Thanks Bongo`.

The rest of the guys are giving support to all projects where possible. Be it spot translations by Filler or Richie to technical support on both current projects for the group and past releases for the public from Red Soul. All of us are keeping ourselves busy.

This is the status of various projects withen the group. Anything not mentioned is on the back burner at this time but should move forward in due time. There is only so much of us to go around haha.

03/11/2012 - The Dynamic Designs Core Team

Released: Burning Heroes English Patch V1.00!

Leap Year comes around only once every four years, so what better way to celebrate this extra day in the month of February than to spend part of it playing a new RPG in English?

Therefore, visit our Download page for the patch or our project page here.

The team wishes to thank everyone who contributed to this localization and encouraged us along the way.

D-D's Burning Heroes is dedicated to Ritchie, Deltaflame, and Recca for their collective translations, FAQ-writing, production work, and the fact that all three played the Japanese version of this game!

02/29/2012 - The Burning Heroes team