[Aquamarine]

ANY news on GSW? Are you making it, Max? Are you even considering investing any time in it? If you've decided not to do it, you should just tell us, not keep us waiting. I'm not the only one who joined the forums because of GSW.

I told you guys Max would never make it...

[Split Infinity]

I'm starting to believe you... I can't even remember the last time Max posted.

[Aquamarine]

It's pretty obvious if you ask me... I mean, it's fine if Max won't make it. After all, he has more important things to think about(as does everyone else) and he wouldn't get any money or anything for it, but he really should tell us now what he has decided.

[TheEnglishman]

My interest in GSW ended the day after I joined when I found out I missed the test. I'm staying for the forums.

[Neon]

He wants to make it but he doesn't have the time. So basically, no progress is made on it, but it isn't canceled.

That's my understanding anyway.

[Split Infinity]

At the current rate all the original members will have left by the time it comes online. Heck, we're already missing well over half of them.

[Neon]

Some of them seem to do what I do and just check the site every month or so and lurk on the forums occasionally. If gsw was released, you would probably see most of them trying it out.

That and the interest for gsw extends beyond this forum. The server tests proved this, we even got new members out of them.

[Golden Legacy]

Neon said it well. GSW will expand the community, both in (finally) giving the old member's the incentive to return and by catching the eye of new ones. Remember, GSS/GSSF was never the only Golden Sun site/community on the web, and there are plenty of people who would be more than willing to join in.

In the meanwhile, give Max a break. Spearheading this project singlehandedly is impressive in itself, I'm sure he'll provide an update soon.

[Aquamarine]

First off, it won't give the incentove for old members to return or catch the eye of new ones because it'll never be finished. Secondly, the "spearheading this project singlehandedly" is something I don't get. Why even do it singlehandedly? This is definitely something that is difficult to finish for a bunch of people, let alone a single guy. So why do it alone, especially when it's obvious he doesn't have the time to do everything.

[Laharl]

i didnt think anyone actually still cared for GSW

[Toasty]

Aquamarine, on Aug 16 2008, 03:21 PM, said:

First off, it won't give the incentove for old members to return or catch the eye of new ones because it'll never be finished. Secondly, the "spearheading this project singlehandedly" is something I don't get. Why even do it singlehandedly? This is definitely something that is difficult to finish for a bunch of people, let alone a single guy. So why do it alone, especially when it's obvious he doesn't have the time to do everything.

If it's a one man job, there's no problems with trying to understand someone else's code and figuring out exactly what it does. It's much easier to work on something if you know everything about it from first hand experience.

From what I understand, everything that could have been done by other people (sprite ripping, map making, graphic stuff mostly) has already been done. All that's left is to do is code it. Though really, coding is probably the biggest job out of the whole thing.


Like I've said before, it'll be done when it's done, and I'll be here for it if/when it is. If it never gets finished, I'm perfectly fine just visiting the forums.

[Someone Else]

I agree with Toasty. (I seem to be saying that more often...)

Quit your *****ing and be happy that Max has even been trying to keep the community alive.

[Split Infinity]

The only thing Max seems to be doing at the moment is paying the bills. :/

Like Aqua said, if you won't be able to finish it in a feasible amount of time, just tell us already instead of leaving us in the dark for months. It's not that big a deal.

[My Best Wishes]

If Max came out and said GSW wasn't being released, would you guys really care? Would that prevent you from visiting the forums? I've been here for a little under 4 years, GL, Eugine, WD etc all more then me. And in those almost 4 years I've only been apart of 2 GSW tests, now if I was here for GSW then I would have left along time ago, but it's the forums that keep me here, hell, I can't even remember the last time I thought about GSW (no offence Max)

[Mallick]

Aquamarine, on Aug 16 2008, 03:21 PM, said:

First off, it won't give the incentove for old members to return or catch the eye of new ones because it'll never be finished. Secondly, the "spearheading this project singlehandedly" is something I don't get. Why even do it singlehandedly? This is definitely something that is difficult to finish for a bunch of people, let alone a single guy. So why do it alone, especially when it's obvious he doesn't have the time to do everything.

NGAF

[Max]

Neon, on Aug 16 2008, 08:12 AM, said:

He wants to make it but he doesn't have the time. So basically, no progress is made on it, but it isn't canceled.

That's my understanding anyway.

This is exactly right. I really want to make GSW, I have tons of ideas for it, but I simply don't have the time to do it alone. I have a large number of real-life commitments, and I've also been hired to do some freelance work with what time is left over. I haven't posted anything about it recently simply because I'm not sure there is much more I can say. How many times do I need to make a news post saying "sorry, didn't have time for GSW this month, maybe sometime soon"?

Aquamarine, on Aug 16 2008, 06:21 PM, said:

First off, it won't give the incentive for old members to return or catch the eye of new ones because it'll never be finished. Secondly, the "spearheading this project singlehandedly" is something I don't get. Why even do it singlehandedly? This is definitely something that is difficult to finish for a bunch of people, let alone a single guy. So why do it alone, especially when it's obvious he doesn't have the time to do everything.

You are exactly right, I would love not to have to do this by myself. But unless someone here with some programming skills steps up to the plate, I'm not sure what I can do. There are a bazillion people out on the internet looking for help making Flash games, what really makes us any more unique and worthy of someone's time? I can't afford to pay someone to make it, so I would have to find someone willing to spend alot of their time without any real monetary compensation. Let me know if you find such a person, I've had a hard time of it myself.

When we did run tests of GSW several years back, I was working with another coding partner, and we were able to be productive and get a fair amount of work done before we hit a wall with the codebase we had. Now he has graduated and works at a "real" game design firm, and I'm now in college and busy as heck.

As someone else mentioned, all the ancillary work (graphics, sprites, music) is already done, it's basically just waiting on me to do the game coding itself. Atrius has been working on reverse engineering the GS game engine, and already has a working prototype, so maybe with his blessing I can use that as a starting-off point for the new version of GSW when I am really ready to commit the time to it. But, realistically, I'm not sure when that will be.

I realize that these explanations don't make it any easier to accept or deal with, but hopefully you at least under the situation. While I'd love to see this community blossom again, I often find it difficult to rationalize why I should spend countless hours on GSW instead of a more rewarding (personally, socially, and/or career-wise) venture. I wish I could snap my fingers and finish GSW, but we all know that that's not how life works.

[Eugine]

lmao Max. Just cancel GSW, finish the site, close the forum, get the cheapest host you can find, and 'archive' GSS =)
I'm sure you're thinking that :rolleyes:

I'm just happy you finally told us the truth. That is, you're unable to do GSW (we all knew that anyway).

I recommend watching Prison Break instead of coding GSW. I'm addicted!

[Mallick]

Finally told us the truth? He's been telling us all along, fuckrick.

[Eugine]

Yeah, you're right. My bad =(
Apologies!

[My Best Wishes]

Surely you could use GSW as a career venture when/if you go for a job in that field. Wouldn't that make you stand out more then other applicants?

[Mallick]

Who's to say that's the field he'll be going into?

[Neon]

Last I heard Max isn't interested in a career down that path and works on GSS 'for fun' because he wants to finish what he started, completing whatever grand vision he has for the site.

I think he was only 14 when he made Isaac's Revenge, and now he's, what, 19? All of this was just a fun fansite and community at first, and now I assume he's working on wrapping it up and focusing on whatever ambitions he has for his life.

[My Best Wishes]

Anonymous, on Aug 18 2008, 06:21 PM, said:

Who's to say that's the field he'll be going into?

watch, on Aug 18 2008, 04:59 PM, said:

Surely you could use GSW as a career venture when/if you go for a job in that field. Wouldn't that make you stand out more then other applicants?

[Aquamarine]

I'm very glad you posted here, Max. I do completely understand you. I understand why you haven't made much progress on GSW, and I will understand if you never make it.

And honestly, I'm not going to be all that disappointed or anything, because I'm not looking forward to GSW as much as I used to. Not even close. It just came to mind a couple of days ago. I did join the forums solely for GSW, but I remained here for different reasons.

[Toasty]

Eugine, on Aug 17 2008, 09:12 PM, said:

lmao Max. Just cancel GSW, finish the site, close the forum, get the cheapest host you can find, and 'archive' GSS =)
I'm sure you're thinking that :rolleyes:

I'm just happy you finally told us the truth. That is, you're unable to do GSW (we all knew that anyway).

I recommend watching Prison Break instead of coding GSW. I'm addicted!

Can it for christs' sake. All he said is that he wants to, but doesn't have the time. I didn't read anything about him wanting to shut down the forums.


I think you should all just leave the topic alone. If it gets done, then it gets done. If not, then it doesn't. Don't bring up the topic again unless you're offering to help code it.

I'd be more than willing to offer my time to code it, but I have no experience outside of HTML/CSS and a very, very small amount of C++.

[Max]

Nothing in my previous post is really new information, I've put forward the same arguments/information before in various news posts and forum topics. The problem is that all of those are spread out over the last 3 or 4 years, and so most people can't put the pieces together.

Answering whoever mentioned closing the forums and archiving the site: the GSS revamp project is supposed to do the latter, and that is currently a higher priority than GSW, and should eventually get done this year. I have said many times in the past that I won't shut down these forums until people stop coming, and I'm willing to stand by that for the foreseeable future.

And with regards to whoever mentioned using GSW as a career move: that was one of our (AveneR/Eljo and I) original motives, was to parlay the GSW engine into either a sell-able product or as a coding sample to get a job at a game design firm. Eljo already got his job, and I've already done more impressive software work elsewhere. So while that was once a motivation, I'm not sure it really is anymore. I don't even want to be a professional software developer, programming is really just a hobby.

I'm not saying it won't happen, I'm just saying I have a backlog of projects that need attention first, and that it won't be anytime this year. Next year? Who knows.

[Eugine]

I just think its pretty obvious Max has moved to bigger and better things, and hey, everyone should. Creating GSW, imo, isn't really in the best interest of Max development, but hey, if he wanna do it, sure. I'll try it out the day it's ready =)

But um, its about time for Max to move on to the next chapter of his life (everyone actually). Just watch Prison Break before you do!

[Split Infinity]

Well, looks like GSW will be ready in time for the next generation. Oh well. ;P

[Atrius]

Quote

Atrius has been working on reverse engineering the GS game engine, and already has a working prototype, so maybe with his blessing I can use that as a starting-off point for the new version of GSW when I am really ready to commit the time to it.

Of course. Speaking of that, I probably should post a topic about it, shouldn't I?


A random interesting fact: All of the data for the music in The Lost Age, which seems to include many if not all of the songs from the original Golden Sun takes up only about 1.36 MB of space, about the same size as a single average song in mp3 format.

[Toasty]

What, are they all MIDI's or WAV's?

I know Vale's song is only like 30 seconds long or something, and then it repeats, so....

[Atrius]

The music has similarities to MIDI format, but isn't. The instrument samples are close enough to WAV format.

[Toasty]

Yeah, I was trying to rip the songs a while ago. I just opened up the game, and recorded the loop with Audacity. I exported them as mp3's. I only ever got two songs though.

[Split Infinity]

Most GBA music is composed from the default sound library, so...

[Caael]

Aqua, be quiet. You dont know the half of it, the effort that goes into making this. You're constantly complaining about how busy your life is, well imagine that, but with all your free time taken up by this game.

And as for staying around for GSW, I never really cared in the first place, cuz i was never involved with any server tests and not to be rude, but it just doesnt interest me.

[Atrius]

Split Infinity, on Aug 22 2008, 03:45 AM, said:

Most GBA music is composed from the default sound library, so...

I never thought of it that way...

Amazing, you're right. Many other games appear to use the same music format as Golden Sun. I wonder how much tweaking it would take to get the music system I wrote to handle them too...

EDIT:
Wow, all I had to do was write something to auto detect where the songs are stored in the ROM, and I've already got a really basic GBA music player.

[Toasty]

That's pretty sweet. What do you code all these auto-rippers in?

[Atrius]

Actually I'm writing stuff in Action Script 3 to handle the data formats in real-time in a flash game engine.

The auto rippers I did before though were made with Game Maker.

[Matthias]

I'm just wondering, is GSW being developed with just ActionScript 2.0 or 3.0 in Flash or are any other languages being used?

[Max]

RagaKnight, on Sep 4 2008, 02:33 AM, said:

I'm just wondering, is GSW being developed with just ActionScript 2.0 or 3.0 in Flash or are any other languages being used?

The client application is in Actionscript 3, but the server is written in a combination of Java and Python.