Patch is up (v1.01 incoming)

[snatcher1996]

I see people at SA forums are litte satisfied with my tags so far, and I understand by the looks of the screenshots.

My updated versions, especially that of "Stewardess" should look a lot better now. Also, what we see at SA are shrinked screenshots of the game, which make them look anti-aliased.

Slowbeef, would it be possible to see the stills you issued with my updated tags and with their size unaltered? Maybe as a downloadable zip archive?

[slowbeef]

The screenshots are actually enlarged, not shrunk.

Tell you what - give me a BMP with only one column (I had to crop the last one) and I'll put it in my next build.

[snatcher1996]

Thanks man!

Here goes...

[The Prince II]

May I have?

Also the progress it great guys. My deepest respects to all those involved. I've been putting off buying Policenauts since the patch seemed a way off. I might buy a copy soon....

[Solidé]

May I have?

Yeah sure, that's why i made these banners.

[snatcher1996]

Following the discussion on SA forums it seems a few members are concerned how the name badges will look being emulated on a PC. Therefore they prefer the letters being thin and simply white on black without any smoothing.

I designed my nametags in order to make them look close to the japanese ones, when being displayed on a normal TV, which the game was supposed to in the first place. I am looking forward to play the game just as I would have, if there had been an official englisch port. I suppose most people interested in this project plan to do so.

However, if there's no agreement which nametags should be used, I double fairuzas proposal to let the user decide on his own which one to use according to the hardware he utilizes or maybe to make badges himself.

Anyway, I'd love to see ingame screens showcasing the improvement I made on the "d", "e" and "o" as well as the "Slewardess".

[Marc]

Hey guys, I'm back. Thanks for all the comments.

[DOTL]

Hey guys, I'm back. Thanks for all the comments.

You´re welcome!! The progress Updates really make my day, good to see there is progress no matter how small it is, and great to see that you guys are taking time to keep us informed!!

[slowbeef]

Well, I'm glad you like them because it's time for another status update!

Let's see, where are we...

Well, Artemio proves himself hero of the week and manages to patch the FMV cutscenes with English. We're currently working on the voiceover cutscene stuff, mostly relating to ensuring the dump is 100% complete and that we can reliably reinsert it and possibly extend subtitle duration if necessary.

We've actually started discussions on (gasp!) doing an alpha build!

What's that mean?

Well, in modern software development, not very much. "Alpha" and "beta" get kind of thrown around, especially on a project like this where it's not so much creating a whole new product as it is developing a mod. (I mean, you could theoretically say the completely unpatched game is playable, and therefore an alpha build. But that doesn't mean anything.)

I consider beta to be "feature complete", which means we've put everything we want into the product and it's all about beta testing and looking for bugs.

Alpha, I consider to mean "critical functionality", which means that if we were all shot out into space tomorrow, we'd at least have something to show for our efforts. The problem with alpha builds is that they're missing stuff or contain known bugs. So in our case:

"I can play the game, easily read the English, and enjoy the story with no difficulty. There might be a typo here and there that the team hasn't caught yet. There might be placeholder text in some miscellaneous - but not necessary - part. There might be things with the graphics that seem a little off, but ultimately, this is starting to look like a finished product, only with known bugs."

Whereas Beta is:

"This is what final product should look like and we are only checking for bugs in it. Nothing new is intended to be added to this before final release."

So when I say "We're discussing Alpha Build" that basically means we're gonna put all the text into Discs 1 & 2 and play through the whole thing, writing down stuff we want to add or change. (And reporting critical bugs like "hey, the game crashed when I did this" of course)

Just one thing I'm going to let you guys know is that it's gonna be an internal beta. We'd like to keep it in-house until we're all done.

[Kojima_Devotee]

Welcome back, Marc! Slowbeef's been staying busy, and the news of alpha build is quite promising. I do have a question - Is the English inserting method you're using for the entirety of Discs 1 and 2 somewhat quicker and less thorough than what you did in Act 1? I know you spent quite a bit of time with Act 1, so I'm curious as to how you're able to do both discs in such a small span of time.

Either way, it's great to have Marc back, and I'm always happy to hear Slowbeef's updates! You two, as well as the entire team are amazing!

[snatchernaut]

o man im getting excited now.
this is great news. i cant wait. gimmie gimmie gimmie lol
great work guys cant believe the day is finally starting to dawn upon us

[Artemio]

The slow part of figuring out stuff and ironing bugs in the way things are done. After that we apply that same logic to the whole thing, we still need to verify no further problems appear that weren't present on the first act.

[Henry Spencer]

Well, Artemio proves himself hero of the week and manages to patch the FMV cutscenes with English. We're currently working on the voiceover cutscene stuff, mostly relating to ensuring the dump is 100% complete and that we can reliably reinsert it and possibly extend subtitle duration if necessary.

It's like you all take your turn being the hero, haha. You're all heroes to us regulars, anyway.

[cyrano]

Holy cow sweet Moses what happened here? I feel like the guy who didn't jump on a girl when she was stlll wearing braces and had pimples and lived to regret it when she became hot like scones. I really thought, no trolling intended, that the problem would never be figured out and that the project would have slowly died a slow, tear-inducing death, and now i really am a big tool. Well, mea culpa maxima, project overlords. you proved me wrong, and I am now your humble slave.
This is absolutely unbelievable! I am supposed to be writing my thesis, if policenauts translation comes out soon, i will not finish the thesis on time, become the disgrace of my advisor, denied funding, banned from any job, and go on to live the life of a bum.
Anyhow. Also, I don't know how to say this, and don't want to be trolling / sound touchy, but... aren't some user sigs a bit.. hm.. racially insensitive? I am not american so maybe I am missing some cultural stuff, but .....?

[Marc]

Right now I'm finishing up with all the game's text files. Then we'll be more or less ready for alpha.

[Artemio]

Anyhow. Also, I don't know how to say this, and don't want to be trolling / sound touchy, but... aren't some user sigs a bit.. hm.. racially insensitive? I am not american so maybe I am missing some cultural stuff, but .....?

Which do you mean man?

[cyrano]

well, i really didn't mean to point fingers (i am pretty sure i am just missing something), but the picture with the old white guy running seems weird. there was another one, but it's gone, so i won't mention it....

[Modnar]

Sure is groovy to see the project coming along, not much else I can say that hasnt been said before...

...except for Rubber Baby Buggy Bumbers, dont think anyone's said that yet.

2 Thumbs Up ~

[The Prince II]

May I have?

Yeah sure, that's why i made these banners.

Kewl. Thanks for making them, they're great.

[richarddavies]

well, i really didn't mean to point fingers (i am pretty sure i am just missing something), but the picture with the old white guy running seems weird. there was another one, but it's gone, so i won't mention it....

I know which picture your talking about and I still don't get what you mean by racially insensitive. Do you mean beacause it has black people in it, it's racist? I didn't think political correctness has gotten bad to the point that black people can't be seen now for fear of people of other races looking at them, thereby being a racist.
In other word, don't worry about it. Everyone on this site are intelligent nice guys. They wouldn't be an asshole on purpose or anything.

[Elijah Modnar]

Its just Stereotypical comedy, watch shows like the Chappelle show and you will see what i mean, its playing on the point that black men like fried chicken, many a black comedian admits to it.

[Andrigaar]

well, i really didn't mean to point fingers (i am pretty sure i am just missing something), but the picture with the old white guy running seems weird. there was another one, but it's gone, so i won't mention it....

I know which picture your talking about and I still don't get what you mean by racially insensitive. Do you mean beacause it has black people in it, it's racist? I didn't think political correctness has gotten bad to the point that black people can't be seen now for fear of people of other races looking at them, thereby being a racist.
In other word, don't worry about it. Everyone on this site are intelligent nice guys. They wouldn't be an asshole on purpose or anything.

It had a bunch of black people trying to steal some old white guy's KFC. It was pretty funny.

I'm sure it was a photoshop though, and am more curious about what it was before the edit.

[slowbeef]

New pictures of Beyond Coast Police Station

[Solidé]

New pictures of Beyond Coast Police Station

Wow.
Looks great, thanks for posting the images!

[slowbeef]

I met an old friend in-game today. Thought you guys might like to see her.