*Why was mailing after mailing thrown down a black hole without ever paying 80¢ tracking to figure out what was going on or reassure the customers?
Ever since the USPS allowed doing it online through Paypal, not a single order has gone missing. Tracking has been done for quite awhile now, and every order shipped with tracking has indeed arrived. Any reports of shipments not arriving were from the previous shipments that were done by hand and not tracked. Emails *have* been sent to many customers, explaining the situation, and news was written about it on forums as well as on the page.
*After mailings continued to disappear for, like, a year, why wasn't a big box sent to Keranu or someone in the continental U.S. where mail can be sent internationally without vanishing into the Bermuda Triangle?
Keranu was originally doing the mailings, and he did a great job. It was not until international mailings from here in PR started that things started going missing. When the mailings shifted over to us, Keranu was very busy at the time and I wanted to take the workload off of him. Maybe this mess could have been avoided by having him continue to do the mailings, but what's done is done.
*Why the sudden bargain-bin purging of all remaining MS stock on the forums, with no advance notice, no email to prior customers, and no announcement on the Frozen Utopia webpage?
Why not? Why not give some people a chance to snag the game a bit cheaper, people who could not swing the $40? Not everyone is made of money, and they simply were not moving any longer at $40. They sold like wildfire at $15, and now more people can enjoy the game. It's about getting it in the hands of more people.
*Why did the ebay listing show some guy's hand getting fingerprints all over the disc? Why not clear pictures of the nice artwork and pristine games in boxes?
I have no idea what you are referring to.
*Why the stubborn, preemptive vow to never do a reprint? Reprints are cheap, the game was barely advertised on its release, English-speaking Turbo gamers are starved for RPG's, and ITS A GOOD GAME. There's going to be a continuous trickle of demand for more copies. Are you allergic to money?
This isn't about money, it's about OBEY. I also don't feel like disturbing MSR's grave... the game is finished, out the door, done with, gone. There is absolutely no need to go through the expense of a second pressing, especially since the game has already been ripped and put up online for free. Doing a second run would just give the impression that we want to ride the coattails of a single project for as long as possible without ever doing anything new.
If there was a huge, overwhelming demand for a reprint, I would consider it. But without such a demand, there's simply no point in going through the process yet again. I would rather use my time to work on something new.
*Why were all of the games advertised on FU and the back of the MS manual (Dragon Arm, Valkyrie Midnight, Jungle Brothers, Xymati, Project Monolith, Neutopia III, etc., etc., etc.) abandoned for yet another game (Lucretia) and a whole new company (Eponasoft)?
They weren't. Eponasoft was formed in 2007 as a PC and Nintendo DS development group. Once it seemed obvious that the Nintendo DS aspect was going to go nowhere, it shifted focus to the PC Engine as well. Eponasoft functions as a multiplatform, team-per-production group, whereas Frozen Utopia functions as a PC Engine-exclusive core-team development group. Different development strategies, but same overall goal... make new games.
To answer the specifics about each of the games you mention:
Dragon Arm is still in the conceptual stage. The character artist is still developing sketches and fleshing out the character designs.
Valkyrie Midnight was put on hold when Seldane left. It has never been put back on the burner and won't until some other projects are taken care of first.
Jungle Bros is lord cack's project and is currently suffering the game designer's version of writer's block. Paranoia Dragon is still making its music, however.
The PC Engine version of Xymati is a collaboration between MindRec and Eponasoft. It has not been abandoned, but the level of technical expertise required to complete it was above and beyond my current abilities at the time. It is still in the works. Working on Lucretia has given me the necessary level of skill to complete Xymati.
Monolith is currently lacking artists and will resume as soon as this void is filled.
Neutopia III was canceled due to trademark issues.
There are other projects which are not even known to the general public, and they remain under wraps on purpose. Equuskia has two projects of her own under the Eponasoft label, I have a solo project under the Eponasoft label, and there are four other projects with various people... one under the Frozen Utopia banner and three under Eponasoft. There are also projects which really were abandoned for various reasons that are either not known about or were forgotten about.
Mysterious Song II: Eternal SilenceWhy so many projects? Two reasons. One, I can't stand to be doing nothing. If a project reaches a standstill, I can't pause working until it resumes; I need to keep busy, so I work on something else until it resumes. Two, having a variety of things to do prevents burnout, which is a huge problem for people like me when we focus too long on one thing.
*Why repeat the same mistakes on Lucretia, open preorders, and announce pie-in-the-sky release dates when there's still a crap-ton of work left to do on that game?
This was not my decision, unfortunately. I would not have done it so early, even though we were right on schedule. I am not the one who runs Eponasoft, I'm simply the project manager/coder. It was a f*ckup, a bad move, a mistake. And now I am the one who has to deal with the fallout.
*Why don't you advertise either Eponasoft or FU in your signature instead of a how-to site full of dead links?
My signature is my preference, not anyone else's. Why does your signature say "Topic Adjourned." rather than containing a link to vestcoat.com?
