New Dreamcast Game SLaVE!

[Shadowrunner]

Good news! Hopefully not too much longer.

[zapiy]

I wonder if they'd sell an original bugged copy. Sure would like to have that version too

Why though?  I can sell you loads of bugs??? lol

[TrekMD]

Cool to see this getting closer!

[Saturn]

I wonder if they'd sell an original bugged copy. Sure would like to have that version too

Why though?  I can sell you loads of bugs??? lol

Ha, as memorabilia of why/what took so long. Also, it's an early work in progress, even though thought to be ready for release. I like all that stuff.
Tried to buy the test shell for clear cased Battlesphere Gold from Thunderbird back in 2003. He nuked that thing in an industrial sized 'microwave' to test out durability. Probably ended up discarding it but the thought of it adorning my collection with info has its appeal to me. (appeal nothing, imo it's a priceless artifact of gaming awesomeness and has a story to be told!)

Just like an earlier version of Aircars that almost never saw the light of day. It was branded the KA version and has a round radar instead of the octagonal one that ended up in the final release. Someone made a run of carts for KA a few years ago and I managed to bag one. It's my preferred version and had someone not held onto this 'work in progress' iteration, we would have had that much less in the library of games. Awesome stuff amigo

[Saturn]

Got this earlier. Sounds like a rehash of the last one to passify the situation so we can keep waiting after being thrown a bone:

[] Jay Townsend's SLaVE Update 6/30‏

Hey Dreamcast fans!

Jay Townsend's SLaVE is still moving! The team has been hard at work eliminating bugs that have been found in the program and tweaking the code to get the best performance. The additional time for testing has also allowed the team to add some things to the code, such as rumble support to make the game even more polished.

At this point we still do not have a final date for distribution of the game as we don't yet know when we will be comfortable that the bug test is done, however we intend to start putting final components of the game into production - such as the LLE coin - in the upcoming month!

Thanks for hanging with us and being a supporter of independent game development!

--
Dan Loosen
GOAT Store Publishing

[Shadowrunner]

Yeah I'm getting a little tired of waiting for this, hopefully it's finished soon!

[Saturn]

Got this "update" a few minutes ago.

[] Jay Townsend's SLaVE Update 9/6

Hey Everyone!

We are still creeping toward the finish line! I know that this period can be frustrating, and I sincerely thank you for continuing to hang out with us. Doing a bug hunt on games can be frustrating, as the changes are things that often times aren't seen, or seen only in rare occasions. While it's easy to get excited to hear that there is a new level added or something like that, no one gets excited to hear that you just solved a problem that will make the game not crash in one of 100 times you play it or something like that, however it is a critical phase of the production of any game - or, perhaps I say it was a critical phase, before consoles could download updates to the games after they were released... but quite frankly, after having tried playing my Xbox One recently and needing to wait over an hour for the system and then the game to update, I have come to perhaps appreciate the bug hunt phase a little more.

Anyway, I can tell you that we have worked a few new things into the engine recently, including a few new control schemes. Progress is being made daily to squish bugs that arise, and then search for more.  We are all rather confident that very soon, the will be complete - but until we know exactly how the bugs shake out, it's impossible to know.

As always, if you decide you can't stick with us any more, no problem!  Please just reply to me, and we'll work through refunding your money.

Thanks again for your support!

--
Dan Loosen
GOAT Store Publishing

That last line is contradictory.

We are all rather confident that very soon, the will be complete - but until we know exactly how the bugs shake out, it's impossible to know.

Guess we'll be posting updates next September too

[TrekMD]

I just got this update:

Hello everyone!

We've got a bit of a fun update for everyone today! We are extremely pleased to be able to let you listen to the main theme song for Jay Townsend´s SLaVE!  Created by Connor O.R.T. Linning, we hope that you love it as much as we do.  You can check it out at the following [updated] link:



If you want to learn more about Connor´s earlier work, check out his web site at www.connorlinning.com

We hope to have more great updates for you soon as we continue to creep toward the finish line!

--
Dan Loosen
GOAT Store Publishing

[Shadowrunner]

I like it

[TrekMD]

Me too!  Sounds great!

[Saturn]

Some cool sounding techno jams there lol

[Saturn]

Got this update earlier:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We were waiting to send this note because the bug list has gotten really short, but we recently had a few more things pop up, so we figured we would give you a quick update...

The problem is, the update doesn't contain too much of an update.  We have worked through a considerable amount of technical bugs and issues, and have very few known ones left.  We unfortunately cannot estimate exactly how long is left until conclusion, but I can say with certainty that all involved feel like we are very close.

As always, thank you for bearing with us during this time! We hope and expect to have great news for you very soon! If for any reason, you do not wish to wait, please contact us back and we will be happy to refund your money.

Hopefully, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

[TrekMD]

Hopefully! 

[zapiy]

Least they appear to be doing lots of testing to make sure they release the best bug free release possible.

[Saturn]

Just got this email. Sounds like full production is getting close!


Hello everyone!

It's been a bit since an update, but we have some exciting news to share!

Before we get there, I want to take just a moment to explain why so many of our updates aren't very exciting, as I have heard some people wondering about that. The thing is, when Jay Townsend's SLaVE was announced as being on sale by us, the game itself was done. The issues that we have had with production has completely centered around issues with the game engine which greatly limits the usual "fun" updates that a company making a game can send out.

Because of this though, it isn't like we don't have updates to make about adding new levels or adding in a new feature. The gameplay itself has not been focused on other than minor tweaking, while the game engine itself has had to be completely rewritten from the ground up to not have memory overflow issues on an actual production Dreamcast system, the whole process has basically been an exercise in getting the game to run the same as it has in emulation in the real world. Quite unfortunately, this makes for terribly boring updates, and I both understand and appreciate that people were disappointed by that - especially those who may have been used to updates from other games in development that get to have great updates about new levels or features or whatever.

Anyway, the good news that I have to tell you is this... as of just a few moments ago, we have a copy of the game running on actual hardware here at GOAT Store HQ without any memory overflow issues or anything like that!

It is NOT yet final - a few tweaks are being made to the menu system, and there are a few more tweaks to be made, but running the game on the actual hardware with the new engine not producing any crashes is a huge step toward production!

I still don't want to share any particular guesses on dates for release or anything like that, but we hope and expect that production isn't far behind!

As always, thank you for hanging with us, and supporting this project that has been much more frustrating than we expected when we started it.  After our issues early on with the production of Maqiupai and Inhabitants, we wanted to not have similar delays and we apologize that we weren't able to hold that up here!

We hope we are closing in on the finish line as quickly as expected, and that we will have this wonderful game in your hands in the very near future!


--
Dan Loosen
GOAT Store Publishing