Working Designs' games now longer goes to 11.

[KingMike]

To quote Victor Ireland, on the WD Message Board:

"First of all, sorry for being incommunicado for such a long time. It's been a busy time, as you'll see.

There's no easy way to say it, so I just will. Working Designs is gone. All the staff has been laid off and the office is closed and has been for some time. Yes, the website is still here, and I am going to do my best to keep it tucked away somewhere on the 'net so it doesn't become an illicit domain. (Of course, some of the haters may be of the mind that it's been illicit all along, heh!).

The most frustrating part of all of this is that I know that our fanbase is still there. Growlanser Generations sold well, but of course not better than it would have sold as two separate titles. We just spent too much time fighting the good fight to even get it out, and other games approved.

Though almost finished and substantially improved from the Japanese release, Goemon is dead for the US, and that was really the final straw. If I can't guarantee that the games I personally choose for us to release in the US can actually get approved and come out, there's no business to be done. There is a possibility that it may be released in Europe (as well as Growlanser Generations), but nothing is finalized yet.

I know many of you will have lots of questions, and there will be some I can answer, and some I can't. Sony has made it clear that they do not want the details of their dealings with any publisher made public. Suffice to say that you would buy what we wanted to sell if we could sell it.

I want to thank each and every one of you personally for being a fan, buying the games we released, and telling your friends. You HAVE made a difference, because you bought the crazy things we did. Thanks to YOU, there are deluxe packs, pack-in soundtracks, better packaging, great hint guides, and better localizations in general. We said it a lot, but it really was true. We were nothing without you.

For the future, there are still great opportunities. I have been in touch with a number of other publishers and manufacturers and I will be working with some of the WD staff to do games for other publishers for the time being, but not as Working Designs. One thing that holds a ton of promise is XBOX 360 RPGs, and I've contacted Microsoft about getting what's underway in Japan out in the US and helping to get more done worldwide. We'll see what happens on that front, but please let them know that YOU WANT MORE JRPGs here. There's some amazing stuff coming for the '360 in Japan, and I know I want it - I think you will, too.

Thanks for everything. It's a tough road ahead for games that aren't of the least-common-denominator variety. The choices you make with your hardware dollars are more important than ever for the generation that is upon us.

With that, I bid all of us...

...Good night, and Good Luck."

This is a sad day for RPG fans.

[D--]

This is a sad day for RPG fans.

Oh no!

Without Working Designs and DeJap, where will we be able to get RPGs with chunks of their script thrown out to be replaced by third-grade humor and pop culture references!?

[KingMike]

Well, sad for some RPG fans, anyway.

Gotta praise them for giving us RPGs we'd otherwise not get at all, though.

[EienNiHen]

Oh no!

Without Working Designs and DeJap, where will we be able to get RPGs with chunks of their script thrown out to be replaced by third-grade humor and pop culture references!?

I thought I was the only one who got pissed off by that.  Not just with Working Designs, but translations which include random pop culture references.  I don't mind it once in awhile, but it just seems so...unprofessional to do it constantly.  On that note:

"No one knows who they were or what they were doing..."

[D--]

I think the toilet humor pisses me off more than the pop culture references. When you reduce parts of your script to lewd, childish remarks about human anatomy and drug culture, it makes me think the target audience was 10 - 14.

[Nightcrawler]

Like them or not, they brought alot of good titles over here.  Arc the Lad collection, the Lunar series, Alundra, Popful Mail...

You can't deny that they brought some good games over that we may otherwise never have gotten the chance to play.

I for one am a bit sad they're gone for that reason.

[EienNiHen]

I think the toilet humor pisses me off more than the pop culture references. When you reduce parts of your script to lewd, childish remarks about human anatomy and drug culture, it makes me think the target audience was 10 - 14.

Holy shit that was a quick response.  Yeah, I can definitely see how that would be irritating.  I don't mind so much if it's in the game's original script, but it's kind of stupid to just throw it in.  Especially when the average gamer is in his early 20s.

Dammit, now I'm seriously reconsidering putting a reference to Charles Bukowski in the Emerald Dragon script.  Even if I'm the only one who thinks it's funny.  

[Princess]

They definitely brought us some good games.  I enjoyed playing Arc the Lad, Alundra, and Popful Mail.

[byuu]

Oh no!

Without Working Designs and DeJap, where will we be able to get RPGs with chunks of their script thrown out to be replaced by third-grade humor and pop culture references!?

Why is it always one extreme or the other? From "fucks like a tiger" to "tataku, phantom beasts!"... what the hell happened to just translating the meaning of things, anyway? Do they not teach this when you're learning a foreign language in school / college? :/

[mades]

Oh no!

Without Working Designs and DeJap, where will we be able to get RPGs with chunks of their script thrown out to be replaced by third-grade humor and pop culture references!?

i don't wanna sound like an ass, but say some guy translates it--- he can then give it to a writer. i mean, a good script doesn't have to be funny. it can be simply extremely well written. as for the reference thingy.... what does that mean? i've never actually heard that thing before.

on another note, I agree with D (about the toilet humour and all).

as for me, i'm sick and tired of those translators who leave the games like that. i mean, if i could understand japanese, i'd not only translate the scripts, but i'd make them nice.

Mades

[KaioShin]

on another note, I agree with D (about the toilet humour and all).

as for me, i'm sick and tired of those translators who leave the games like that. i mean, if i could understand japanese, i'd not only translate the scripts, but i'd make them nice.

Mades

You want to do exatcly what D criticises. You want to change the script to something that isn't there. The translators of these games also thought it would be "nice" to have toilet humour in them while the original games may have not a single line of it.

[mades]

You want to do exatcly what D criticises. You want to change the script to something that isn't there. The translators of these games also thought it would be "nice" to have toilet humour in them while the original games may have not a single line of it.

yeah, i meant to delete one of the two things there, but i didn't re-read what i wrote (something i usually do). sorry for that. and yes, you're right. but, toilet humour are most likely modified by those translating anyway. thus, whether a script editor would change the script again changes nothing to the plot.

ever played Ogre Battle 64? my gosh!!! i have the rom and the translators are complete morons. i mean, i'm glad they translated the game, but they could have handed the new script to someone else... like me for example. here, i strictly mean changing the text itself--- nothing at all with coding, extracting/inserting script, (i honestly know nothing about how to hack games, but there's one thing i know--- the best thing i do involves words. i'm sure you can guess what that is. and trust me, if i'd rewrite the script, you'd find any RPG more interesting).

p.s.: the first thing i enjoy in RPG's is a good script. if it has a poor one, i get annoyed. as a writer, you like playing games that has a good script.

Mades

[D--]

mades: If your last post is to be assumed a sample of your writing ability, I may know why they didn't hand the script to you for editing ...

[EienNiHen]

D,³,ñ,Í–{"–,É,Ð,Ç,¢,Å,·,Ë!   ƒtƒtƒt...

Oh, and did you get the PM I sent you?


Edit:

Jesus Christ, this guy's an editor?  Sorry, I thought D was just picking on him at first.

[D--]

Yes, and answered it. Good catch! I'll have to update my document some day.