Pier Solar, the new Genesis RPG can now be pre-ordered!

[Wolfrider31]

Thanks for the support. The community is being incredibly supportive and we really appreciate the breathing room. The game is indeed close to being finished, but we're still not comfortable in announcing a date. Once of the game is finished of course there's additional time that must be spent testing and manufacturing.

There are a lot of areas that are 100% done, which puts some of us in a position of being able to create additional content. There are some extras that have been placed in the game that wouldn't have been possible without the original delay.

Though, as stated Second Quarter 2009 (IE - Spring) is still our target date, I have no doubt we'll be able to meet that.

By the way, we have another update for this week posted. We also had one last week, but I missed posting in this thread. :)

Cheers all

www.piersolar.com

[PDorr3]

I am looking forward to this and I know my youtube subscribers who pre-ordered are as well (I frequently get asked by them when it is releasing, I just tell them they will be notified by email when it ships because thats the current plan right?)

Anyway thanks for the constant updates, I always check them each week and this weeks was quite a surprise to me...I never fully realized that any part of your team has met in person (I figured maybe a couple of you knew eachother in real life). Either way guys I look forward to getting my hands on this game when it is ready to be released!

[acem77]

I wonder if nintendo would let it be a VC download.
that could be a way to regain some extra money.

[HYB]

I just pre-ordered mine today. I wanted to go with the premium package when it was out but didn't have any money. I really wouldn't have any to spare even now but you have to give a little love to the community, besides 35$ is so cheap how could I not.

Can't wait for the release. I promoted the game at some finnish places as well so hopefully more people will be interested.

[Mason P.]

I am looking forward to this and I know my youtube subscribers who pre-ordered are as well (I frequently get asked by them when it is releasing, I just tell them they will be notified by email when it ships because thats the current plan right?)

Anyway thanks for the constant updates, I always check them each week and this weeks was quite a surprise to me...I never fully realized that any part of your team has met in person (I figured maybe a couple of you knew eachother in real life). Either way guys I look forward to getting my hands on this game when it is ready to be released!

I love your channel. I watch every video.You need to review this when it comes out.

[Wolfrider31]

His channel is indeed badass.

Tuesday update everyone.

We have also entered the dark realm of Twitter. You can check us out at http://www.twitter.com/watermelongames

www.piersolar.com

[TheRedEye]

His channel is indeed badass.

Tuesday update everyone.

We have also entered the dark realm of Twitter. You can check us out at http://www.twitter.com/watermelongames

www.piersolar.com

I wrote a little bit about Pier Solar in an upcoming issue of Game Developer magazine, so keep an eye out for it if you're collecting clippings.

[Wolfrider31]

I wrote a little bit about Pier Solar in an upcoming issue of Game Developer magazine, so keep an eye out for it if you're collecting clippings.

This game developer magazine? http://www.gdmag.com/homepage.htm

What issue?

And thanks! :D

[Wolfrider]

Little update this week, we've all got our noses to the grind stone.

www.piersolar.com

[Wolfrider31]

Update has been posted!

www.piersolar.com

[Wolfrider31]

This week's update has been posted.

www.piersolar.com

[calistarwind]

I really love the music in this game, it reminds me of Phantasy Star. I also really enjoy the writing so far as well, I can't wait to play.

[RASK1904]

I wait every week for Tuesday! Awesome. Keep it up! Have I already said I Can't wait! Whats the release date looking like? Just kinda vague guess?

[Sosage]

Is May 1st release looking realistic (read that date from the site)?

Edit: didn't mean that as a snarky reply to the above poster...genuinely asking. =)

[megasdkirby]

Well, it's May 1st.

Do you think they will honor the refund if they don't release it today?

[Nico87]

Out of curiosity (seeing as it's sold-out or whatever), what does the Premium Package contain?

[RASK1904]

Ya they where updating every Tuesday? I've checked the web site a couple times and nothing new. Unless it was posted today? But it's Friday. Kinda quiet? Think there shipping them? This would be awesome!!!

Sold out? Hmmm. I did not know this!

[Gameguy]

Sold out? Hmmm. I did not know this!
He's talking about the $50 edition from awhile back where they add your name to the cartridge. That hasn't been offered in awhile but the regular edition is still available. They're basically the same package, except the $50 edition lets them add your name to the game and manual(which will be included with all copies).

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

Well, it's May 1st.

Do you think they will honor the refund if they don't release it today?

For the questions about the release date and stuff, here is a message that they had posted in their pre-order forum:

The May 1st deadline was for refunds only - it in no way was a static release date. As always our release date has been Second Quarter of 2009 (which can be found in our FAQ on the forums) - we've never announced another release date and have stated on a number of occasions that there is no set release date beyond the Second Quarter.

We'll keep you posted when we have an actual hard date.

For the record though - the release date will most likely be for going gold. Our manufacturing process necessitates that the cartridges will be sent out as they are printed and we do not have the capacity to send everyone's on the same day. Once the release date is hit, that will be when we begin processing and shipping the orders - if you were first to pre-order you'll get yours close to the release date, if you ordered later expect to wait a little longer. It won't be extreme - but just a heads up.

JY

[megasdkirby]

Thanks for the info, JY.

Second quarter...isn't that between April - June? Then that means we are in the second month of the second quarter.

Call me a pessimist, but I don't think this game will be released on 2Q...maybe 4Q at the very least. Would love to be wrong, though. :)

[MachineGex]

The lack of a concrete date makes me think they are not close to finishing. I would say summer at the very earliest.

[Melf]

The website is a bit misleading then, since it says on the preorder page:


We reserve the right to delay release up until the 1st of May 2009.

That says nothing about not being a static date, going gold, or referring only to refunds. They shouldn't expect people to scour the forums for release information.

[swlovinist]

For those who are new to the homebrew scene....games rarely come on time, but usually are great when they do arrive. Adventure II is a great example of this for the 5200. It took forever to come out, but everyone was very happy when it did arrive. I predict that this will be a quality project when it is released. An RPG of this size is pretty crazy to take on(not to mention thousands of man hours), so I look forward to when it comes out.

[Zebbe]

Hi everybody :).

I'm sorry for the decision to allow pre-orders so early when there was so much left to do in the development; it has lead many people frustrated over not knowing when they will get the game they have paid for. However, it has assured the game will come, since PayPal takes lots of dollars of those preorder money even if everybody is refunded, we've already produced the boxes and manuals, spent a lot of private money that is needed beyond the production price and spent around five years developing the game. There is no turning back and it is just a matter of when the game is complete, not if, and we are working hard everyday to reach that day. Our webmaster is supposed to update our pre-order page, I don't know why he hasn't done so, but I will ask him when I catch him.

Thanks for your support! I promise this will be a great game!

See ya!

/Zebbe, WaterMelon team

[Iron Draggon]

I'm still waiting patiently for it... a 64meg RPG for only $35 is unheard of... and we get a CD with Redbook audio to boot? not to mention a color printed manual, and a very professional looking box... so even if it doesn't come out until sometime late next year, I'll still be thrilled with it when it finally arrives!

[Zebbe]

It's not redbook audio, it's PCM from the Mega-CD chip, 4x the quality of Lunar 2 according to Fonzie :). Redbook audio would have been far inferior, shorter songs, fewer songs, low quality, no looping, cut bonus content... Only down-thing with PCM is you can't play it in your CD player, but we might solve that problem in the future ;).

[Daria]

I know I for one am waiting for a concrete release date before ordering. I'm sure others are too.

It's not that I don't trust the game to be released, but I have to know where to ship it (we've moved, my parents are moving) and I have to budget my spending cash. :/

[grolt]

I know I for one am waiting for a concrete release date before ordering. I'm sure others are too.

It's not that I don't trust the game to be released, but I have to know where to ship it (we've moved, my parents are moving) and I have to budget my spending cash. :/

When that day comes you'll then have to upgrade your Genesis RPG gallery! :)

I went ahead and pre-ordered, it's quite a bit cheaper than the prices that Super Fighter Team are charging for their products, and here you're getting a lot more to boot. I was sold once I heard that demo music...great stuff!

[Gemini-Phoenix]

The website is a bit misleading then, since it says on the preorder page:


We reserve the right to delay release up until the 1st of May 2009.

That says nothing about not being a static date, going gold, or referring only to refunds. They shouldn't expect people to scour the forums for release information.

Bear in mind that this was written well over a year ago (Back when 24th Dec '08 was the release date), and they've probably been far too busy making the game to update the order page.

[Melf]

Probably, but that's not exactly a minor detail, is it? I'm hoping this game is released without incident and to great fanfare, and I can already see people going on about something like that. If it concerns the exchange of money, it should be 100% accurate, to erase any possibility of confusion.

[megasdkirby]

Probably, but that's not exactly a minor detail, is it? I'm hoping this game is released without incident and to great fanfare, and I can already see people going on about something like that. If it concerns the exchange of money, it should be 100% accurate, to erase any possibility of confusion.

Agreed.

I just hope that when the game is close to release, the price is hiked to cover other expenses.

[Wolfrider31]

Actually we've explained the May 1st thing before - it's merely the date when we'd be giving refunds if requested - we've stated before that we have not announced a release date (apart from second quarter 2009). All the info is in our forums so if you have any questions check there or post. :)

As for this week's update - we've got a video preview of Pier Solar in action!

www.piersolar.com

[Melf]

I see you've updated the page and removed the info. That's a start, but now there's no estimated shipping date at all. That might scare off potential preorders, don't you think?

*Edit* The preorder form still has the outdated info, and this form is something potential buyers are going to see more than the forums.


Shipping should start from Spring 2009, we reserve the right to push the shipping date up to May 2009 before refund.

[Wolfrider31]

Ah you're absolutely right, that could be misleading - I'll get our webmaster to remove that ASAP. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. :)

As for the estimated shipping date, we've already delayed the game once so we're holding back on announcing anything until we're certain we can make it (and that the game is good enough). Our pre-orders are incredibly strong so it's not something we're worried about. What we can tell you is that our ship date will be more of a "gone gold" date as our manufacturing process requires us to burn the carts one at a time so some will get theirs a few days after the date and some maybe a couple of weeks. We'll keep everyone posted.

[ProgrammingAce]

I think what people are looking for is reassurance that the game is weeks away instead of months.

There's a tendency on projects like this to allow feature creep. There's an obvious desire to make the game as good as you possibly can, but at some point you have to say enough is enough, lock down the game and ship.

It's one thing to be vague on a deadline to your customers, but i certainly hope you have some sort of deadline internally within your group.

[Wolfrider31]

There isn't really many more ways to say "We haven't announced a release date yet." So I can't comment beyond what we've already said - second quarter of 2009.

For a look at the game running on actual hardware check out this weeks video. :)

[chrisbid]

looks and sounds great

for a future update, could you provide music clips from the naked genesis cart and the enhanced sega cd, to compare and contrast?

i love the idea of the enhanced cd music, but sometimes, 'enhanced' versions of game music arent as endearing as the original (snes remakes of nes games, master system games with fm sound, etc)

[Zebbe]

In this case (90%+ of the tunes), the Sega CD/Mega-CD tunes are the original and the MD/G tunes the remakes.

We've updated everything of the old quality to the new high quality, now it's only about finishing what is left to do. We work hard everyday to achieve it.

[Wolfrider31]

Updated!

www.piersolar.com

[Nico87]

Pre-ordered!

[Zebbe]

I told our updater that people had been asking for updates, so he wrote one.

http://www.piersolar.com/pier-solar-news.php

[ProgrammingAce]

You might want to have your webmaster clear all the sex chat links out of your forum while they're at it...

[Zebbe]

I've already addressed it to the administrator, he should take care of the matter soon. Thanks for reporting anyway.

[Sosage]

Bumping this up because...well...I am still interested in this and I haven't heard anything lately. I'm pretty sure I am not the only one. It also looks like they have a small update (http://www.piersolar.com/pier-solar-news.php).

[MachineGex]

I really wish they would give a real update instead of just saying things are really moving along and we are wrapping up things. I understand this is a huge under-taking, but since everyone has been waiting so long, a real update is needed.

This isnt meant as a knock on anyone, but I do believe the customers deserve to know some sort of timeline. Are we looking at a few weeks, a few months, or is it so far out, they really have no idea?

[grolt]

-_-

I gave up reading those updates a few months ago. I've got mine pre-ordered but I can wait to make sure they do it right. My guess? December 2009 if we're lucky. For a game that big I'm sure testing will open up a whole other can of worms.

[tomaitheous]

I really wish they would give a real update instead of just saying things are really moving along and we are wrapping up things. I understand this is a huge under-taking, but since everyone has been waiting so long, a real update is needed.

This isnt meant as a knock on anyone, but I do believe the customers deserve to know some sort of timeline. Are we looking at a few weeks, a few months, or is it so far out, they really have no idea?

An update of what? Internal affairs and/or debugging related stuff? You don't report stuff like that (it doesn't look good or sit well with customers). Cut them a bit of slack. They're not giving a date because estimations aren't that easy. I think they've already gotten some flack for putting out a timeline/date and not meeting it. This isn't their main job and can't work on it 24/7. I just hope the stress level of the team is pretty low (nothing sucks like stress and feeling the pressure of customers, and people holding you to *estimated* time frames).

[megasdkirby]

-_-

I gave up reading those updates a few months ago. I've got mine pre-ordered but I can wait to make sure they do it right. My guess? December 2009 if we're lucky. For a game that big I'm sure testing will open up a whole other can of worms.

Aye, I thought so too. Or June/July 2010.

Just as long as it's released, then I'm happy. :)

[Zebbe]

We don't have any big update to share with you, that's why there isn't one. And as said, we don't want to make the same mistake a third time, so that's why we don't have a timeline or anything, but yes, we are looking at "months". Those little updates is all we have at the moment, and as you may feel they may not be much, but to us better than keeping silent month after month.

Once again, thank you for your support. The most important thing to us is to make a great game, rather than handing it out as fast as possible. As Miyamoto said: "A delayed game is eventually good. A bad game is bad forever".

[MachineGex]

.... so that's why we don't have a timeline or anything, but yes, we are looking at "months".

Thanks. I just wanted to know if it was close to coming out or not. The whole spring refund/release thing had a few people confussed. I appreciate how much work it is and I really appreciate letting me know it is at least a few months away. Thats all I really wanted to know. I was growing tired looking for an update to see when a date was going to come. Now I at least know to stop looking for a few months.

Thanks again and best of luck wrapping everything up!

[RASK1904]

Man it's has been a while. So long in fact I forgot the name and had to go digging. Pier Solar.... ah. Man those screen shots look good. Kinda Secret of Mana ish. You should put up a few more screen shots. They don't give too much away. Maybe before and after kinda shots. Keep up the good work.

[Wolfrider]

We've done a few of those before, but maintaining the news updates has taken a backseat to getting the game finished. We're doing a big push this month so hopefully we'll have some good news soon. Things are going really well though. :)

[mobiusclimber]

Was hoping to play it for the Genesis Anniversary, after that passed, was hoping to have it for my birthday (Sept. 28th). Now I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed for a nice Christmas present, but whenever it gets released will be fine so long as the game's good. :) The Genesis seems to be the only console to see new RPG releases (whether they're translated versions of old games or completely new). Kind of a shame the NES, Dreamcast or Turbo Grafx CD hasn't seen any RPGs, but the Genesis has a special place in my heart for being the first console I ever owned, so I guess it's fitting.

Thanks for making this game, it looks really good so far. I can't wait to play it. :D

[grolt]

Glad to see it looks like you guys are making some major progress. Can't wait to play it. When the day does come that it is released it'll be a pretty monumental moment for retrogaming, I think. It'll be a surreal one, at any rate!

I've been a good boy this year, so here's hoping for Christmas.

[neotokeo2001]

I have moved twice since I preordered this. How do I change my shipping address so it goes to the right place? Will an e-mail be sent before the game ships?

[Zebbe]

Will an e-mail be sent before the game ships?

Yes, everyone will get an email which asks for an address confirmation.

[coinheaven]

is this game ever coming out? i preordered a long time ago and am getting tired of waiting:

http://www.piersolar.com/

[portnoyd]

This thread would like to have a word with you.

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=106548

[calthaer]

In before lock!

EDIT: Dangit...the post was merged, not locked...I will have to try harder next time. I am not doing so well at this game.

[otaku]

yeah I've been waiting for ever as well its frustrating starting to feel ripped off...

[Daria]

Indie Games take forever to develop! News at 11:00.


That said I haven't preordered yet. I want it. I will get it. I was just waiting until the release was looking a little more concrete.

[otaku]

yes getting it by christmas perhaps wrapped :) would be nice.

[RASK1904]

yeah I was thinking about asking straight out:

Are we going to see it for X-mas?

No is ok. Maybe is too. I'd just rather not get my/everyones hopes up. Take as much time as needed. Just thought any answer would be better that people building this up.

[MetalFRO]

Wow, this looks excellent. I'm not a huge RPG fan, but this would be a must-buy for Sega CD.

[MASTERWEEDO]

I've been waiting on this since it was just "Tavern RPG" it made me want to develop for the Genesis, but that was many years ago, and seeing how long this is taking..........it doenst look like a process I'd like to involve myself with. Hope the game hits soon, it looks great.

[Zebbe]

We are still working on it more than ever and a news update coming soon will tell you more about it. There is nothing about a release date to be revealed though. However, as some of you may know, we have already a set production run and the European version is sold out even before the release. The same thing might happen with the US/JP versions so it's not fully safe to wait for the release date to get a copy. But, we will definitely, most likely make Pier Solar available (in some way or form, not like this one I guess) in the future after all runs are sold out, but we have no plans for that *atm* and even if I say it is almost certain, it is not a promise.

The game keeps getting better and better and closer and closer to being finished. Thank you all once again for your support, I promise this will be something extraordinary!

[Melf]

The latest update doesn't make it sound like the game will ship before 2010. Possible?

[Zebbe]

Yes, it is possible, but I honestly don't know. I'm not the best at estimating things, and there are so much to take in consideration here: what's left to do, the testing, production, our free time, if something comes in our way like has happened several times already etc.

[Damaramu]

That said I haven't preordered yet. I want it. I will get it. I was just waiting until the release was looking a little more concrete.

Ding ding! Ditto. It looks fantastic and I'd like to get the Sega CD version. :pimp:

[Zebbe]

There won't be a Sega CD version, but you will be able to use a CD in your Sega CD with the Genesis version to have a PCM soundtrack and some ambient effects. Also beware that we have a set production run that as of today won't be produced again. The European version has already sold out and it looks like the other two will do it too before the release.

[Wolfrider31]

Been a while since we updated this but our final beta candidate is ready. All we have left to do is some tuning, implementation of a few assets and dropping in our translated script. And bug fixing. Oh lordy.

All the details can be found at www.piersolar.com

BTW: The date of the post is wrong. Dunno why.

[Hwj_Chim]

This is good news! I am glad to see this is progressing well.

[pseudonym]

Good news, I preordered last year, it's good to see this is still coming along well.

[dairugger]

[QUOTE=Zebbe;1616847]There won't be a Sega CD version, but you will be able to use a CD in your Sega CD with the Genesis version to have a PCM soundtrack and some ambient effects. QUOTE]

How does that work?

[Mason P.]

i hope this thing comes out soon. I know they are working hard, but this is taking a little longer than it should. I thought it was suppossed to come out last Christmas.