RPGamer - Letters for June 14, 2000

THE CRAVE GAMING CHANNEL

· Home
· PAX East 2013
· Games
· Features
· News
· Indie Submissions
· Release Dates
· Chat
· Message Forums
· Staff Bios
· Feedback
· Jobs Listing

· Q&A
· Currents
· Editorials
· Fan Art
· Japandemonium
· MMORPGamer
· Sound Test
· Saving Throw
· Reviews
· RPG Backtrack
· RPG Sanctum
· RPGCast

RSS feed

iTunes

Affiliates

Ask Google

Drawing a blank

Googleshng - June 14 '00- 1:00 Eastern Daylight Time

I can't remember anything I did yesterday. I know I spent the whole day being extremely productive, but I don't seem to have anything to show for it. Oh yeah! NOW I remember what I did yesterday! I got the other people working on my game excited about it again! It's entirely possible that I can have a Mac beta ready within a month... although I still can't hand you any screen shots, because the graphics engine is going through a MAJOR overhaul right now. Anyway, I WAS going to have an extra special surprise guest host for you all tomorrow, waited all night for him to show up, which is why this is going up in the morning by the way, but I didn't hear anything from him. So, hopefully, NEXT week there will be a very special guest host. Anyway, LoM on Friday, so I CAN answer questions about it on Monday. You can hold out right?

Any non-LoM questions?

Ask Googleshng
I'll have it soon.

Recent Q&A's

06-13-00
06-12-00
06-11-00
06-10-00
06-09-00

The Old stuff

The Archives

Draw Me!

Fan Googles

How do you pronounce...?

Listen

In the PSX:

Square Demo Disk
Want Chrono Cross!

Mythology Time!

Hey Goog,

Just a quick correction on the "Bahamut" thing. Bahamut is the king of the dragons in Norse mythology. Square seems to like Norse mythology above all (at least in the earlier FF's). Good guess on the Persian mythology though ...

-Harwing

Googleshng:
Considering the number of letters that back up my theory, and the fact that I know a LOT about Norse mythology, are you sure you're not mixed up on that?

Better theory

I know your going to be deluged with answers to the query about the origins of Bahamut, but here goes...

The name Bahamut derives from the same root as the Hebrew creature Behemoth, from Mot, the Caanite god of the death and drought. However, at a later date the name Bahamut was applied to the mythical giant fish that supports Kjata, the donkey-like creature that supports the disk of the world (or some such order), a system that was borrowed from the Zoroastrians of Persia.

Still later in the Middle East, I believe in the Hellenistic Age (last 400 hundred years BC), Bahamut was the king of the "good" dragons who opposed Tiamat (from Sumerian mythology), queen of the "evil" dragons. This is where the association of Bahamut with dragons began. Still no word on "Megaflare" though.

- Arcanus Dominus

Googleshng:
Right. This is what the general opinion seems to be, and I think I might have heard it before too. Mystery solved.

Long one

Sorry about what your cat did to your computer. My demon cat likes to crawl on the ceiling, then drop down and try to claw people's eyes out. She's tried, but never been too successful.

Anyways, getting even more off topic, you mentioned recently that you live in a region named after Lyme disease. By process of elimination, accompanied by the fact that I know the region, I concluded that you live in Old Lyme, Connecticut. You see, I live in Guilford, your amiable distant neighbor, if I assume correctly. But, please, correct me if I'm wrong. A friendly "No, you insolent fool!" will suffice.

Here's an actual question: In your various sig pics, there is Japanese text underneath your email address at RPGamer. Out of sheer curiosity, what does it say in English? Can you, and will you, translate it to French? Latin?

I have another question, more on topic than the previous one, and other comments. Do you know, on average, how long it takes a company to develop a game from start to finish? I've wondered about this for quite some time, and I figured that if you were having a lack of questions, you could use this, despite the fact that I know it won't be printed.

One more thing; I've had some problems in surfing the RPGamer pages. My only conclusion is, unfortunately, the ads. Specifically, www2.efront.com and, at one point, nav.efront.com have been particularly slow and, oftentimes, not connectible, if you will. Thought I'd bring this to your attention. But, don't break your back to try and fix it. It's tolerable, for my 56k modem. Just, slightly irritating. I should probably get DSL. I really didn't mean to type this much. I'll stop.

Googleshng:
Lucifer doesn't try to scratch people's eyes out... although he did once rip my glasses off and fling them across the room. Mostly he just sinks his disproportionately large fangs into people's necks while they sleep. He's so cute.

You're close enough to nailing down where I live, and as for the katakana in my sig, it says Googleshng... or more accurately Guugureshingu. If you want that translated into Latin, I guess it would be Googleshngum... that's just odd. -us and -a also look odd there.

Finally, as for your REAL question, it varies widely. The shortest development time I ever heard of was something like 8 months, the longest, 5 years. I think 1 or 2 years is probably the average. The game I'm working on has taken me a bit over 4 years, but then I haven't been working round the clock or anything.

Release Dates

I was wondering about the release dates at Rpgamer for the upcoming Final Fantasies. I just preordered PSX2 and FF X. The site I ordered it off off said the release date was 11/02/2000 for FF X and FF XI. Your site said the release for FF XI was sometime in the future. And also why would Sony and Squaresoft release FF IX for Psx after PSX2 is released. It doesn't make any sense.

Googleshng:
Those are the dates Electronics Boutique lists for them. Not official dates. I like EB, I get all my games from them, but they push the PSX2 WAY TOO HARD. FF10 and 11 obviously won't come out on the same day. FF10 MIGHT be out some time in 2001, more likely late 2001. As for why FF9 is being released for the PSX, there's a lot of reasons. First of all, it's been in development longer than PSX2 dev kits have been available. Second, Practically everyone right now has a PSX. Not all that many have a PSX2. Plus there's the little thing about having 3 FFs per system. Since I'm on the subject of the PSX2 being overhyped, having seen first hand, I can chuckle over the irony that while the PSX2 has bigger numbers going for it, graphics on the Dreamcast look a whole lot better. You just can't have million poly count models without anti-aliasing. It looks nasty. Plus I hear it's as hard, if not harder than the Saturn to develop for. Then of course there's the lack of droolworthy launch titles too. 8)

Number 8 *BURP*

Goog,

Is it me or is EVERYTHING symbolizing the 8 elements? There are 8 types of monsters to ranch (aerial, aquatic, demonic, etc.), types of spells (fire, nature, etc.), types of weapons (flail, sword, axe, etc.), even seeds you plant (crooked:red, flat:white, etc.) and the fruit that comes from them (red seeds:red fruit, etc.). I see a pattern here, do you?

Thanks,
2nd Electric

Googleshng:
Well, 8's a cool number! It's 2^3. It's the number of fingers you have on each hand. It's the number of dirrections labeled on most compasses. It's the number of bits in a byte. So, yes, the LoM team uses it a lot. Good for them. Besides, yesterday someone said there were 11 weapon types.

More on LoM

I read about that idea that Monolithsoft's ProjectX would be a sequel to Xenogears. I thought that is kind of unlikely. I work as tech support at a gaming company that I will not disclose, and I had to sign an agreement that if I come up with any game ideas, they would belong to that company (unless I told them I was working on it seperately and pushed a few more pencils to save my legal butt.)

Anyways, I just thought I should say that Monolithsoft is probably not working on Xenogears2 or something like that. (Don't rule it out; SquareSoft might just pull another Xenogears game out of their hat)

--Sir Sanjiyan

Googleshng:
While it is true that generally speaking, the developer does not keep the rights to make sequels, Squaresoft is pretty laid back. Someone told me that the team who made the Bushido Blade games has left square, and are working on Bushido Blade 3 anyway. Besides, despite how much we all like it, Xenogears was a sleeper hit. It's not like the whole world is dying for a sequel.

Quickies

Does Legend of Mana have 2-player support like its' predecessors?

Yes. This was discussed yesterday.

Goog,
So I have a personal question for you... How is it that you have a cat and a computer, but not a credit card?
Puzzled

I don't have everything starting with C. I don't have cash, a collie, or Chrono Cross for example.

I beat LoM in 11hours and 15minutes. Do I get a tilde?

No. Go beat it again with the other character.

Escaflowne is overrated, just like Kenshin.

You know, this time last year I was one of the very few people who had seen it, now every seems to have. You can't deny it's great though.

What are you waiting for in the mail?

Why LoM of course!

I bet this person REALLY didn't expect me to print their letter! 8)

Perhaps you can help me. What is the meaning of "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec"? What language is it? Is it a sentence or four separate words? It must be something. But what is it?

Wow. You've been living in a DEEP cave. Wish I could do that. It's not any language. It's an anagram for Succession of Witches Love.

The Last Laugh:

Really wish my special guest host had shown up. Oh well. There's always next week. Tomorrow will just be a normal day... but the day after, I get LoM. WHEEEEEE!!!

Googleshng "Game Maker" @rpgamer.com
No I won't give you any screen shots! Quit begging!


	© 1998-2013 RPGamer All Rights Reserved
	Privacy Policy