Every 2-3 months?

[Sir Perceval of Daventry]

I thought that the episodes were going to be released every 2-3 months?
It's been around 5 months since Episode 3....It was released in February if I recall correctly.

[DawsonJ]

Well, this is a double-episode. It was supposed to be Eps 4 & 5, but they were merged, so now we wait twice as long. It's all good!

[Sir Perceval of Daventry]

Well, this is a double-episode. It was supposed to be Eps 4 & 5, but they were merged, so now we wait twice as long. It's all good!

Why not just delay it another ten years? Then it could even be more dark, gritty, realistic and epic! Hell, milk the TSL publicity as being the "official/unofficial" sequel for as LONG AS POSSIBLE.

[Cez]

That was the original idea. However, we had the chance to do some work with Jane Jensen that delayed our original plans. Our goal is to become a commercial company and that was an opportunity we could not pass on. That's not to say we are currently working on a game by Jane Jensen, we are just exploring ideas with her.

But rest assure Episode 4 has become our priority once again while other projects get more concrete, and that will see its release in the next couple of months.

It's hard to balance what is our hobby project with what will become what will pay our bills, but we are doing our best. Thanks for understanding.

Cez

[Haids1987]

EDIT: My apologies for the rude post that was previously here.  I'm in a bad mood and shouldn't post while pissed.

[wilco64256]

EDIT: My apologies for the rude post that was previously here.  I'm in a bad mood and shouldn't post while pissed.

Are you kidding?  Those are the best kind of posts!

But yes we had to make some internal adjustments as we started getting ourselves organized for doing some commercial stuff.  Anybody who's ever done something for free and then tried to do the same type of thing for money will tell you that it has to be handled entirely differently and we've been doing a lot to get our own internal structure working more efficiently and have started to lay the groundwork for commercial efforts.  There will be more updates about everything before too much longer and hopefully we'll even have some stuff to help folks pass the time pretty soon here too.

Episode 4 is very important to us and a lot of work is being done on it.  We haven't announced any kind of release date as of yet because we want to make sure we give ourselves plenty of time to get it totally finished and get all the bugs found and worked out of the system.  We rushed things a bit with Episode 3 and weren't very happy with some of the problems that people encountered as a result, and we have no interest in repeating that experience.

[KatieHal]

I really wish I'd seen your original post now, Haids!

[glottal]

However, we had the chance to do some work with Jane Jensen that delayed our original plans. Our goal is to become a commercial company and that was an opportunity we could not pass on. That's not to say we are currently working on a game by Jane Jensen, we are just exploring ideas with her.

This is so tantalising, yet so vague, that my curiosity has been fully roused.  It's getting up now; in fact, it's about to go on a full rampage in Phoenix Online, crushing anything that lies in its path.  I suggest you duck.

  There will be more updates about everything before too much longer and hopefully we'll even have some stuff to help folks pass the time pretty soon here too.

Good, because until those updates come, my curiosity will probably keep on rampaging through Phoenix Online.

[Haids1987]

I really wish I'd seen your original post now, Haids!

It wasn't too exciting, really.  I only changed it because I feel bad going off on people here.

[darthkiwi]

I say, finish it when it's done. PoS tried to rush things with episode 3, which was understandable as you didn't want to let people down and you'd said you were aiming for a particular date, but it was definitely the buggiest episode and I think in the long run people were less happy. Take your time: Episode 4 will be released eventually, but I think if you need to set up financial/business things then that should probably take priority. If you can get PoS into a position to be a viable, solvent developer then that'll be a huge, huge step.

That was the original idea. However, we had the chance to do some work with Jane Jensen that delayed our original plans. Our goal is to become a commercial company and that was an opportunity we could not pass on. That's not to say we are currently working on a game by Jane Jensen, we are just exploring ideas with her.

I am intrigued. Let us know how this turns out!

[snabbott]

The 2-3 months thing was always just a general estimate. Getting the crashes figured out is a top priority, and there is a lot of development work to be done for this episode. It will be done when it is done.

If you can get PoS into a position to be a viable, solvent developer then that'll be a huge, huge step.

POS is going to develop solvents? Maybe I can put my chemistry degree to use!

[Blackthorne]

If anyone knows how long it can take to work on a free game, it's me. 

It'll be out when it's out.  Patience.


Bt

[wilco64256]

Yeah not giving a date until you're ready lets the developers be more patient with their own work too which is extremely important.  When you rush your team then you just create more problems than you solve.  We're still pushing forward at a solid pace on this but we're also making sure to give ourselves plenty of time to smooth everything out to make this episode both fun and stable.

[Arkillian]

And when you rush it you get a buggy game. I think we agree that we don't want a buggy game :nods:

[Haids1987]

Nooooooo!  Not grid bugs!

[LightWarrior]

If it helps besides what Cesar is saying, I'm currently on around 4-5 animation assignments at once here.

So we are busting our butts when we can. We are all quite the busy bees internally.

[dark-daventry]

we're so busy I got a promotion of sorts; in addition to being a PR rep and the Mac OS X beta tester, I'm now also the assistant production coordinator. we're so busy that we needed someone else to help manage everything, and I stepped up to the plate. I really am a jack of all trades, but master of none... I mean, I do three completely different things for phoenix at once, I work in a grocery store in which I've been trained in all but three departments (and my training is on-going; I'm training to do Health and beauty care next week, and the week after im going to learn how to receive), and I work for Gamestop... jeez, where did my social life go?

[waltzdancing]

And you are helping me out a bunch! We are working extremely hard and the work tempo is high. This episode is a monster, much bigger than episode 3, in my opinion and people are working really hard. Everything is falling into place. Thank you for being so patient.

[dark-daventry]

yeah, episode 4 is gonna be awesome. nuff said.

[snabbott]

I just fixed my first bug.