A very personal milestone

Hello everyone, this is waldrumpus!

Today, I'd like to report the progress made on the localization of Tingle's Love Balloon Trip in the last few months. This announcement is pretty emotional for me, so you maybe want to get out those handkerchiefs, you know, just in case.

When I joined this project in August 2014, I started playing the game from the beginning. The goal was to try and localize everything I encounter on a straight path through the game. After that one quick playthrough, get to the rest of the material.

Well, it turned out that this "quick playthrough" took a lot longer than expected. Working on the project mostly on the weekends, progress was very - sometimes dishearteningly - slow. On the other hand, this way of doing things had some benefits, as seeing the lines in the context of the game makes them so much easier to understand than just freely floating in a text file. On top of that, although it was slow going, playing through the game in a linear fashion provided a way of measuring how far I'd come, and eventually a light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel effect.

I could use some of that

Today I'm pleased to announce that the playthrough has been completed, almost exactly one year after it's been started. This is a huge motivational boost for me, and I vow to redouble my efforts to get this game localized! (disclaimer: efforts may or may not be redoubled. actual results may vary)

Steady progress has been made throughout this time, and we're now at an estimated 35% completion of the entire game script (woot). Furthermore, some of the other team members are working on localizing the graphics that need it, such as signs, buttons, the title screen, etc.

Thanks for sticking with me through this rather lengthy post; but as I said, it's packed with emotion, and I hope to have transferred some of the optimism I'm feeling today to you.

See you next update, be safe and be awesome!