The web statistics for blossomsoft.com reveal that a large amount of gamers want to be informed about Eternal Eden New Game Plus and the character Downey. The most searched key phrases are:

• eternal eden new game plus
• downey eternal eden
• eternal eden plus
• eternal eden downey
• eternal eden game plus

As I stated earlier in random articles this expansion has been cancelled. It’s mostly due to lack of time and problems that occurred with EE1.

Fortunately for everyone the fate of Downey will go on in the third or fourth episode of Dream Venturos. It’s going to be a standalone episode, thus not obligating fans to purchase other episodes to play this one.

So, any idea what happened to Downey? ;)

Would you like to play a full remake of Eternal Eden set in a 3D environment? Would you like to revive this experience differently? Let’s say on a different platform such Nintendo DS or Wii?

The following anecdote is my humble success story following the release of Eternal Eden. This story is similar to what other aspirants like Amanda Fitch and Damien Aldorlea lived.

Eternal Eden was released on my website on December 11 2008 and was ready for sale for other affiliates a few days before the Christmas rush. I was extremely nervous. The moment of truth had finally arrived; it was the decisive time to know whether Eternal Eden was a successful project or a failure.

My heart was racing hard and fast in my chest. Heck, I invested a total of 3500 hours non-stop with hardly any day off during a period of seven months on the game. It represents two years of work condensed in less than a year. Furthermore I was jobless and I went hungry during the final phase. My moral was terribly exhausted and my body was without energy. So, the last thing I wanted was to fail.

My intuition told me to relax. Everything was going to be fine. After all the 11:11 phenomenon kept promting regularly in my life at that precise period of my existence. It’s as if the universe watched over me and guaranteed that my efforts would be rewarded. It made me feel secure.

BUT… HORROR!

No sale was appearing in my Plimus account during the first days! The only money I got was from my Paypal account thanks to my initial Fan Release on December 11. It was something like 200 bucks.

Seeing Plimus with zero activity was killing my hopes. Apparently no one was interested in my game! I felt like a complete retard for having been such an optimistic fool. Silly me, I believed in all those other success stories in vain… none of the incredible stories I heard was happening to me! I slaved on Eternal Eden for absolutely nothing. The 11:11 phenomenon had misled me. I lived in delusion. I ruined 3500 hours of my life simply to fail.

I didn’t sleep very well for a couple of days. My dreams consisted mainly of disjointed nightmares. I was demoralized with my career and it was out of question that I attempt any other project – not after living this failure. This project was my sole stimulus to give a purpose to my life… I was about to throw in the sponge.

ALWAYS KEEP FAITH!

Finally, on the morning of Christmas Eve I awoke from a tormented sleep, dejected. I opened Outlook Express mechanically to watch my new messages. At this moment my mailbox was flooded with tons of entries. Over 250 new emails. Damn, I hate spam! I was certain I blocked every one of them! Grrrr!

EXCEPT…!

Those messages weren’t unsolicited bulk emails. Their subject was marked with ‘New Order for 1 license of Eternal Eden’. Each email was representing a sale of my game! Holy cow!

In a hurry I logged in my Plimus account and I discovered a total of approx 5000 USD !

Wow! Amazing! Unbelievable!

What happened exactly? In reality, the approval process performed by Plimus was delayed due to technical problems. I was a new seller without reputation, you see, and they needed to call every new buyer to confirm their purchase. It’s a procedure against fraud. Furthermore, the employees at Plimus were in rush due to the holidays. It explained why I couldn’t perceive any sale for several days. During all this time I was convinced that I was living a failure story, but in fact a success story was happening on another parallel and invisible interstate (11?) of Fate.

To conclude, it’s always important to hang on. No matter what. I learned a lot from this experience. Success stories DO exist. They aren’t make-believe. If I’m relating my story to you it’s because success stories belong to everyone and if you’re reading this I hope my words are inspiring you :) Keep believing in your potential and trust in an existence filled with optimism – even when you’re convinced of the contrary.

I lived one of the most beautiful Christmas Eve of my life! I will not forget it!

It’s the last day of 2008!

Looking back behind me, this whole year definitely prove to be a fantastic and brilliant achievement! I really feel great and very proud of myself after overcoming this tough challenge :D

My resolutions during 2008 helped me to reach my goal:
- Quit my freelance job (even if starving)
- Focus 100% on Eternal Eden and complete it
- Build a fanbase that will share my tastes as a developer
- Always keep an optimistic attitude.
- Surround myself with positive people.
- Stay away from pessimist people.
- Create my reality with my standards.
- Aim large incomes that help me to focus on my dream.
- Enjoy every moment as a developer.

My resolutions truly proved handy. It’s hard to believe it, but I’ve done it!

Heck, when I clearly think about it, how couldn’t I esteem myself lucky to be surrounded by so wonderful followers?! It’s thanks to your moral support I could make it. You supported me every time when I was dispirited, you trusted in me and this trust boosted me with positive energies. You’ve also supported me when I was hungry and weak. You are the real heroes of this challenge!

You can definitely count on me to make other games!

This is the end of the year, and this time I truly intend this article to be the final one regarding Eternal Eden.

Thank you so much!

This adventure was a memorable one!

P.S. Let’s this last article be some kind of guest book, I would truly appreciate every reader to drop a final comment! :D

Eternal Eden conversion rate rose to 10.5%. The impact of this game is truly astonishing. Fan base is getting larger, and everyone enjoy the game.

Neal Chandran wrote a very interesting article about RPGmaker. He removed all the words from my mouth:
http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2008/1558.html

Neal is in the 30s like me. He knows a lot about games, he grew up with them. Last year he retired from RPGFan but decided to write articles as a contributor when he feels the need. So I am very grateful that he took some time to play Eternal Eden and understand the true essence behind it.

RPGLand are also reviewing Eternal Eden. Josept Wartick is another great guy that know the value of old-school games.

My customer service folder in my email account has over 500 emails. It was quite a job to answer them, but it’s always pleasant to help people with a game they bought from you.

I’ve spotted EE on many warez and torrent websites. It was to be expected, and I don’t really want to fight against it. Well, how can I explain it? …it’s hard for me to feel any bad feelings about this underground system. I think torrents are nice for people that are really really poor. Poverty can seems like an endless landscape of shit in someone’s life sometimes, and in such case, torrents can be the only ray of light to make life pleasant despite money issues (I’m speaking with experience!). Of course, some people have a lot of money and will probably download the game anyway, in this case I hope they’ll give it a second thought.

It’s quite ironic that I’m still in my hungry state! I haven’t eaten during the last two days. It wasn’t an easy Christmas on my side with my empty belly. At least, it’s the very last time!

A wonderful review made by RPG adepts. It’s the very first review of my life, so it touches me on a personal level :D

Enjoy your reading as Neal Chandran is a very passionate writer for RPGs.

http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/Eternal_Eden/index.html

9/10 is fantastic :D especially because I expected 7/10. At school my grades were rarely higher than 30% (because I spent my energy on my NES and SNES), it also explains why I never finished high school too lol, so 9/10 is my first real trophy and a very pleasant sensation…!

What a great thing! Traffic quadrupled on my website. As a result the conversion rate of Eternal Eden is getting very nice. People simply try the demo and then they want to play more. Very encouraging! It proves that I’ve succeeded to design a game with many appeal factors.

My timing isn’t perfectly synchronized with the holidays, but I’m doing my best to deal with the current situations.

This phase is a little stressful, but it’s also mixed with excitement and joy. I’m keeping my enthusiasm even if sometimes, like this morning, I get alarmed and frightened. After all, the first transactions with Plimus took ages to proceed. I watched my account every ten minutes, impatient, worried. During all this time I thought I was making 0 sales!!! In reality, my sales were just on hold. Plimus was handling manually the first transactions for security measures. But now they informed me it’s going to be a lot faster.

I’m working with eight hands! My time is split with several tasks. However I wrote a list of things to do and I marked them with priority numbers. Even if things aren’t flawless, it’s progressing.

I hoped to have the whole Blossomsoft’s website ready, but finally I had to set the strict minimum because of an unexpected bug with EE. I will come back shortly with the website, make the structure more solid, add more information about the company and the next projects, etc. More importantly implement an affiliate system on a special page, probably called ‘store’.

The bug in question is a little pissing. Apparently the game crashes on a few machines using Windows Vista. This bug appeared only recently. With the support of testers and friends using Vista, we’re trying to isolate the problem with a series of tests. From the people downloading the game, 12% are using Vista, and 10% of this percentage might have this bug. However it’s something we want to solve. We’re almost there.

This is a part of the challenge, a defy I fully agreed to take on my shoulders. And luckily, even if there are still painful times, I’m seeing optimistic results, a reward that I’m already touching with my hands :)

Again, I received a huge amount of help from many people on my path. These people keep helping me to believe in positive results, and they are making their absolute possible to help me reach my dream.

Press releases and publicity are currently done. I’m contacting a lot of affiliates, (some are finding their way to me), and talking with a lot of journalist to talk about EE.

I’m still very glad with the comments on the game. People who took time to try the demo wasn’t disapointed.

My dream is currently turning true. I’m living it! This is amazing :D

Thank you for reading! Sorry for the syntax, I wrote this article in less than ten minutes before heading to bed.

Good night ! (even if my alarm clock is showing 8:44 AM)

EDIT:
It’s your last chance to take part in this fun activity.

What is it all about?

Well, in Eternal Eden, there is a special hidden room dedicated to the supporters of this project. Anyone who have been reading this blog or donated can take part in this fun feature.

Context: Noah and his friends are about to challenge the final boss [the room can be found at this moment]. It’s going to be a very tough battle! Just like me, Noah love to feel the trust of people surrounding him to feel stronger. Each of you has the opportunity to give your words of encouragement to Noah, which will grant extra power stats to Noah and his friends inside the game.

Here’s a good example of how it works:

Nick Shea: “Noah, you’re almost there. You’ve arrived at your final destination. You’ve gone through many trials and proven yourself worth, as we all knew you would. Noah, you’re the only hope for this world, so go out there and show everyone the power of your resolve!”

+200HP, +5Atk, you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Write anything that pop on your mind, related to Eternal Eden, or anything else you want said in the game. Can be a paragraph long. So your memoirs will be part of my first game! :D

Noah is counting on you!

If you wish to be added in the staff roll as ‘Special thanks’, please write your name in this section. Every follower of this project will be added.

YOU have to be in my skin to understand the artistic meaning of this collage in this post lol

I haven’t eaten anything for days…!

Trust me my next meal is going to be cherished as if the most beautiful day of my life!

Do yourself a favor: realize how lucky you are to eat something at this current moment! Eating is one of the most precious pleasures in this world – even junk food!

Boy! I can’t wait to sell Eternal Eden! This development seems endless…! I’m hungry!

Now, please, enjoy my little collection of future yummy purchases: