Whisper of a Rose

[JamiSings]

I just posted a new article on this subject.

http://www.blossomsoft.com/gamezopher/

Eh. People, glass houses, stones, etc...

The Vista incompatibility bug for Eternal Eden (which was fatal since it prevented the game from being played) that you didn't know about because you didn't test it on Vista (which was the current shipping OS for Windows based systems when EE was released) was a fairly major mistake as well.

BIG difference. There's a lot of cut scenes that were not put in before release. There's tons of minor bugs - like I'll go up the stairs and find myself stuck in a wall and in one case, did manage to get upstairs, went downstairs and found myself in a completely different house. Also the fact he seems to refuse to put out a walk through. I'm sorry but he's the developer. He could easily give us even just a very basic walk through of where to go and in what order to do things. Who better? That's just poor customer service. None of the patches are currently downloadable and there's no explanation why.

With EE if there's a problem Elder is right on top of it trying to make people happy. This guy doesn't seem to care about anything then putting the game out as quickly as possible to get money. At least, that's how it seems since he was willing to release an obviously unfinished and untested game.

[kath427]

I too think there is a big difference between a bug here and there to a game fully loaded with them. I bought this game in good faith and have not been able to play it long enough to enjoy it. I feel I have every right to express how I feel about it as it was my hard earned money.

[Paralel]

I just posted a new article on this subject.

http://www.blossomsoft.com/gamezopher/

Eh. People, glass houses, stones, etc...

The Vista incompatibility bug for Eternal Eden (which was fatal since it prevented the game from being played) that you didn't know about because you didn't test it on Vista (which was the current shipping OS for Windows based systems when EE was released) was a fairly major mistake as well.

Hey Parallel!

The fact is a little wrong here, Eternal Eden was fully tested under Windows XP and Windows Vista during the development. This bug was very subtle and couldn't be perceived before a special circumstance was met (it's to say that I couldn't know it before it was sold). The bug is a conflict between Windows Vista and the DRM wrapping, not Windows Vista alone. I've even made a fan release to test the selling phase, and this bug went undetected. Let's note that this bug wasn't occuring to everyone using Vista, me included. So it made it thorny to detect before sales. As an alternative, a compatible version (without the DRM wrapping) was shipped to people running Vista, thus no one was offended as the problem was immediately resolved when support was asked. I think 99% of the customers were satisfied with the customer service, even with the Vista Crash included. Since the beginning I received only two major complaints (one of them is a member that wrote a review on gamespot.com)

Anyway, I'm not trying to level myself above any other developer, I hope I’m not giving this impression… I'm not throwing stones at anyone, I'm just trying to inform future developers of the gravity of this situation as many tend to skip the beta testing phase because they think it's not so important. I’m regularly chatting with many new developers and I can confirm that they don’t see the interest of beta-testing when I try to persuade them to take more time before releasing their game. Beta testing is when a product is finished and is being tested as a final step before release.

If you remember well, Eternal Eden was finished during September, but was delayed until december to make sure it would be as clean as possible.

As I said, unexpected bugs can happen, no one can foretell every one of them, but a distinction must be done between someone who completely skipped the beta testing phase and someone who just couldn't see a bug because it was out of sight.

Aveyond and 3 Stars of Destiny are two examples of games that have been tested properly before being released. They weren't totally bug-free, but they could be played.

Not beta testing is unacceptable. Anyone that thinks not beta testing is acceptable either has no understanding of software development or just shouldn't be developing software in the first place. That can only be described as a lack of a fundamental understanding of how software is created. If I found out a buggy piece of software had no beta testing I would be doing a chargeback to my credit card and starting a dontbuythisproduct.com website and blog.

As far as Aveyond being ready before being released I would have to disagree. Version A, the very first version which was released to game portals, had terribly holes in it's story, incomplete dialogue, and several game breaking bugs related to the various modes of locomotion and environments. I got 1/2 way through Version A of Aveyond and actually uninstalled the game because I thought it totally sucked. Version B fixed nearly all of those problems and could actually be considered a complete and playable version of the game.

What can I say? I'm a harsh, but I believe fair, critic.

As far as EE is concerned, and the size of the team involved, all the bugs were handled very well. I think the handling of bugs for EE should be a case example for all other small developers of how it should be done.

[Zemba]

Both my games had no bug at all when released.

[Elder]

Anyway, Whisper of a Rose is AJ's first experience, I hope he will overcome this situation without too much pain. I especially hope he's doing well, we never know how a young teenager can feel psychologically in a situation like this... Let's remind ourselves that mistakes can happen, especially for a 18 years old teenager. He had courage to develop and sell a game, now let's pray experience will guide him in a better direction. If he keep making games with his brilliant imagination, he will become a great game designer when he get older.

I think AJ can need words of encouragement on his forum, and know that we all want to play his game and wait until it's done.

Both my games had no bug at all when released.

Then it means that you're our RPG guru!

[Zemba]

No, no, I'm far from being perfect.... but beta-testing is something I approach with extreme care. That doesn't prevent making mistakes but at least you are sure to give your best.

[Elder]

No, no, I'm far from being perfect.... but beta-testing is something I approach with extreme care. That doesn't prevent making mistakes but at least you are sure to give your best.

Stop being humble Zemba you are perfect! But just a degree under my perfection

[Zemba]

XD

Perfectly over-the-top, yeah.

[JamiSings]

What upsets me is his kind of "do it yourself" attitude in regards to maps and walk throughs. This is called poor customer service.

And frankly, I'm not cutting him any slack for "being only 18." Even a 13 year old knows better. If only from the experiences of playing with buggy games themselves.

I don't know if any of you remember this, but not long after the release of the first LOTR movie Nintendo released a "Fellowship" game for Nintendo SP. The problem was they didn't do a very good job and every single copy of the game that went out had a major bug to where you could not play the game once you got to Mount Moria. Loads of people were upset. Some had found that they could beat the bug with a Gameshark but the code did not work for all.

He's old enough to have been around for that experience and had to have heard about it if not had it himself. Which should've taught him that you need to test and retest your games before releasing them, even if it means being late in turning them out.

It's sad because this has the potential to be a really fun game. But by rights it shouldn't have been released until it was well and truly finished. And at the very least he could offer either a partial refund or a couple good for half off his next release.

[Elder]

I have posted on his forum (under blackthirteen's username):

http://www.roseportalgames.com/phpBB3/v ... p=877#p877

I know how frustrating this can be, but let's try to be patient as allow Arend-Jan some time to fix the problems. He is certainly as disapointed as everyone about the circumstances.

What upsets me is his kind of "do it yourself" attitude in regards to maps and walk throughs. This is called poor customer service.

Even if I helped with the maps of Eternal Eden, most of them has been created by fans. I don't know about his attitude though, there is a always a polite way to say "sorry, but we don't have any maps ready yet, but we're hoping that dedicated fans will help us to provide them."

[JamiSings]

Even if I helped with the maps of Eternal Eden, most of them has been created by fans. I don't know about his attitude though, there is a always a polite way to say "sorry, but we don't have any maps ready yet, but we're hoping that dedicated fans will help us to provide them."

But being the one who made EE, you know in which order things need to be done. And that at the very least he could give us. Like "Find the butterfly queen first before you go to Valentown" or what have you.

[JamiSings]

I normally do not post after myself, but since I am looking for help and don't know how long it'll take for someone to notice an edit.... and I can't seem to get help over on Rose Portal. Probably because every time one goes to post a reply you get a screen that says "fatal error." (Though my posts still go through.)

I decided to play as much of the game as I can. Mainly finishing up the Sweet Tower quest then holding off until the new version is released for the rest. However I don't know what to do in the tower.

There's torches that I lit, but that didn't seem to do anything. There's a boulder you can push through the holes but you can't get it to the floor you first enter on because the floor above it does not have a hole, just a crack you cannot make bigger as far as I can tell. There's gates I cannot open no matter how many times I hit the switch.

Basically, what the heck do I do to proceed?

[Elder]

Hello JamiSings, I doubt you will receive support on this forum as there are not enough people that played Whisper of a Rose. The best place for hints is definitely RosePortal.

[kath427]

If you can get on the forum! I keep getting web page not found when I try to get on the site. I hope this is just a temporary thing!

[JamiSings]

Hello JamiSings, I doubt you will receive support on this forum as there are not enough people that played Whisper of a Rose. The best place for hints is definitely RosePortal.

As I said, I'm not getting help over there. Every time I go to post something I get a "fatal error" message. So right now no one's posting diddly squat. I figured some of us who have the game must be here.

[Elder]

Strangely enough, I've only sold 3 copies of Whisper of a Rose via this forum... That's why I didn't expect many members to have played this game here. I sold many more copies 3 Stars of Destiny, even Dark Souls sold better for me.

That's sad but at least you still can count on Amaranth Games, Aldorlea and Blossomsoft to receive proper support when our next games will be released.

Have you tried Dark Souls? I haven't heard bad stories from this recent development, and many people seemed to love this game even if it wasn't as 'friendly' as other RPGs.

[kath427]

Right now I am playing Laxius Force. Love it! And NO problems!

[JamiSings]

No I haven't tried DS yet. I might later on. Or 3 Stars.

[Elder]

3 Stars of Destiny is pretty popular and well loved.

[roseacoco]

hey, could someone tell me when the next update is over? 'cos ive tried the demo, and its really good, and I would like to buy it asap !

[Violett_Duskwood]

i have the version 1.03 of whisper of a rose, but when i play, after mysty hills i end up in ocean! i heard there is a patch for that, but it seems i can't find it anywhere. can somebody post it to me on kat1902@gmail.com?
thanks

[aislingyngaio]

Anyone knows what happened to Rose Portal Games? The site just... vanished

[Elder]

Anyone knows what happened to Rose Portal Games? The site just... vanished

It vanished some time ago. It's hard to say if it's going to be released or not. The last time I talked with the responsible (1 month ago?) he seemed to say his game would be released during august.

[Paralel]

It almost seems like some kind of scam at this point...

[windbneathwings]

It almost seems like some kind of scam at this point...

it does not "seem" to be some kind of scam, it IS a scam. (but if you guys got refund back after asking for it, then it isn't. and, by the way, has anyone ever asked?)

after faithfully waited for the fix(es) to be released from the creator, the website/forum just...you know...died on me. i don't care about the waiting period that we have so that the creator needed in order to fix the game, but--once in a while--the update would be nice. but the update pretty much stopped in the middle of june and followed by the forum being not found. right now i have half a mind whether or not to uninstall the game since i do not want to keep the unused game on my computer.

to tell you the truth, at this point i kind of lose faith in the indie rpg games that keep popping up. now i have aveyond 3.1-2 and i don't even want to finish this game (partly because the start of the school year) and i used to be rpg enthusiast.