Why has Development Stalled in the last 18 months?

[Tartar]

Having just finished Reborn after playing through the first 15 episodes I came to these forums in part to see when the next release was coming. And after having checked out the recent updates and looking through the archives I made this chart to find the time between the release of each episode:

And this made me wonder, what exactly happened around December 2014 to make the Episode updates slow down this drastically? The development time for the past episode and the one currently in development have after all taken as long as the development of the first 9 episodes combined.

Perhaps this is common knowledge around here, but I haven't really been able to find anything substantial on the matter, and I'm curious about what caused the change in development these past 18 months, because the added content in the past 2 episodes doesn't seem to be proportional to the added development time. Is it simply that the game has gotten a lot more ambitious and Ame has started putting higher expectations on herself, has Ame perhaps grown bored of the project or is something else to blame?

I'm curious... Perhaps those who have been on here for far longer than I and followed the development could shed some light on this matter?

Edited May 22, 2016 by Tartar

[Cool Girl]

I think Ame (the creator of Reborn) is just really busy. But, don't worry, it's still happening!

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

I know E16 is taking a really long time because

-remapping of the entire Reborn City + Apophyll and Azurine (done)

-custom attack animations (done)

-so many sidequests

-Ame has had health-related problems a few times through development

[dragoniteborntacoz]

as we saw briefly in ep 15 the city of reborn has been fixed and cleaned

so amythest has to recreate the whole city for ep 16 which is no small task

plus there are many areas we couldnt explore previously because we didnt have the right HMs and while some of those areas are already done not all are so she needs to complete those

and have you seen the latest field effect she created for ep 16

over all the next update will be a big one and thats why its taking so long but she might also have other things going on

[Tacos]

Episode 16 was said to be the biggest update in reborn so far. Patience is important.

[Felicity]

Furthermore there were several interim updates in the meantime between some episodes to fix some minor issues. These took up their own time before progress on a new ep could be made.

[Taska]

It makes sense that Episode 16 is taking so long. Ame must recreate the entire city, make new tiles for the city, remix the music, make loads of new sidequests and make the actual Episode 16 storyline. So be patient. Ame's got a life too. She's probably got some real-life stuff she has to deal with.

[Red_Chaos]

Ill tell you why, every time somebody mentions when is episode such and such come out Ame delays it by month

[Commander]

14 + 41 + 83 + 42 + 34 + 93 = 307 days when you add all the episodes that were covered in previous times. There's also Ame's health to consider so that'd add another 90 days to the mix so 397 days should be the expected time of the episode release. That was also when Ame was younger and had more time to work on it plus Reborn had far, far less features. So 400 days is not that extreme of a timeframe for this episode release in my honest opinion.

[Zane0144]

I really do home Ame is taking it easy still She always wants to take on so much work herself to ensure its of high quality and that we get he clearest vision And from what I've seen so far of this next update, its looking fantastic I can wait for a great game of this quality! At least she shows up some progress every once in a while too. Which is more than some other mods and major developers do.

[Amethyst]

Episodes have naturally taken longer and longer to produce because I was frequently going back to polish existing content, and naturally, there was always more and more existing content. The current episode really is an oddball though because it's like reborn's gran pulse. not much story but suddenly just a lot to explore (and thereby to make). So lots to polish + lots to make = slow current episode.

But since you point it out, I might as well be completely honest. You're actually right that something happened in that December. In fact, I've been thinking about it a lot lately. So, no holds barred story time.

That thing was, I graduated.

And I know-- you're gonna say, "But Ame, if you graduated, shouldn't that mean you have more time, not less?" And yes-- it should. Here's the thing. Pretty much the entire time from the game's start to the time I graduated, I mostly worked on development during class. I'd be in the back on my laptop, pretending to diligently take notes when really I was just mapping away and only paying half-attention. I had nothing else to do in class and I obviously had to be there, so I was working on it pretty consistently. And aside from when I got excited about finishing an area or episode or something and worked for like three days straight, I pretty well neglected the project when I was home.

So I graduate, and that time where I can't do much of anything else goes out the window. Naturally I'd start working on it at home (and at work) more. The problem is, I actually still have the ability to do anything else in those places. And for better or worse, there are sooooo many things I'm interested in. Aside from my responsibilities on this site and at work, there's so many games and anime I want to get through, and I'm also very inclined to pursue things like art, music and writing (I was actually working on a novel before, but when Reborn took off I set it on the backburner). So I sometimes got distracted by those things.

Of course, I noticed this, and that dev time was padding out more than usual. So the logical conclusion for me to draw there was that I was being undisciplined and lazy. Stuff was getting done consistently when I was working consistently. Therefore, I should make myself work more and eliminate any distractions. Willpower over motivation. Good plan, right? And I was pretty good at implementing it, so I basically didn't let myself do anything other than work on the project. I don't remember exactly when, but it was quite a while. And when I still didn't see the results in timing I wanted, I continued to push myself to work harder and harder.

Predictably, it was still never enough. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that forcing myself to do something even if I would rather have been doing something else at the time, hurt my motivation a lot, which reflected itself in the actual pace and efficiency of the work (even if more time was being spent on it over all). Moreover, this is largely what has lead to my current health concerns.

I use the term of "health concern" pretty loosely, because it best sums it up, but what I deal with is psychosomatic chronic pain (specifically in my hands and lower back). Psychosomatic literally means mind-body, so something like this is relating to both mental and physical health, and how they interplay. In my case, self-imposed mental stress (always forcing myself to work, berating myself for not working fast enough, etc) resulted in tangible physical symptoms. I did my best to ignore them for a while, but it eventually got to the point where I was too weak to even click my mouse. Anyway, does that sound fake or what? I didn't really believe in that sort of thing, but after the most miserable several weeks of my life I was really desperate, so I started looking into that and-- surprise-- the treatment works.

That's an ongoing struggle though. And part of it has been about being honest with myself, only working on the game when I actually genuinely want to, and accepting that if this takes forever, whatever. And letting myself do other things that I neglected for the past however long. So all of that stuff I mentioned before, plus things I've got into more recently like LP'ing, studying Japanese, and the other two projects I'm working on. Actually prioritizing my mental health and enjoying things for a change, you know?

After forcing myself to work on Reborn consistently for so long, I was sort of burned out. And even now, it's really difficult for me to tell if I want to do something, or if I want to want to do something. But I'll figure it out. And the past few weeks I've felt like I'm starting to get that spark back. Does that mean development time's suddenly gonna pick up again? No, probably not. But it's not like I'm walking away for the project or anything. And the rest of y'all can wait.

[Red_Chaos]

TLDR, you genetic engineers need to work on a cloning machine so Ame can learn Japanese and watch anime at the same time

[Chase]

Personally, I truly believe this will result in a better end product for both the developer -and- we the players. That's the thing for independent devs. If you don't want to do something, you're not going to be able to provide any passion to your work.

Part of what makes Reborn appealing is that it's almost a form of art - much like the novel Ame was writing prior to the project. Yes, episodes don't come out as quickly as some of the earlier ones do (and with a growing project, there's always more touch up to do anyway, as previously said) - but the result is when the dust settles, a game that was made with a fully committed heart and a rejuvenated backbone.

There really is a difference there.

[Tartar]

@Amethyst

I thank you very much for your long and in-depth post.

I apologize if this forum post sort of put you on the spot in regards to the status of the game, but I really do appreciate the sincerity and frankness and your quick response. I've never personally used as much time of immersed myself in anything as completely as you have in this community and the development of this game, so I can't relate to your struggles on a personal level. But I do know that you've got the full backing of this community if you decide to take a break from development to focus on your other passions for a while.

So whatever you decide to do going forward I wish you the best of luck in said endeavors, what we already have in Pokemon Reborn is amazing and I once more thank you for the blood, sweat and tears you're put into this project.

Edited May 23, 2016 by Tartar

[Kurotsune]

Yes, something happened in december 2014.

I joined.

And then, I started my two-year-old plan to join and slow down Reborn Development to a halt so that I could eventually take over Pokémon Reborn. A plan that could only be foiled if someone made a chart for development time. Damn you!

Jokes aside, I do also feel like I have a bit of a part to blame in that. I did join Reborn back in dec 2014, and I did join the development not a week after that (although that wasn't made public until like january 2015) and although I've done my fair share of work, I've also brought my fair share of complications.

Amethyst and my biological clocks decided that we would both get crippling arm pain around the same time - Except mine was a pre-existing condition that worsened. Due to overusage of my right and left arms, I've developed a neuro-degenerative disease in both my median nerves, which causes me to have spikes of pain in my arms when they are used for too much time consecutively. That by itself already diminished my ability to work on Reborn by a lot, and considering that I've set progressively more ambitious objectives for the scripting portion - All moves by E14, full save backup functionality by E15, all bugs fixed (and a buncha other cool shit) by E16 and online up by E17 - means that the development cycle takes a lot longer because of my part as well.

To conteract this, I've created the development team and set about training users to code and making them do several of these tasks themselves, allowing me to focus more on advice and management of resources. Unfortunately, my condition worsened by last year and I was forced to take a delayed leave of absence. Not only that, but training of these users also took it's own fair share of time.

So all in all, as much as Amethyst would like to put it all on her back, it isn't. I've my share of blame as well, and I also believe there are a multitude of other reasons why development takes as long as it does recently - Hopefully, one of them is that quality has greatly improved from earlier releases, but I can't and won't attest for that.

I just figured since Amethyst explained her side, I'd go ahead and give my own two cents as well.

[DemICE]

Goodness.... i now know why certain parts of the game are so sadistic You want to share with the fanbase some of your suffering, by making them also develop psychosomatic symptoms from eternal soft-resetting of certain fights (Charlotte?) :D

Jokes aside, , you apparently exaggerated overworking yourselves on this, and your body itself gave the warning.

Now that u are trying to live a bit of a more balanced life, things might turn out better on the long run, for your health, lifestyle, and the quality of the work on this project too, even if it goes on a slower pace than before.

So good luck on your stuff, and try to not stress yourself yo!

[Cool Girl]

I agree with Ame. Why would you work on something when you don't have the passion for it? It's the same thing for me when I'm writing stories. If I didn't have any ideas or wasn't passionate about the project, I wouldn't work on it anymore. Instead, I would wait 'till I feel like working on it again.

[Tartar]

I agree with Ame. Why would you work on something when you don't have the passion for it? It's the same thing for me when I'm writing stories. If I didn't have any ideas or wasn't passionate about the project, I wouldn't work on it anymore. Instead, I would wait 'till I feel like working on it again.

Saying this may be a bit harsh towards Ame who is hugely pressured due to the expectations of the community to deliver a great project in the shortest possible amount of time. It's not always simple to quit something when doing so would inevitably lead to disappointment in the community. This pressure should not be exaggerated and cannot merely be disregarded.

[CURIE]

A younger me would have not believed in that psychosomatic thing, but more recently I've also experienced something like it. For some unknown reason, I break out in hives in random parts of my body when stressed. How does that even make sense?

[Chase]

There was a time when Ame was very much invested -whether she would admit it or not...- in what the community was expecting.

I assure you, it's to the point where she wouldn't go back to that when determining whether she should get back to grindstone or not - so it's safe to take Ame's own care for the project into account now. When the cells that compose your body start to protest vehemently about something, it's one of two things depending on the action.

- You are finally working hard enough (in the event we're talking about sports or physical conditioning)

- You are working too hard (for virtually anything else, especially things that are supposed to be enjoyable and not stressful.)

My rule of thumb though has always been that Reborn is a free experience meant to be enjoyed as players see fit. Yes, their input matters - but because the majority haven't paid for the game, Ame has the most amount of leeway to do what she wants both in content development and in procedure.

[Antilegend]

A younger me would have not believed in that psychosomatic thing, but more recently I've also experienced something like it. For some unknown reason, I break out in hives in random parts of my body when stressed. How does that even make sense?

I know your question is rhetorical, but I can provide some insight regardless. It sounds like you have "Stress Bumps", urticaria formations when the body is under prolonged periods of stress. Anxiety and stress activate your fight or flight response, and with that response come a wide variety of changes in your immune, endocrine, nervous, and cardiovascular systems that try to revert your body back to homeostasis via negative feedback loop. Prolonged activation of response can cause the systems to be overworked, your body releasing too much cortisol (stress hormone), which can ultimately result in strange things happening to the body, including hair loss, allergic reactions, mood swings, heart palpitations, fatigue, etc.

That's a basic tl;dr of what's going on there. If you're experiencing urticaria from stress and stress alone, I'd recommend speaking with your doctor to try and bring your stress down to a more managable level.

Edited May 24, 2016 by Antilegend