Wasted Youth, Part 1 has been finished for some time now, but still it isn’t out.

Let me explain, you inquisitive bastard…

We finally got a sponsorship deal last week, however, part of the deal is to add several languages: Russian, Spanish, French and German.

However, all the text is scattered across a vast source file, and simply grabbing all this code will take days, if not a week!

So, a week ago I started compiling all the text that needed to be translated.

With such an unstable source file (prone to crashing a lot!) I had to find a way of getting all the dialogue and menu text out of the game without spending weeks and weeks, so I started researching alternative ways to extract the text.


[Code Jabber] I worked out I could run a JavaScript file within flash that would run through the entire FLA, generate an XML file containing all the code in the game and the directions to its location. I then created a script that would import XMLs and repopulate all the code that was altered. [/Code Jabber]

(If you want these scripts for yourself, get intouch through the contact form and I’ll send ‘em over)


It took me a few days to create the script, and a couple days to extract all the text. Hoorah!

But here’s what I’ve been getting to… The word count.

We estimated 30,000 words, but it totalled out as 40,000. This is nothing short of a novel I believe. It’s a vast amount of text.

So now, we have to wait for it to be translated… This will take from 2-3 weeks.

After that, there will be another week or so of work on my end adding the new languages.

So, in 4 weeks we hope to present the game to you… although it will be exclusive to our sponsor site, TwoTowersGames.com, for 4 weeks.

So if you’re waiting for it on the portals (like NewGrounds, Kongregate, etc.) then you’ve got almost another 2 months to wait...


Who actually cares though. Do you care?

I don’t care.

In the meantime I’ll just get on with other work…


Speaking of which, I haven’t gotten much done recently. Probably due to the empty spot on the shelf where Wasted Youth was situated.

The last few days in particular I’ve been doing nothing. I’ve mainly just been listening to podcasts, while playing other flash games… which nowadays I rarely do. You’d think a flash games developer like me would play loads of flash games… but I hardly ever do. My brother does, but he has to.


Anyway, it hasn’t been like this for too long. Since my last news post, I’ve been concentrating on several projects, mainly the meteor game.

I’ve developed a very impressive (if I may say so myself) engine for the game. It’s a Box2D destructible landscape. (I know, isn’t it impressive?)

The problem though (besides numerous bugs) is trying to create an actual game with this engine.

I struggled with this for a couple days and decided to try out other things like Mutant Uprising 2, or  the ragdoll game where you crawl across a landscape.


Right now though, I’m lacking in motivation so I’m just sitting on my arse doing nothing.


As for Bunny Invasion 3… well, don’t wait for it. It’ll be a while until I announce the release-date of that effing dream-game!


Oh God, I’m exhausted from doing nothing, it’s time for bed.


I’ll leave you with this, it’s an email I got today from the translation agency working on Wasted youth:


Dear sir,

I am the head of translation agency, and we recently got an offer to translate your game 'Wasted Youth pt1' . Well, what can I tell you? I think i've never laugh so much in my life. The dialogues and book descriptions are just awesome, they blew my mind out. I still didn't get a thing why do you 'love' Sir Paul so much, but this is really fun) My German, French and Spanish translators think the same and thank you for so much fun you gave us!) We hope for fruitful cooperation and wish you all the best!

Sincerely yours, Evgeniya, Russia.


And I sent them this:


Dear Evgeniya,

Your comments are very kind, but frankly, I think you’d get the translation done quicker if you stifled the laughs.

Laughter often puts the body into spasm, and in doing so, you’re bound to make a typing error.

If you feel a laugh coming on, I suggest you supress it in your tummy (the lol-cavity).

When the work day is over, release your collected laughs as a single explosive “HA” sound, or (like me) you could express it as a loud burp.

Please keep this in mind when translating.

Greetings from England!

-Tom