I have decided to end the Beta Testing period of the Taketori Katana in order to concentrate on the final steps required for actual product release. To all of those who have recently requested to join the beta program and have not received a response from me, I apologize for not getting back to you right away; I’ve had a crazy schedule and have been considering this move for several days now, which has cause me to hesitate in answering one way or the other.
Many thanks to the wonderful team of beta testers, which includes (but not limited to and in no particular order) : Zai, Aimee, Kasumi, Ravish, JulieAnne, Heather, Zero, and everyone else that sent me notecards with their findings and feedback. I find it tremendously encouraging and rewarding that the majority of feedback has been positive, and I’m hoping that many more people will enjoy the sword once it is released.
This sword has been very long in the making, longer than any other I’ve ever made before, for a variety of reasons which I hope to cover in an upcoming post-mortem article. While there is certainly much more that can (and perhaps should) be done with it I feel that I’ve reached the point where I am impatient have it released and publicly available while still working on those additional things that can be incorporated into the product via short-term product updates.
Additionally, there are some issues that I need to look into and resolve with the Wave Katana, and a near-future update of that product is on my high-priority to-do list. Besides the known issues that need to be resolved, there are a few things I’ve learned while building the Taketori that I want to retrofit into the Wave, hopefully resulting in improvements to that product as well.
I am also incredibly anxious to begin working on a new weapon, a recent inspiration that is sufficiently different from my previous weapons to have given me a great deal of motivation. I won’t say too much about it at this point, as it’s way too early to make comments on things that are more likely to change than not, but I will occasionally post here about my work on that project as it progresses.
I expect the product to be released soon. Very soon. While I am working on the product update server, vendors, packaging, etc, here’s a quick little (crappy) video I made of the sword that I want to post "just for fun" (note that you can download the actual .avi if you really want to see it, online video is low quality) :
Taketori Katana V1.0 (Work in progress) from Takuan Daikon on Vimeo.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Great to have been a service, always like being involved and helping out. Plus the Taketori is just damn sexy, can I marry it? FIRST DIBS!
I am glad you like it, though a little creeped out at how much, lol. Just kidding
I am glad you like it, and I really hope that many others do as well. I feel a little odd releasing it before I’ve done a lot of the stuff I had planned to with this one, but I’m reaching a point of diminishing returns : How much better will it get compared to how much longer it will take?
My RL schedule is about to get insanely busy (it goes in cycles), and delaying the release to finish the last few planned features could take a month or more, so… I’m releasing it now with the intention of providing updates along the way that incorporate things I had planned.
Besides, despite the fact that I’ve had a great testing team, we all know that once it’s released some issues will be brought to light that haven’t been seen yet. I’d like to get those out of the way ASAP.
Dude, the sounds on the v1.0 is so AWESOME! Most clean and realistic sounds i’ve heard in CSI so far.
Finally…. Robby is a prefectionist and could tinker with this sword for another year and he would still be learning and wanting to add to it. Notice how he still keeps coming back to update to The Wave?? I think this is why the swords he creates are so popular. Its not just a peice of code but a small part of his heart and passion is also forged into each one!
JulieAnne