You really need to play Mecha Ritz

[Shepardus]

Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo is on Steam Greenlight now. Go vote for it.

[The Armchair General]

Can anyone tell me what the girl at the start of the Steam Greenlight trailer is saying?

[microfolk]

Looks like I'm going to double dip then ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[Drake]

Can anyone tell me what the girl at the start of the Steam Greenlight trailer is saying?

It's the beginning of Stage 5 where Veloce talks to you as you approach. 「早かったね、実験体」 -> lit. "You're early, test subject", translated "You arrived sooner than I expected, Test Unit".

anyways yeah doubling down on this game because it deserves it

---

Veloce2 and most of 4B is totally ridiculous. There's a guy on Twitter who seems to be a god and has 500-rank clears (max rank 2300+) with two scores over 20mil and I have zero idea where this score comes from outside of Veloce milking. He has over 150mil in the original too.

[JohnsonHanaji]

Glad to see that news of the Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo Greenlight has already found its way to the forums here! And here I was wondering if I should start a thread about the Greenlight.

Anyhow, quick introduction. I am Johnson of Hanaji Games, and we're the ones who are publishing Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo via Steam Greenlight. It's been great seeing all of the positive posts about Mecha Ritz so far and I hope that there will be continued support for Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo to get onto Steam! Till then, if you have any questions, feel more than free to ask me here and it would be greatly appreciated if you could share the Greenlight with friends and family.

Also not sure if it's relevant, but we're also happy to have the Greenlight campaign also be covered by Siliconera! http://www.siliconera.com/2016/04/08/sh ... allenging/

[Shepardus]

Game's been successfully greenlit, looking forward to seeing it released!

Glad to see that news of the Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo Greenlight has already found its way to the forums here! And here I was wondering if I should start a thread about the Greenlight.

Anyhow, quick introduction. I am Johnson of Hanaji Games, and we're the ones who are publishing Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo via Steam Greenlight. It's been great seeing all of the positive posts about Mecha Ritz so far and I hope that there will be continued support for Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo to get onto Steam! Till then, if you have any questions, feel more than free to ask me here and it would be greatly appreciated if you could share the Greenlight with friends and family.

Also not sure if it's relevant, but we're also happy to have the Greenlight campaign also be covered by Siliconera! http://www.siliconera.com/2016/04/08/sh ... allenging/

Hello there! Will the Steam release have any changes compared to the physical release of Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo? Also, will there be any DRM? (Can you launch the game after downloading it without launching Steam?)

[Squire Grooktook]

I absolutely cannot wait to purchase this. Can you say when it will be available? Frothing demand increasing, etc.

[Shepardus]

I absolutely cannot wait to purchase this. Can you say when it will be available? Frothing demand increasing, etc.

The Greenlight page says May 2016, I hope it's then or even earlier.

[Aisha]

What I'd like to know is if changes are made to the Steam version of the game, such as bug fixes and additions of new features, will the developer port those changes back to the physical release of Steel Rondo? Or does the Steam version stand to become the definitive version of the game going forward?

[JohnsonHanaji]

As Shepardus mentioned, Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo has been greenlit and we're thankful to all of your support! As for your questions, I've answered them below and will continue to answer questions and comments when I can. And if you would like to stay up to date with all the latest news regarding the Steam release of Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo and our other projects, you can follow us on Twitter @HanajiGames

Changes from the physical CD release?
At the moment, we can only confirm a title screen, bug fixes, and translation touches (we assure everybody that the only changes made will be to improve the grammar and its general flow). I should also note that this is our first experience with a STG Builder based project as Hanaji Games, and so we want to proceed cautiously before announcing or implementing any other new features as we're aware that the engine has some capability restrictions. With that said, we're working closely with developer HEY and will be contacting the STG Builder creator(s) in regards to a few issues.


Will it be DRM-free?
We plan on distributing Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo on the Humble store and Playism, both of which will include a DRM-free download in addition with a Steam key.


Release date?
We estimate the Steam release to sometime in May.


Will there be a patch for copies of Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo that were sold via CDs?
We understand that this is an important matter and know that this is on our agenda of topics to discuss with HEY and the team. This will particularly take time as it is part of a larger topic of how we'll manage the continued distribution of the physical CD. For now, we can only stay tune for more news and thank you for your patience.

[Shepardus]

Thanks for the response! This is the first I've heard of Humble Store + Playism distribution - is there any estimated release date for that too?

[JohnsonHanaji]

My pleasure!

And you are correct, we previously had not announced Humble and Playism distribution as we cannot confirm it yet. Though we understand that DRM-free versions of Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo is important and thought that I might as well mention that we are working towards distributing the game on those platforms as well. As for when, I am not completely sure so don't quote me on it, but I can only assume we're are working towards May.

[Drake]

Playism is a great platform for working with doujin creators. Glad you guys would try for that option. I was about to post noting the difficulties of dealing with continued development while still managing the physical distribution as well -- personally I think standalone patches (that could e.g. be hosted on HEY's site) would be the cleanest way to accomplish this and is generally how doujin works end up being updated anyways, but I don't really know the logistics of how Steam and other distribution platforms actually affect that option.

I should also note that this is our first experience with a STG Builder based project as Hanaji Games, and so we want to proceed cautiously before announcing or implementing any other new features as we're aware that the engine has some capability restrictions.

Haha, I'm sure your programmers are probably a bit frustrated over STG Builder. It isn't exactly the most powerful or friendliest toolkit out there.

[MathU]

Will it be DRM-free?
We plan on distributing Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo on the Humble store and Playism, both of which will include a DRM-free download in addition with a Steam key.

Excellent news. I'd really like to thank you guys for standing right on this because lately there has been a very disturbing trend in the PC shmup industry that I really don't want to see spread further into the doujin scene than it already has.

I would also like to express my admiration for providing proper keyboard key remapping in MECHA Ritz. I love playing on keyboard when I'm not stuck using those awful ZXCV + arrows default setups. That's incredibly progressive of you compared to your other doujin colleagues and I really hope it starts a trend!

[Drake]

XInput support and remappable controls have been in the game since the beginning.

Your perspective on the doujin scene is likely also pretty biased around games that have taken the jump to Steam (and pretty much only Steam), which isn't very many. It really isn't spreading into the scene, nor is it likely an option decided by the authors themselves in the first place.

[MathU]

XInput support and remappable controls have been in the game since the beginning.

Yeah, and I never said it wasn't. I'm thanking the developer for it personally since they're here. Cool off.

[Strikers1945guy]

Will it be DRM-free?
We plan on distributing Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo on the Humble store and Playism, both of which will include a DRM-free download in addition with a Steam key.

Excellent news. I'd really like to thank you guys for standing right on this because lately there has been a very disturbing trend in the PC shmup industry that I really don't want to see spread.

MathU I don't think I've ever seen you post without complaining about DRM

[Drake]

Ah, I figured you thought it was something Hanaji Games were adding when taking on this project. The Hanaji team didn't develop the game though, hence why I misunderstood; the author is HEY, a single person unrelated to Hanaji Games. Hanaji is helping to publish.

[MathU]

MathU I don't think I've ever seen you post without complaining about DRM

I used to post about slightly more diverse shmupping subjects but then one of my few remaining DRM-free joys in PC gaming came under attack and I got fed up and decided I wasn't going to sit quietly and just let it happen anymore.

Plus there just haven't been a lot of threads about the games or subject I'm really knowledgeable about or interested in around here lately.

Ah, I figured you thought it was something Hanaji Games were adding when taking on this project. The Hanaji team didn't develop the game though, hence why I misunderstood; the author is HEY, a single person unrelated to Hanaji Games. Hanaji is helping to publish.

Ah well, I was a little confused on if the publisher included the developer or not. Thanks for publishing this digitally without DRM, Hanaji Games!

[Bananamatic]

I think forced DRM would really help with reducing piracy tbh
We need to keep this genre alive

[ProjectAKo]

I think forced DRM would really help with reducing piracy tbh
We need to keep this genre alive

Exactly. This is what turned me off to FOSS and giving out source code. Everyone is much better off in a closed system with technologies like DRM playing the fair business arbitrator.

[MathU]

I know you two are just shitposting but it's really not cool to do that when a Japanese developer might be watching. They have a tendency to be more ignorant and misinformed about this stuff than others sadly.

[trap15]

[JohnsonHanaji]

Thank you for all for understanding and your compliments thus far! And though we [Hanaji Games] are publishing, not developing, Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo, I do share the comments with HEY, the developer, when he's free as he enjoys reading that his work and his game are very much appreciated.

And we really do appreciate all the support, especially the community who enjoyed the original Mecha Ritz and even ordered a physical CD of Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo from Japan. It's also a part of the reason why we strive for a DRM-free version to be available, especially since we might've not even made it through Steam Greenlight without your support.

With that said, there's a personal point I want to make. For the small, independent game developers or doujin circles in Japan that I've interacted with so far. They've always made games that they wanted to make, and not because somebody else told them. And for a lot of these creators, this is a personal hobby outside of their full-time job, so time to make a game is precious. And so while there's concerns and effort within the industry regarding piracy, DRM, and etc, sometimes these creators don't care because it takes times away from what's most important to them, which is making interesting, fun games for people to play.

[MathU]

So for those of you that have played Steel Rondo now, can you comment on whether or not anything has been done about the rhythmic shot press and release required for maximum damage output for a number of the ships (by combining fast movement and focused shot attacks at once)? It is especially bad for Fighter 01 in the original. I kind of hope that exploit has been removed or made no so tedious or hand-straining to accomplish.

[Legendary Hoamaru]

So for those of you that have played Steel Rondo now, can you comment on whether or not anything has been done about the rhythmic shot press and release required for maximum damage output for a number of the ships (by combining fast movement and focused shot attacks at once)? It is especially bad for Fighter 01 in the original. I kind of hope that exploit has been removed or made no so tedious or hand-straining to accomplish.

I've only messed with the first 6 ships but yea it's pretty much gone. The only ship of those that seems like it may benefit from it is fighter 2, but for the others you have to hold down the shot much longer for the focus attack to come out. There are some really unique ships in this one, I'm kind of curious in how you optimize damage with ship 4's hold lasers.

[JohnsonHanaji]

Hello everybody! Quick update on the Steam, Humble store, and Playism release of Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo. We unfortunately had an unforeseen technical issue that prevented us from releasing it last week and with that said, now that it has been solved, it is currently being processed so you can expect a release sometime next week!

[Squire Grooktook]

AWWWW YEEEEAAAAAH

The delay isn't important, thank you so much for bringing this over to us.

[microfolk]

I'm already ready to buy two\three copies to gift to my friends, I'm SO HYPED for this

[Shepardus]

Release set for June 10. Will be on Steam, Humble Store, and Playism. Price will be 6.99 USD.