I feel empty.
Not sure how I should go about these things.
Game Creator (Sep~Jan): B
Comic Person 1 (Sep~Dec: 2 doujins; hasn't used): C
Comic Person 2 (Sep: 1 doujin; hasn't replied): D
Professional Mangaka (Jan): E
B has sold 390 copies of the English version. Depending on how much of a cut he gets from the digital distributor, that means he made at least 1885.65 EUR (2018.25 USD).
He updated it with my corrections and an additional bug fix a Japanese user found. Immediately after playing it, I found another mistake I made where I used 'he' instead of 'she'. This is a context error that I couldn't predict with the script, but it should've been one of the first things I caught while playing the game. B is super tired after working for ~7 months on this update to his game, so I don't think it would be right of me to send him this error unless another user finds an additional bug to fix.
I still don't know if B has any plans of letting me work on his previous games that he programmed in HSP (Hot Soup Processor). He programmed the one I translated in VC++, which made the development of the game I did require 15 months of his life (22 months if the update is included). No one sent him a comment in his blog about an English translation for his previous titles, so I'm completely in the dark about his feelings on the matter...
He assumed I didn't own his game. He was planning to send me the English version as a present, which doesn't make sense if he was going to bundle it with the Japanese version unless he thought I didn't own that, either. Did he think I sent him translation samples from a pirated version when I initially approached him? DLsite messed up the timing for the JP version, and the errors I found led to Japanese players having to wait for a couple days, so I got to play it early thanks to that. Why I think he believes I didn't buy the Japanese version was when he sent me a private link to it after it was finally released, and I asked him if it was the same as the one on DLSite with a screenshot of my past purchases, and he said yes it was, and didn't send me a private link for the v2.1 update later...
The current issue is that I translated two doujins for C, and initially he didn't reply to any of my messages UNTIL I bought something from him on Enty, and THEN he replied. Despite sending him two of his books translated, he hasn't done anything with them. I have no idea what is going on in his head.
D was someone I sent a translation at the same time as C, but he was new to Pixiv, and was sick when I sent the message, so it's understandable that he might've not read it. Though, the translations I sent were transparent .png files that need to be overlaid over the original due to some text over art that I do not want to redraw. Right now, I'm 60% finished with redrawing most of the art that hangs out of bubbles, so I can send him a prototype finished translation. The thing I was working on is a digital version of his old doujins printed on a DVD that he sold during events like Comiket. Recently he said he was planning to finally sell these doujins on a digital distribution site this Jan/Feb, so I want to give him the English version so he has that to increase sales and keep him motivated to continue (I'm pretty sure what's going to happen is he releases the first doujin, it gets reuploaded by thoughtless idiots, and then ceases to continue digital sale like Syroh and Mojarin).
E is someone new who I sent a 'My Pixiv' request message, and I mentioned that I was looking forward to one of his works he announced many months ago, and he replied that he hadn't worked on it due a lack of motivation from receiving no feedback on it. Just several days ago, he posts a sketched comic of the thing, and I sent him a private message with a translation for it, and asked if it would be alright if I could keep translating the rest of it for him. He asked if I meant for this to be for digital sale, and went on to say he's going to very busy with work this year, so he doubts he can work on it to the point he can deliver a finished product, so he couldn't say for sure if he can ask for my help. Tried to send him a reply back, and I kept getting error messages because Pixiv is absolute shit. I was going to suggest that it might be better if he uses Enty and just work on parts of it at his own pace like some other Japanese comic creators are doing. Though, even if Pixiv is fixed, I don't know if it would be right to send such a message. While I didn't word it thoughtlessly like 'get a uber (lol)' with no consideration of his possible personal position, he's probably already aware of that kind of approach, and doesn't need someone like me to point it out... My intention was merely to give him emotional support in my own way where I'm doing something useful for him, since it's apparent no one else is going to...
So the issue is how I want to approach B. I want to ask him to help in communicating with C and D, but he's tired from finishing his game, and might not appreciate me bothering him about other people.
Thinking about this is making me sick, and makes me want to give up on everything. This new orc character for Millennium War Aegis isn't helping things. I don't want to wait for months and months to find out that B has dropped me...
