Japanese help and the proof copies of Classroom Deathmatch

I don’t speak Japanese. I can say a few words, read a few characters and count to about four, but that’s it. As you all know I messed up the Japanese title of Classroom Deathmatch. I used 教場チ競技, but I’ve been told by several people that this just isn’t right. We have a surprising number of Japanese customers, and I think they deserve to read a title that makes at least a little sense. Kaz posted elsewhere on this site that 死闘教室” or “教室は戦場だ would work better. Ayukata Taka’aki also recommends 死闘教室, so I think that’s what I’ll go with. But I wanted to post it here first and see if anyone had any last minute advice or wanted to try to stop me before I send the new file off to the printer. Does anyone think that 死闘教室 is the wrong choice?

I wanted to say thanks to all my Japanese speaking customers who took the time to contact me to let me know that I had screwed up the title. Making a game that’s heavily rooted in a culture you are unfamiliar with is pretty difficult, and I really appreciate that some of you cared enough to point out the mistake before the book went to press. Thanks!

The proof copies for Classroom Deathmatch came in early last week. I was hoping to have these to show at Gamestorm, but they came just too late. They look fantastic though. I was always really happy with the way Panty Explosion turned out, but Classroom deathmatch is just one or two steps beyond that. I couldn’t be more pleased!

I did spot a few small errors. Most alarmingly, cattle prod is spelled “caddle prod”! I’ve taken the time to fix these, and the final book will ship in top shape. For those of you that pre-ordered, your books will be going out on the 17th. As most of you live outside the United States (an interesting phenomena I’ll talk about later) it will probably take a few days for the books to get to you, but you’ll definitely have them by the end of the month!

The pre-order is still going strong! Order by the 16th and you’ll receive the PDF version of the game for free! Also, and this is important, pre-ordering really helps us out! Pre-ordering allows us to print more copies up front. The more copies we print at once the less our overall costs are! Beyond that we’re putting pre-order money to good use in other ways. Your pre-order money allowed Nick and I to attend Gamestorm, demo Panty Explosion and run several great games. Your preorder money has also allowed me to create an amazing new piece of Panty Explosion merchandise (coming soon)! We really, really appreciate your support! Big thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered so far! If you haven’t yet head over to the Atarashi Games store and order now!

Jake