What's next?

I was quite busy this week working both on Heileen 3 and Bionic Heart 2 (you see a new video of it above), so this post will be mostly an attempt in having a sort of "planned release schedule".

December 2012

As you probably know already, I really hope to release Heileen 3 sometimes during December (hopefully in time for Christmas!). The beta testing will begin soon for sure, but the final game release is still unknown (depends how many bugs people find in the beta!). Anyway, all that's left beside 10 more "random events" is for the simulation parts: 21 chibis, some small artwork, a few texts, some more balancing. I believe it's just a week or two of work.

In December I should also have one of my first games on the new Monkeycoder engine, so available also on iOS/web.

January/March 2013

Between those months, I'm surely going to release the yuri version of Heileen 3 (which I really wanted to release at same time as the main game this time, but alas because of problems with the original writer I couldn't). Also, Bionic Heart 2. The background art for that game is all done, the plot is finished, but there are still some sprite images that needs to be colored.

April/June 2013

Here things gets more difficult to judge. My goal would be to start Planet Stronghold 2 beta in early April, but you know, with RPGs is hard to know since they're so hard to make ;) I might just have one of my other games in a good advancement state and release it. Possible candidates are Roommates and Nicole.

Late 2013

Anything is possible! I really hope to have finished Planet Stronghold 2 by that date, and one of the other games. Maybe even Spirited Heart 2 or Amber's Magic Shop. But is very likely that at least one of those two games will slip into 2014!

As you can see I've got quite a busy schedule ahead. Now excuse me but I need to get back to work ;)

Nicole’s cast: Darren Beville

This week is the turn of the last character, Darren Beville, who is the typical shy guy. However I think he looks cute:

In the game, Nicole's outgoing personality will help him to become more open about his problems and who knows, maybe he might help you solve the mystery, in a way or in another ;)

The first encounter with him is definitely not the best, and Chandra warns you about some rumors she heard (excerpt from the game):

    "I let out a sigh as I gathered all of my math books and shoved them into my bag. I looked over to the boy at the desk beside mine, who remained silent but looked equally tired."
    Nicole "Hey there. That any of that crap make sense to you?"
    "I asked the question casually with a weary smile, but he only glanced at me for a moment before shaking his head and looking away."
    Nicole "I always did all my homework back in high school, but this is all pretty confusing. It’s such a big step up from what I studied in my last math class...even the notes look like a foreign language."
    "The young man shrugged as he finished putting his books away and stood up."
    "What’s up with this guy?"
    "Even when I was younger, I didn’t meet guys who acted this quiet..."
    Nicole "Uh...are you going to say anything to me? I was only trying to be friendly."
    "He only glanced at me again before his gaze fell to the floor."
    Nicole "Hey, did the cat get your tongue or something?"
    "I smiled jovially while asking the question, but he still wouldn’t look up at me."
    Darren "That’s a rather old fashioned phrase."
    Nicole "It got you to speak up though! Old doesn’t necessarily mean useless."
    "He smiled slightly as he stood up from his desk."
    Darren "Just study extra, you’ll do fine in the class."
    Nicole "Why, thank you for imparting such profound and rare advice. I don’t think I ever would have thought of that in all my years of experience."
    "He didn’t laugh or frown at my sarcasm and simply walked away."
    "...Maybe I came off sounding rude?"
    "Or he’s not the type to take a joke..."
    "Either way, he seems kinda unfriendly..."
    "After the class ended, I hurried to catch up with Chandra on the way back to my dorm."
    Nicole "Hey, Chandra!"
    "She looked up and smiled cheerfully when she saw me."
    Chandra "What’s up?"
    Nicole "I wanted to know if you knew anything about that guy who sits behind me in our math class...he’s so quiet, he seemed kinda unfriendly. I tried talking to him, but he barely said a thing to me then didn’t even bother saying goodbye."
    Chandra "Ah...I think I know who you’re talking about."
    Nicole "He’s pretty cute, just so...standoffish."
    Chandra "Yeah, that’s Darren. I don’t really know him since he’s so shy, but he doesn’t really talk to anyone."
    Nicole "That’s strange...especially for someone his age."
    Chandra "It is. Some people think he’s hiding something."
    Nicole "I suppose that’s possible...what kind of rumors are drifting around about him?"
    "Chandra shrugged."
    Chandra "There aren’t a lot with facts behind them since he doesn’t really have any friends that I’ve seen. Some people think he was raised abroad or something and that English is his second language."
    Nicole "And what kind of factuality is behind that...?"
    Chandra "None that I know of, it’s just a guess at why he’s so quiet. You should probably be careful around him though, you never know what someone like that is thinking about."
    Nicole "Yeah, you’re right...he seemed harmless enough though."
    Chandra "Still, there’s a line between shy and suspicious. I wouldn’t want to try finding it."
    Nicole "Mmm..."
    Chandra "Anyway, I have to go get to cheerleading practice. I’ll see you tonight though."
    Nicole "’Kay, see you then!"

That's it for this week, can't reveal more about this character since would be spoilers ;) The cast review for Nicole is now complete. Next week hope to give good news about Loren's expansion and other stuff going on...!

Nicole's cast: Kurt Madry

It's the turn of another character introduction from my upcoming otome/mystery dating sim Nicole. His name is Kurt Madry and is a very popular player of the college football team.

You can see a few images of him below:

About his personality, he's quite arrogant and spoiled, and very successful with women.

Unfortunately for him, his grades at school aren't as good as his skills on the other fields. But for that, Nicole will be able to help him ;) An excerpt from the game story:

    "All the students in the classroom were getting ready to go when I heard someone sigh heavily. I looked over to see who it was and spotted Kurt."
    "I wonder what’s wrong..."
    "We did get our test scores back today though."
    "Maybe it has something to do with that."
    "I gathered up my supplies before walking over to his seat."
    Nicole "Hey there! Is something wrong?"
    "He glanced up to see me as he irritably shoved his books and supplies into his bag."
    Kurt "Everything sucks today."
    Nicole "Aw, I’m sure it’s not so bad. What happened?"
    Kurt "I failed the damn math test."
    "He cast the paper another dark look before roughly tossing it into his bag."
    Nicole "Ouch...I’m sorry to hear that."
    "I suppose it’s better not to mention that I thought it was the easiest one we’ve had so far..."
    Kurt "You don’t know how bad it really is."
    Nicole "They won’t make you repeat the class, will they?"
    Kurt "It’s even worse than that!"
    "He slung his bag over his shoulder and started stomping over to the door. I followed him quickly."
    Nicole "But what other repercussions are there?"
    Kurt "I can get suspended or even kicked off of the football team if I don’t keep my grades at an acceptable level."
    Nicole "That’s so extreme..."
    Kurt "It is! They don’t give a crap about how important I am to the team if my grades start to slip."
    Nicole "It’s not too late to get things turned around though, right?"
    Kurt "That’s a hell of a lot easier said than done."
    Nicole "Not necessarily..."
    Kurt "If you have a point you’re trying to get to, then spit it out."
    Nicole "Maybe I could help you out and tutor you in math."
    "He was already angry but looked at me skeptically."
    Kurt "I don’t really want to get a tutor."
    Nicole "It could help a lot though! Sometimes having someone other than the professor to explain everything is really beneficial. Their explanations practically need translations."
    Kurt "I don’t know..."
    Nicole "I’m sure I can help you."
    Kurt "But you’re so new."
    Nicole "So what? We’re in the same math class."
    Kurt "Are you really the best tutor I can get? If I’m going to deal with having a tutor, I need the absolute best."
    "He certainly sounds spoiled...

Later in the game, Nicole will also discover some traits of his personality that will seriously make her think... but you'll have to play the game to discover what I'm talking about ;)

That's all for this week! Progresses on all the other games (including Loren's expansion) are being made but I want first to finish Nicole's characters introduction before talking about something else :)

Nicole's cast: Jeff Ryan

Second post about Nicole dating sim, and this time will talk about one of the other 3 boys. If you follow me on twitter you'll remember that, somehow, I thought there were 3 boys and 1 girl to romance but I was wrong, the boys are actually 4! (but that's a good news for otome fans).

This also means that probably shouldn't work so much if I even forget how many characters there are in my games :D

Anyway, let's start with the introductions: the name is Jeff Ryan, he's a medicine student, slightly older than Nicole (he attends the 2nd year). Below you see him in various outfits and with normal and slightly cut hairs:

He's friendly, single, and you met him after attending your first class (excerpt from the game):

    "Getting to class had been a fairly simple task, but getting back to my dorm room afterward wasn’t nearly as easy. I stopped to check one of the maps, but it didn’t help very much."
    "I found myself wandering around a portion of campus I hadn’t seen when looking around previously. It was in a quiet area of the campus, so I assumed it was fairly far away from the dorms."
    "Which means it’s pretty far away from where I wanted to go..."
    "Oh well! I’ll just think of it as the scenic route."
    "I had stopped in the pathway to admire one of the buildings and all of the large glass windows it sported when someone walked up to me. I looked over at him and smiled politely."
    Nicole "Hello."
    Jeff "Hey there. Are you new here?"
    "I laughed and nodded."
    Nicole "I am, was it that obvious?"
    Jeff "Most of the students who have been here for a while don’t seem very concerned with the buildings...some of them are quietly extravagant though, don’t you think?"
    Nicole "They are! This is the medical building, right?"
    Jeff "That’s right."
    "We both paused for a moment to look at the medical facility again before he continued."
    Jeff "So what’s your name?"
    "I blinked, feeling a bit silly for not introducing myself sooner."
    Nicole "Oh, it’s Nicole."
    Jeff "Nice to meet you. My name is Jeff Ryan."

Like all the other characters of the game, you'll get to know him better and... maybe discover something! ;)

I haven't made my mind yet about doing a separate yuri version of this game, but since the main game won't be out before this fall in any case, there's no hurry after all! Yesterday also finished Queen Of Thieves storyboard and got new sketches for the final cutscenes. Loren's expansion and Roommates also made good progress with new texts for the story, so all seems to be going well!

See you next week for a new update and a new boy of Nicole dating sim!

Let's talk about Nicole

Who is Nicole? is the main character of my new mystery otome game that will be out... "soon" (probably after the summer though).

I know that during the past... 6 months? Loren has monopolized my blog and forums, and even if I wasn't able to advance the other projects as I hoped, some of them made good progresses, such as Nicole (the game will be very likely called just that "Nicole").

How Nicole looks like? she's pretty cute I think, check below:

As you can see, this time I decided to have lots of options, both in hair style and clothes. She has more clothes and hair styles than those showed above.

Nicole studies law and she just entered college. However, as soon as she arrives, she discovers something. An excerpt from the game story will explain better than my words:

    "This is going to be wonderful...exactly what I needed! A prestigious university like this will be perfect for me to study at."
    "I sat down on the bed and reached for the bag that contained my netbook. It didn’t take long to get it connected to the college’s internet and I clicked around to see what kind of local websites I would want to have bookmarked."
    "I clicked a link to the local newspaper, humming cheerfully as I saved the page. I scrolled down, my eyes zipping across the headlines quickly. One in particular caught my attention."
    Nicole "Multiple disappearances...? Could it just be some kind of rumor?"
    "I frowned slightly when I saw it and leaned forward as I clicked to read the full article."
    "My eyes widened when I read more of the article. Some of the worries I carried with me onto the campus lurked around in the back of my mind as I continued reading, my frown deepening with each line. The writer of the article looked credible, as did the information it contained."
    "Three disappearances...why would so many students just want to leave so suddenly? Or is there more to it than that...?  I’m surprised I hadn’t heard about it before...but I suppose they do their best to keep this sort of thing quiet."
    "And these journalists all try to use scare tactics. If it was too bad, they wouldn’t be able to conduct the classes normally like they do now."
    "Still...this isn’t a very reassuring thing to read on my first day..."
    "While simply learning that there had been numerous disappearances was an unpleasant thought, the chilling closing of the article was what stuck with me the most."
    Nicole "And they were never found..."
    "I pushed my netbook aside and wrapped my arms around myself as I shook my head quickly."
    Nicole "Well, it shouldn’t be anything that I have to worry about...I’m here to learn. I just have to be careful...people disappear all the time."
    "It’ll all be alright. I just have to find my ways to the classes and everything will run smoothly from there."
    "But..."
    "Maybe the people here won’t be exactly what I was hoping for..."

So, while it won't be a horror game, it will have a bit of suspense. It will still be a family friendly game though!

What about the other characters? Here's Chandra, Nicole's roommate:

She is friendly, and she's one of the best cheerleader. Her goal is to dual major in education and athletics so she can become a cheer leading coach. But perhaps she's hiding something...

Lastly, there are 3 more male characters that you can meet and date. However for now I'll introduce only Ted:

He works in a convenience store near the campus. His father is a police officer, and wanted him to major in law, but he is also working to raise money for his studies. Later in the game, thanks to Chandra you'll discover some rumours about him and his father...

Being a mystery game, I cannot go too much in details, so will keep the characters introductions quite short, since there are many hidden secrets beyond the surface ;)

How it's going

How it's going? Well, not really good since I've got wrist pain since 3 days, because of carpal tunnel syndrome :(

However I still managed to code good part of Loren RPG chapter4, and also add the new map. The latest available beta version is the 0.91 which can be downloaded here:

http://www.winterwolves.com/download.php?game=LorenRPG-0.91.zip

Chapter 4 is coming along very nicely, and we hope to have the final 1.0 release by mid-April! I'm really looking forward to finish this project, the biggest I've ever attempted :)

What about the other games?

As you know, before devoting myself completely to Loren, I had started many projects. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the amount of work I had to put to make a BIG game like Loren, so when the time of the beta came, I realized that I couldn't work in multi-tasking as before (working on several projects at once). This means that I temporarily paused many projects, except those which had already the full storyboard written (like Heileen 3 or Nicole).

Now that Loren is about to be finished, I'm going to get back into managing the other games. Here's a detailed status for each one:

Heileen 3

Art: (100%) is completely done now. I might decide to do two versions, a otome and a yuri one, adding two final CG scenes with two new female romances. Have yet to decide if to do that or not, but I have time since the artist won't be able to make those last 2 scenes before next July!

Writing: (90%) Marie's path is being written right now, and she's the last romanceable character (unless I decide to do what I said above). Game is pretty long, over 150k words, so much bigger than previous titles!

Coding: (25%): Well, it's not that bad actually, since is a dating sim but not very complex. I still need to add a lot of choice changes (based on the 7 cardinal sin/virtues), testing, the scheduler, and so on. Probably 1 month of work.

Amber's Magic Shop

Art: (60%) I need some more backgrounds, and the potion-making interface, but apart this, the sprites are done and only needs to be colored.

Writing: (15%) It's still in the beginning, but several scenes are finished, and Lorelei (the writer) assured she'll resume working on it quickly next month :)

Coding: (10%): I still need to design and implement the potion making interface, that will be the part that needs more coding and testing of the whole game. Also need a "shop" interface, and a lifesim but will probably modify Always Remember Me one. I think about 2 months of coding needed.

Nicole

Art: (50%) I have some character sprites done, but still missing some, and also missing all the CGs, UI and backgrounds. So there's still quite some work to do art-wise!

Writing: (60%) The last character storyboard is being written now. I might review the whole writing later, to check for plotholes, or add some more scenes (I'm used to make big games now!).

Coding: (50%):I plan to reuse Always Remember Me framework for this game, with some small changes, since will also be a mystery game I want to put some kind of diary in the game. Also want to simulate a sort of computer with college intranet :) So because of those new features, probably need at least 1 month to code everything.

Roommates

Art: (70%) all characters are done (might add a few more though). The backgrounds are missing, but the ending CGs scenes (8 in total plus some variations/close ups !) are almost finished (saw the sketches already and artist is finishing them right now).

Writing: (5%) Sadly, previous writer disappeared, so I need to look for a replacement. I also need to plan the gameplay better and do the storyboard, but for this kind of game (set in US college) I definitely need to find someone who knows well that kind of reality so can help me with storyboard beside writing scenes!

Coding: (5%): I haven't done much. I am planning to use a mix between Flower Shop scheduler and Always Remember Me various places to visit. Still need to do lot of design though, including the player stats. I'd say around 2 months of work.

Queen Of Thieves

Art: (80%) is missing the final kissing scenes, but artist disappeared since 1st February, and I'm not sure if he can continue working on the game. In any case, there's not much hurry since I need to design the gameplay, interface, and so on. And worse case I can hire someone since are only the kissing scenes missing.

Writing: (50%) This game is a bit different, meaning that there's more gameplay than other life/dating sim, and less texts. About half of the romances are finished though.

Coding: (5%): As I said, this game will have more gameplay than all the others, but I need to think how to implement it. It might include: 2d turn-based tilemap, short RPG battles, shop simulation... so there's still a long way to go. I think minimum 3 months of work!

Planet Stronghold: Warzone

Art: (50%) all the romance CGs are done, but misses all backgrounds, the wargame tilemap, many enemy sprites, so still long way to go.

Writing: (5%) I only wrote the beginning, and while I have the general plot in my mind have yet to write a storyboard for it. Since is a RPG, will take LOONG time to write it, but Aleema already said wants to work on this one :) Still, probably won't be able to work on it before next summer!

Coding: (90%): Even if it's a RPG, since I'm going to reuse most of the first game RPG framework, coding is quite advanced. I need to code the "wargame" map, but that's it (since I already did some coding for it last year).

Undead Lily

Art: (80%) it's missing some backgrounds, but depending how the battles will take place might add some more sprites, and perhaps some more backgrounds.

Writing: (25%) Several characters scenes are finished, but I paused it because need to rethink how to program the main gameplay, so might have to rework what has been already written to simplify it, or change it somehow.

Coding: (10%): Not much done, and while it will be a simpler RPG than Loren or Planet Stronghold, I decided to pause the development for now. Will resume working on it next year!

 

I tried to put them in order of a possible release: however, there's no guarantee about the release order, with the exception of Heileen 3 that will almost surely be out this summer! :)

Crunch mode

In the image above, the map (still work in progress) with the new fog feature. When you start the game it will look like in the image on top but as you discover new locations, it will slowly become like the image at the bottom.

Why Crunch Mode ?

Today's blog post will be short, because I'm in a sort of "crunch mode". Those who worked in companies know well what does it means - it's a period (usually lasts some days or weeks) during which you work non-stop like crazy to finish an important project.

Obviously in my case, the project is Loren The Amazon Princess :) But also, I need to get back on managing the various other projects going on, since I've been "away" (busy working on Loren) for too long!

For a small indie like me, releasing games regularly is very important, since it's one of the most effective way to get attention. The last game I've released is in December (Winter In Fairbrook), so not too long ago, however if I look back at the past year, during this period (end of March) I had already released Love & Order and was about to finish Planet Stronghold!

Now I know I'm not a machine, so I need to take breaks sometimes, but I usually reserve the summer for that (when it's too hot to work much anyway).

So my goal would be to release 0.9 this weekend, or no later than end of the month. Today I managed to finish scripting the 3rd chapter of Loren, and will take tomorrow to test it again. Meanwhile Aleema is finishing the last touches to the romance scenes, since we're trying to include many of them for the next beta update, the 0.9.

The Bionic Heart sequel

Bionic Heart was one of my early visual novels, but also one that was most popular (was featured in some big japanese websites and that was the first time for a VN made in the west). However, commercially speaking, it wasn't a big success.

Almost 3 years later, I think I know the reasons. It was a pure visual novel, aimed at males, and with my writing (lol). Definitely I don't want to repeat the same mistakes in the sequel, even if I want to make this game mainly for my personal satisfaction than money.

See the full gallery on Posterous

In the image above you see sketches of the main characters, plus there will be new ones which I don't want to show yet. I have written already a generic basic plot, but need to go in the details. For now all I can say is:

• won't be a pure visual novel, but will have statistics, even if won't be a RPG
• you'll be able to play as different characters (differently from the first game)
• it will contain nudity, both male / female
• will have all possible romances (straight & gay / male & female)
• will have lots of endings :)

Now remember, I am NOT working on this game right now, but I am producing / supervising the art production. I don't know yet when I'll have time to start working on this, maybe for Christmas, or maybe later next year!

"Nicole" game

Nicole's plot continues to make progress, and I got also a new characters images. Below you can admire Nicole in her various outfits (yes, cheerleader is also an option!):

That's all for now! Stay tuned, since next month I plan to definitely release something :)

The light at the end of the tunnel

In the picture above, Othello looking at the new arrival, our dog Skipper.

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the Loren Amazon Princess tunnel :) If you follow me you know that last week I made public a sort of sneak peek, to see what people think. So far the response was very positive. People like the art, the story/writing, and beside a few bugs (all my fault though!) even the gameplay.

After the public preview, I made a big spreadsheet document with all the bugs and suggestions. I spent the following 2 days fixing them and evaluating the suggestions, and today finally I started to get back into the "content creation" phase.

Yes, because even if the plot is done until chapter4, as I play the game I'm adding the fights, creating new enemies, and also adding some extra movement steps on the map to make the game seem less linear (even if in reality it is, but nobody complained so far!).

The goal is to have the plot fully scripted by mid-March, and Aleema (my writer) said it would be possible, and I self-imposed myself the deadline of end of March for the almost-final release. It won't be easy, but I'll try to make it!

The next appointment with Loren is 1st March when I'll start pre-orders and release a new improved demo.

And the other games...?

I know that not everyone who follows me is a RPG fan, and they might be wondering what happened to the various games I have announced!

Well, to be honest I underestimated the amount of work that was needed to make a huge game like Loren. So while I am still waiting for the artwork and the writing for most other games, I was so busy that wasn't able to use my traditional "motivational techniques" to encourage my collaborators. In other words, the famous "spanking lazy collaborators"! :D

So the progress speed for my other games has been slower than usual, but until I finish Loren I don't think will have time to follow/encourage them.

Also, this week I decided to move the main Winterwolves site into a cloud server, so this added some extra delays (those kind of things are always problematic!). But better do that before Loren is released, just in case somehow it becomes a popular game!

Anyway, just to reassure that the other projects are still going forward, here's a sneak peek of Heileen 3 male romances:

From top-left to bottom-right: Heileen with Sebastian on the shore at night, Heileen with Jonathan in an artist atelier, Heileen with Morgan on the ship bridge, and Heileen and John... in bed! :)

Heileen 3 is still missing some art, and the whole Marie subplot, but I'd say that is 80% complete (of course, I still need to put everything together and test it).

And below is Jeff, one of the four pursuable characters of the mystery/otome game "Nicole":

I am at good point in this game too, story and art is about halfway finished, even if being a sort of mystery/detective game I'll have to review everything to make sure that there aren't spoilers early in the game or plot holes.

That's it for this week, see you next Friday!

2012 Time to relax!

In the picture above my cat Gilda sitting over a "hot water bottle" (hope to have found the right word!).

Yes because at the start of the year, for the first time in the last four years, I got the flu and high fever! So I had to momentarily pause my work. At the moment of writing this post I still don't feel really well, but at least it's an excuse for typos/grammar mistakes ;)

I think this was a sort of warning. In 2011 I worked like NEVER before, but since I'm human, in 2012 I plan to take things more relaxed. Don't worry this doesn't mean I won't release any games or slow down incredibly! But thank to the effort of the previous years, I'll be able to release new games reusing good part (or almost all) of the code I've already written, speeding up the process.

This is a commonly used tecnique, even in the top AAA games. Making a new game from scratch is one thing, but doing one with already a solid code base, even if of course needs to be changed, expanded, redesigned, is much faster, believe me!

Loren The Amazon Princess uses a new RPG Framework, but luckily the big part of it was written in past year by Michael (also known as "Anima" in some forums). There's really not much work left, and what I have tested so far seems to work very well apart some inevitable minor bugs. I spent most of this week redoing several times the battle screen layout.

In the image above, an almost final GUI layout. But as the user "Foxfeeder" rightly pointed in my forums, it's a pity to use those small portraits, when I have such well done waist-up images of all party members and enemies! So I'm going to tweak/change it again next week as soon as I can resume working.

Planet Stronghold: Warzone will obviously reuse the first game code, but with some improvements that will have a big impact on gameplay, like area of effect Psionic Powers. Even in this case luckily, I did most of the update last year, so there's "only" the story to write and the item/enemies. Still quite a lot of work, but should be done before the year ends (don't want to say this Summer even if I hope to)!

As promised, above you see a "sneak peek" of Joshua possible romances. What do you think? I believe the sequel will satisfy everyone and every tastes ;)

Nicole, (the Mystery/Otome game), Amber's Magic Shop and Roommates (set in college with all romance options available) will use Always Remember Me interface with some changes, so that each game will feel somehow unique. In Nicole I plan to put some clue system, in Amber there will be a potion brewing simulation, and in Roommates you'll be able to take different jobs based on some of your statistics.

Heileen 3: New Horizons will use a scheduler similar to Flower Shop games. There won't be any farming simulation, but other mechanics. Some coding will be required, but at it's core is a Visual Novel, since the first two games were "pure" Visual Novels I didn't want to transform it into something too complex. There will still be stats, relationship system and other things though :)

In the image above you see Sebastian, the "new entry" and 4th male dateable character of the game. The artist Rebecca will be working during January-April of this year on the art for the game, I saw the preview of the romance CG for John - Heileen and is very interesting ;)

The "New" Games

If you follow me and knows all the various games I'm working on, you might have noticed that from the list above is missing both Undead Lily and Queen Of Thieves. That is because they are the games which will require more brainstorming, coding, and testing, since will use very different gameplay mechanics:

The Queen Of Thieves will use in part a map/life sim, but also several new gameplay methods. I have already in mind some interesting ideas for it, but I think will either find a coder for it, or if I need to code it myself will take some time... :)

Undead Lily is almost finished art-wise. It's missing only a few backgrounds but all the character art is done. However, I have an idea on how to make it, but I am almost certain that it cannot be done with Ren'Py (maybe using some black magic with the Sprites class... but I don't know how!). So I might even do this game with Flash or some other language. I had started making it already but I paused it, since I want to make the game the best I can.