Heileen 3 now available for preorder!

I put up the preorder page here: http://www.winterwolves.com/heileen3.htm

Please note that the game beta demo is not yet available for download!

However, it should be this Sunday, 9th December 2012. Once the demo is available, you'll only have to download it and enter your email to activate the full game, and start playing the beta version.

Of course if you prefer you can preorder and then wait for the game to be officially released since during the beta there might still be some bugs present.

I decided to put the page up now since I got some requests from people to be able to preorder earlier, so there you go. I also put a special version with extra bonus content, since the game has 6 custom audio tracks (1 theme song + 5 audio tracks). In the bonus content you also get the game chibi at higher resolution, several wallpapers images, and some exclusive images from Heileen 2 at higher resolution. The extra content is immediately available, so you can listen to the music while you wait for next Sunday ;)

Apart the extra content, there is no difference between the base game and the one with the bonus content.

In the video above you get an idea of the gameplay including the raising sim, the Virtues/Sins system and more.

Excuse me for the very short post, but I'm going back to work now to make sure the demo is available next Sunday!! :)

Heileen 3 will be coming this Autumn

Or at least that's the plan! :)

I was undecided until the last time if to use the new Monkeycoder engine, or stick with the good old Ren'Py. In the end, I realized that even using the Monkeycoder engine would still require me to learn a new language and right now I really don't have time to do it.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to get my games on iOS too someday, but it has been a very tiring year so far, and I want to relax. I find Ren'Py much more powerful than Monkeycoder to prototype anyway, so I can always port the game later once is done.

So I started working on Heileen 3 a few days ago. As you know, the plot is all finished (at least the otome part) but it still needs all the scripting (placing sprites) and also is missing a good amount of backgrounds, which will commission soon.

So depending how faster the background artist will work, and how faster I'll script the scenes, the game might be out around this Autumn. It's not an official date, more what I hope to achieve! It would be great because the first Heileen game was out in October 4 years ago and releasing the third chapter would be a good way to celebrate the anniversary!

Meanwhile, if you are curious about Loren's expansion official release date, you'll be pleased to hear that The Castle Of N'Mar (that's the name of the expansion) will be very likely ready very soon (probably mid-September). The testing so far is doing well and there are only some minor bugs left.

To know more, check this thread in my forums: http://www.winterwolves.net/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=2622

A final note, Steam Greenlight has opened and if you're one of those people who emailed me asking why my games aren't on Steam, now you can vote for them to appear. I submitted some games and will try to submit all the one I have made during next week: http://steamcommunity.com/id/winterwolves/myworkshopfiles/?section=greenlight

A tough week

Zeal, one of the many new characters you'll encounter in the expansion

This week was really a tough week!

First of all because I was literally burning in my office. 29°C for most of the day, even turning the A/C on the whole afternoon. Of course, it happened right when I decided to announce on Twitter/Facebook that the beta testing stage of Loren's expansion, The Castle Of N'Mar, was starting!

A tough week for those who played the beta and had to fight against lots of bugs. It was entirely my fault, since I decided to use the latest Ren'Py version to do the expansion beta, while I should have waited a bit more.

Now anyone familiar with coding knows well that using the latest version of any development tool is NOT a good idea, since it might still contain bugs... but I ignored that simple rule and the result was people having all sort of weird stuff happening (random crashes, variables not stored, load/save problems, etc).

So today in the latest beta version (1.1k) I decided to revert back to the previous Ren'Py version which hopefully should solve some of the bugs left. You can get the download links and latest info in my forums:

http://www.winterwolves.net/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=2622

Again this has nothing to do with Ren'Py which is still an awesome tool (my favorite) but to my silly idea of trying it so early.

My goal is to try finishing the beta testing by the end of the month. If you preordered the expansion but were waiting to see until was more stable, I think now should be a good moment to play since the amount of bugs left is really not big... you know every time I write such sentences  I'm a bit scared, but oh well :D

Other short news: Spirited Heart 2 writing is going at very good pace, I got a new writer that's going to review/fix/edit Nicole's script, Roommates is going to be the biggest game I've ever made (80k words and it's not even at 1/3 of the plot), Heileen 3 will be done first in Ren'Py and maybe later in Monkeycoder (this will require a new blog post to explain, maybe next week) so it should be out this October.

Deadlines

If you follow Loren RPG development on twitter and in my forums, you already know that I failed to met the deadilne of the new version for the 1st March. It was a self-imposed deadline, but I wanted to met it because I am used to keep my word, so I am a bit disappointed at myself...

However, I have a pretty good excuse for not meeting it! The version 0.8 which will be online maximum next weekend (10-11 March) will have LOTS of new features!

Just to name a few major changes (but there are many others):

- new resistance icons, say goodbye to my poorly drawn ones!
- new quick equip item from the character inventory (drag&drop would be too much, better to just use 1 single click!)
- you can now access inventory from the battle. Maybe less realistic, but many people asked for it and I admit is bad to restart a game/load a saved game only because you forgot to equip your character!
- new minigame by the writer Aleema, when you select your character: PC will tell the backstory of his/her slavery, and you choice will determine the starting statistics (a bit like my other game Spirited Heart)
- new redesigned battle UI. You can choose between big or small icons, and the left panel now shows target statistics or resistances. Added tooltips all around the battle to help players understand what's going on.
- added new playing style "Tactics". Player starts with 5 skills but get a new one every 3 levels rather than 2. Also eliminated all the level restrictions for the skills, since they higher ones are balanced by the higher SP requirement
- new "smart slot" system, so that you have a slot for weapon, a slot for offhand/shield, and a slot for ranged weapon. During battle you'll be able to attack (with appropriate penalties) using melee or missile as you prefer
- added city tasks and Fame system. Perform city tasks (predefined battles with specific rules) to get Fame. Fame helps in getting a discount on buying/selling items in the respective town's vendor
- added double-click to repeat the last action. This works both with offensive but also defensive skills, making the battle flow much faster!

I also made a video showing the new "Character Creation":

So that's all for now - stay tuned because next friday (if not sooner!) very likely version 0.8 will be out.

Heileen 3

I also want to talk about my other games, otherwise you might think that in 2012 I will release only Loren. But don't worry, have other more "casual" and "girly" games in the work! One of them, probably the most awaited, is Heileen 3, which is coming out very nicely. The dialogues are totally hilarious, and I can already say that is going to be one of my most funny games ever.

The artist Rebecca sent me also the last two romance endings, with Marie and Lora, and they're beautiful. Unfortunately, to see them you must wait until this summer when the game will be out! But I can already show you a sneak peek:

The one with Lora is really beautiful, with a field of sunflowers as background :)

The end is near!

No, I'm not talking about the Mayan prophecy :) Sadly, I'm not even talking about the Loren RPG, since I think will still take a few months before is finished.

I'm talking about two scary news I've read this week. They regard the upcoming MacOS Mountain Lion and Windows 8. As you might know, they both will come with a built-in appstore. But the scary news is that both will DISABLE BY DEFAULT "non signed" apps.

What does it means? It means that if you install the new MacOS and download one of my current games, you won't be able to play it. Of course, at least in those first new OS versions, there will be a work around. For Windows, you'll have to switch back to the "desktop mode", while for MacOS you'll have to enable the app by right clicking on it.

So, it's not as scary as it seems right? No, it is. First, because it's a first step towards a "walled garden", which will probably lead to the impossibility to run non-certified apps at all in future versions. Second, not all users are tech-savy, so for them running the app might become too much of a trouble, which means that my niche will become even smaller. Others might even not trust installing non-certified apps anymore, despite they are completely safe.

But it's not over yet, now comes the good part: from what I gathered reading those articles, even if I pay the annual fees to get my games certified (so they can run without any trick), Apple can still disable/ban any app remotely. Let's say I make another RPG game like Loren, which has some VERY HOT romance scenes at the end. Some users don't like that and complain. Apple might disable the game permanently! (not saying that they will for sure, but the possibility is there)

Of course, all of this is just a conjecture for now, and the danger is not imminent. I believe will take at least 4-5 more years before all of this will be very common. But still, the future is NOT promising at all.

Considering I sell mostly directly, I have really few options, and the most rational seems to abandon the downloads to move into webgames using HTML5 or Unity web plugin. I have to say that personally I DON'T like this, but is a kind of a forced choice. I don't want to make more games, knowing that in a not distant future they might become obsolete, forgotten. I'd like people to be able to play my games for years and years to come in an easy way, and right now using downloads it seems a very risky path.

Loren The Amazon Princess beta demo this weekend!

Anyway, for now I'll concentrate on finishing Loren RPG, since I definitely cannot port the game to another language now! Expect a demo tomorrow or Sunday. Will post the news on my twitter, on Facebook and will also send the newsletter.

How long will be the demo? Well, I am not sure if today will manage to finish chapter1 or not, but will try. In any case, considering you can take two paths early in the game (side with humans or elves) I believe that should be at least a few hours of entertainment.

As for the pre-orders I am not sure if I'll start them with the demo or wait a bit more. Is something that I will decide in the next days based on how much work I can put on the game before the demo is live.

Winter In Fairbrook beta is out!

As those who follows me and Sakevisual on twitter already know, Winter In Fairbrook beta was released about two weeks ago.

You can find out more about the game and download the beta version on the game official page: http://www.winterwolves.com/winterinfairbrook.htm

You can also pre-order the game if you want to buy it - the game is already quite stable, and a few minor bugs/typos were already fixed in those two days thanks to the wonderful feedback of some early purchasers. Thanks again for all the help, it will let us make better games! :)

While I didn't set a specific date for the final release I don't think there's much more to wait, probably a week maximum to check that there are no more typos/bugs, but that's it. And don't worry, this time I learned from my previous games and made the game much easier than Always Remember Me (though the last version of that game is a bit easier as well)!

The making of Winter In Fairbrook

It was a pleasure to work with Ayu Sakata and Beatriz García in the first title, who initially was simply called "The Flower Shop", but later we used "Summer In Fairbrook" to differentiate between it and the sequel.

The game was very well received back in January/February 2010 (seems so long ago to me!) and so when in the Summer 2010 I read on twitter that Beatriz García was out of work for the month of July, I immediately asked her if was interested in doing the art for the sequel (it was kind of a rhetorical question since she repeatedly said she would love to work on another game with that setting). This time though, we decided to have a female main character, Natalie. Even if the game can be played as stand-alone, it shares many characters and continues some plots from the first title so... the best is to play both! ;)

So I was saying, during July 2010, the art production of Winter In Fairbrook started. If I remember correctly, I got all the art finished around December/January. Beatriz García had some personal issues, so she didn't work as fast as she is doing recently. And then was the turn of Ayu to have bad luck! While coming back from a convention in June had a car accident, and other various real-life issues.

I'm not saying this to criticize them, not at all (they're both my friends), but to show to everybody who thinks that making a visual novel / dating sim (or any indie game for that matter) is really simple and quick how it is in reality. Unfortunately, bad stuff happens and it can really delay a game release considerably. I can say we wanted to get the game out by the Summer, but for a reason or another it wasn't ready until now!!

We're sorry for the delay, but I hope you'll think it was worth the wait! Personally I love the setting, the art, the writing, and the general mood of the game. The ending romance scenes are really cute and full of good feelings.

I can say that it's really the perfect title to play during Winter and Christmas Holidays, so if you're thinking about an original gift for someone... think about this :)

the year of the rabbit

Today was supposed to announce the release of Remember Me, but I had a last-minute problem with my dwarf rabbit Cleo that you see pictured above (nothing serious, only a minor surgery at the teeth). She's 9 years old and is quite a record for a dwarf rabbit!

So I won't be able to release the beta version of game today, but since the game is basically finished, I will spend 1 or 2 days to do some extra testing and make sure everything works as it should. Even if is just a beta pre-order I am a perfectionist and don't want to put something online in a rush ;)

As the title says, this year is the year of the rabbit in the Chinese Zodiac. Curiously, last year was the year of the Tiger, which is my sign in the chinese zodiac, but overall was one of the worst years since I was indie! This year luckily is much better, thanks also to my decision to switch from simple visual novels to some more complex life simulations and RPG games.

Well, that's it for now - check my twitter and watch this blog and my forums for the announcement of Remember Me pre-orders during this weekend!