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 ;)

The Roommates game

Those who're waiting impatiently for Loren expansion don't worry! We are working on it, but after my blog was monopolized by Loren for about 4 months, I decided to talk about one of my other games in progress: the dating sim set in college life called Roommates.

The setting

You play as Anne or Max and the game takes place in a house on-campus, the Latin House. Max is a singer and a rebel, his plan is to stay in school long enough to save up enough money through part-time jobs to get by without his parent's financial support, then drop out and start a ska band. Anne a small-town girl, studious but very shy and easily embarrassed, Anne thinks that college could be the fresh start she needs to break out of her shell. Her goal is to make at least three new friends while keeping her grades up.

The cast

They share the house with several other characters:

Isabella - A flirtatious Latina with a hardcore edge, she likes to party and have a good time, no strings attached. She wants to try everything at least once. Works at the coffee shop on campus. Openly bi.

Sally - A bleeding-heart, vegan activist girl with a cheerful demeanor, she's always picketing or putting solar panels on roofs or out getting people to sign petitions. She has a weak stomach for horror movies or anything with gore and can't say no to strays, even when you're technically not supposed to keep animals in your dorm room. Works on the college farm.

Rakesh - A chill Indian exchange student that doesn't let much get to him, he is an artist that believes that everything has the potential to be a canvas. Unfortunately, he doesn't always remember to ask for permission before making things into art, leading to some disasters involving other peoples' personal property. The male bi character.

Dominic - The RA (Resident Advisor, basically the person who makes sure people in the dorm aren't breaking major school rules) and a former child prodigy, he considers college serious business and disapproves of most of what the wilder members of the house would consider fun. His rule is iron-fisted, but his ability to keep everyone corralled is probably the only thing stopping the place from burning to the ground. Works as a Teaching Assistant for the lower-level Physics classes.

Plus there will be more secondary characters that will have a role on the story. 

Gameplay

The game is divided into three quarters, with two big breaks (Winter and Spring breaks) and each quarter is made of 6-7 weeks. During each week, some events will trigger and you can choose if to participate to the event or skip it (to save energy for job/studying).

There are 8 different endings in total, each ending is made of a scene CG + kiss CG, sneak peek below:

Max will be able to get an ending with Anne, Sally, Isabella or Rakesh (BxB)

Anne will be able to get an ending with Max, Rakesh, Dominic or Isabella (GxG)

Current progress

The art is at very good point, missing only the backgrounds and the secondary characters. The writing is still at the early stages (first weeks) but since it's a big game will take a while before is finished. The setting is light-comedy with LOTS of fun moments. Think something like the tv show: How I Met Your Mother, to be clear :)

The big change of my future visual novels and dating sims

I am in process of switching to a custom engine made in Monkeycoder language that will allow me to simultaneously release the games for Pc,Mac,Flash/HTML5,iOS and Android (and in theory PSVita, if I really wanted to, but I doubt it). However, it still needs to be finished and tested and will need some more time. But at this point I am thinking to create all the future visual novels / dating sims with the new engine, instead of doing them in Renpy to have to recode them again.

I decided to take this route because at this point seems obvious that none of my games will ever appear on Steam, the only way to make good money with visual novel / dating sims (or any other indie game to be honest). So to survive I am trying this new route that at least gives me more exposure through web and the various appstores, and still grants my usual direct sales as before :)

That means that the imminent new releases this year will mostly be the RPGs, including Loren expansion and Planet Stronghold sequel, since for those I can't use monkeycoder yet, building a RPG engine takes a lot of time! Speaking of Loren expansion, you can see a promo image below:

That is all for now. Have a good weekend!

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 :)

Queen of Thieves customers

In the image above, my cat Leon seems almost in a meditation pose :)

So, who will be the customers of the game Queen Of Thieves? Take a look below:

See the full gallery on Posterous

Yes, I was talking about the in-game customers! For those unfamiliar with the game (which is still work-in-progress) it will feature a shop simulation similar to the popular Recettear game. But one thing that annoyed me a bit of that game was the fact that there were only 3-4 different customer appearances :) So in my game I asked the artist to draw a sort of doll-dressing game, and as you can see, the combinations can be a lot.

The main variations are by body shape (normal, fat, old) and by social status (poor, middle clas, noble, guards, priest, wizard). And of course there are several minor variations based on face shape, hair and beard color/shape and hats.

Beside the example above, there will also be female customers of course!

The writing is being done right now and art-wise there is really not much left to do. The game will be a bit different from my usual ones, even if I haven't yet decided how I'll do the mission part. I would like to use a sort of 2d boardgame view, where you move your characters in a sort of turn-based strategy game.

I am not sure yet if I'll also include RPG battles, even if the temptation is strong, since I have lots of armor/clothing/weapons ready to use, but the playable characters would be max 3 (the three sisters Joanne, Kira and Thalia) so it would be a somewhat simplified RPG.

So in theory it could be an otome life simulation game with strategy and RPG elements :D I don't want to rush things with this one since I have anyway other games in production, so I'd like to experiment a bit with a different gameplay system. Time will tell, as always!

The other games

Meanwhile, all the other games I announced are progressing, and we're waiting for the UI/skills/items art to finish an alpha build of LorenRPG to release it to public to get feedback about the battle system. I think it could be ready next month, so stay tuned.

Promotional sale

Promo sales: this week promo sale is of the game College Romance: Rise Of The Little Brother that is only 4.99 until Sunday (included).

there WILL be a Heileen 3

In the picture above, my black cat. It was the first one of my pets to be included in a game of mine. He is "Black" the cat in Heileen 1-2. We call him Batman, but for obvious copyright reasons I couldn't use that name in Heileen games! :D

Incredible how time flies. It was October 2010 when I made a blog post where I was thinking about doing a third (and very likely last) episode of my Heileen series. And now, almost one year later, I've decided to make it for real. Last year I was dubious because the main artist of the game (and of all my early visual novels / dating sims) Rebecca Gunter, is now working fulltime as webcomic author (it has always been her dream) and last time we spoke she said that unfortunately she doesn't have a minute of free time, since she is busy working on THREE webcomics at once (she reminds me of a certain indie author who has several running projects...lol).

So I started asking around, since in theory I have all the sprites needed to make the story, what I'm missing are the ending scenes. However, talking with other indies and customers, everyone agreed that is enough that the style is similar and the CG scenes should be fine. CG scenes are the one displayed as the end, as "prize". It occurs to me that none of the Heileen games had ending scenes with custom art, because at those times was just starting and had a much limited budget for each game... but Heileen 3 will have them for sure, since is the last chapter I want to make something very good.

As replacement for the CG scenes I'm going to use Loren RPG artist (who is working right now on the last scenes for that game). As you can see from the image below, the style is very similar and should be fine :)

Reading again the old post, I had lots of ideas. Obviously I'm not going to do them all, but all I can say is that Heileen 3 won't be a normal visual novel, like the previous ones. I want to add at least a simulation gameplay element, after all at the start of the story we are in a pirate ship, so... plenty of interesting options for Heileen, don't you agree? :)

I would also like to keep the idea of the Good and Evil choices that was present in the second episode, so that you get different endings based on what you do, on how you behave towards other people and which moral/ethical decisions you'll take.

Similarly to my most recent games, I plan to have both straight and homosexual relationships. In previous episodes of Heileen, you couldn't pursue many love interests, but this time I'll try to expand the number. For the straight GxB endings, Marcus and John are the ideal candidates, and for the homo GxG obviously Marie and... surprise :)

Beside improving romance, I want also to do a management section with all the characters present in the story. Each character would have a role on the ship and give you a bonus. The main idea is this: you start your search to find the other missing people, and as you get them, they join you aboard and give you gameplay bonuses. For example "recruiting" Marco will give a bonus to cooking, Jack will increase woodcutting and maybe also will give a hand during struggles... and so on. I want to keep also the quest system present in the first two games and have more variety of quests. It looks almost like a RPG, but in reality I think is more accurate to say it will be a dating sim with island exploration/colonization. Something like that, I have yet to define the details!

For the Visual Novels "purists" don't worry, I will include also a "super mega easy" playing mode, so that basically you'll be able to play it almost as if it was a standard plain visual novel!

Spirited Heart Girl's Love: the elven girls

It's now the turn of the elf girls. In the video below you can see Thym: I'm sure that many people will consider her the most annoying of the characters, since she is quite snob and spoiled. However, the romance plot with her is full of cool moments (like "impossible love"), because in the second part of the romance (when you work as maid in her villa) you discover that you have some "serious competition"... :)

Leah's path instead is very different. I think is also probably the most original character of the game. She's older than all the other girls, and I think the sprite manages to picture her perfectly, a very classy and cute person who is excessively obsessed by her age, thinking that she doesn't look attractive like she once was... Also Leah's personality is dominant, and this will lead to very interesting (and different) choices in particular if you choose the elf (she will submit to her) or the demon (she will become the dominant one, obviously!).

I also got some very good news related to my other games in development. Not only Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook should be out at end of this month, but the artist of the game Queen Of Thieves, which I announced back in February (time flies!) is finally back and he is working fullspeed to recover the lost time. Below you can admire a few of the many clothing combinations possible for Joanne, the wizard:

Can the free to play business model work for story-based games?

In case you haven't noticed, the whole games market is moving towards the so called "Free to play" business model. It started in the asian countries and now it seems that it's going to be the "next big thing". On Facebook games is already the "norm".

How it works? quite simple. Instead of having the traditional time/feature limited demo and one-time fee to get the game fullversion, here you can "in theory" play for free as long as you want. In practice, the gameplay is crafted in such a way that first draws you into the game, and then when you're just about to have fun, it starts cutting off your fun by telling you how lame you are because you didn't spend 500 "virtual gold" to buy a new horse, or how the "platinum membership" would make the game much more fun.

Personally I don't like it, I tried a few games but the fact that the designer had to design the gameplay around this system restrict the gameplay innovation. Indeed this system works well mostly on RPG (MMORPG) or strategy/simulation games. But what will happen to story-based games? Visual Novel, Dating Sims or maybe even just FPS with a good story like Max Payne or Assassin Creed?

I really don't think is possible to successfully implement this in a heavy story-driven game. What would you do, show one chapter at time and ask for a small microtransaction every chapter? why don't just ask people to "pay upfront" the amount and be done with it? or in a dating sim for example, ask $5 each dateable character? what would be the fun in spending $5 to date only 1 character in a game? it seems quite silly to me, especially since we're talking about very low amount of money. I don't need to make again the classic example that if you go out with friends to watch a movie you easily spend in drinks, fuel, and extras x2-3 times the amount of a regular indie game ($20) and have fun for one day, instead of weeks or in some cases months.

And in all other F2P games you can play free, but in practice the experience is so awful that either you pay nothing, play a few hours/days and quit, or you decide to invest your time (and money) in the game and then you'll easily exceed $20 ... by a lot! That's fine of course, everyone can do what they want with their money.

But speaking about a possible implementation of F2P in story-based games, my answer it's still: no. I really think it wouldn't make much sense at all.

Also I really don't believe that in few years ALL games (even RPG/strategy games) will become F2P. There are many downsides to that (being always online, annoying multiplayer experiences, the worst value for money as player, lots of maintenance as developers, possible hackers attack, and I could go on) and in general not everyone wants to make a game that has severe gameplay/game design restrictions. At least, I hope! :)

And now enough talking about the game business and here are some news about the current games in development!

Spirited Heart Girl's Love

That's how I'm going to officially call the Spirited Heart expansion. I will also change the purchase options: you can buy either the "normal" version or the Girl's Love for $19.99, or if you have already bought the original game the expansion will cost $9.99. If you don't have either and you buy them together, the final price will be $29.99 (so still only $9.99 more than the normal version). The game will expand the original one with 6 different (and unique!) dateable girls and also the endings reflect your race now (even for the males). So if you were disappointed by Frebo ending in the original game, this time pick a human or even better a demoness and you'll see that will be better :)

See the full gallery on Posterous

The Spirited Heart expansion is at very good point (all plot is finished) and will be surely out by August if not sooner.

Loren The Amazon Princess

Things are going well: I decided was time to ask the help of someone that knows coding better than me, and we're building up a RPG Framework so that I can reuse it for future titles. As you can see from the gallery screen below, the game interface is taking shape and we'll have a skilltree with several specializations, a full inventory with many equippable slots (yes I changed my mind about the inventory!) and a very good quest screen, with the possibility of having sub-quests (so more powerful than the Planet Stronghold one for example).

See the full gallery on Posterous

While things are going forward at good speed, because this game will use a completely new system will need good testing and also the plot still needs to be written in good part, so it's very unlikely that I'll have even just beta preorders before September (and even that is an optimistic date). Much will depend on artist/writer/coder speed as always!

Finally, I want to leave you with a nice graph showing all the romance possibilities of Loren RPG:

Karaoke contest winner and Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook update

It was a while since I last posted a picture of my cats, so here's Otello in a very uncomfortable pose...! And here are the latest news:

The Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook release date

I know last week I said that on next blog post (this one) I could have made an official announcement... well, I am making one but unfortunately is not the beginning of the pre-orders ! As some of you that follow Sakevisual blog already know, Ayu (the writer of the game) had a car accident while driving back from a convention. She's fine but need to rest, so the game release is going to be delayed by a few weeks. We hope at end of this month to have at least the pre-orders though, since there isn't really much left to do!

As you can see from the portraits below, even Natalie was shocked when she heard the news!

And now for some good news:

Always Remember Me karaoke contest winners!

The winners have been already notified, I waited some days to see if Cristina Vee could make a video announcement but she's too busy right now so I'm officially posting the winning videos on my blog. I have to say that was amazed when I listened to them (and also to many other videos submitted), the response was awesome! Thank you everyone <3

Note that the winners are in no particular order. All 3 deserve fame and glory, this isn't a ranking, I just list them in random order:

For masterful singing and mixing, especially impressive use of transposition and harmony. A natural and credible rendition from a male vocalist.

For vocal creativity, spot-on harmony, and dynamic mixing. We especially loved her "lalala" melody during the introduction.

For an endearing and youthful vocal presence. Bringing earnestness and a beautiful vibrato, this emerging talent shows a lot of promise.

 

Winter In Fairbrook – Meet Ryan

This is the last blog post about Winter In Fairbook cast, and I'm pleased to introduce you Ryan, the only male character what wasn't present in the main game. As you can see from this video, he doesn't seem to take himself in much consideration, thinking that talking about his personal life is not an interesting subject. I have the impression that Natalie will have to try her best to get something out of this boy!

Anyway, we discover some information about him: that he studies biology in a college out of state, and he doesn't live in Fairbrook all year round. Since he runs the general store of Fairbrook, and that's where Natalie can buy lots of stuff including flower seeds, I'm sure that our heroine will have many more occasions to talk with him again.

Lastly I have some good news about the game release. Since Sakevisual wants to sell this one at the June conventions in USA, is very likely that a pre-order version will be available before next weekend. Of course, the best way to keep up with the latest news is to follow me on twitter or facebook.

Winter In Fairbrook - Meet Trent

Trent is Susana's "big brother" (in all senses!) and when Natalie first meet him we discover that now he works at the library, helping Marian (one of the dateable characters of the first game) in her duties. Though as Natalie immediately notices, he seems a bit too happy for someone that's working! Right, usually people who work are not in a such good mood... there must be something else! But what? ;) Sorry I think you'll have to play the game to discover it...!

With this video we have almost discovered all of the characters of Winter In Fairbrook. The only one left is the "new entry" (not seen before in the first game) Ryan. Watch this blog next Friday to see who we're talking about. I don't want to reveal too much but his ending scene (maybe because of the setting, or the situation itself) is one of my favourite of the game :)

Winter In Fairbrook - Meet Jacob

After Steve now it's the turn of Jacob! This very nice, polite, shy guy was present in the first episode as well, and he had a crush for another member of the cast... (won't say which one just in case someone still haven't played it. By the way, what are you waiting for?).

In this scene, you can already feel how innocent and good he is. Natalie seems not to understand his reasons, why he always must help everyone, why he is doing it for free... and it's just my impression, or Natalie is a bit jealous of Susana? ;)

I also wanted to answer some questions that users made in previous blog posts or on Youtube. Even if Steve scene has mouth animation, the game won't be voiced. The lip animation was added at last minute as test, so we're not even sure it will be present in the final game! Indeed today's video with Jacob doesn't have it. About the length, it's slightly longer than the first game, so if you played it you have a good idea of what to expect. The farming / flower raising sim will be easier and differently from the first title won't have an impact on the endings.

About the release date, we're trying hard to release the game for the end of this month, or at least the pre-order version, since indeed there isn't much time left...! :)

Winter In Fairbrook - Meet Steve

Here it is! The first video I want to show you of Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook is about Steve, the character who was the protagonist of the first game:

When I first wrote the main plot draft of the first Flower Shop (Summer In Fairbrook) game, Steve was the typical lazy, playboy, irresponsible boy who every girl is mad for, but very few girlfriend would want :) And it's fun to see how it has changed in the sequel. This second game is completely written by Ayu, even the plot, and when she told me how Steve would be different, I thought "that's a nice idea". Natalie (the main character of Winter In Fairbrook) meets him in a funny way, as you can see. From the first dialogues you immediately understand he is another person now: not only he tries to come to Fairbrook as often as he can, but now he really cares about his uncle Sam! Those who played the first game know how much conflictual was their relationship, especially in the beginning.

And while he still has unsolved issues with his father, he is much more responsible and helpful to the others than what it was before. I'm really curious to see how the Steve-Natalie relationship will blossom... ;)

p.s. as you might notice this time I made the usual "Friday post" one day late. I had some serious problems with PC and the only solution was to reinstall Vista. I used to brag that I never had to reinstall Windows in the last 4 years, but seems like yesterday my system had enough and wanted a "clean install". Was a good test for my backup/restore system though, since I didn't lose a single email/file :)

Always Remember Me competition!

Today I am officially announcing the game Always Remember Me with a press release, and also starting a karaoke competition.

Do you like anime? Manga? Video games? Music?? Win a free copy of 'Always Remember Me' video game by doing your best performance of the Cristina Vee theme song! Check the official game video below:

The contest rules are very simple. Go to this page: http://www.winterwolves.com/alwaysrememberme_competition.htm

1. Sign up for Winter Wolves newsletter (you can unsubscribe anytime) - this step is essential since we'll announce the winners through the mailing list, so if you're not subscribed you might miss the winning notification!
2. In the contest page you'll find download links for the karaoke track and the lyrics
3. Record your best karaoke vocal performance of 'Remember Me' song. MP3 or YouTube / Facebook video links are both acceptable formats (though videos are preferred).
4. Let us know about your work. You can find email / contacts info on the competition page, but if you made a Youtube or Facebook video the best way is to post a message about it on winterwolves facebook page
5. the competition deadline is 31st May 2011 at midnight GMT. So you have one full month to send your entry!

Judging:

Entries will be judged based on quality of musical performance, production, entertainment value and overall quality.

Prizes:

Top 3 winners will win a free copy of the game 'Always Remember Me.'

Top 3 first prize winners will also have their song or video featured on Winterwolves website, in the official game page.

 

And now, lets see what's coming in next months...

Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook - work in progress new screenshots!

Of course, the next game to be released in collaboration with Sakevisual is Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook. As you can see from the beautiful pictures below, chibis are going to dominate the life/dating sim world! :)

See the full gallery on Posterous

For now all I can show is those two screenshots, but from mid-May I should also be able to start uploading some gameplay / scene videos on youtube. Stay tuned for more news also about my other games (roleplay, sports sim, strategy)!

new otome game release and plans for the future

Good news: Always Remember Me is out of pre-order phase and now the difficulty problem has been solved. The game now on start-up will offer your two playing mode: the Hard mode is the previous one, with some minor adjustments, and is the right choice for dating sims experts. The Normal mode instead is aimed at casual players who I'm sure will appreciate the much reduced failure rate when trying the actions inside the life simulation part!

Of course you will still need to find the right actions to do, and the correct "path" for each character. Some scenes are very well hidden requiring you to be at a specific day/time on a specific place. I will probably write a sort of walkthrough on my forums later next week (since the game is just out I don't want to spoil the fun!!).

In case you haven't tried the game demo yet, check it now: http://www.winterwolves.com/rememberme.htm

(and yes, I changed only slightly the name adding "Always", to differentiate the game title from the movie).

In this week cats picture, Gilda and Grillo are sleeping peacefully together.

As indie developer instead, I can never sleep so peacefully! Numerous dangers lurk in the night... portals lowering price so much that soon they'll start paying people to play games, your server that goes down after hackers attack at midnight, some mysterious new bug appear in your latest released game and so on! But... the most feared of all is surely this: artists that disappear in the middle of development process! :D

Almost every indie I know had this problem, exception for those that use professional teams (but I've heard some problems even in those cases). Also most games don't really need much art like visual novels/dating sims, or even better just need 3d models: in this case you can commission them even from different people, since in 3d is much harder to notice a difference in style (while in 2d is immediately evident).

Anyway I'm not here to complain, but I find myself in a fun situation, where I have lots of story texts and game design ready for 3-4 games, but they're all on hold because of artists. Not everyone disappeared, some of them just took a break, others are busy doing commissions for other people (this is last time I give away my artists contacts!) , other moved full-time into comics and so on. That's why I start so many projects at once, unless you're making a game where you just need a few portraits (thinking about the RPGMaker XP games haha) is really hard to be sure that the person you hired for 2-3 months of will finish everything as planned.

I just finished 3 games this year so now I'm taking a break to see what I can do next. I think I could probably start working on the sequel of Spirited Heart. It has all the art done, but I wanted to wait until I was skilled enough to do a online game using Monkey (a new language that allows people to code games for HTML5/Flash without knowing JS/AS3). Problem is... I'm too used to Ren'Py now, and any other language looks too slow to develop with! :)

I really cannot imagine myself coding in something where I cannot immediately test the changes I just made with a keystroke to reload all the script, like I do with Ren'Py. That's just too much time-saving! The only other thing I know that can do that is VisualC, the system I was using before, but that would mean to leave out Linux from the target platforms and I don't like that, since I'd like to support my "penguin friends" :)

Speaking about that, a friend of mine, Neil (who runs a successful zombie-MMO) told me an interesting thing:

the question is, if you were to use Flash for example, would the result be anywhere near as good as with python? How much longer would it take? If it's going to take 2x longer then I'd say stick with what you know since I doubt the difference in conversions between web player and download will be more than 50%.

sometimes you really need an external point of view to fuly realize the situation, the pro and cons. That's why I always ask for advice and feedback for my games and my choices in general, because it really helps. My friend is basically right, it's not use to me to try making a game using another language if takes me x2-3 time more than just using Ren'Py and python (even if that means I need to have that damn auto-updater done!).

For now I'm still thinking how to design the game - probably there will be a normal offline part, and then a big online integration, though since I'm new to all of this I have to see how it works, and if I can actually make it without going mad :)

Meanwhile, the other projects like Loren RPG are on hold (even if the story is about 30% finished), while Planet Stronghold's add-on should  (not completely sure yet) see the light around July/August, since the artist said she would take time to finish the new images, even if she is quite busy with convention and school. Undead Lily game is also slowly progressing, but there's still a lot of art to be done, so probably won't be done quickly.

The only thing that's 100% sure to come out is Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook, since all the art is done, and will be released before the summer. More info about the game coming soon in the next weeks!

Remember Me pre-orders available!

Those who follow my blog/twitter might know that I've been working since beginning of March on a new otome dating / life simulation game called "Remember Me". I am probably going to change the game name when is officially released with "Always Remember Me" just to avoid confusion with a movie that was out last year (not for copyright reasons since are completely different things).

So, today can announce that the game is officially available as pre-order! Some of you might wonder what does it means? It means that the game is complete, but there might be some small bug, or some unbalanced gameplay or other minor text errors. But since I've been getting numerous request to play this game as soon as possible, I decided to open a beta pre-order stage: you pay and can start playing the game immediately, and if you want you can help to improve it by posting feedback/suggestions in the game's own forums which you can find here. Obviously, once you buy you're entitled to lifetime free upgrades, so you'll be able to redownload the final version without bugs.

Also the first 50 pre-orders will benefit of a generous 20% discount simply entering the following coupon code on the order page: BOIO000X9

Check the official game page - where you can find more information and download the beta demo to play the game!

I plan to have the game on pre-order until the end of the month, when I really should be able to make the official release: considering that the game, while very detailed, is surely not as complex as Planet Stronghold who required almost 1 month and half of playtesting!.

The making of Remember Me

The main game idea was born last summer, while my girlfriend was watching an episode of the TV series "Ghost Whisperer". I don't follow it so I'm not sure if those were main characters or anything, but basically there was a man who lost his memory and forgot who was his girlfriend, and his girlfriend for some reason couldn't force him to remember. I found this situation particularly interesting from the storytelling point of view, so immediately started to brainstorm about a possible otome dating sim plot.

This time I decided to outsource all the games texts (most of it anyway) to external native English speaker so there would be less grammar/texts mistakes, and I think it was a wise decision, since it also allowed me to concentrate more on the gameplay, which is much more advanced than other dating sim I made in the past. In practice, there is a full life simulation game, with several places and several activities to do, which can change based on your current energy/morale levels, on your skills, on specific plot conditions, on week of the day, and more! :D

So one of the key aspect of the game is that the players will have to explore the game world and discover all the secrets, to find the best tactics to win the hearts of the four dateable characters. Of course the "best ending" would be the one that reunites Amy and Aaron, but being a dating sim I have also to allow the player to pursue other boys :) I also think all the boys have distinct personalities, and you'll have lot of fun discovering them in the various scenes where you'll have to pick a choice to influence their relationship.

I must admit I had lot of fun coding this game, thinking about all the possible various activities on each place, and then putting together all the scenes at the right moment/place. If the game will be successful, I have already in mind another story which can use the same gameplay system :)

Is going to be a hot spring

In the picture above, Lilli sleeping over some straw :)

Spring is my favourite season. The blossoming flowers, the nature that wakes up, warm but not too hot climate (at least, for now) and so on. They say that the season you like most, is the season you're born in. Indeed, next monday will be my birthday...so maybe is true! I have lots of things going on, so this post is going to be made in form of "news". First news is...

Loren to be a manga game too

Yes, after thinking about it a lot, and after seeing that the actual comic author wasn't doing a great job (sigh...) I've decided to use manga art even for this game. I am not sure yet who will do the art but is likely will be the same artist of Undead Lily, so I'll need to finish that game first (since artist still need to do a lot of art for that game).

I realized I was about to make the same mistake I made with Vera Blanc, but at least this time I changed direction in time ;)

I'm also going to change the gameplay, from card-rpg battle to some more real-time stuff and perhaps even isometric battlefield! But right now is too early to talk about it, since the game is officially on hiatus for now.

Remember Me out very soon + new title!

My new life / dating sim will be almost surely out for pre-orders next weekend! I have finished testing the romance arc of Lawrence, so there are only 3 more characters to check. Obiously the pre-order version might contain a few bugs and some unbalanced gameplay, and the texts won't be completely proofread, even if the main story was written by a native English speaker, so there are only minor things that aren't proofread.

Yesterday spent the whole day testing it and I believe is going to be a good game, the "normal" endings are easy enough to get, once you find the right dialog choices (like in my other games) but the special ones are going to be tricky. You'll need to understand which actions raises which stats, and is going to be fun to discover them all (some happens only at specifc day/hour).

A less positive note: I'll have to change the game name, since I just discovered that a movie from 2010 has the same name "Remember Me" :( Couldn't have they waited 1 more year before releasing it?!!? Anyway, I'm open to any suggestion, though I am thinking to simply add a subtitle or use something like "Will you Remember Me?" or something similar. Will suck compared to the original title, but unfortunately have to change it...

Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook out... this summer!

Technically might be out even this Spring, since Summer starts the 21st June and if I understood well, Ayu of Sakevisual wants to have the game ready by the first days of June :) You can see a nice gallery of pictures of the game below... this otome game is going to be quite interesting!

See the full gallery on Posterous

So far the word count amounts at around 25,000 words, which is not bad already. There is going to be the usual farming sim, this time with flowers instead, but have yet to discuss about this with Ayu so don't know exactly how it will be done. More detailed information about this game will come in the next weeks!

So... what's the plan again?

The new release schedule is:

Mid-April - Remember Me pre-orders
End-April -  Remember Me Official Release

End-May or Early June - Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook

I'm going to list only the games almost ready from now on, since for the others in production many things can happen that can change completely the schedule. I'm also probably going to find the time to release an add-on for Planet Stronghold sometime before next Summer! Featuring the so-much-requested romance options: Lisa - Prince Cliff and Joshua - Queen Shiler!

Loren Amazon Princess game features revealed!

In the picture above, a big close-up picture of my cat Nina. I wanted her to be present in the game Remember Me, but she's quite hard to draw. The resulting sprite inside the game only vaguely resembles her... :)

Today will talk mainly of the decisions I'm making for my next RPG called "Loren - the amazon princess". But first a quick update about my next otome / life sim game:

Remember Me

Things are going smoothly - all the texts are done, and are being proofread again (even if they were already written by a native English speaker!). I have still to link all the events together, make sure everything works as it's supposed (some scenes happens only after others) and other minor things, but seems very likely that will be able to do pre-orders at mid-April! :)

Loren - the amazon princess

In the picture below, the two playable characters: Saren, the human male slave and Elenor, the elf female slave.

I am still writing the plot/storyboard that then will be transformed into script by writers. But I want to talk about the rules first. I'm still brainstorming the ideas but that's what I have so far:

1. shared inventory. After finishing Planet Stronghold, I had the chance to play some recent RPGs and... well, having a separate inventory for each character is really bad :( In this game, I'll have a shared inventory!
2. character customization. Each character will have access only to a specific weapon, like Dragon Age 2. I know this might sound limiting, but in my case I'm doing this for budget reasons: having different sprites drawn with each possible weapon is out of discussion. I think though that it makes more interesting the gameplay and gives each character a specific set of skills related to his weapon choice. For example, Loren will be a massive damage dealer: she uses two swords (dual wield power!) and does tremendous critical strikes. The downside of course is that she'll have low HP, but thankfully your player character will be a healer!
3. character creation. Again, not much freedom for race and name - for plot reasons you'll have ot be either Saren (human male slave), or Elenor (elf female slave). Also, you'll be a healer. You might wonder then "wtf I cannot even choose my class!". Yes, but you'll be able to choose the specialization skills. Even if you're primarily a healer, at low level, as you go on you'll be able to become several different things: a sort of Templar (warrior/healer) that fight and also heal a bit, a sort of Druid (wizard/healer) who can cast offensive/buff spells and heal a bit, or you can choose to keep your path and become a powerful healer. So as you see, you still have a choice at later levels
4. skill system. I absolutely fell in love with the multiple tree/branches skills! I want to use that method in this game. I have already started designing them and I'm quite happy so far about the variety and results. Each character will have a common skill based on the class (warrior, magic user, scout) and a unique personal skill set, so each character will be somehow unique :) I think this feature should make the game much more replayable since you might want to experiment with all the various characters skills.
5. romance. There will be of course romances subplots! The main one will be between Loren and your Playable Character, but I plan also to allow some other romance between other minor characters. They'll be optional like in Planet Stronghold, but I'm not sure yet they'll have specific quest too.
6. endings. I'd like also to have several different endings, I mean quite different between each other. But is perhaps still a bit too early to talk about this (also, I won't really talk about this since don't want to make spoilers!)
7. battle system. This game is more for the "hardcore fans" than casual RPG player, so I'm thinking to move from the first person view of Planet Stronghold and try some card-RPG battle view. You can see a very ugly looking (hey it's programmer's art) test layout below:
   
   
   I'm going to do this for several reasons: more epic battles, you can fight against 12 goblins if you want :D Also, more tactical choices and the position will influence the battle. The first rows will be the one in direct contact, but all the heroes in the second rows won't be directly attackable by enemies unless they have ranged attacks. Also, I can have area of effect spells/skills, and you can swap positions of the heroes, like move in the back lines if your fighter is injured to heal him, and so on. Will be much more fun I think, even if inevitably is going to make battle more complex (but as I said, I think the target market for this kind of game will appreciate it).

That's all for now, as you can see there's already quite some features to talk about ;)