Soon the gates of N'Mar Castle will open to the public

Today's blog post will be shorter, since as you might know I'm busy doing the final touches to Loren's expansion "The Castle Of N'Mar". I hoped to have it ready for the 15th August, but I didn't make in time. In reality it's not missing much, but we want to polish it and test well to make sure that there aren't stopping bugs early in the expansion.

I believe it's the last time will do such a non-linear RPG. For visual novels is much easier, but for a RPG is really a painful experience! Or do like Walking Dead game from Telltale (my favorite game this year) that is achieve non linearity through linearity. How is that possible?

Make a linear game that looks non-linear

In practice, doing a true non-linear plot in a RPG, with multiple solution quests is insane. The best example of this is Fallout. Typical scenario is: character A gives quest to kill character B. You stumble intoto character C and he says that he wants B dead too. Then (and here comes the fun) when you meet characte B, he makes a counter-offer: kill characters A,B and he'll give you a <insert precious rewards here>.

And the example above is just one of the simplest scenarios possible, when you don't have quests with multiple steps! Now, Fallout is one of the best RPGs series ever made, but honestly I don't think will do such a thing again in future.

For two simple reasons:

1. I'm not a multi-millionaire company with a team of 50 people :D and only testing all those multiple solution quests takes LOOOOOONG time!
2. I am not sure, in my specific case, that it can be better for players, since if I have the mutliple solution quests, the plot length will be necessarily shorter. And I think there's a solution to make a linear plot look less linear.

Point 1 is obvious, but what about point 2? I want to reconnect to Walking Dead game mechanics: you can have a story that while in practice in its structure IS linear, it appears not (or at least, appears that player's choices have a big impact on the game world).

For example in Walking Dead, during several key points you have to take "tough decisions". In one you have to decide if to attempt to save a person attacked by a zombie, or a kid nearby. No matter what you choose, the person dies - so you might think "bah not only the plot is linear, but the choice is even pointless". I know it might seem so, but in reality not! Because even if the outcome is the same, the characters related to that person and the kid will remember who you tried to save, and all the future dialogues will change to reflect that, resulting in a more immersive experience, so that the story won't feel linear at all.

I think that's the road I'll try to follow to make longer RPGs but still with several possible outcomes. And now, I'm going back working on Loren :)

Doing a sequel is not easy as it seems

...at least for indies who doesn't make games with the only goal of money! ;)

It's quite common in the mainstream gaming to see titles like Quake 4, Might & Magic 8, and so on. But in most cases  (not the one I mentioned though) the software house make sequels just to capitalize on the game name, maybe releasing a product that is even worse than the original.

Now, so far I only made one sequel which is Heileen 2. Guess what? sold worse than Heileen 1, even if in this specific case I know why (the story was too serious for the target market, indeed with Heileen 3 it will be much more light comedy).

With a visual novel or dating sim though is easier to make sequels, with a RPG like Loren or Planet Stronghold is much harder. I am making Spirited Heart sequel right now, and it's relatively "easy" - I'm going to keep all the old dateable boys and add more (maybe as expansion, not sure yet).

But what I mean is - adding extra characters in such games is just a matter of adding some dialogues, because there wasn't a "main plot". Each characters was a separate story, and since you can replay it several times to get all the endings, it was something very different from Planet Stronghold or Loren, where the characters were inserted in a main plot with an ending.

So I'm pretty sure that no matter what I'll do, some people will complain because character XYZ who they loved in the first game, isn't present in the second. Others will complain and demand that the sequel's story starts where the first game ended, remembering all the big choices they made and the characters they romanced. And so on. As you can see, making a sequel for a RPG is definitely not an easy task, unless you set it several years away in future (so you assume all the original characters are dead!).

I believed that yesterday I finally found the right romance setup for Loren sequel, which will happily feature almost all the romances of the first game, excluding only Karen. It was harder than it sounds, really!

As you can see in the image above, Mother Morte has a nice sense of humour

Regarding the expansion, just today I finished testing the Dwarven Mines, one of the new locations, and it seems well balanced. There is still some stuff to write and script (adding images to the story) but it seems that the expansion MIGHT be really out the 15th of August! I hope to talk about it in next Friday blog post :)

Castle Of N'Mar expansion is available on preorder!

The expansion

In case you missed the announcement in my newsletter last week, the Castle Of N'Mar, the expansion to my RPG Loren The Amazon Princess, is available to preorder here. For a limited time, until the expansion is officially released, the price will be of only $7.99.

I know what the next question is: when it will get released? Well, at the time I sent out the newsletter last weekend, I didn't really know so I said sometimes in August. Now, I got the last missing art piece and the texts/scripting is at a very good point, so I could even dare to say that an indicative date might be mid-August (for the beta version of course).

The expansion turned out to be much longer than expected, with 60,000 words of story and several new zones, enemies, quests, and so on. However we tried to experiment with some non-linear gameplay: some of the quests can be solved in several different ways, so you might not see all the possible outcomes on the first attempt (unless you save before each choice, of course!). So the game length might appear shorter than what I said, but is because there are multiple choices!

The sequel sneak peek

I know sounds odd to be talking about the sequel which will be out next year, but I just got some images of the characters that will be present and I absolutely wanted to show them:

See the full gallery on Posterous

One is Rei in a more sexy pose, the other is Breza who was a secondary character in the first game, but will have a much bigger role in the sequel ;) For those interested, Rei is GxB only while Breza is GxG only (being a true Amazon...). There are of course more characters for all possible love combos.

I won't talk more about the sequel since there will be time for that! I just wanted to show you the new coloring style that will be used in the sequel, comparing the "old image" with the new one.

Codesign crazyness

As of July 25, the new Mac OS "Mountain Lion" is out. If you have installed it, none of my mac games will run by default (and I suspect those of thousands other indies).

While I believe I found a solution to codesign the apps, for now know that you can just turn off the infamous "Gatekeeper" in the System Preferences and play my games just fine, knowing you're safe like you were before, since my games are indeed clean of trojans/virus/spywares :)

To turn it off, open System Preferences, then click on Security & Privacy, and in General tab click Allow applications downloaded from: Anywhere.

I'm honestly not sure how many people have upgraded to the new MacOS yet, but in the next months I'm going to reupload all my games signed and updated with the new Ren'Py version that will include a much practical autoupdater!

Meanwhile if you also want to test if my codesigning works, I uploaded a signed app here: http://www.winterwolves.net/SpiritedHeartTrial.zip

It's time for a Spirited Heart 2

If you follow me since long time you might remember that I was talking about Spirited Heart 2 in past years. In my original idea, I wanted it to be some kind of online game, a free to play maybe or with some multiplayer gameplay elements.

And because of that, I was postponing it year by year, despite having all the background and art needed. I kept saying "well this year I don't have enough knowledge or the right tech, but next year...".

Result? After waiting for so long, I am still not ready to make a game like that. But most importantly, I don't think I would even have fun doing it! So, after I got an overwhelming response for my "writers wanted" twitter message, I thought to ask one of the writers to take care of Spirited Heart sequel.

I think I was doing a mistake to postpone this game for so long. I was a bit brainwashed by the success stories of other people doing online/free to play games, but the reality is that I wouldn't know where to start and very likely I wouldn't enjoy doing it either :)

Anyway I decided to go for it. Of course won't be ready this year, because even if I was get all the texts in the next months, I will still need to think about the gameplay, and is very likely that will try at least to get the game done with the new engine so it can be played on iOS. But at least something is moving.

Here's a sneak peek/promo image featuring Ramas and Thofte, with the updated art:

(Ramas background is the graveyard by night in case you're wondering. It's one of the jobs of the game).

I also got the chance to hire again both the sprite and the background artist who did the image above to commission more art/content since I want the game to be a worthy successor to the original game.

About the other games, as I said found a new writer for Amber Magic Shop, got more art and totally hilarious scenes for Roommates, the latest images for Heileen3 yuri version (see image below)

And I think is all... ah no, actually there's the Loren expansion! Well not many good news about that since Aleema had hard time with the heat wave that hit the US even if she's trying to finish by end of month, and also I am still missing one colored sprite for the final scene of the expansion! :(

But with the help of another great writer I finally got the sequel's plot fully outlined so I started commissioning the new images for the game. Here's a lineart preview of one of the new playable characters, Breza, and an old acquaintance, Rei.

That's all for now, see you next Friday!

Amber's Magic Shop sneak peek

This week was really busy working on the monkeycoder VN engine, burocratic/financial stuff and webdesign. Yes it wasn't really a great week even if togeter with a new writer (who seems really good) we managed to lay out the first draft of the main plot outline for Loren sequel - not the expansion, but the sequel that will be out not sooner than next year.

Why do that now? because the artist was free from previous tasks and also because making the art for the first game took almost 10 months, so better start in advance!! :)

Speaking of writers, and about the title of the post, unfortunately yesterday got an email from Lorelei, Amber's writer, who told me that for personal reasons she can't continue writing the game. I am sad but I wish her luck in her projects. They're doing a very interesting BxB game called Break Chance Memento, check the official website.

I've already got several submission from writer, I'm going to decide very soon who's going to write the game. Meanwhile check two juicy sneak peek (if you follow me on twitter you already saw them):

See the full gallery on Posterous

In the first image you see the possible romances. From lef to right: Daniel The Wizard, Stan the Noble, Bernard the Bounty Hunter and Ruby...the vampiress! :)

In the second image, you see other secondary characters: Lynn the herbalist, Manuel the adventurer, Vin the witch, Amber with the new look, Haros the wizard, Roy the noble (Stan's father) and Thomas who is Ruby's little brother.

The game will be a life/dating sim with a potion-making gameplay element. I thought about turning this into a RPG too but... I need to breathe :D maybe will add a resource / ingredients gathering minigame, but in general will be a dating/life sim.

As you noticed there are 3 GxB and 1 GxG romances, but each one has four different endings! Yes, because the game is based on the concept of Light (Good) and Darkness (Evil). Based on your choices during the game, you'll end up with one of the 4 possible "alignments": True Light, Light, Dark, True Dark, and the game endings will reflect that.

It's definitely a "serious" game with adult themes and some shocking scenes. The art for the game is almost all done, so I'm eager to have the plot fully written so I can code it :)

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 :)