computer games

Heileen first screens

I’ve finished the first 2 chapters of the game. Writing in my own native language is much faster even if it means I’ll have to get all texts translated…! hopefully they’ll do a good job at it.

I’m really proud of the aspect of the game. The art is even better than Summer Session one. Just take a look at my screenshots below:

The fun thing is that I’m attempting a sort of new genre: dating sim (or romance adventure) from a woman’s perspective! It means that the game will have his own variety of characters and some will be more polite than others, but in general, I’ll need to put the right dose of “sex appeal” without being too explicit.

There will be also some very cute characters (two cats) and in general a more relaxing atmosphere. For now I’m not going to put any sort of scheduling mechanism, also because the game takes place for almost all its length onboard of the Cat’s Dream (the ship name).

I have added a nice feature though which is called “Quests”. In practice during the game you’ll be able to find quests to solve, that will award points. Discovering a new quest will grant you 2 points, and solving it another 3 points.

At the end of the game you’ll be awarded a score based on how many total points you scored, similarly to what happens in Sid Meier’s games

Well I’m very excited about this game even if everything is quite new for me. My first real attempt at casual audience. So far it’s a great experience and very relaxing compared to coding huge games like Supernova 2!!

More plans for the future!

Ok so I said I was on holidays… but I really can’t stay idle for too long, so I had this new idea for an adventure game based on 17th century sea travels. I am writing it right now, in my native language, then I’ll have it translated. I’m still thinking if to have it translated into several more languages, since for adventures the language can be a big barrier (not everyone knows english, but still likes to play adventures or simply read stories).

The adventure will be still in the form of visual novel (so not really a pure adventure because the object manipulation and solving quests with items won’t be present). In a way, will be different from Summer Session, because of the settings but also it won’t be a pure dating sim, and also this time you’ll take the role of Heileen, a very cute but shy blonde english girl. There will be a romance, and some really funny characters. But more about that soon in future posts.

You might notice a sort of improvvise shift in my games. Well that’s true. I tried to make complex games like UBM, Magic Stones and Supernova 2. But honestly, I have to pay my bills so, for my future games I’m really taking a more casual approach. That won’t mean worse games, quite the opposite. More intuitive games, still with a good set of rules (except the adventures of course) and more attention to the graphic part.

Just take a look at the main menu background art at Heileen official site, to understand what I mean.

No, I don’t think I’ll use poser models anymore in my future games!

For those who loves RPG don’t worry. I’m going to develop another game similar to Magic Stones hopefully next year. It will contain several card sets based on races (human, dwarves, amazons, and so on). You can admire a card image of an amazon necromancer here:

The necromancer card of the amazon set

Not bad, isn’t it? definitely better than my usual Poser art !

Supernova 2 update officially released and plans for future

So yesterday officially released Supernova 2 update. Got a good response so far, and I’m very proud of the result, everyone agrees that the game now is much more enjoyable.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about take a minute to download the free demo here.

About my future plans… honestly I’m a bit burned out I think will take a rest for a while. I like the result I got with Summer Session, so I could work on its sequel, or do more adventure games, with more serious themes. At the same time I’ll try to make some progress with my other games, however for the whole moth of August I’m taking sort of a break from intensive working.

My plan is to do lots of excursions nearby to admire the wonderful lanscapes around my house I’ll probably resume working at full-speed this autumn.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Supernova 2: version 1.0.3 is here!

I’m very proud to announce that the BETA version 1.0.3 of Supernova 2 is ready to be tested I tested it myself for some days and seems to work fine, but as always, I prefer to be sure before releasing it officially… so if you have already bought the game, you can start playing with the ship customization, or check the new statistics screens, or play in the brand new Skirmish Mode (full speed into battles!).

If you haven’t bought it yet… what are you waiting for !? try the new, longer demo, that will let you try the game for more time than before, with less limitations.

BETA version game download links:

http://www.didone.com/games/SpacewarTrial.exe (Pc version)

http://www.didone.com/games/SpacewarTrial.zip (Mac version)

A fun diversive: Summer Session

I’ve recently published a game made in collaboration with Hanako Games, called “Summer Session”. It is quite different from my “usual” games, but I was always open-minded and willing to experiment, so when I found a very good manga artist (Rebecca Gunter) and a great writer (the girl who runs Hanako website), I decided to give it a try. It is of the genre of “dating sim”, a sort of adventure game in which you have to try to date out other girls, everything presented in a fun way.

When I played the first alpha, I was already excited because the game was exactly has I had in mind: a fun, relaxing game, with multiple endings so that you could replay it several times, and a small “simulation” part in it (when you have to decide your weekly schedule).

You can download the game for Mac and Pc (a Linux version is also available and will put online soon) in the adventure games section of my site Tycoon Games. Below a few screenshots of the game itself: