In the photo above, my dog Nick who passed to better life last sunday.

As the title says, sometimes real life gets in the way of indies. I won’t be lying, this month has been the worst of my life so far. Earlier I lost my uncle Don Giulio, a catholic priest (but religion doesn’t matter, he was a good person and helped a lot of people during his life). It has been a very important figure in my life, and in some way also helped me to become an indie.

As if losing people and pets I loved wasn’t enough, the heat here (but also in US from what I’ve heard) has been insane since about two weeks. I bought an A/C, but even if I turn it on, the noise is too much to concentrate (I am not the kind of person who listen to music/radio while working, I need complete silence)!

Luckily, nowadays I use a lots of external people to work on my games. So even if this month I was mostly unproductive, I was still able to communicate with the writers, coders, artists and keep my active projects moving. But is scary to think how the life (and career) of a lone indie can be at risk when “the life gets the best of you”.

This friday I wanted to have the pre-oders of Spirited Heart Girl’s Love ready, for example. Everything is done: the art is ready, the story has been finished since July, the ending voiceovers redone. There are only a few sprites left to put in the game, test it a bit and do the various installers and upload them. Probably a day of work, but in the last 3 days was able to work on average 2h a day (and also had other projects to keep going that required my attention).

I think if today I worked at maximum speed I could have made it – but I don’t like to realease things in a rush. I like to polish my games, adding small details and making sure everything works. But all those little things take time! I’m sure many of you that follow me are wondering what happened to the other game Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook. That is another example of what happens when the life gets the best of us, in this case of my friend and partner in this game, Ayu of Sakevisual. She had many problems too recently, and even if a “pre-order” version was ready at beginning of this month, there were still several smaller things out of place, so we decided was better to wait until everything was perfect.

However, talking about Spirited Heart Girl’s Love, I can definitely promise it will be out this weekend – even if I can work only during the morning, in two days of work the game should be 100% finished and ready for pre-orders. So stay tuned and follow me on twitter for the announcement!

First of all, Ayu of Sakevisual just told me she is attending a convention today, and Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook is going through the final stages of proofreading/balancing (it was a bit too difficult). So… no pre-order links yet, though keep following twitter because I could post them during the weekend

Second, I’d like to introduce you a friend of mine, called Undead Lily. You can see the first promo trailer below, which introduces a bit the story and the first two characters, Undead Lily and Mantras.

As you can see, this is probably my most unconventional game I’ve ever made. A undead girl, ex burlesque dancer, that in the afterlife becomes a superheroine? Yes it’s bizzarre, and you haven’t seen the other characters!!

On startup, you can either take a short quiz to “shape” your character, both the personality (Good, or Evil) and also the starting statistics. Yes because Undead Lily and The Elemental Avengers, while not a super detailed RPG like Loren Amazon Princess, is going to have a RPG gameplay element. You can see the work-in-progress for the character creation screen below:

The game plot-wise is at good stage, with all the romances for the “Good” version finished. As for the gameplay I’m still in the brainstorming stage, since I’d like to have a map similar to the old game Archon, divided in sectors each one linked to one of the game elements: Death, Life, Air, Water, Fire and Nature. The character would move in turn and when two teams are on the same sector a battle triggers, which is a sort of turn based tag-team battle, 3 vs 3 characters.

Obviously everything is still only an idea, since I have to see how fun are the battles done this way. What is going to be fun for sure is the dialogues and general mood of the game, with many incredible superheroes each one with a different personality. And the romances, like Planet Stronghold, will have lots of variety too: the current plan is to divide the game into two separate ones, the first one with Undead Lily as the main character and Ace as the main antagonist (so the “female” version) and then one with Ace as main character and Undead Lily as antagonist (the “male” version).

You can see a flow chart of all the various romance options below:

As you can see there’s something for every taste! And of course, the release dates I wrote on the flow chart are going to be inevitably missed!

See you next week for more news about the upcoming games.

See the full gallery on Posterous

At least the pre-orders! No I didn’t went insane because of excessive work (even if it’s not a remote possibility after all!). I’m talking obviously about The Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook, which we’re currently testing and polishing. I know in the past I posted the game will be out soon, but this time is really soon. Before starting with pre-orders there are only minor things to do, like adding sprites and some backgrounds but all the assets are ready. So we only need a bit more time to put everything in the right place and test it so that every ending can be reached.

As always, follow my twitter / blog / facebook / google plus for the early announcements! For those who yet haven’t played the first game, during this weekend we’re running an amazing promotion: the first title, Flower Shop: Summer In Fairbrook will be available for only $9.99 ! Spread the word and if you haven’t already, buy the game and play it to get introduced to Fairbrook and its people!

Other news…

Queen of Thieves art is also progressing really well, below you can see Kira, the Warrior. Again, there will be lots of possible character customization available in the final game.

Planet Stonghold: Warzone won’t be “an expansion” anymore but a real full-length stand-alone title. I worked already on improving the Psionic Powers by adding Area Of Effect (hits two targets) and mass target (hits all targets). This both for the offensive and defensive Psionics, which means now you can do a “group Heal” to your party or also a “group Harm” to the enemies. Just beware that the enemies won’t like this sort of thing and they’ll aggro against your poor Psionic very quickly

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:

But fear not, I’m not going to cook my sweet cat Gilda, who in the picture above found a new way to use my pot

Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook

We’re getting close to finish it. I know I’ve been saying this already, but there are still a few backgrounds missing, and some more testing needed, but definitely not much! Is really likely to be finished in July!

Spirited Heart Deluxe Girl’s Side

Even this expansion is at a very good point. Only a character subplot left to finish and then will need to test and check everything. This is very likely to be done either in end of July or August. The sprites are not yet all ready, but what has been done so far is absolutely lovely. Check the image below:

But don’t think all the girls will be like Reid, the sexy demoness dancer. Each one has her own personality and different life goals: cute princesses, fearsome thieves, anti-social genius and more bizarre characters will be present in the expansion, who is going to be as big as the main game! I think there’s really a very good variety of situations in the game and even if the theme is girl’s love, I think some scenes are really beautiful and everyone should play it

Loren Amazon Princess

This is going to be delayed a bit, since I’m getting a complete RPG framework done by a “real coder” (that’s not me! lol). This way I can re-use it for future games or add-ons (even in different settings/game worlds). I should have done this before, but as they say, better late than never! Meanwhile, right now the romance scenes are being drawn, the first ones are Loren and Elenor/Saren. Everything will happen during a full moon night, when Loren goes in a lake nearby to take a bath… As said already the scenes will be completely optional because will be more sexy than usual, and you won’t see them at all if you disable the option in the preferences screen.

Undead Lily and The Elemental Avengers

The final battle poses of the last two heroes are being made right now! Though there are still all the romance scenes, and probably will also need more art for the strategic map… this game is becoming really bigger than I thought, hopefully my efforts and investment will be rewarded!

More news and surprises coming soon…

I’ll be also promoting soon some games made by indie game developers friends, and I am also getting ready to launch an interesting promotion somewhere in July, offering several themed games that will make sci-fi fans happy. Stay tuned for more news!

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.

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.

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…!

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 (of the next week I mean)! 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).

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!

In the picture above, Otello happily posing in middle of the flowers. I love spring

As you could guess from the title, this is a rant-post. I’ve heard so many discussions recently about the dying downloadables, how online games is the future, and so on. It’s a very complex discussion, so I’m not going into every detail (also because I want to talk about my games) however I feel the need to say a few things:

• “dead markets” doesn’t mean that you cannot make any profit in them. It only means that the main hype moved elsewhere. Also, since there’s less hype, means that there’s also less competition. I believe that as indie, having less competition is much more important than having a bigger potential target market.
• speaking for my games, in general story-based games works best as single player. I’ve never played a multiplayer game that also was immersive or told me a good story, simply because storytelling requires only one viewer/spectator. If you give other people the possibility to influence a plot or ruin the mood, don’t worry, they’ll absolutely do it (anyone who played a MMORPG surely has met people that would destroy the fantasy setting atmosphere in a second with some typical US-slang words )
• remember that very big portals are still using the downloadables model. Big Fish Games in the casual world, Steam, D2D, Gamersgate, Impulse and others for the more “hardcore/niche” games. They’re not going to disappear overnight, and I believe not even in 5-10 years
• also as indie, we’re different from big publishers and most of the discussions don’t apply. Look at Spiderweb games. Old-school RPG are dead, right? since about 1990. He is not doing well indeed. He is doing extremely well! As indie (especially if you work alone or in a small team) you don’t necessarily need to sell a $1 game to 100,000 people in a week, but you can have better luck trying to sell a $20 game to “only” 10000 in several years. That makes quite a difference!

That said, of course online games/web games can be profitable! I never said the opposite. Only that they require a completely different subset of skills vs the traditional downloadables, and also on marketing. I am currently doing research to make some online games as well, but it’s a big step for me. Most of the successful online games are run by a team, with a few exceptions, and don’t want to committ myself to something “too big” yet. I could do some experiments though.

For example, an idea I recently had was to add an online mode to Planet Stronghold. You would play online battles (not PvP though, at least initially) and as you win you would get experience, money to spend on better equipment or buying skills, and so on. It would be completely separated from the main game, so that I was even thinking to sell it as stand alone game or maybe use the free-to-play model. However I’m not sure if there’s enough interest to justify the time I’d have to spend to do this (especially coding the server part), even if it wouldn’t be a completely new game since I would be able to reuse good part of the normal offline game system.

In general I think that while visual novel, dating sims, and other similar games gain zero benefits from being online, other kind of games like RPG, simulation, strategy games can become more interesting with new online features.

Speaking of dating / life sim, I’ve made more progresses on Remember Me this week, and some events are really cool like the one below:

Who is this mysterious secret admirer? you’ll have to play the game to find out, even if honestly is not that difficult!

I’ve also got some important news about the other games in development. Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook is getting close to the release! I don’t have yet an exact date, but should be before next June, so not much left to wait. I’m currently writing (with help of external writers) and getting the art done for the simulation/RPG game Queen Of Thieves and the comic-RPG game Loren: Amazon Princess. My sports simulation game Universal Boxing Manager 2 is also going on well, even if right now there’s not enough to make a video, since the coder is mostly doing stuff that appears behind the scenes (statistics, AI, gameplay, and so on).

My planned release schedule (which surely will be messed up completely) would be:

1. Mid/End-April – Remember Me
2. End of May/June – Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook
3. July/August – Loren The Amazon Princess
4. September/October – Queen of Thieves
5. November/December – either the superheroes game or maybe UBM2