In the image above, my cat “Micia” back in 2002. She was living with my parents now, and she died last week, at 15 years old. It’s kind of sad since she was the first cat I rescued and officially adopted. I want to remember Micia with that funny picture of her in the bath tub

Now, speaking about my games, some interesting news:

First of all, I updated both Vera Blanc games, added a new “visual novel mode” (that eliminates the need to solve the minigames) and put on sale until Sunday for 4.99 each. So if you haven’t already, check the demos here:

http://www.winterwolves.com/verablanc.htm

Four new projects!

I’ve started 4 new games. Yes, four! I’m crazy, I know. But as you know I’m now using external writers, so I’m “only” writing the scenes and doing the games storyboard. Obviously I won’t release all those games this year, also because I expect some of those writers to quit/disappear halfway, like usually happens…
Of those 4, only one has already some art ready and is the Queen Of Thieves game, which will be a fantasy RPG/lifesim (though I have yet to think about the gameplay in detail).
The other 3 are: “The Hospital” a horror game, “Amber’s Magic Shop” another fantasy lifesim/potion making game with both good/bad endings, and “Roommates” a more light themed game with college settings.

All the game titles are temporary names which might change.

The Queen Of Thieves game

Is being rewritten by another person, which hopefully won’t disappear from one day to another. I am sorry for previous writer since she was doing a good job, but I can’t keep chasing everyone, especially if they don’t email for 2 months ^_^;

I want to push this game hard since as I said is the one where I have most of the art done (still need to be finished though) and it could be one of my next games to be released, alongside with Loren and Planet Stronghold: Warzone.

Amber’s Magic Shop game

As you have noticed, recently I released mostly light-themed games and all of them had happy endings. While I like them of course, I also like games that offers sad/bad endings. Sometimes, a bittersweet ending or even a sad ending can be more rewarding (story-wise) than the more “classic” happy endings.

So in the fantasy life/potion sim game I’m writing right now, I’ll have bad endings, since the overall game setting is dark fantasy. I wanted to try with one game to see how the public would react, since honestly I’m a bit tired of writing only happy ending games! Besides, there will be happy ending even in this game, alongside with the sad ones.

The Hospital game

This is a kind of an experiment, I admit it. I have absolutely no clue how a horror VN game can sell. It will be probably shorter (and so cheaper) than my other games, and still have some romance options as well, but obviously quite different from my other light-themed games. The game starts and you wake up in a hospital bed, with no memories of who your are…

(I know, not the most original start, but the rest of the story I think it will be!)

The Roommates game

I got lots of feedback from people who wanted a game with college/light setting. I am designing one right now, which will include both male and female main character. So you’ll be able to play it as GxB, GxG or BxG, BxB. In practice, all relationship tastes included!

Loren RPG framework status

We made lots of progresses this month so far. Right now, we’re waiting for some new icons/UI for the equipment screen and then we’ll be able to post a public alpha preview, which will be very useful to find some possible nasty hidden bugs. I tested the battle a lot, but I only recently added many new items, and I also want to start creating some new enemies, so is likely that some bugs could pop-up.

In the image above you can see the equipment screen mockup, which obviously is not final but just a work-in-progress.

Obviously my other games like Heileen 3 and Planet Stronghold: Warzone are progressing as well, with the former getting lots of the 100-scenes done, and the latter almost all the romance CGs finished.

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone! I have released Planet Stronghold alpha 0.8, which features lot of new content! If you’re interested in trying the demo or buying the game please visit the game website.

Then, a quick update on what you can expect in the next months:

Role Playing Games

Beside Planet Stronghold, which will be finished at end of January 2011, I plan to start 2-3 more RPGs. I love RPGs and I always wanted to make them, but in the past I was lacking proper funds and/or technical knowledge to make decent ones. Now, using Planet Stronghold RPG framework I can expand it and create new RPGs. Most of them will be in fantasy setting though, since it’s the most common/popular one (unless Planet Stronghold is so successful that convinces me to make add-on/sequels). I have already a good collaborator of mine who is starting creating the main game plot, character sketches, and so on. Another one should start hopefully in next months, and I want to do another myself as well. So the 2011 will be surely full of RPGs!

Adventure Games

I am still in love with my character of Vera Blanc, despite the first two episodes not being really topsellers. As I posted several times if I make a third episode, it will be an adventure (first person) and not a visual novel, since the adventure style integrates better with that kind of game. I have already a plot for the story, but since it requires lot of money, it’s still a risky decision, so if I make it, won’t be before next summer, or even later during Fall/Winter of 2011.

Visual Novels / Dating Sims

Of course I’ll keep making them! Flower Shop 2 release is really close, is just a matter of few months. But since is tied to external factors (artists finishing some pieces) I won’t dare to name a date for it. Instead I can already say that very likely the otome game “Remember Me” will be ready around February/March 2011, since the plot is completely written and need only to code the “simulation part” of it and do testing/balancing. Depending how my other projects go, I could make more VN/Dating Sims, but they’ll be mixed with simulation games.

Strategy / Simulation Games

In 2011 perhaps I will finally release the sequel of Spirited Heart. I have yet to start coding it though, so is probably more accurate to say that in 2011 I’ll begin coding it, which is a bit different. It won’t be ready probably before 2012, also because I have in mind some online-features (probably optional) that could improve the gameplay a lot, so I am not sure yet I’ll use Ren’Py to code this one.
There will be for sure more strategy/simulation games coming in 2011 though. A remake of my game Universal Boxing Manager, this time with the fights completlely in 3d realtime, is under production! Is made in partnership with a good 3d coder who is going to use Unity3d to power the 3d simulation. It’s probably my biggest/most ambitious game to date and the 2011 will be mainly focused on it. I hope will do well since I’d like to port more of my old games into 3d or start new ones.
As I said I might also find the time to do a sort of light-strategy/time management game based on Heileen settings. In particular, Heileen 2 settings (pirates, the caribbean). The game could be played as normal strategy game or with visual novel cut-scenes (they’ll be optional). This will be a sort of experiment since I am not sure if/when I’ll finish it. Let’s say I’ll work on it on my spare time and when it’s done, is done

Online Games

Almost every year I say “next year I’ll make one”. So, this time I won’t say it! But, I would like to try making one, even if I am not sure I’ll find the time…or better, if I’ll find the right person, since I’m probably going to outsource the coding (will be most likely done in Flash or HTML5). Or if the new interesting BRL:monkey project from Mark Sibly (creator of Blitzmax) gets released, I might use that and do everything myself.

So in conclusion, looks like the 2011 will be a year full of new releases! Happy New Year again!!

In the picture above, Mirtillo and Othello sleeping together peacefully. I wonder what they’re dreaming ?

I want to wish everyone reading this blog/following me Merry Christmas!

Then, a quick status update about Planet Stronghold 0.8 (since is the game I’m currently working on). In the recent weeks had some eyesight problems, so the programming has been slowed considerably. I really hoped to have it ready by Christmas since would have made a great present… but sometimes, real-life problems get in the way and so I had to post-pone the deadline to end of the year!

I’m writing the latest two quest, regarding the Apex Rahn and Arnox races, including two boss fights. I think once you play the game you’ll realize why is taking me so long to make… because the game IS long! The part I’m writing now involves all the races, and if you side with the Empire you have to eliminate them, instead if you side with the King/Shiler you will unify them and form one single alliance.

So this part is the “core” of the game, the biggest one. If you played the demo, this part is basically 5-6 times longer than it…and you can play from two different sides, so some parts are different! That is also why the final release price will be $24.95 (so you have still one week to get it at the deal price of $9.95!). And now, for some postmortem-retrospective about the year that is about to end:

2010, The Year Of The Tiger

I admit I was excited about it (since I am a Wood Tiger in chinese horoscope). Well, my goal for 2010 was to release 5 games, and I was particularly excited about (quoting from my last year post):

And I am producing the art now for a new kind of game style that I hope will be a great success, since I like a lot writing the stories and the storyboards for it. For now I can only say that involves detectives, mystery, and a beautiful blonde girl with a French accent…

I was obviously talking about Vera Blanc, which as you might know, turned out to be a real disappointment in term of sales

So, in 2010 I released The Flower Shop, Card Sweethearts, Vera Blanc: Full Moon, Vera Blanc: Ghost In The Castle. Not only I didn’t release 5 games as I had planned (even if I’m almost done with Planet Stronghold), but most of them didn’t sell well at all! So in all honesty, considering also the other real-life problems I had, 2010 was probably my worst year since I was indie. For the first time in 7 years or so, I didn’t grow my business. During the summer and autumn, I thought it was something beyond my control, the global crisis, the return of middlemen and so on (since also many other indies had very low sales during that period) but if I think about it carefully, it was my mistake for producing games without doing proper “market research”.

Vera Blanc got the most positive reviews I had for a game, on famous sites like Gamezebo & Gamertell. And it has some fans that are eagerly waiting a 3rd episode. Still, it would be foolish for me to release another one using the same gameplay system… so even as indie, you can’t simply do any game you want to do (unless it’s an hobby) but you must also identify the market you want to sell to, and make sure you have the right product. Making a good/original game just isn’t enough, if that game has a very small fan-base.

Next friday, more cats pictures and my plan for the 2011 which hopefully will be a better year

The web version in particular is quite interesting since it plays until the demo ends, and you can then purchase the game and enter the purchase email and resume playing the game immediately. Let me know what you think about this solution since I might adopt it even for future episodes of Vera series (which won’t be out before next year, as I said).

As I wrote already a few weeks ago in my “how long is it” post, you can’t really compare such kind of games with other games. Take a look at the Hidden Object Games you see in portals: they offer usually 4-5h of gameplay, but they do that using several tricks:

• first of all, there’s much less text/narration. This isn’t necessarily bad: many people don’t like to read much texts, and that’s why I want also to make some more classic adventure games alongside my actual Visual Novel and Dating Sims. But is much easier to write a story with less dialogues, than come up with a long story rich of plot twists and interesting situations, as you can imagine
• then they’re filled by minigames. Many minigames are mini-puzzles, so it depends also how skilled you are. But should that count towards the gameplay length? If so, the problem then is not the actual story/plot length but the kind of minigames that are in it. Also the risk is of breaking the narration by putting too many minigames, so there will always be someone unhappy
• reusing content. Many games reuse locations, for example the same background, but you have to find different set of objects. That’s ok of course, as a game designer I know perfectly that you often have to find a compromise. But is the player really happy about that? I mean, why stretch the story/gameplay recycling stuff, just to “reach 5h of gameplay”?

I understand the complaint of some people, but you need also to understand the amount of work that’s behind those games. Is much easier to come up with a new “reskin” of time management games or even strategy games (unless you put something different). Many RPG made with RPGMaker XP uses all the same tilesets/sprites! So you need to understand how hard is to make adventures, since you can’t recycle/reuse stuff, but everything needs to be drawn from scratch, a interesting story needs to be written, and so on. There is a reason if mainstream AAA companies left adventure games a few years ago. Now they’re coming back a bit because with 3d content is indeed possible to re-use many assets (a new character can be easily created starting from a old 3d model as base).

I really think that the only solution in this case would be recurring to microtransactions but also some online game. If I was selling my Vera Blanc games for $9.99 I probably would sell more copies but would almost for sure make less money overall (believe me I tried so many times to lower prices but I simply couldn’t survive with the revenues).

So I was thinking that a webgame made like an adventure, at a very accessible price (price based on game length) should make everyone happy and at same time being online could get more viral and known, so get more exposure (needed because if I set such low pricetag I need to shift much more copies).

Though I’m sure there still would be someone who complains about price

In other words, the second episode of Vera Blanc, “Ghost In The Castle”, is officially out. To find more about it, just visit the game official page at http://www.verablanc.com
This time, Vera must investigate a mysterious ghost that is haunting a old castle in the italian town of Bargi. It’s the ghost real or is a myth? is Roberto Anastasi, the man who hired you for this case, hiding something? why Eva and the Master are still following you?

You’ll find answers to all those questions in the second and for now last episode. As I said before, it’s very unlikely that a 3rd chapter of the game will be released in this format, since the production costs are much higher than those of a traditional visual novel, but maybe next year something might change. I would like to make a “real adventure game” based on Vera Blanc character since I think would be perfect for that kind of game.

Imagine something similar to those good old Lucasfilm adventures with many puzzles to solve, less texts to read, and maybe a fully voiced version.

However, first need to finish several other projects I’ve started (many RPGs and otome games) and then next year we’ll see. Meanwhile, if you like the games I’m producing, and if you like the character of Vera Blanc, please buy the game and spread the word so the chances of having a 3rd great episode will increase

So for now, au revoir Vera Blanc. Hopefully she’ll come back next year in a completely new gameplay system, and why not, maybe with a more manga-oriented style!

Unfortunately I’ve never been able to make one, because they are probably the kind of game that require most art assets. Also, I wasn’t sure that there was a market big enough to justify that kind of investment. However, recently things seems to have changed. Not just indies, but even some bigger studios are starting to produce adventure games, even if most of them are full 3d ones, real-time.

I really don’t like 3d real time. It might be good for certain settings, and surely gives more freedom so you can have very complex puzzles. But still I think 2d painted art is the best you can have in an adventure game. A good solution/compromise is 2d pre-rendered backdrops with 3d real-time sprites though.

Does it means that I’m thinking about making an adventure game? Well, for now I want to finish the current projects. Then, I want to experiment with some online games.

But next year, depending also how some things go, I might start thinking about it seriously (depends also if my favourite artist Rebecca will have enough time to do it)!

In the past I’ve experimented with lots of genres, and still I like to experiment, however the main kind of games I like are story-based games: RPGs, adventures and all the VN variants (dating sim, etc). I believe an adventure based on Vera Blanc character might be interesting, with many puzzles and horror-themed situations (zombies, vampires, and so on).

Now better I stop thinking about it and focus on finishing my current games though! A new alpha of Planet Stronghold should be ready next week for sure (just waiting for artist to finish a few background images).

I’ve already uploaded two teasing videos on youtube (you see one above) and now I’m officially announcing the next episode of Vera Blanc, called Ghost In The Castle, that will be released this fall, probably in September. The game story is being proofreaded/edited, so all is need after that is some testing and reviewing the plot to be sure that there aren’t big mistakes (plot holes and such). As you can see from the video, there’s a new comic artist for this game, Ricardo Mendez from a Brazilian comic studio.

This time, Vera and Brandon are investigating a mysterious ghosts that is haunting a castle in a town in middle of italian countryside.  A local famous businessman, Roberto Anastasi, wants Vera to solve the ghost problem, because he doesn’t want the town filled by tourists. The first day seems to be rather quiet and relaxing, but as soon as the night comes, Vera will have a short encounter with the ghost! A short chase in the woods that ends up in a opening and a man hanged on a tree!

Stay tuned for more details and a more accurate release date for the game.

Those who want to skip the rest of this blog post can head straight to the download links on the official game page.

Now, a bit of background / making of this game. I always loved comics: indeed, as soon as I was 5-6 years old I started drawing them. As I grew up, unfortunately I moved away from them, until recently when I started being an indie developer and in 2008 made the first visual novel / manga games.

I like manga art style, but I also like the standard comic (more realistic) style. I also believe that for this kind of game, which has a strong supernatural and mystery setting (and also a bit of horror), the manga would have been a bit out of place. So I think this other style fits the game perfectly.

The making of has been divided into 3 stages:

1. game conception: I remember I pitched this game style/character to a developer friend of mine who expressed some interest in entering the visual novel / dating sim area, but then changed idea.  I thought it was good and worth a try myself, so I first wrote down a storyboard in Openoffice, containing all the game details (character, story, objects, events, etc).
2. coding/writing: this was the most fun part, coding all the various minigames and write the story. Writing the story was really hard though, because of the many different paths the player can take. It caused much headache, indeed in the sequel that I’m writing right now I’m going to make it more linear, also to make it easier to test.
3. testing/proofreading: this was the less fun part. The game was started the 1st february and finished the 1st april. So took me two months to make. It is ou now, the 1st July. All this time was due to delays in proofreading (and also some testing of course). No need to say, I am really eager to resume working on less text-intensive games!!!

If you follow my tweets, you already know that I’m writing the second episode (I am at a very good point). So if you liked this one, you know that another one should be out very soon (this time the proofreading stage should take much less time).

And after the second? I don’t know if I’ll make a third yet: as you might imagine it largely depends on the sales of the first two episodes, so if you enjoy the game and want to see more, spread the word about it!

“One of the worst things about what I do for a living is that hardly anyone else does it. You might think that not having competitors is a good thing. It is not. In the game industry, competitors help as well as hurt you. When EA spends millions of dollars advertising Dragon Age and Mass Effect, they aren’t just pushing their games. They are also advertising the whole idea of playing RPGs. Dragon Age makes as many potential customers for me as it takes.”

I really can’t agree more with this – but under the “niche games” perspective. We all know what happened to the casual market. First, Bejeweled and Zuma. Then in a few years, 150.000 clones of those games: then the rise of Hidden Object games, and lastly, the pricewars. That had several DANGEROUS side effect (for us game developers):

1. market flood. What if there were 3 RPG games out every day? Pretty cool (for us RPG fans), but a bit less cool for people like Spiderweb. It’s easy to say “other games also advertise the same kind of games I make, so is good because buyers might eventually find out about me”. Sure, but what if there were 3 new RPG games out every day? Seems impossible right now and probably will never happen (that’s why I overall agree with him) but this changes everything. It surely changed the casual market for the worse, because such a market flood caused…
2. pricewars. Pricewars is when two big companies compete lowering the prices of their products (in this case the games) to gain market share. It’s a very common tecnique, used in many fields. It’s surely good for the end user, you would think. Well – yes and no. Yes, in the beginning for sure: imagine getting those great games you were paying $20 for $5 instead. Sounds great! The problem is, that doing simple maths, unless the sales also multiply by x4, devs are going to make MUCH LESS money. If they make less money, they have also less money to invest. Less money spent in game assets usually mean lower quality of games, or shorter games. So, in the end, you’ll have also worse games as consumer
3. clones / lack of cretivity. The last consequence I can think of, related to  “minimizing business risks” is to have games that look and play identical (or almost). No need to say that this is quite evident in the casual market. You will rarely see an original game in the casual market. It’s inevitable: they know which model works, and they make game using that “template”. Why risk losing money, when you know what works? But once in a while, some more brave developer comes out with something original and in almost all cases is a hit (which I find quite ironic): Azada, Plant vs Zombies, Virtual Villagers, Build a Lot. Those are all games that innovated in the casual market and all of them were TOP HITs.

What is my take about competition? It’s good, I like it, as long as I can sell as affiliate

Jokes apart, as long as are product made with heart, passion, and not simple clones made quickly to make some fast money, they’re all welcome. For example, I recently played a great game by Sakevisual called Jisei. Is really very well done, and beside the fact that I know the author and the artist well, I honestly think is a good product. It was fun when was released because I was still working on my game Vera Blanc since December 2009: so seeing such a quality game that was started just a few months (I think May) already out BEFORE mine, obviously made me thinking “What, how is possible!?”

But like Jeff says, it’s good, and also I think that we indie devs should help each other (that’s why I often promote games as affiliate to my huge mailing list and other devs to the same with my games). Maybe people playing Jisei will find out about my other detective/supernatural game Vera Blanc (when it will be out, hopefully soon!!), and vice versa, maybe people playing Vera Blanc will also find out about Jisei and love it.