Monthly Archives: December 2013

2013 the year of ups and downs

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Chance is always powerful, let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish. ~Ovid

Looking back to last year post, I’m very sad to notice that this year didn’t manage to release any new RPG 🙁 Even if Seasons Of The Wolf is at good point. But let’s proceed in order.

UP: Early this year I released the yuri version of Heileen 3, called “Sea Maidens“. The game was very well received, and sold only slightly less than the otome version, showing clearly that there’s a market for people who like yuri content.

DOWN: After that, I had several projects going on (as always lol) but the most important were Planet Stronghold 2, Bionic Heart 2 and Spirited Heart 2. As you know, I managed to release only one, Bionic Heart 2.

I had already decided to stop making pure simple visual novel before its release, but when the game finally was out, after the most crazy beta testing I have ever done (at one point I admit I even thought to cancel the game, something that never happened before!) and sold poorly, that was the last drop.

To be honest, I am not sure myself why the game did so badly. Maybe the sci-fi setting? the multiple point of view? the fact that romance played a minor role in the story?

I’ve given up trying to understand the reasons, but as I said, already before that game I made my mind of quitting doing VNs, especially since I also enjoy much more doing RPGs or life/dating sims 🙂

UP: And here comes the other good thing that happened this year: Nicole’s release. The game took much more time than I anticipated, but the final result was really good! Is out only since a few months, but is already looking to be one of my most popular otome games. And the yuri version should be out next year 😉

DOWN: Planet Stronghold 2. I really don’t want to blame anyone in specific for it, since sometimes it seems that some projects are “cursed”. With Loren last year, everything went right. With this title, basically everything went wrong 😀 So yeah, is true that the writer, the coder and even the artist had to slow down for personal/real life issues. But I was too busy managing too many projects too and I feel I didn’t do enough, didn’t motivate people and managed them badly.

Spirited Heart 2 instead was a very different story. Sarah wrote well and fast, but when I was starting to consider adding more variety of romances (yuri/yaoi) I discovered that the artist refused to draw them, after he initially said was fine. I don’t want to make any comments about this, since I’m sure you already know what I think. Anyway, I had to discard all the sprites already done and find another artist! Deji accepted, so while the game will be greatly delayed, at least I have a reliable and skilled artist working on it now 🙂

UP: Loren on Steam 🙂 While the game is not yet out, should show up in mid-January. I am happy because I think that title deserved to be there, even if in recent times seems like they’re much more relaxed and are allowing many titles to get in. Still, is a good achievement (forgive the pun).

So getting back to the quote I put above, luck/chance have a big impact in our lives and sometimes you can’t do much about it. The only thing you can do, is always be ready to catch the opportunities!

That’s it for this year. See you in 2014 and Happy New Year!

Christmas Sale and best of 2013

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Early wishes of Merry Christmas from my cat Gilda

First of all: I’m doing a Christmas sale with all my games 50% off, including Nicole!

The predefined bundle discounts are disabled, so differently from previous times this works also when buying the various bundles like Flower Shop, Spirited Heart, Heileen series, etc.

Christmas has come early this year 😉 The offer is valid until the end of the year.

Best Of 2013

Like in the past, I want to review a bit the games I released during the course of the year. If I had to make a ranking for the titles I made this year:

Writing

1. Nicole
2. Heileen 3 Sea Maidens
3. Bionic Heart 2

I absolutely loved Nicole writing! Heileen 3 was pretty good too. I liked also Bionic Heart 2 to be honest, and for me would be about same level of Heileen 3, but judging by the sales seems that most people preferred Heileen 3 🙂

Artwork

1. Heileen 3 Sea Maidens
2. Nicole
3. Bionic Heart 2

This is probably heavily influenced by my tastes. I know many people didn’t like much Nicole’s sprites, saying they lack variety and so on. Well, personally I don’t think is so apparent. I put Bionic Heart 2 on last place but that really doesn’t mean I didn’t like the artwork (character artist is same as Loren, my favorite!). Heileen 3 is first because of the setting, landscapes and also because I really love Rebecca’s work (she was the artist of all my Heileen games).

Best Gameplay

1. Nicole
2. Bionic Heart 2
3. Heileen 3 Sea Maidens

Nicole’s gameplay is quite similar to Always Remember Me, but has more variety of items to buy, a more intuitive interface and better GUI. Heileen 3 gameplay was good too, albeit I admit more repetitive than Nicole’s, but I have to consider that the game originally was meant to be a simple visual novel, so the result was still good.Personally, I loved the Bionic Heart 2 “social battles” and I would like to have them again in other games, like the RPGs, though I’m not sure if players liked them or not! 🙂

That’s everything for now, have a good time during the holidays! 🙂

Roommates update

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As wrote in previous post, the next game that will be out is Roommates. My trusted writer Michael is reviewing the whole script scene by scene to make sure everything is OK, but because the game is LONG, that will take some time 🙂

Meanwhile, I’m setting up everything else, like the contents of the bonus version:

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A preview of the wallpaper you’ll get when ordering the bonus content version of the game

Wallpapers, original soundtrack (including the theme song “My Name In Lights”) and more.

Even if is a dating sim, this game is quite different from Nicole.

First of all, the scheduler is more similar to the one I used in my games of the Flower Shop series. You can’t visit each location and choose an activity like in Nicole, more like you plan your week and then press play to see what happens.

The contents are also different: Nicole was more family-friendly, while this game is more like my early titles (Summer Session for example) where there’s a good amount of comedy and sexy references, as you can see from the screenshot below:

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Isabella trying to explain her views on Anne (work in progress texts)

Some of the CG scenes are quite hot to be honest, not like the Loren uncensored ones, but rather hot. I think that during the beta will ask users feedback to see if is better to make a censored version of those as well 😉

Finally, a good news (for those who don’t know it already): you can play as male or female immediately, no need to wait for an extra version. I am still thinking to allow people to purchase the two versions separately, since I am not sure how many people like to play with both genders.

In any case each version will be cheaper, like $15, with the possibility to get both for $25 instead of $30. So pricing similar to my other games, or cheaper if you want to play only as Anne or Max. Of course, you’ll be able to “upgrade” anytime in case you change your mind 🙂

The Show Must Go On

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As you probably know already if you follow me on the social networks, last Monday had to take one of the toughest decisions so far of my life, put to sleep my cat Leon who was sick since 2 weeks without hopes of recovering.

It was a very sad moment, but I forced myself to think that without my help, that cat would have lived a much shorter life. He was 8 years old, and is one of the many I rescued time ago.

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an image of Leon a few weeks after I found him, as you can see from the mucus coming out of his nose he was quite sick

If I was able to take care of him for all those years, paying for his food and the medical cures, was also thanks to people who buy my games. Thank you! 🙂

The Show Must Go On

I want to think about positive things now. The show must go on, and there’s nothing better than some scenes from my upcoming comedy title Roommates to cheer me up!

roommates01Isabella giving life lessons to (poor) Anne
roommates02Dominic seems slightly annoyed at Isabella…
roommates03Rakesh should really follow Anne’s advice…!

I don’t know yet the exact release date of the game but shouldn’t take much longer, first quarter of 2014 for sure! Stay tuned for more news on the next games in the coming weeks.