First of all, happy Halloween 🙂 The image above seemed appropriate for this occasion!
I’m proud to announce that I’ve put SOTW live on my site. Is still in “soft release” mode. What does it means? It’s a sort of soft-launch, not because is not complete (it has been complete since two weeks!) but because there might still be some small bug or gameplay tweak.
I want to be clear, the game is complete, you can play the full story and discover all its secrets. There are only some minor things like battle tweaking/balancing, we’re currently trying to make the battle shorter by lowering enemies HP in some scenes, but still trying to preserve the difficulty by increasing their attack/speed.
In one of the latest updates I even added a “tweak menu” that the user can invoke with the letter key o:
Since I don’t have big testing team and limited resources I thought to try that, since is optional it means the base game is untouched, but if enough people play with it and share their experiences, I might “commit” the tweaks. I think the first one should be “safe”, but you never know. The latest option, +30% attack and +15% speed with -30% HP can lead to some funny results 😀
Ideally I wanted to release the game next month, in mid-end of November, before the “Christmas madness” (in which a lot of titles and promotion take up all the people’s attention). However after spending a year on it, I definitely don’t want to rush things! That’s why I’ve added that menu, to get some final feedback from players.
The game price is currently at $24.99 but will increase to $29.99 once it’s officially out (not before mid-November in any case). Why? Because the game lasts longer than Loren+DLC put together! Really, is very long 🙂 And also has a lo more features (isometric map, randomized items, lots of skills, better battles, more animation/characters/locations, etc etc).
Also, this isn’t an official announcement yet, but I’m talking with the writer about a possible DLC. I won’t go in details since would involve spoilers about the story 🙂 But it should be an interesting setting/story, happening after the events of act4.
People asked me about mobile and/or Steam: the game definitely will come to mobile, even if I’m not sure how playable will be on small screen device (as always you’ll have a demo to play before deciding if is worth buying) and regarding Steam I’ve put the game on Greenlight here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=314755751
I am not sure if I was supposed to put it there, but anyway getting more votes won’t hurt 😉
I have no time estimate for when it will be on Steam but as always if you buy direct you’ll get a free Steam key later, so not a big deal! As for mobile I first need to do some tweaks to the interface to adapt it to the touch devices, so that will take longer (at least a month).
That’s it for now! Stay tuned for news about the other games.
Do you think you’ll add a story mode like Loren? Since sometimes I’m too tired to fight battles, but I’d like to try the game…it looks really nice with the art and the world built there.
A story mode would be harder to add, since in SOTW there are several battles with special conditions (events/cutscenes happens in middle of battle). I could include a cheat mode though that kills all enemies pressing a key 😀
Anyway playing in Easy mode you can win most battles very easily and quickly, albeit is true that there are many battles 🙂
Manyyyy battles alright @@ But the story is really nice (as a girl I even enjoy the RPG part a bit). Just started playing it today…man got to chapter 2…that little wolf is so cute >< (New pet lol)
(Buuut a cheat mode wouuuld be nice if possible, battling…every battle can be a pain XD)
Haha yes will add a cheat that will work only in easy mode (so people can’t get the achievement through it).
Welp, turns out the wolf is not so cute anymore. (For once I thought a pet was possible in this game lol) But maybe you could consider it in your next games? (RPG or dating sim maybe)
I’m wondering though, the “cheat mode” allows you to kill all enemies, will it accidentally skip some event too? Since you said somewhere that events happen in battles also.
Indeed I made a test version (check forums) and crashes, so on next update I’m going to disable the cheat in the battle with events, that’s the only solution.
Sounds great and the game looks awesome, just one issue and I hope you can clarify for me: Is there a way to “upgrade” to the fixed version later if I buy the game now? Or do I have to buy the game again?
No you need to buy it only once 🙂 but the game is already complete now, so you can play it safely. All the changes I might do are for minor gameplay tweaks, but really won’t change anything big at this point.
I love the idea of the story and the RPG format, but I’m really sad there aren’t a lot of romance options (I don’t really like the look of the girl choices and I only like one of the guy choices) so I don’t know if I’ll get it. Tbh I liked the wide choice cast of Loren because I didn’t feel pigeonholed into a romance option if I decided to play them, because there was something for everyone.
What exactly is the bonus content? I can’t figure out what it entails (or is it a prerelease and the bonus content isn’t available yet?), but I’m guessing it wouldn’t involve extra characters to romance like Loren? Or would it?
Either way congrats on finishing another game!
No the bonus content of my games is always extra wallpapers, the soundtrack in MP3, and so on. But the game is identical.
About the romances, yes I know about what you mean, I’ve talked about it in forums:
http://winterwolves.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=3446
Congratulation ! It’s my first post to you and sadly i don’t know if you are alone or a team because i don’t want to miss everyone but again good works ! i’m a fan of yours games and i got near all your games of dating-sim except 5 of them counting SOTW. I love your art , your history of each of them, your music, everything ! And you must not be guilty about taking your time because it’s the secret to make a good game. I love so much yours games i even favorites yours games compared to popular rpg games . Don’t give up guys because i love yours works and i’m sure many peoples to love yours works.
P.S. Do we have some chances Zeal will return in SOTW ?
I suppose you mean Zeal will return in Loren2? 😀
Well I can’t give any spoilers but there’s more stuff coming for him… 😉
Ahhh I cant wait to be able to get this game! Yay for finishing another game~
I will buy it immediately!… After my paycheck comes in. Which is Friday. I will buy it immediately on Friday!
*thumbs up*
Any plans on an expansion pack?
Yes we’re planning a DLC which happens after last events of act4, but won’t be ready before late next year obviously 🙂
in loren the amazon princess 2 will we get to have a chance to romance the vampires and also maybe a crossover with sotw and loren the amazon princess
No ipad release? Any idea when/if we’ll get one, for this or the Loren sequel?
Yes will come to mobile (Android/iOS) but need some time to adapt the interface and do some testing. So probably 1-2 months after the desktop release (differently from a VN, testing a RPG on mobile requires more time).
Be warned though that because is also much higher resource demanding, it might run a bit slow. Anyway will do a IAP version so you can play it before deciding to buy.