If I look back at my 2020 goals, I have mixed feelings: https://www.winterwolves.net/blog/2020/01/new-year-goals-3/
I mean, yes I finished Planet Stronghold 2 and Volleyball Heaven, and I’m at good point with Summer In Trigue, but I didn’t release that third game I was hoping to. Of course 2020 wasn’t exactly a normal year, and in the end at least I managed to run my first successful Kickstarter campaign for Tales From The Under-Realm: Hazel.
My goal from now on, will be to release each year a couple of “standard sized” (not my standards! industry standards so around 70k words) or less visual novels and maybe a bigger game (not necessarily a RPG though) every 2 years. So let’s see what’s the plan for 2021:
Tales From The Under-Realm: Hazel – this one for sure should be in beta this month and likely out Q1. Since I did a Kickstarter, it will be my main priority early this year.
Summer In Trigue – this one should be out this year as well, since we’re at very good point. Not sure exactly when (I might take a break after Hazel release) but it will be out.
Curse Of Mantras – even if I didn’t manage to do it in the past year, I have at least storyboarded most of the game plot. And it wasn’t an easy task, since I was so foolish to include 10 love interests (plus the two main protagonists Ace and Lily, so a total of 12 backstories to write). And if that wasn’t enough, even a complex card battle gameplay which will be similar to PSCD (but different under many aspects like resources allocation and cards selection). I think this time a beta this year should be possible. I might need to do a crowdfunding campaign for this one since it has really drained me (both of money and time lol) and it’s an example of one of the games I’ll never make anymore (too big!!)
Tales Of Aravorn – An Eleven Marriage. That’s the title of the first new game with Elenor/Saren. Of course, if this year I do Curse Of Mantras, I surely won’t be able to do a RPG. But I’m putting this here since who knows, I might finish this one first? Yes, a RPG is harder than a card game, however this one has a smaller party and “only” 4 love interests. Basically, depending how things go, I’ll decide what game to finish first. But if I don’t finish it this year, it will likely be out next.
Secret games – I have 2-3 smaller projects going on, but as you know I’m not talking about them publicly until I’m sure they’ll be out in 2-3 months max. So I cannot talk about any of them yet, however I hope that I’ll manage to finish one of them.
Conclusions
I know what you’re probably thinking! That there are too many games. Yes, they are haha. However only Curse Of Mantras and An Elven Marriage are really “big” (CoM in particular with 10 romances). I honestly think I’ll finish the plain VN games for sure, while those two big games, don’t know. Now you see why I am not making them anymore – doing a game like that takes 5-6 times the money, time and efforts, and in current market they aren’t rewarding enough. But since I started them, I’m going to finish them, and I hope that maybe I’ll pick a winning ticket at the Steam lottery this time! 🙂
Also, since I’m going to start making smaller games at the same time as the bigger ones, it means that in the next years I should manage to have a more consistent release schedule, and this means I’ll probably focus on a couple of niches. One for sure it’s yuri, for a lot of reasons: more profitable, easier to find artists to draw females, personally I like it, etc. But I will also try to make more games for my usual public, like otomes (I checked and basically 9 games out of 10 of the one I released in past years have otome romances!).
In the end, since it’s a business, it’s the market who decides. So if you like yaoi/yuri/otome whatever, remember to support devs who do those genres, that’s the best way to encourage them to make more 🙂
The year 2020 has been rough for many people, hopefully things will get better this year. I agree that Kickstarter projects should take first priority. I noticed you posted update every month, which is a good habit, even if there is little to say.
If you decide to use crowdfunding Curse of Mantras, it might be the first time in years since I backed a project. I can accept the fact projects will fail, it’s mainly devs ghosting that really burned me out.
Yes, personally I’d never make a project fail, worse case I would do at least a visual novel with no gameplay (if somehow was completely impossible for me to finish a project as I wanted).
And yes devs disappearing is really bad and what made people wary of using KS in future. But of course people should look at each dev history and see, if they constantly release stuff, there’s less risk that they don’t deliver what they promised, or even worse disappear completely 🙂
Hey there!
I’ve asked you about some info on “Curse Of Mantras” on Twitter, but it’s really easier to discuss here, since messages on there are so short.
While browsing the forums you linked, I’ve seen the characters, both MCs and LIs, and as mentionned on Twitter, I’m very conflicted since naturally I’d play with a male MC, and I really like the Order side (and LI’s), but I dislike Order Ace’s design SO MUCH that I don’t know if I’ll even be able to play as him. But I just realized playing as Lily would be too frustrating as well, since I’d have Chaos Ace as the ennemy, right? That wouldn’t really do it either…
But in some post one in one of the topics, I saw you said you’d add a cheat to allow to swap the looks of the MCs. Is that still a thing? I’m beginning to think this would be the only actual way for me to fully enjoy the game without being frustrated or having to skip the LI that interests me the most (Mercurio).
Also, if you put a cheat like that, I guess it won’t affect CGs? Will the cheat add the possibilities to NOT see the CGs then? Or well, variants to the cheat, one that still shows CGs and one that doesn’t.
And, still assuming this cheat is still a thing, and that not viewing the CGs won’t be an option, is there a possibility to swap game files in order to have a different image displayed? I could edit the CGs for my personal use (of course, I wouldn’t show the pics anywhere) and just swap them, in that case. I’m usually really opposed to editing other people’s art, being an artist myself, but well, this is one of the few cases I’d be ready to do that just so I can enjoy the CGs too (thats why it’ll be strictly for personal use – well, unless you’d want them).
I’m so so sorry for being so weirdly picky and insistent about that! I rarely dislike a design so much that I realize I just wouldn’t be able to have a MC that looks like that and get into the story – it’s a shame since I really like the premises of the game and well… basically all the other designs, to be honest. But Chaos Ace is especially gorgeous, so that doesn’t help.
I prefer to be certain what I’d be getting into, and maybe just decide I’ll pass on this one. Better now than when I’ll know more about the project and get even more attached.
Hi,
well the aspect of the main character (both Lily/Ace) is determined by a variable set in the early stages when you decide if to be Order or Chaos. So a cheat to toggle that variable is very easy.
The issue of the romance CG would remain though, since in Order aligned romances (like Mercurio) the MC will have the beard (they’ll be mostly naked, so no outfit, but the face will be like the order).
So in short: cheat, yes. The romance CG instead would need major edits to work!
I hope this answer your question!
Well, yes, it mostly answers, thanks!
I WILL edit the CGs at least for myself, if there is no possibility to turn the CGs off altogether. But will the files be accessible so I can swap them in game and change for the one I’ll edit? What I mean is that I’d love to be able to put a picture with the same resolution and same name, and replace the file originally there, so if the game looks for that file name, it’ll display what I want intstead of the original CG, so I won’t have to see it after the first time.
That being said, if your artist is okay with that, I’d be totally happy to actually make edits to ALL the CGs for both sides if that would allow you to include the edited versions to the cheat from the get-go. At this point, I’m ready for any extremes in order to avoid the Order version of Ace altogether, in game!
When the game is closer to be released remind me about this and maybe I can send you the files 🙂
(I am not sure if will be out this year TBH!)
That’s no issue! I mean, I figured it will be long. Do you want me to remind it to you by the end of the year, here or on twitter?
On twitter is best since I don’t check blog comments very often! Also I’ll announce on twitter when the beta is ready so you know when the game could be out more or less 🙂