First of all, in case you haven’t been following me on socials and you missed all the spamm- ahem, promotion I’m doing, I have launched my new Kickstarter for the slice of life yuri visual novel Christine’s Care:

After a rough start, at the time of writing we’re very close to the base goal, but I hope we can reach at least the first stretch goal which will add a one-night stand scene with Donna:

Marlon, the muscular MMA fighter girl has already been added to the base game (and that’s probably what boosted the KS after a slow start).

In summary now we have in the base game the following love interests: Hannah, Liz, Marlon, a bonus triad route with Marlon and Liz, and if the first stretch goal is reached, even a one-night stand with Donna. Not bad for a “smaller game”. The story draft is already past 100,000 words as well!
Please visit the Kickstarter page and check the various updates, since I posted a lot of spicy stuff in form of sketches or sneak previews that you don’t want to miss!
Loren spin-offs idea
As you probably know I’m also working on my next big RPG game (which in this case also has town sim elements) Thieves Of Dingirra, and started thinking about the other Loren’s spin-offs left to do.
The current plan was to do 3 more games, with 4 love interests each, 2 “old” romances and 2 “new” romances. But then, I started looking at ToA: An Elven Marriage results, including lurking in forums to see what people thought of it.
In practice, by having only 4 romances, you can’t offer enough variety to players. I mean, if I make one of my “shorter” (still over 100k words lol) games, like the recent Lilith, because are all yuri, you have many love interests. But if someone is into yuri only (just an example, same thing works for yaoi fans or otome etc) even a big game like An Elven Marriage has only Lydia as love interest!
So I think the average sales of that game were mainly due to that – not enough love interests. I thought that by having much longer love stories could compensate it, and indeed many people loved the “romance extension” of Myrth and Rei storylines, but in the end for people who only play a specific route/romance combo, the rest wasn’t enough.
And so while brainstorming with other devs and fans on my Discord I thought: what if instead of doing 3 more games with 4 love interests, I do 2 more but with 6 each?
The idea is to remove the story set in the Amazon Citadel with slaves revolt, which is a good idea for two reasons: first it would be very specific, and I think hard to write or justify the presence of other characters inside the Citadel the whole time. Second, such a setting would have worked better for a simulation than a RPG gameplay.
So that’s an interesting idea, which I could always pursue later in another game with a different cast, or even same characters but using another artist to have more freedom (as you probably know I have the art needed to finish the sequels but Loren’s artist doesn’t work for me anymore so adding more characters/scenes is complicated).
It would leave us with two games, split like this:
Reign Of War
The next planned spin-off, in addition to Jul, Breza, Draco and Mesphit, there would also be two new characters: Selith (the half lizardwoman) and Odurat (half-orc).
Reign Of Peace
The last planned spin-off (I might change the name since the witches have a prominent role in the story), in addition to Loren, Karen, Amukiki and Chambara, there would also be two new characters: Samaras (originally a vampire, now I changed into something else) and Nook (shaman).
This way each game would have 4 bisexual characters (Loren, Amukiki, Mesphit, Chambara, Jul, Selith, Odurat), 1 gay (Draco, Nook) and 1 lesbian (Karen, Breza). Each game would offer same amount of love interests/romance combos.
Going from 4 to 6 love interests would mean more writing of course – but not that much, and I think from the marketing side each game it would benefit more (because it would be easier for potential buyers to find something for their tastes). Plus, it would mean the games could come out sooner – I know some people are eager to romance again their favorite characters from Loren!
Conclusions
For now all of the above is just me thinking loud, but the more I think about it, the more I think it could be a good idea. Of course, first I have to finish Christine’s Care, and next year Thieves Of Dingirra, so there’s time!
I’ll do my usual “end of the year review” blog post later this month, so for now that’s all!
As much as I love your writing and gameplay, I’ve long felt that the biggest thing holding the post-Loren games back has always been the art. The new games have very pretty art, but it just doesn’t have the same amount of heart or personality to it.
So long as the original artist is truly not available any more (and if there’s any price that would get them back, I think they’d be worth it), my personal wish would be to see you work with someone new who can put a bit more feeling into their characters, even if they’re not quite as flawless looking. If an artist can draw Loren with her proper drive and fury, I’ll be happy seeing her in a new style.
No sadly the original artist is gone forever, I tried already to get in touch again but they’re not answering the emails. I am not even sure what happened – all the public portfolio or links are gone 🙁
They made a bunch of art before leaving, and that’s what I’m using to make the games. So the lineart is the same of the original artist.
I’d say though to wait and see the new game, I think the scenes with Jul in particular are very nice.
But yeah I agree with you, the new games also have different coloring style, maybe it’s that (Loren original artist was only doing lineart, no coloring).
Hello again! I’m not sure if you remember answering my comments earlier this year on Steam, but I’ve started playing Amber (frankly I might actually write a guide on it because it’s depressing there isn’t one at least on Steam) and sadly I have another continuity point with the Codex to point out… in the game it says it takes place in the year of 698 during the childhood portion and then 702 as an adult while the timeline in AEM says that Amber goes for her apprenticeship in the year of 678. That’s kind of a startling 20 year difference.
Also, I’ve read your some of your more recent entries on your website and see that you put very much dedication into your games and I wanna say thank you for it ?. Loren and SOTW holds a special place in my heart. Also, it saddens me that you are constantly being yelled at by entitled Yuri fans. Good God, do they not look at your catalog before whining? Volleyball Haven, At Your Feet, Summer In Trigue, Save The World, House Of Chavez, your up-and-coming Christine’s Care and the entirety of the Tales From The Under-Realm trilogy (which I just bought today by the way ??, very excited). And those are just the games that are ALL Yuri. Like I want to say 75% to 85% of your other games have at least one Yuri route.
Honestly, I personally think you’ve been focusing a little TOO heavily on the Yuri and not enough on every other category of romance (nothing wrong with Yuri, but I prefer games that have multiple options and especially Poly).
Anyway, sorry again it turned kind of rant. I just wanna say that you’ve been doing a good job and that I’m really excited for the other projects you have next year. I do have a few questions though. Is the half lizardwoman Selith the same half lizard child that showed up in Karen’s side quest back in Loren who was conveniently mentioned in Passing in AEM when discussing potential demon hybrids? Are there Dragon hybrids in the world of Aravorn? And who is Amber‘s Canon romantic partner?
Anyway, I hope you’re having a great holiday season ?
Thanks, will check the codex (it was made with information gathered from forums by fans).
And the yuri fans were yelling at me BEFORE the current batch of games. Until Volleyball Heaven in 2020 there was literally not a single yuri-only game. Now I’d say I did my job haha.
Personally though I also like yuri stuff more and they sell better on Steam (at least they used to), so that’s why I made so many recently. Last but not least it’s really hard to find artists who can draw males well!
Regarding your last series of questions: I was planning for Selith to be indeed that child in Karen’s side quest but have to check that it makes sense time-wise. Dragon hybrids aren’t present right now, but I don’t see why not. Lastly, Amber’s canon romantic partner in Lilith is Ruby.
Thanks and wish you happy holidays as well!
If Selith is 12 years old during the Karen quest and you stick with the date of 674 for the setting of Reign Of War then she would be 20 years old so it should work out just fine. They just called her a juvenile and 12 years old feels juvenile to me. Also when I was just double checking the codex I realized that Amber being discovered in the woods by her mom would also be wrong date wise. It should be listed at 682 since she’s 20 years old in 702. Also I’m very happy to hear that Ruby is her chosen partner because I love her and I actually just finished her route yesterday :). Her romance and the poly between Cosmina & Reed are definitely my favorites.
I didn’t realize that finding competent artist that can draw men well was an issue. I mean I thought Bruno from House Of Chavez was really hot, could totally be leading man material in a different game. Hopefully you can find that artist again and have them do more drawings for you. I really like the art style there.
Thanks a lot and once again, happy holidays! Once I finish Amber my next achievements quest will be Queen of Thieves
Thanks for checking, then yes I’ll probably go with that 🙂
That artist of HoC sadly had some serious personal issues this year, but I’ll try to see if I can get her to draw again.
Thanks and best wishes to you as well!