Author Archives: admin

Merry Christmas And Happy New Year!

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skippernatale01
My dog Skipper wishes you Merry Christmas!

First of all, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Second, like every year, I’m running a promo sale with 50% discount on all games (except Seasons Of The Wolf) until the 2nd January 2015!

By buying direct you get the DRM-Free version + free Steam key 🙂

And now some quick random news:

  • The mobile port of SOTW is being harder than I thought. I also recently learned from Pytom (Ren’Py author) that he’s working on a new version of the framework which uses much advanced libraries (SDL2) that should be out Q1 next year. So I think I’m going to wait and try using that version which could improve the speed to an acceptable level 🙂
  • Queen Of Thieves and Planet Stronghold: Colonial Defense writing and art production is going very well. Of course, all coding is still missing! And I also need to do some big design changes. But if things keep going at this pace, I’m confident that at least one if not both games could be out next year, which would be great.
  • Nicole Yuri is also making very good progresses. I don’t want to jinx it, but it really should be out early next year!!
  • All the other games are making progresses as well, but like always I cannot say exactly when they’ll be out. Stay tuned!

Once again, Happy Holidays to everyone! 🙂

small indies growing…

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Otello has found a comfortable (?) place in the bathroom…!

Today’s blog post is a bit different. I want to talk about a side-effect of when small indies grow 🙂

Back in 2007-2008, I was doing some “research” on indie CRPGs and of course I’ve checked also Jeff Vogel’s site (Spiderweb games). He’s one of the most famous indie doing RPG, so I was curious to see how he was doing. I was surprised when I read in the official forums that “he used” to post there, but now he doesn’t even show up anymore. I was thinking “What? how is possible, he doesn’t care about his users?!”.

Now, several years later, I understand completely his reasons! When you start growing your business, when you have more titles under your belt, the things to do increase exponentially.

Just think what there’s to do for each game:

– support: that’s the biggest problem. No matter how fool-proof you made your registration/full version delivery, there is always going to be an issue with it. But not just that: hardware configuration problems, sometimes files are downloaded incompletely so people think are corrupted, false antivirus positives, etc. It’s just insane, believe me! Some indies I know have hired people to deal with that, but I honestly wouldn’t trust anyone (since I should give access to orders database, Steam keys, etc). So I do it myself…
– marketing/promotion: I honestly don’t do much of this, but even in this case, there are many things to do. Send press-releases, answer journalists, do interviews, send press-copies, etc etc
– social presence: nowadays is essential, so I try to post daily updates on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and so on. Is not a big amount of work each: but if you sum everything, starts to add up (5 min there, another 10 there, etc and voilà hours are gone!)
– game production management: emailing people, checking what they’re doing, etc. Note that I don’t include the actual game coding in this part, and still is big!

OK I’ll stop here, I think you got it 😀 so what is happening is that (luckily) this year was very good for me, but also means that my “free time” has greatly decreased…and I don’t mean to be rude or snob people, but I won’t be able to answer anymore people emailing me “to chat”, or “to know how is going”, or asking “when game XYZ will be out” and so on like I used to do in the past. I simply don’t have the time anymore! 🙁

Of course I’ll still provide support for customers, I don’t plan to disappear from my forums, and will try to reply on the various sites (blog, twitter, Steam forums, etc…there are so many!) but it will depend on how busy I am in that moment.

I also realized that I’m spending really too much time in front of the computer: I want to stay more with family… the wife and pets 🙂

End of the rant! Now, for some quick update on the games, check those screenshots:

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The skills screen of Queen Of Thieves

attributes
Attributes screen, similar to SOTW one (work in progress)

I got new GUI art done by a new artist who did a great job in my opinion. Is still work in progress but you can see the “return of skilltree” that some players liked so much in Loren 😉

Stay tuned for more info next week…Christmas is coming! 🙂

PSCD – meet Lucius

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lucius

It’s time to talk about the first robotic male love interest of my games! Before, there was only the female Tanya of Bionic Heart that was an android, but she was more human-like. Instead Lucius looks like… a real robot, as you can see above 😉

And here’s more about him directly from the writer:

Name:  Lucius
Nation of Origin: –
Service Branch:  Imperial Robotics

Description:
Built by Luna-Ferrix Industries, Lucius is a rarity; he is among the first generation of self-aware robots developed by humanity.  This isn’t to say there weren’t robots before as the RoboAnts demonstrate, but Lucius is definitely something on the cutting edge.  

Though constructed as a male adult, Lucius is innocent in his interactions with others.  True, he has the accumulated knowledge to draw on, but he has no context to place it.  As a result of this, he is very curious about what goes on around him, and will sometimes place himself in situations which, if he was human, would be hazardous to his health.

Lucius is a direct, if trusting soul, and still has some trouble distinguishing between turns of phrase and direct commands, much as the kitchen staff found out when he proceeded to bake enough pies to fill the cafeteria.

Lucius’ construction also raises some further implications.  Luna-Ferrix sees Lucius as the first in a wave of robot servants and soldiers which will net them a healthy profit, but other people wonder whether it is morally appropriate to allow one’s ‘tools’ to be aware to start with.  

However, despite others’ distrust, Lucius has shown himself to be a reliable, loyal person to those around him.

I am quite curious to see what people will think about his “romance story” 🙂 I am looking forward to it!

Various games updates

Progress have been made on several games:
Roger Steel script is now 100,000 words long! Is still not finished, though 🙂 The game will also feature a very particular theme song by Boossara (same singer of SOTW theme song).
PSCD script is at good point too (the main missions at least).
Queen Of Thieves art is being redrawn by artist and I’m very pleased by the results! Just take a look at the picture below, featuring the new female romances of the game:

QoTfemale

From left to right: Therjalla the elven healer, Moirgane the human bartender and Mary-Ann the human blacksmith.

Story-wise, the new writer is fixing the old script, so this part is going fast (since scenes have been written already, she can change some parts but doesn’t need to brainstorm/spend time thinking what to write for most of it). For the yuri romances I guess will take a bit more time. Anyway this time I want to release the game with both romances genders available, so to not repeat something like Nicole… At least there are “only” 3 characters to write! 😉

Thank you

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A nice picture I managed to catch with my camera while taking a walk outdoor!

I’m writing this post on Thanksgiving day. Here in Europe is not a big festivity like in USA, though I really like the idea of it. Being thankful for something, thanking someone, is a good thing to do.

So here I am, thanking you! 🙂

Yes because if I’m still indie after all those years, is mainly thanks to you. My entire life (and those of my wife/pets!) would be very different without your great support, doesn’t matter how big or small.

But I’m going to thank you not just by words! 😉

I’m doing a special promo sale, with all my games 50% off until the 2nd December!
(except Seasons Of The Wolf obviously, since was just released).

You don’t need to enter any code, the discount is automatic for the whole duration of the sale. As always, by buying direct you help me (I get a bigger cut than with portals) and also you get the games DRM-Free + Steam key anyway.

Short status update

I’m making good progress with the various games in the works, but as always I have no idea when they’ll be out.

I often get people asking me: “when game XYZ will be out?” 🙂 It’s cool since shows that people are waiting for my games, but always remember: as soon as I am confident that I can start * at least the beta testing * in a specific date, I’ll be the first to officially announce it in the blog or the various social networks. So if I don’t say anything, means that I don’t know myself!

When several people are involved in developing a game (like all my games do now), is normal to have delays and to be unable to know when everyone will finish his/her tasks.

Anyways, if I had to make a guess, I’d say that 2015 might be “the year of yuri”, since beside Nicole yuri, I also have another yuri-only dating sim in the works (the infamous “Summer In Trigue” which I’ll officially announce later) and all the other games that could be out include female love interests playing as female main character.

This is another way to thank all the yuri fans who followed me through the past years 😉

PSCD – meet Mira

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mira

After a break of a few weeks, back to introducing the PSCD characters. And what character! 😉

Name:  Mira Patras
Nation of Origin:  Greece
Service Branch:  Civilian Consultant

Description:
As one of the youngest Nobel Prize winners ever, it was a foregone conclusion that Mira would make her way to Planet Stronghold.  The numerous anomolies and mysteries have drawn scientists like a moth to flame, and Mira is certainly no exception.

There are many demands on Mira’s time, however.  A true polymath, she has provided valuable insight into numerous fields, whether it is geology, or robotics.  It is known some of her research was instrumental in Lucius’ construction, for example.  This also causes a bit of exasperation for the military since as a civilian, Mira isn’t as bound by military doctrine as a soldier would be, and they worry she may inadvertantly leak some critical research.  

What initially brought Mira to the planet were reports of excessive gigantism among some of the animal species, and upon her arrival, witnessed this firsthand as a giant grub attempted to consume her transport shuttle.  Instead of frightening her off, Mira was inspired to  stay.  After all, if she could discover the source of this enlargement, it might then be replicated among other things such as food bearing crops.

Mira is also a bit of a media darling as various outlets vie for her attention.  Some of these include invitations to anchor her own show, or various movie roles.  While she makes time for inteviews, Mira usually declines these entreaties as they would. There were many broken hearts when she refused the lead role in the remake of ‘Attack of the Giant Amazon.’

Needless to say, she is one of my favorites. Not because of the piercing on the lips, or the blue eyes. Or her sexy alternate outfit. No, really, not because of that… 😀

Jokes apart, I really like all the character design of this game! And I’m also pleased by the progresses made by the writer so far.

SOTW DLC and other games in progress

SOTW Steam testing is going well, can you believe that we found some more small bugs? haha the work on a RPG is never done! They were all minor things of course, but needed to be fixed 🙂

I can also confirm that we’re going to work on a DLC for SOTW. Only 20 days have passed since the official release, but I’m confident enough that it’s worth doing it. The DLC will happen after the end of Act 4, but of course before the various “alternate endings” (since they talk about things happening far in future).

I’ll manage to keep the existing characters so keep your saves, but I think will also offer the possibility to “start anew” just for the DLC, automatically leveling up the characters to level 25-26 and picking your romance, so people don’t necessarily need to replay the whole thing!

The DLC will focus more on the story/lore and the interaction between the player and the various romances. Is a RPG, so of course there will still be battles, but not often as the main game!! Of course everything is still in early planning stages, since the DLC for sure won’t be out before next Summer/Fall (as always, depending on how the other various projects go).

Queen Of Thieves is going well too: the artist is making the new characters with his “new improved style” and what can I say? just take a look for yourself:

therjalla
Therjalla the elf healer is going to be one of the female yuri romances of the game

So, Myrth from Loren has a formidable competitor it seems! 😉 Jokes apart, also pleased by the new writer’s speed. I have no release estimates of course but if both writer and artist keep going at this pace, the game will be out sooner than I thought.

See you next Friday…the Black Friday!! 😮