Category Archives: heileen

Heileen 3: Sea Maidens in beta

Despite being buried in snow and recovering from a flu, this week still managed to finish the beta version of Heileen 3: Sea Maidens, the yuri version of Heileen 3.

Direct download link (BETA)
http://www.macgames.biz/games/Heileen3-1.1d.exe (Windows)
http://www.macgames.biz/games/Heileen3-1.1d.zip (Mac)
http://www.macgames.biz/games/Heileen3-1.1d.tar.bz2 (Linux)

Buy/Preorder links
http://www.winterwolves.com/buy.php?prod=17030053 (normal yuri version)
http://www.winterwolves.com/buy.php?prod=17030054 (yuri version with Bonus Content. Note that the Bonus Content is IDENTICAL to the “otome” version, so if you already bought that, you already have all the extra content!)

Discounts
Anyone who bought already the normal version has the right to a 50% discount (that is what I’ll offer as bundle once the yuri version is officially released, a discount of 25% on the whole order so it’s the equivalent of 50% of one item). So if you bought the normal version already simply email me and will send you the discount code 🙂

If you find any bugs feel free to report them in my forums here:

http://www.winterwolves.net/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=2823

Note that the new downloads contains both the otome and yuri versions, similarly to what happens for Spirited Heart. Also there are new scenes for the otome version too.

Other games

Now that Heileen 3 is getting towards the final release, I am going to get back to the other games. The next one to be released should be Bionic Heart 2. Then there are several games in the works, and one of the most important is Planet Stronghold 2. Speaking of it, check this interesting sneak peek of Lisa romances:

I will post the Joshua sneak peek as soon as artist finishes the last CG scene, Joshua/Cliff 😉 but rest assured that they’re very good too. Meanwhile the coding and design for the new RPG framework continues, and next week I might officially announce a new RPG game… stay tuned.

Heileen 3 released, Merry Christmas and the end of the world

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Heileen 3 is finally out

First of all, Heileen 3: New Horizon was officially released a couple days ago. Here’s the official trailer with the theme song:

For more info and demos, check the official game page: http://www.winterwolves.com/heileen.htm

I’m working on the yuri version right now which will be called “Heileen 3: Sea Maidens” and should be out very soon, probably mid-January. Will do a postmortem about the game once that version is out.

Merry Christmas!

Second, I want to wish you Merry Christmas and like every year, I’m doing it by offering a generous discount on all my games (except Heileen 3 of course since it was just released!).

Use the coupon code: XMAS to get 50% off any single game. Remember that the coupon is not cumulable with other offers, so for example it won’t work if you try to buy game bundles which have an automatic discount already (Spirited Heart + Girl’s Love, The Flower Shop games, and so on).

…the end of the world ?

As you know, today Friday 21st December 2012 the world should end. I hope not, since I was just starting to have fun working on my games! 🙂 Besides, I have so many interesting projects for next year that it would be really a pity. Check for yourself:

What’s coming next year from Winter Wolves

January: As said, the plan is to get Heileen 3 yuri version out. Will also probably announce officially a new Steampunk RPG project 😉

February: Release of Bionic Heart 2 or at least begin the preorder/beta testing phase

Rest of the year: Depending how things go, the release of Planet Stronghold 2 and/or the Steampunk RPG, and maybe one or more of the other dating / life sims currently in progress like Nicole, Roommates, Amber Magic Shop or Spirited Heart 2, but that’s too early to tell!

Almost there!

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Working on Heileen 3 has been my main focus in the past week. I finally managed to finish coding the simulation part. Below you can see the “Professions Screen”:

The game will feature 14 unique “profession ending” with associate image

As you see to reach every ending you’ll need to master an advanced skill (currently set at level 10 but during beta testing the value might change) and also have the required sin or virtue. Initially I didn’t want to reveal them, but while playing I figured out that the combinations are so many that would have been more frustrating than fun for the player to discover all of them!

You’ll be able to change your virtue/sin “alignment” through the various cutscenes in the game.

So getting the profession ending definitely won’t be as easy as in my other raising sim, Spirited Heart 😉 but I think will be more rewarding.

The infamous wheel of time and a chibi during the simulation

In the screenshot above instead you see what happens after you choose your daily activity: the “wheel of time” will start spinning and advance through the various parts of the day: morning, midday, evening, night. In some cases at a specific time of the day a cutscene will appear, and you’ll be able to play it to change your virtues/sins or the relationship with other characters.

The simulation part is all automated, since I didn’t want to overcomplicate the game too much. However there is still some strategy involved, like inviting one of the character to join you. This can give you a positive or negative bonus (or simply give no bonus). In this case you’ll have to find out the best character for each activity 😉

Also, each “land activity” (those that raise the advanced skills) will have two skill requirements. For example, the activity Dancer will require two basic skills: Charisma at level 3 and Endurance at level 1. Which means that first you need to raise Charisma at level 3. The value will change as you level up, so Dancer level 2 will require Charisma at level 4 and Endurance at level 2, and so on. In my playthrough I was able to reach level 10 in one advanced skill in 258 days of in-game time.

I titled the post “almost there” because the game is really almost finished, all that is left (beside testing) is some background art and more chibis, and the addition of a few more scenes.

I hope to be able to start testing/preordering the next weekend (8-9th December) and release the game by mid-December!

Bionic Heart 2 and moving past visual novels

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Right now I’m finishing Heileen 3, but I’m also working on two sci-fi games: Bionic Heart 2 and Planet Stronghold 2. As the title suggests, both are sequels. Bionic Heart was one of my first visual novel, and if I compare the artwork and the writing of that first title with the new one, the difference is immediately noticeable:

One of the first scenes of Bionic Heart 2, the shuttle to Mars

I am not hiding that the first Bionic Heart game was a very controversial game. Was one of the first western visual novels to get some attention in many japanese sites (probably the combo of the sexy android + romance did it) but also one of my worst selling games ever (beaten only by Vera Blanc!).

So why I made this sequel you might ask? Well first of all, I am indie because I have a passion for games. Even if I need to make money to live, I still have room to make some “game experiments” from time to time. Bionic Heart 2 will be one of them.

Second, because I never knew if the insuccess of the first game was because of the sci-fi theme, which typically appeals men more, or because of the game quality that, overall, wasn’t really good.

Apart for some “social boss fights” that are some kind of mini games to be fight picking sentences in the right order, the game plays like a regular visual novel, albeit with multiple point of views. I can say already that unless the game does pretty well, it will be my last visual novel ever.

And here I get to my title. I’m definitely moving past visual novels, at least in the immediate future (God only knkows what I’ll do in 5 years from now!). But don’t worry, by that I mean the “pure visual novels”, like the first two Heileen games. Dating / life sims like Always Remember Me or Spirited Heart are another thing.

Why I made that decision? Because I want to focus more on the gameplay, play mechanics, to reach a broader audience. I always liked to design gameplay, life simulations, and RPGs. While for RPGs I said I won’t release more than one a year, for dating/life sims I plan to do them more often.

Also who knows, maybe I could try my hand in future in making a classic adventure game, either first or third person view. Or do something different, but still story-based.

This of course, unless Bionic Heart 2 does really well. It should be out at the beginning of the 2013 so I’ll find that out pretty soon 🙂

Leveling up in Heileen 3

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I know the title seems weird. After all Heileen 3 is a dating sim, a life sim, but not a RPG. So what’s about this level up thing? Well, first of all, in the game there will be all the classic relationship bar/values we’re used to in dating sims, as you can see in the screenshot below:

The romance subscreen in Heileen 3 status screen

Before going on I want to clarify again, that the main game will have otome romances but only because the yuri version was delayed – this time it wasn’t my plan to release them separately, I wanted to have them both ready on launch day, but alas had some problems during the yuri development path 🙂

The next screen could still be common in a life simulation or a dating sim, even if the theme is quite original (the Seven Sins / Virtues):

The Seven Sins / Virtues subscreen in Heileen 3 status screen

Those aren’t bars, but “sliders”. Meaning that they don’t fill up, but the thumb can move towards the left if you’re a “Sinner”, or on the right if you’re a “Saint”. The values will be a requirement to get a specific ending.

What I’m talking about, regarding the leveling, is the new skills system I have designed. In my previous life/dating sims, you had a bar with a value from 0 to 100 (usually). It was ok, but this time I wanted to do something more interesting: the skills are divided into levels. So for example you start at level 1 of Wisdom, and donig certain activities you raise the values up to 100, after that the counter resets but you gain Wisdom Level 2. It works exactly as the experience bars of a RPG.

The Skills subscreen in Heileen 3 status screen

This will have several implications on the gameplay and will make the game more interesting. Differently from Spirited Heart, your skills values will never decrease, but if you had a bad day they will just increase by a slow value: in this context, even gaining values like 2-5 points is not a big improvement, considering the scale 0 to 100 and the level which will probably go up until 10 or later.

Other examples of new features include the possibility to ask one of the characters to join you in your activity, and depending on the choice you’ll get a bonus or not. For example asking Juliet to do Fencing will surely be a good idea, while asking her to help you in Farming… well let’s just say that you might not get a very polite reply!

Discovering who likes what will be part of the game fun and I’m sure will require me to write a strategy guide or walkthrough later in my forums 😉

One of the new background locations of the game

Right now the music of the game is being done, using only natural instruments (live guitar, etc) and the background artwork is being finished. I still believe the game should be out in the beginning of December, at least the preorder phase!

Stay tuned, and next week will talk about a very different game, Bionic Heart 2.

Computer Games

Development diary of Celso Riva