Category Archives: heileen

Heileen 2 preorders beta

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Heileen 2: The Hands Of Fate Preorder

So yesterday I released a Beta pre-order version of Heileen 2! Since I had many people waiting for it, and since the game is basically done (except some last-minute fix) I thought I could release it this way, without voices.

Of course, people that buy the pre-order now, will also receive for free the updated voiced version once is ready (but I believe we’re talking about January).

So, if you bought the first game, or some other of my games, you know what you can expect:

– top quality manga artwork: the amout of art in Heileen 2 makes it my biggest game so far!
– intriguing story with many mysteries: you’ll discover many things from Heileen past. Who she was, her surname, her parents, her early relationships with Marie, and more
– quality writing: the game texts have been proofreaded by a very good native english speaker, so no more mistakes 🙂
– 15 unique endings: discover the 7 sins  or the 7 virtues ending. And the bonus “limbo” ending too!
– 21 dreams, each one with two possible outcomes that leads to two or more different paths: a guarantee of big replayability

So what are you waiting for, go to Heileen 2 webpage and preorder the game!

Almost done

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Today got the last missing background of Heileen 2! So the art is completely finished. In the two screenshots below you see Jack as woodcutter (what!? yes!) and a friendly group of pirates who seems to be interested in our heroine Heileen… 😉

I’m reviewing several parts of the game to add some cinematic effects (zooms, pan, etc) and reviewing the plot (is easy to get lost with so many choices!) and everything seems good. I also finished to put all the male voices inside the game, so I’m only missing the female ones and then the game could be considered ready to beta-test and then release.

It’s a bit discouraging that it will probably coincide with the pre-Christmas period: however I’m not sure yet, the game might even be delayed to January. Anyway, I’m still going on with my other projects, and hopefully if I can find the time I’m also going to do a decent update to Spirited Heart (nothing special, but I promised I would do one!).

Heileen 2 status update

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Today got a bunch of new art for the game. You can see some screens on this post. The first one is a group of natives you’ll meet on the island. They look really friendly, don’t they? 🙂 The second, is the gallery screen, where you can replay the endings you have unlocked (similarly to Bionic Heart). I really love the two Heileen Devil / Angel pictures. To be honest my favourite is the Devil one!

I have only a few more BGs to get and then the game will be completed, art-wise. However there are still many missing voices. I gave lot of thought about possibly releasing a sort of “pre-order” version, without voices: but talking with several friends (customers and other developers) they agreed that wouldn’t make much sense. People wouldn’t play the game again just to hear voices, so they would just have a lower-quality experience. This means that the game will probably be done in December though 🙁 So please remember this Christmas to ask  Heileen 2 as gift!

The best moment for an indie

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This is actually the best moment for me, as indie. What I’m talking about? About the period of time between a finished project, and the start of the new one.

Indeed I’ve officially finished writing all the texts needed for Heileen 2: The Hands Of Fate, even if of course I haven’t finished the game itself yet. But from now on, it is just a matter of waiting for the voices / missing art, and playtesting (but I’ve already done that a lot while writing the story). So while there’s still some work to do, nothing that really require my creativity.

Instead, right now I’m thinking about what to do next. I have several other projects going on, but some are long-term ones, or are carried on by other people (I’ve other writers working on more games). For sure the first thing will be to implement a small mini-farming game for the Flower Shop dating sim, and then… don’t know. I am evaluating several ideas right now, including some light-horror stories, an investigative one, a sci-fi team combat based game with story, and more.

It’s going to be a fun end of the month 🙂

Deadlines and commitment

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It’s scary thinking that today is already the 10th october and I announced Heileen 2 for november 🙂 But at same time is thrilling and having a deadline keeps me focused and committed to finishing the game. Not that I wouldn’t have finished it otherwise – but I have the insane tendency to always add more stuff in games. I start small, then day by day I have new ideas and I want to add them all in the game. It might sounds good but it isn’t: if you do something too big too fast, there are several side effect that might happen:

  • bugs – adding too much content/features in short time WILL inevitabily lead to bugs. And you know, nobody likes them 🙂
  • lower quality – this is obvious: adding too much stuff (in my case text or gameplay experiences) in short time means I won’t have time to test them properly and see if they impact the gameplay in a good or bad manner
  • possible delays – last but not least, it can lead to a situation where you won’t meet the deadline. Like happened with Bionic Heart for example, where I delayed the exit of 2 weeks because of voiceovers

Right now I’m still writing the final part but I’m almost done. It’s really nice to see all the various endings, all the possible ways the story of Heileen can end. BUt will it really end with this game? who knows… 😉