Category Archives: Heirs & Graces

Heirs & Graces update

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Time for an update on this game! Last week I got everything I needed: the last music tracks, the last character images, and chibis. We might add a few more chibis for each love interest, but that won’t matter at this point 🙂

Anyway, I was saying that I pretty much finished the scheduler design. You can see a screenshot below:

chibis

The screenshot is slightly outdated, indeed now there are 32 weeks of time, and there’s also a relationship tab next to the stats & skills, to check anytime your current relationship with the four dateable boys.

I designed the scheduler to minimize the grinding as much as possible. You still need to plan the week, but then once you click start the events will play (like Roommates for example) and the stats/relationship will increase accordingly, and the scenes will trigger.

skillcheck

Speaking of scenes, there are 15 main scenes + a final one. On each main plot scene (which will always play, no matter who you romance) there will be skill checks. If you pass them, you’ll gain Reputation points. At the end of the game, if you have at least 80 reputation, you’ll unlock special endings.

I have playtested it a lot, and in Normal mode is possible to win, though you need to plan the week carefully (and probably write down each skill check, since they always appear in same order). In Easy mode… will be hard to lose 😉

This system is fun because there’s still some strategy involved. Even if the outcome for each activity is randomized, the values are so close, and the number of events are so many, that if you lose, it won’t be because of the random factor. I played it several times and planning it correctly, I always won (you can gain Reputation also outside of those main plot checks).

After all this you might ask…

So, what’s left to do? Can we play it now!?!?

rebellious

Patience, my friends! The writer already scripted all the scenes, however I need to manually review all of them, adding some extra sound effects, music, GUI, etc. There are 16 main scenes (the last one is very long), and each boy has 10 scenes each, so 40 romance scenes in total. Plus, some very interesting jealousy scenes, 6 in total.

The total amount of scenes is: 16+6+40 = 62 scenes! I have already started “reviewing them”, but I was mostly busy with the gameplay mechanics. I think I should be able to do 4-5 scenes a day, maybe more if they’re “easy” (depends on where they take place, characters involved, etc so I can’t really know beforehand).

Which means it should take me between 15-20 days to finish this. Could be less or slightly more depending on the other things I must do. Anyway as you can see, the beta is very close 🙂 I’m curious to see how this will do, since it’s my first yaoi only game!

C14 Dating now out on Steam

I decided to release this game today, it was scheduled for next week but since it was ready… why wait? 🙂

You can get the game on Steam here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/451640/

As always if you bought the game directly you’ll be able to redeem the Steam keys for free here: http://www.bestanimegames.com/steam/

(please allow a couple of days since I just requested the keys from Steam and might take a bit before they approve them).

Love Bites – Introducing Sabrina

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intro_sabrina
If you follow me and my games, you probably know by now that I have a weak spot for strong female characters (Loren, Tanya, etc). So naturally Sabrina is one of my favorite of this game!

Sabrina Trejo
Age:  18

The first impression most people get when they meet Sabrina is a stubborn, contentious young woman, and they wouldn’t be wrong.  It isn’t that she aims to piss anyone off, but that seems to be how things work out.

Some think this behavior developed because Sabrina’s father remarried when she was quite young, but this is far from the truth.  Sabrina loves her step-mother as much as she does her birth mother, and adores her step-siblings, Kaitlyn and Brandon.

Others think her rebelliousness stems from a deep seated dislike of authority, as evidenced by her falling grades, and disruptiveness in the classroom.  Further examination reveals Sabrina was an average student until the age of 16.

What precipitated her change came one fateful night when she was supposed to spend time with her birth mother.  Sabrina arrived at her mother’s apartment, but found it was empty.  Letting herself in, she patiently waited…and that was the night her whole world changed.

Sabrina’s mother staggered into the apartment, bleeding from several wounds on her torso, and neck, clutching a broken sword.  Sabrina ran to give her mother assistance, only to stop when she heard a guttural growl from the doorway.  Looking up, she saw a pale figure with glowing red-eyes at the doorstep.

With a rush, the figure was upon her, its fangs seeking out her throat.  Desperately, Sabrina’s hand clutched the broken blade, and drew it across the creature’s throat, nearly beheading it in the process.  The figure staggered backward, and dropped to the ground, coalescing into dust as it died.

Thanks to her actions, Sabrina’s mother was saved…and inducted Sabrina into the Nightblades, an order of monster hunters with the sworn duty to safeguard the rest of humanity.

So it isn’t that Sabrina wished to miss graduation with people she grew up with, but it is hard to justify going to school and doing homework when monsters are looking to make you their next meal.  Needless to say, Sabrina’s outside interests have suffered, especially a budding painting career, or jamming with her friends.

Things wouldn’t be so bad if Sabrina didn’t feel so alone, but the Nightblades enforce a vow of secrecy among their members.  It is hard to keep a relationship going if a loved one thinks you’re having an affair when in reality you might be hunting zombies…a strain she saw first-hand when her parents separated.

Still, Sabrina perseveres since the efforts of people like her which help keep her family, and other innocents safe.

Update on the games in progress

heirsandgracesmainmenuI am currently working on Heirs & Graces, my first yaoi-only dating sim, and I’m at good point: the writing is all done, there are only a few pieces of art missing (chibis and some sprites). I am putting together the scheduler screen right now, and I think the game beta could begin next month or maybe if I’m particularly productive even end of this one!

At same time I’m also doing the last scripting/coding/testing for Queen Of Thieves. The robbery missions texts have been rewritten by Forsaken, who is also writing a series of new scenes for the main story, while the artist is doing a few more CG to illustrate it. They’ll involve Arianna, Raul, etc and I am eager to see the end result!

roof
The robbery scenes are varied and with random variations. In one house a vault could contain treasure, in another a monster, etc. Hopefully will provide enough fun for the players! In the scene above, the sisters will try to gain access to their next target passing through the roof. I don’t think this is going to end well… 😉

Even for this game the release date depends on several factors but I think a beta version should be out by end of May or mid-June. We’ll see, since I also need to take a small break between each game release, just to avoid getting crazy! 😀

Love Bites – Introducing Nadia

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intro_nadia
This will make many male players happy! Nadia is a COUGAR romance option!

If you played my older games like Heileen or the famous Loren Amazon Princess, you already know about Lora and Karen, two cougar romance options: but only for female players. So this is officially the first time that there’s a cougar romance for males! Hurrah!

Her name is Nadia. Now, let’s introduce her properly:

Nadia Murphy
Age:  38

A vivacious woman, Nadia is a professor of Mythology and Occult Studies at the local university.  Nadia is a favorite among her students.  Her classes are as likely to do hands-on fieldwork such as investigating supposed haunted houses as they are to regurgitate facts from a textbook.

This isn’t to say Nadia doesn’t have her detractors.  Some of this comes from academics who suggest it tarnishes the university’s reputation when some of their faculty participate in pseudo-science at best, and utter lies at worst.  

These complaints usually go nowhere, though.  For one thing, Nadia’s scholarship is impeccable in her formal papers.  For another, the more ‘fannish’ books she writes bring a level of fame and revenue that the university definitely desires.

This state of affairs amuses Nadia, though, for as she personally knows, magic is real and a source of real power for those with the will and knowledge to wield it.  This isn’t to say Nadia has no use for science, far from it.  After all, if you must defend yourself, a gun is much easier, and less taxing to use than setting someone on fire…and much easier to explain if you come down to it.

However, with great power comes the chance of temptation and corruption and magic is no exception.  Nadia’s spirit guide indicated she had to come to town, and safeguard it as beast she can.  Sometimes this means taking a book out of circulation which could summon an actual demon, to finding a cure for some fool whose curse backfired.

Despite her seeming popularity, Nadia can be rather lonely.  After all, it’s one thing to show an interest in New Age nonsense, but if you actually prove it…well, people have a low tolerance for anything out of their understanding.  Of course, the sort of person who’d go dancing skyclad doesn’t often make for the best company.

Lately, Nadia’s been feeling greatly disturbed as she’s found evidence of someone working illicit magic, but she can’t figure out who.  Whoever this person is, though, has to be a person of power to keep themselves hidden from her investigations.

Nadia is keeping a special eye out since all her predictions seem to focus on one of her former students, a red-haired individual she found rather charming if otherwise unremarkable.  However, just because someone doesn’t seem out of the ordinary, this won’t stop fate from slapping them around.

Progress update

For those who don’t read regularly my forums, I’m making very good progress scripting the romances of Queen Of Thieves. Some funny screenshots below:

slapped

awareness

relationship

I should be finished with the yuri romances by the end of month. That doesn’t mean the game is ready, but a very big part of it yes. It’s just missing some extra CGs/scenes, and the coding of the final battles.

Heirs & Graces is being coded too right now and looks like it could be out in the next 2-3 months 🙂

Love Bites – introducing Kaitlyn

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intro_kaitlyn

Here’s the first introduction, Kaitlyn. Why is she in underwear? Well in the announcement post I already showed the two other outfits, so I thought to do an innovative thing: “intro underwear”! Now the cool guys introduce their story characters in underwear, to show they’ve nothing to hide ;D

I will do the same also for Brandon (the male protagonist) but not for the love interests 🙂

All right, now let’s see what the writer has to say about Kaitlyn, the female protagonist of this game:

Kaitlyn Lawrence
Age:  22

Kaitlyn, the younger fraternal twin of Brandon, just graduated with a degree in chemical engineering.  She was fortunate to procure an entry level position at a pharmaceuticals company, but her new job won’t start for a few months.  As such, Kaitlyn’s trying to earn what she can while staying at home, so she could have her own place.

It isn’t that her parents minded her presence, but Kaitlyn wants to spread her wings, and show that she can make it on her own.  Ultimately, she wants to be her own boss, but that dream is much further down the line.

Now that she’s out of school, Kaitlyn would also like to relax a little.  Especially during her last year of school, she had to give up much of her free time in order do as well as she did.

Kaitlyn is now wondering whether all this studying was good for her, though.  Lately, she could swear she is seeing things, things which might be tricks of an exhausted mind.  For example, as she was getting a cappuccino, Kaitlyn thought she saw a ghostly figure in the mirror behind the barista, but a quick rub of her eyes showed nothing there.

Kaitlyn doesn’t know whether there is something more going on, or she is just more observant of the unusual lately.  Whatever the answer, there are more important matters she must devote her time to…

Other games update

Good news, C14 Dating beta should be ready by end of this month, and the final release not much far away (of course depends on how many problems people will find during the beta testing!).

Meanwhile Heirs & Graces and Never Forget Me (Always Remember Me sequel) are already being scripted. The former has all the story and art done (but still missing the music), while the latter is missing a few scenes and some artwork. For both I still need to design the scheduler/stat raising part though.

The Queen Of Thieves got all the yuri scenes scripted but I need to review them all, and it’s still missing a few art and scenes as well. My idea is to release Heirs & Graces and Never Forget Me first, and then work on finishing this game since doing a beta testing of a RPG is always a complex/stressful thing to do, and I need to be 100% focused on this task only.

Heirs & Graces – Eloy

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eloy

Here is the last of the four main love interest of my upcoming yaoi-only dating sim Heirs & Graces, Eloy. Introduction by the writer follows:

Eloy, or Lord Shiraan if you’re being formal, is a noble from Grandtree. However, he rarely bothers acting like it. While he’s perfectly capable of putting on the typical airs when he has a mind to, Eloy doesn’t really buy into formalities and usually finds engaging other nobles tedious at best. He prefers it when people are themselves, even if that means their negative traits are readily apparent.

Unlike the other nobles that have come to visit Lord Sandor, Eloy isn’t interested in inheriting anything. He genuinely likes Lord Sandor and considers him a friend. Actually, Lord Sandor is one of Eloy’s only friends because of the elf’s tendency to get on people’s nerves. This is very intentional on Eloy’s part. One of Eloy’s favorite things to do is mess with people. He loves setting up scenarios that put people on the spot just to see how they will react. Eloy earns a lot of hatred for this once people catch on to what he is doing, but he honestly doesn’t care. He doesn’t go out of his way to make friends and just continues doing whatever he wants like he always does.

Eloy tends to be a bit restless when he spends too much time in one place so he does a lot of traveling. While he rarely goes home, he does spend a lot of time at Lord Sandor’s mansion. This isn’t because he has issues with his family– though by now they’re probably a bit embarrassed over how easily he shirks his responsibilities. Eloy simply finds Grandtree a little too laid back for his tastes. He’s too interested in what is going on in the world and likes humans enough to want to be around them regularly. To top it off, he just isn’t as into nature as one might expect an elf to be and thus, has no real desire to live in a forest. While Lord Sandor’s mansion doesn’t have much to offer in the ways of entertainment, spending time with Lord Sandor is more than enough to keep Eloy there.

A real bastar-ahem, funny guy, isn’t he? 😉

Dead But Alive – Beta version 1.0e

The new update for the zombie-VN Dead But Alive is now available! It adds a bunch of new features and bugfixes and also a “visual novel mode”:

DBA_visualnovel

 

Because of its size, if you have still the previous beta version installed you can optionally update it using a patch file.

For more information, visit my forums: http://www.winterwolves.net/viewforum.php?f=46