Category Archives: Heirs & Graces

Heirs & Graces – Borges

First of all, a new character introduction for Heirs & Graces by the writer:

Borges comes from a fairly well off family. Though not a noble by any means, he can’t say that he’s suffered any overwhelming hardships over the years. His parents, though not particularly strict, always had a certain path in mind for him. They helped him get a good education to become a doctor and still occasionally meddle in his love life in an attempt to get him to settle down. Borges has followed their plans for him as far as becoming a doctor, but he has a few minor issues with that second part. He’s put off talking to them about it however, figuring he has more important things to focus on at the moment– like treating Lord Sandor.

Borges isn’t an incompetent doctor by any means, but there are certainly more experienced ones that Lord Sandor could afford to employ. However, after going through several of them, Lord Sandor has stuck with Borges. Borges visits Lord Sandor directly and has become a familiar face to all of Lord Sandor’s employees. He is very polite and is well liked by most of the servants including Marcel, but he occasionally clashes with Vincent and Lord Sandor. He finds the two to be unreasonable at times and has made a point of telling them so. He is genuinely invested in Lord Sandor’s well being, but there is only so much he can do when Lord Sandor insists on keeping information from him.

Borges is kind and puts the well being of others before his own. He’s been through enough situations to know that he can’t save everyone, but he still takes it personally whenever he’s unable to help someone in need. He gets frustrated often, but tries to keep it to himself as he works through it. He’s usually able to talk himself into remaining positive, but Lord Sandor’s case has been wearing him down bit by bit. It’d be one thing if it was just the disease that he had to worry about, but Lord Sandor is definitely one of the most infuriating patients he’s ever had to work for.

Status update: panic! Or maybe not…

It’s June and I’ve made some accounting work, and noticed that my direct sales halved vs last year in the same period… :O However, I quickly understood why: so far this year I just released SOTW DLC and… nothing else 🙂

Nowadays is vital to keep releasing quality titles in this very competitive indie world, and I only released a DLC, so not even a full new game (even if SOTW DLC is quite long and complex).

I am in a weird situation in which I have a LOT of titles in progress, but so far none really close to completion (I consider a game close when I could begin the pre-order/beta testing phase).

The closest to being finished is without doubt C14 Dating, with Nicole yuri a second close. Then, depending how things go, Queen Of Thieves or some other dating sim (like Summer In Trigue, Heirs & Graces, etc).

Anyway, currently I only can wait for the artists/writers/coders and keep working on QoT since is the only game I can be actively participating in, for now 🙂

Heirs & Graces – Vincent

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Today we introduce another character of the upcoming yaoi dating sim “Heirs & Graces”: Vincent.

Vincent has been working for Lord Sandor since he was sixteen. He was initially hired on as a regular servant, but has since risen to the position of butler. Though it is possible he would have gotten the position by simply not quitting, Vincent has proven himself more than capable in the role.

He handles nobles well, does more than his fair share of work, and has a good head for business on top of that. Vincent’s advice has gone far in helping Lord Sandor expand his wealth, though Lord Sandor gives Vincent little credit for it. Vincent doesn’t mind though as he sees it as a normal part of his job. Lord Sandor has grown to trust Vincent implicitly and often lets Vincent take care of his daily affairs.

While Vincent excels at his job, he has a hard time navigating the world outside of it. He doesn’t really know what to do with his free time so he usually spends it completing extra work or learning skills that will help him improve his work.

Needless to say, his social life is virtually non-existent. Kamal is the only one Vincent can honestly claim as a friend and that’s only because Kamal goes out of his way to interact with him. If Vincent isn’t working, he feels useless and Vincent can’t stand feeling useless.

His greatest fear is that the people around him will consider him a bother. To avoid this, Vincent strives for perfection in all of his tasks to the point where he becomes devastated on the rare occasions where he does make a mistake – no matter how small that mistake may be.

Vincent is strict with himself, but he’s surprisingly understanding when others make mistakes. He’s quick to step in to help out when other servants get into trouble and doesn’t reprimand them if they’ve learned their lesson. He is a bit lenient in general, but he can be stern if he’s pushed too far.

Overall, Vincent is reliable and loyal. He’s a good person to have on your side.

More progress on the other games!

I’m making more progress on Queen Of Thieves, the skilltrees are basically done. I had the idea to use Hands Of Fate (not my Heileen 2 game, that popular roguelike) card system for the exploration: instead of cards, will be rooms of the various buildings the girls will explore trying to rob rich people. Each room will have a surprise (both positive or negative) randomly chosen from a set of possible events. I think done this way it’s more “casual” and easier to code than an isometric map 🙂

I still have some great isometric tileset done by artist that I’ll reuse in other fantasy games.

Next week I’ll also begin talking about my CYOA game “Cursed Lands” with some previews and more info about it!

Heirs & Graces – Kamal

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Time for another Heirs & Graces character introduction, this time the ex-gladiator Kamal. One of my favorite characters of this game 🙂

Before being employed by Lord Sandor, Kamal sought to make a name for himself fighting in the arena. He genuinely loved honing his skills and battling against powerful opponents; getting paid for it was nice too. If he had continued as a gladiator, Kamal could have easily become one of the best. However, after an incident in the Dingirra arena, Kamal’s feelings towards his job as a gladiator turned sour. He still appreciates a good fight, but he has no desire to return to the arena. Luckily, Kamal didn’t stay unemployed for long. Lord Sandor witnessed his last battle and decided to hire him on as a body guard.

As it turns out, Kamal isn’t exactly the ideal servant. He has a problem obeying orders from people he doesn’t respect and will outright refuse to serve nobles if they’re rude to him. This has caused a few incidents in the past, but Lord Sandor has no interest in firing him. If anything, this behavior only amuses him– though he’d never admit it while he’s keeping up appearences.

It does cause a bit of a headache for Lord Sandor’s butler, Vincent, though. To avoid incidents, Vincent has Kamal work outside where his interaction with nobles is at a minimum which is more than fine by Kamal. He enjoys spending long periods of time outside and has taken up an extra job as Lord Sandor’s gardener to help Vincent out. Though they may seem an unlikely pair, Kamal and Vincent are actually friends due in part to the fact that they’ve both worked for Lord Sandor longer than any of the other servants.

Kamal tends to keep his sentences short, but that doesn’t mean he dislikes company. He’s actually quite friendly and often perceives people’s needs before they need them. Kamal is almost always calm and laid back which may make him look lazy to some. However, that’s not really true. He gets everything done at his own pace and can put in a lot of hard work if it’s actually required. He just doesn’t see the need to rush.

In other news, today got the colored sketches of “Bad Blood” (the new SOTW DLC) CGs, so I think I will begin preorders next weekend! Stay tuned for more info 🙂

Heirs & Graces – Marcel

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As some of you know already, I’m developing a yaoi-only dating sim since a few months. It’s fantasy, based on Aravorn, but without a RPG part. The main character is Marcel, pictured below:

So let’s discover more about Marcel, with the introduction by the writer:

“Marcel is the only son of Lord Sandor, an extremely wealthy and powerful noble. While that should theoretically mean that Marcel grew up in a lavish environment having his every desire attended to, the reality of his situation couldn’t be further from it. Marcel may be the son of a noble but he is also his mother’s son and, as it goes, her social status is far beneath Lord Sandor’s. To save himself from scandal, Lord Sandor cut ties with Marcel’s mother when she told him she was pregnant. To make matters worse for the young mother, Maura’s parents cast her out and she was forced to try her luck elsewhere. Her disgrace followed her, making it nearly impossible for her to hold down a respectable job and eventually she had to resort to smuggling and taking advantage of men to make ends meet. Though she tried to keep Marcel out of it, he eventually took up stealing. The situation wasn’t ideal, but it allowed them to live.

By working together, the two of them were eventually able to pull themselves out of poverty. Maura now works as a tailor’s assistant and Marcel has had a few short term jobs in the past. This has done wonders for their stability, but their rocky start has made Marcel a bit cynical. He knows that things can work out, but he also thinks it’s stupid to assume they will. Marcel is able to interact normally with others, but he’s careful not to expect too much from them. After all, if you never placed your faith in someone in the first place it’ll hurt less when they betray you. This line of thinking combined with what his mother went through has led Marcel to swear of romance all together. He refuses to put himself into a situation where he gives someone that much power over him.

While Marcel tends to be overly cautious, he does occasionally take a risk. The biggest one to date is applying to work as Lord Sandor’s servant. He knows it’s a bad idea and he knows he should just walk away, but curiosity has gotten the better of him. While he doesn’t want Lord Sandor to know anything about him, Marcel does want to see the old man for himself just once. Why? Well, even Marcel hasn’t quite figured that out.“

I’ll keep posting about this game and the other characters in the next weeks. The game is still in development but is at good point (all the art is finished) so might even be out later this year 🙂

SOTW DLC “Bad Blood” progress update

This week made very good progress: the coding is almost done, and I’m only missing a few art, including the new ending CGs, which should be finished by mid-April.

I’m currently thinking if to allow the preorders and testing towards end of month even if the ending CGs would still be missing (but just that). Anyway I will obviously announce it on the social networks, blog and newsletter when the game is ready 🙂

Summer In Trigue – Alex

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Time for another intriguing character from Summer in Trigue!! 😀

Alex is a cheerful young singer from Trigue. She started singing while a very young child and kept at it, initially simply because she enjoyed it so much. It was only after much practice that she discovered she had an innate talent for it as well. She later partnered with a friend of hers who was a skilled song writer, and with his help she is now able to make a decent living off of her voice. She spends a fair amount of time singing in bars and clubs, and really enjoys the more personal atmosphere of singing in such places.

Alex is very confident in her abilities, her looks, and herself in general, though she is not particularly arrogant. She simply feels that people should properly recognize their own talents, and that when someone denies the abilities they have been clearly blessed with, it is very depressing and sometimes even a bit insulting. So she like to dress sexily and is never shy about pointing out what she feels are the strong points of others.

Alex likes kids a lot. Despite her fondness for them she doesn’t actually have much of a desire to ever have a child of her own one day, but she really enjoys spending time mentoring or tutoring other people’s kids. She wants to be an inspiration to others, and usually succeeds at that fairly well, though sometimes some embarrassing and unfortunate aspects of her past crop up. And sometimes she still acts against her better judgment and causes complications for herself.

Alex is playful, and can be a bit absent minded and forgetful at times. This, combined with some impulsiveness, has occasionally gotten her into trouble and often earns her some teasing from her friends. When spending time with her friends, Alex enjoys puzzles and games, but in general just loves to be with them regardless of what they’re doing. If she is with some friends who are having a good time, Alex will be having a good time as well.

Heirs & Graces romance sneak peek

As you might know, I’m also doing a yaoi-only dating sim, my first one ever (there was yaoi romances in my RPGs, but never a dating sim). I have made a sneak peek of the romance CG in the image below:

Interesting, right? 😉 Currently doing the backgrounds while writer finishes the various paths. Like all my games, no estimate release though I believe it could be out for this Summer!

Computer Games

Development diary of Celso Riva