Category Archives: nicole

2013 the year of challenges

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Happy New 2013 to everyone!

Before making this post I’ve read what I wrote last year, calling 2012 the “year of relax”: https://www.winterwolves.net/blog/2012/01/2012-time-to-relax/

Well, definitely it wasn’t a relaxing year, even if I released only 3 games (I consider The Castle Of N’Mar, Loren’s expansion, as a separate game because of its size!).

It wasn’t a relaxing year because was worried that with Loren I tried to bite off more than I can chew, and I also had to make a real marathon to finish Heileen 3 in time for Christmas.

Looking back to that post, it’s a bit funny to observe how many titles that were already in progress at those times, from Planet Stronghold 2, to Nicole, to Roommates, are still in progress right now! But well, making games takes time! And in particular if there are problems. And as you can imagine, there are ALWAYS going to be problems! 😉

Good news

Anyway, I have some early good news for this year: Heileen 3 yuri version is at very good point, and I might start the beta testing even next week, since I’m aiming to release it around the mid-January.

More good news are that even Bionic Heart 2 is at good point, I’m only waiting for the proofreader to finish checking the script, and I have 90% of the art & music finished already.

The RPG challenge

As for the future games later this year, I’m really eager to start working on Planet Stronghold 2 even if will be a real challenge, because has much more features compared to the first title, and also compared to Loren. Some features include:

  • a small but detailed colony building simulation (think of it like a sort of Sim City on a very small scale) that will impact the gameplay (but I am thinking to make it optional so that you can skip it if you want)
  • lots of weapons that can be used with dual wield (like two pistols)
  • weapons with different ammo types (in the first game the ammo was unlimited). So the combo of possible weapons and ammo is very big!
  • more use of the non-combat skills in the various missions of the game
  • lots of more art, including some extra “talk poses”
  • full soundtrack of 10 songs

and so on, so as you can see is a very big project.

Being able to work on the RPG and at same time still follow the other projects will be a challenge as well, since differently from what happened with Loren, I don’t want to “abandon” completely all the other games while working on the RPG. It won’t be easy at all, but I will try!

The appstore challenge

The biggest challenge though will be to see what happens with the Windows/MacOS situation. It’s fun how some fellow indie devs who before ignored completely the question, are now starting to panic because they get emails from customers saying “the game doesn’t run on Mountain Lion, says the download is corrupted!” or they get big warning screens from Windows 8 when trying to open/install a game.

What’s going on? Well in practice, unless you were a bit prevident like me and codesigned all your game apps/installers, the end users are going to see scary messages from their favorite OSes (except Linux of course!) telling them that they’re trying to install the worst evil on Earth: an independently produced game!!! :O

And that’s not a good thing because this way small indies like me can continue to survive and rescue stray cats and dogs! Fools, you should help the already rich corporations to become even richer! They’re going to spend the money in a much better way, like buying a new Ferrari 😉

Ok, jokes apart (I was joking in case it wasn’t clear!!) the situation is definitely NOT good for indies like me who can’t get on Steam. The long term alternatives to retain our freedom exist, like using HTML5 engines, but that means that instead of seeing 3-4 games a year from me, you’d see 1 a year at most (they take much longer to make). I really hope the new appstores won’t become the only way to distribute apps on Windows/Mac computers, since that would mean no freedom to choose which language to use (python), which content to put in my games (no sexy stuff is allowed on appstores), and maybe have them rejected lots of times for silly reasons like happened to A LOT of friends on the various iOS/Win8 appstores.

Anyway, at least for now codesigning the executables will let you play all my games even on the new versions of the OSes. But I’m pretty sure that a big challenge for us indies lies ahead…! Better be ready for it 🙂

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!

What’s next?

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I was quite busy this week working both on Heileen 3 and Bionic Heart 2 (you see a new video of it above), so this post will be mostly an attempt in having a sort of “planned release schedule”.

December 2012

As you probably know already, I really hope to release Heileen 3 sometimes during December (hopefully in time for Christmas!). The beta testing will begin soon for sure, but the final game release is still unknown (depends how many bugs people find in the beta!). Anyway, all that’s left beside 10 more “random events” is for the simulation parts: 21 chibis, some small artwork, a few texts, some more balancing. I believe it’s just a week or two of work.

In December I should also have one of my first games on the new Monkeycoder engine, so available also on iOS/web.

January/March 2013

Between those months, I’m surely going to release the yuri version of Heileen 3 (which I really wanted to release at same time as the main game this time, but alas because of problems with the original writer I couldn’t). Also, Bionic Heart 2. The background art for that game is all done, the plot is finished, but there are still some sprite images that needs to be colored.

April/June 2013

Here things gets more difficult to judge. My goal would be to start Planet Stronghold 2 beta in early April, but you know, with RPGs is hard to know since they’re so hard to make 😉 I might just have one of my other games in a good advancement state and release it. Possible candidates are Roommates and Nicole.

Late 2013

Anything is possible! I really hope to have finished Planet Stronghold 2 by that date, and one of the other games. Maybe even Spirited Heart 2 or Amber’s Magic Shop. But is very likely that at least one of those two games will slip into 2014!

As you can see I’ve got quite a busy schedule ahead. Now excuse me but I need to get back to work 😉

A tough week

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Zeal

Zeal, one of the many new characters you’ll encounter in the expansion

This week was really a tough week!

First of all because I was literally burning in my office. 29°C for most of the day, even turning the A/C on the whole afternoon. Of course, it happened right when I decided to announce on Twitter/Facebook that the beta testing stage of Loren’s expansion, The Castle Of N’Mar, was starting!

A tough week for those who played the beta and had to fight against lots of bugs. It was entirely my fault, since I decided to use the latest Ren’Py version to do the expansion beta, while I should have waited a bit more.

Now anyone familiar with coding knows well that using the latest version of any development tool is NOT a good idea, since it might still contain bugs… but I ignored that simple rule and the result was people having all sort of weird stuff happening (random crashes, variables not stored, load/save problems, etc).

So today in the latest beta version (1.1k) I decided to revert back to the previous Ren’Py version which hopefully should solve some of the bugs left. You can get the download links and latest info in my forums:

http://www.winterwolves.net/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=2622

Again this has nothing to do with Ren’Py which is still an awesome tool (my favorite) but to my silly idea of trying it so early.

My goal is to try finishing the beta testing by the end of the month. If you preordered the expansion but were waiting to see until was more stable, I think now should be a good moment to play since the amount of bugs left is really not big… you know every time I write such sentences  I’m a bit scared, but oh well 😀

Other short news: Spirited Heart 2 writing is going at very good pace, I got a new writer that’s going to review/fix/edit Nicole’s script, Roommates is going to be the biggest game I’ve ever made (80k words and it’s not even at 1/3 of the plot), Heileen 3 will be done first in Ren’Py and maybe later in Monkeycoder (this will require a new blog post to explain, maybe next week) so it should be out this October.

Gabe doesn’t like Windows 8 and so do I

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Those interested only in news about my games, can skip the paragraphs below 😉

Windows 8 and the Mayan prophecy!

In a recent talk at Casual Connect, Gabe Newell (the man behind Steam) said that the upcoming Windows8 will be a catastrophe. Literally. In particular he said:

“I think that Windows 8 is kind of a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space. I think that we’re going to lose some of the top-tier PC [original equipment manufacturers]. They’ll exit the market. I think margins are going to be destroyed for a bunch of people. If that’s true, it’s going to be a good idea to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality. But when you start thinking about a platform, you have to address it. “

Valve wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the PC. Id Software, Epic, Zynga, Facebook, and Google wouldn’t have existed without the openness of the platform. I think there’s a strong temptation to close the platform… That’s not how we got here, and I don’t think that’s a very attractive future. So we’re looking at the platform, and up until now we’ve been a free rider. We’ve been able to benefit from everything that’s gone into the PC and the Internet. Now we have to start finding ways that we can continue to make sure there are open platforms.”

Obviously, he is also worried since Steam currently “owns” the PC gaming space, and having an appstore built-in on Windows, is a very serious threats to his business 😉

However, that point aside, I completely agree with him. There are several wrong things done in Windows8:

  1. the default touch interface. What? It makes sense if I use a tablet, but on a DESKTOP COMPUTER!? I want my old Windows back! Of course from what I know is possible to switch back to the classic desktop view, but still by default, you see the new touch interface every time the computer starts…!
  2. The walled-garden appstore. I’ve said before, I’m NOT a fan of appstores, especially if the trend is to make it (in a not far future) the EXCLUSIVE way to distribute apps for a particular platform. The new Mountain Lion MacOS is just out, and if you try any of my mac games by default they won’t run. For now you can still allow any app to be excecuted in the preferences screen, but is a first step towards censorship.
  3. Censorship. Yes, because when developers aren’t free anymore to make any game they want (of course within the limit of decency!) it starts to be a problem. The Apple appstore is famous for pulling apps from sale for various reasons, often really bizarre reasons. I can say that a game like Loren Amazon Princess, as it is, on iOS would never appear. I would need to make a “heavily censored version”, but from what I see, many people liked the game especially for its “sex appeal”. Not all of course, but why exclude a good part of the market? Even if I don’t play hentai games, why someone shouldn’t be allowed to? Who decides what people can do with THEIR PC, since they paid for it?
  4. The new locked bootloader features. It means that on several PCs, tablets, phones models you won’t be able to install Linux or any other operating system. This point is still a bit obscure since reading online I found sources saying that you can install linux as long as it’s “certified”. So it’s not terrible as it might seem, but again is a first step in the wrong direction. What will be next ?
  5. Certification. This seems a sort of “developer tax”. It’s not about the amount, which is small (around $100/year) but about the illusion that people running “certified app” will make them immune from virus/trojans..
  6. The $0.99 appstore flood. Big news! On the Windows8 the minimum price will be $1.49 ! Still, I don’t think this will be a real issue, even if there will be surely a flood of crappy $1.49 app but most games can still sell for higher amounts, it will just be tougher (but is always tougher, isn’t it?).

So I definitely don’t like all those signals (not just from Windows 8 but also from Apple). I want to say again that platform openess is essential for game developers and indies in particular, to be able to experiment with new gameplay ideas. Unless MS and Apple want us to make only HTML5/MMO games in future? (locking down “internet” will be a bit harder).

Status update about my games

July was a tough month to work for me, and for my write Aleema, since there was a heat wave that made almost impossible to stay in front of the computer. I have A/C in my computer room but I really hate using it because I get sore throat.

So let’s say I took some time to relax. But now things are back in motion! Also I’m really happy that a new build of Ren’Py has been released including an autoupdater, something that will really be useful during the beta testing phase.

Here’s what’s happening right now on each project:

Loren Amazon Princess expansion

This is probably the most awaited title right now 🙂 It’s not missing that much, some writing and scripting. Coding-wise I believe I have made 99% of the work already, maybe some more balancing but for that there’s the beta testing stage, which I’ll do making good use of the new built-in autoupdater.

I also finally got an answer from the colorist, so the last missing new sprite will be ready before end of month. So while I don’t want to say any date, seems the release is approaching fast…!

Heileen 3

I’ve been thinking recently if to just use Ren’Py even for this game, and do a later “port” to the new visual novel engine. This because I would be able to release it sooner, since I have everything needed to do the base game (not including the yuri version).

I haven’t decided yet, I think will wait until Loren’s expansion is out to make the final decision.

Nicole

I’m missing only 2 CG images, all the backgrounds and Chandra latest scenes. However I’ve also asked one of the writer who applied for Amber Magic Shop to edit/check the text, since they could be improved in some areas. I am also going to add new scenes including more red herrings 🙂

Roommates

Despite being one of the biggest games, is progressing really well. Writing is almost at Winter Break, which means 1/3 of the game! I got also a new bunch of art for it, and started the same artist that made the sprites on the backgrounds. Something unusual that only happened with Summer Session and Heileen2 before: a single artist doing all the work for the game!

The backgrounds list is quite impressive, with 27 different locations!

Planet Stronghold: Warzone

New enemies have been done. I also asked the artist to draw some character dialog poses, so that feels more natural. Like characters interacting with the environment: sitting on a chair, leaning on a wall, and so on. Still long way to go before the art is finished though, maybe this Fall.

Queen Of Thieves

Artist made some more sketches for new “pages”, cutscenes made like a comic page. Some are really funny, other romantic, and so on. I also should get the remaining texts soon.