Category Archives: dating sims

Heileen 2 on Steam, and SOTW update

First of all, the second Heileen game is now out on Steam. Go get it now:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/305480/

Existing customers can redeem a Steam key as always on this site:
http://www.bestanimegames.com/steam/

The third title will come later in July, since needs more careful testing (and I’m reserving some time to work on SOTW!). Nicole was Greenlit too, so expect to see it on Steam too sometimes (maybe next month too). Talking about the otome version only obviously, since the yuri isn’t even ready on my own site 😀

Speaking of Seasons Of The Wolf

I made some progresses on SOTW this week, coded whole Krimm backstory and started chapter 11 also known as “Dingirra Adventures pt.2”. The first quest of that chapter let me implement the new dungeon tileset, you can see the result below:

the new dungeon tileset of Seasons Of The Wolf

Differently from the “open map” of the first act, in this second act there are dungeons like this that have limitation to simulate the fact that the party doesn’t know what lies behind each door. So for example you must open a door to move in a new room, and every time you move your available options change based on the room contents. I am not sure if I’ll need to put also some sort of visual indicator to show the current party room/position, I’ll see during testing.

one of the choices available in certain key point of the exploration

Now that the party is bigger, I have also implemented some small “choose who will perform the action” menu, similar to what I have on my game Planet Stronghold. There are no skills involved this time, but in practice they’ll force you to pick a character who can’t be available on the next battle, so that players will be required to rotate the party member a bit 😉

And if behind a door lies a surprise like this one…

a really nice encounter, isn’t it?

That’s all for now! Lots of more stuff going on but I’ll talk about it when I have something to show 😉

Attempting something different

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First of all, the first Heileen game is now out on Steam for only $5.99. Go get it now:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/302950/

Existing customers can redeem a Steam key as always on this site:
http://www.bestanimegames.com/steam/

Something different

One of the best advices I could give to new indies that are just starting would be: try to do something different. I generally don’t innovate too much myself, but only because I have already an established following and in general I prefer to improve my games step by step. Innovating can lead to successes but also flops, and having already spent months/years in the past trying to experiment new ideas without success I’m always very prudent 🙂

Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot recently, and while of course story-based games will always remain my main focus, I was thinking also about doing other non-story based games, or games where the story has a secondary importance.

This has nothing to do with the difficulties I’ve been having recently managing writers, but more about myself and my personal/professional growth. I want to try something different 🙂

No real plans yet, but know that sometimes in future (not sooner than next year) you might see different kind of games too. Of course not FPS or platformers, but maybe something like strategy / wargame or simulations / management. For now is just an idea though. I might do also some smaller games first to test the waters.

Seasons Of The Wolf update

Meanwhile, coding on SOTW is still going steadily. I am currently at chapter 10, and the second Act lasts until chapter 13 included, so about halfway coding it.

The second act has many cool arena battles like the “Beastmasters Challenge”

I think the second Act is rather fun to play, introduces all the remaining characters (though some will join the party only at the end of it) and has some interesting personal quests: Riley, Krimm and Chalassa’s ones. The personal quest were particularly fun to design for me because they are a sort of flashback, so I strip the character of their current possessions (to be regained later) and “downgrade” him/her to a lower level, but I let the player pick the skills before the quest and give a predefined pseudo-random equipment. Is a sort of puzzle RPG, and I’m sure Nightmare players will curse me several times playing it 😉

I had some small delays on artwork, so at this point I won’t be able to meet my self-imposed deadline of mid-June. But even without those delays, I think I underestimated the amount of work I had to do on the battles, so I think I won’t be finished with Act2 before the end of the month!

Spirited Heart is out on Steam

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Another weekend, another Steam release. This time is my fantasy raising/dating sim Spirited Heart. You can get it here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/293920/

The whole Heileen series was also Greenlit, however I have to keep working on SOTW and also I found new writer(s) for Nicole yuri so I’ll need to take some time to manage her. I can still guarantee that the first Heileen game will be out next month, but probably Heileen 2 and 3 will be postponed to July (they take a bit more time to test!).

The curse of Nicole yuri

As you probably know, I’m having a lot of troubles completing this version of Nicole. I decided to replace the second writer because of communication problems (she had connectivity issues) but I’m quite confident on the new one. Is still early days, but she seems very motivated, so this time I have hope 🙂

It’s crazy thinking that the game was out October last year, and to compensate the yuri fans, I am now talking with other writers who applied for the position but weren’t picked. I thought that since they are quite good (my main criteria this time beside quality was the speed) I thought: why not start some yuri/yaoi exclusive games ? After all, I promised it to my fans and I always try to keep promises 😉

Yuri and yaoi power!

In the next week, between all the crazy mess that is my daily job (Steam release, SOTW testing, etc… madness! lol), I’ll try to find the time to talk with them and get them started. Two of them already replied and are interested. No official announcements yet (I am now waiting until the whole script of a game is almost finished before announcing anything, like I did for C14 dating) but I’m working on it.

Now excuse me, must get back to work! 🙂

Good games takes time!

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a classic tavern brawl in Dingirra (act 2). The “throw chair” is a powerful attack!

From the title you could imagine that this is a blog post announcing some delays on my next games. No, definitely isn’t! but erm, yeah there could be delays in the next games 😀

Don’t worry nothing big, only talking about a few extra months but I think is inevitable, as my games become bigger and more polished, I need to put more time into them. If I compare them with the ones I was making only 2-3 years ago, they all have custom tracks, custom backgrounds, higher art quality and more polishing in general. Also if you check other indies, they usually make 1 game a year, or max 2. So far I was still able to release at least 2-3 a year, and I believe of good quality.

RPGs in particular take a very long time, and wouldn’t be really fair to tell people that I can make more than one a year. Who knows, it MIGHT happen, since in practice I always work on the games a bit randomly depending how the various partners/collaborators do (if some works faster, I usually work on those games more). But that would be an exception 🙂

The good news

I have good news nonetheless regarding upcoming games:

About SOTW: I made good progresses on the main plot, made a lot of battles in act 2 up to the point where you have a full party (with Riley and Krimm joining you). Battles with full parties are VERY different from the first act, that’s why balancing was hard: I was focusing on the wrong way, I needed to balance act 2 and then if necessary fix some act 1 battles. Since the game must be balanced with a full party, not with 3 party members (for those who didn’t play it yet, in the first act you can control only 3 characters).

Vaelis and Rowinda background/personal quests are being added. The other romanceable characters already had them, but those two were missing. So Taleweaver (the game writer) is working on those. This won’t delay the game release since they can be unlocked in act 3, and independently from the main story.

About C14, because of my collaborators real-life tasks (relocating, weddings, etc) work will resume in July, but is at very good point and beta might be out that same month 🙂

Nicole yuri and Planet Stronghold 2 writing is going on very slowly, but making progresses at least.

Lastly, I have some news about Roger Steel. I will talk about it next month, when finally I hope to have also some artwork to show 🙂

A cute weekend

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The official trailer for Flower Shop: Summer In Fairbrook redone for Steam launch

This weekend will be full of cute stuff. First of all, one of my first non-otome dating sims, Flower Shop: Summer In Fairbrook, will launch on Steam today.

New members of C14 dating cast revealed!

Those are secondary characters, but still important for the story. I am officially in love with Joan, because… freckles! 😉 Click each portrait below to see a full body image!

Sherri Keller
Occupation: Professor (anthropology department)
Languages: English, French
Melissa’s professor and mentor, who specializes in zooarchaeology and human remains. She will be supervising Melissa during the field school and providing feedback on her performance. With her informal method of teaching, students find it easy to seek her guidance.

Rosemarie Brenner
Occupation: Archaeologist and lithics expert
Languages: German, English, a little Dutch
Originally from Germany, Rosemarie joins the Calen Cave team during the summer excavations. Although she may clash with the staff over ideals and procedures, she’s dedicated to her work on stone tools. She’s energetic and demonstrative, with a teasing side to match.

Joan Petit
Occupation: 1st year music student
Languages: French, some English
Joan is a bashful, but amiable girl, and Chantal’s close friend. She is currently learning English, but will often get lost during conversations, leaving Chantal to translate for her.
Plays flute.

Augustin Dupont
Occupation: Chief archaeologist
Languages: French, English
Head of Calen Cave, Augustin has been supervising the excavation for over twenty years. As the leading expert, he’s devoted to meticulously recording the history of the cave. Although passionate, he can be strict and overbearing depending on how the students perform.

Chantal Masson
Occupation: 1st year archaeology student
Languages: French, English, a little Spanish
Chantal is a frank girl who’d rather be diving for shipwrecks than be stuck digging in a dank cave. She can be blunt at times, but she’s supportive of her friends.

The game is still in the works, but could be out sometimes this Summer. More info in the next weeks 🙂

A game that instead has been finished is Autumn’s Journey. Is not my game, but many people who collaborated/partnered with me in the past/present worked on it:

– Deji – she did most of the art of the game, and she worked on my Flower Shop games, did some extra sprites for Spirited Heart yuri, and of course she’s working on C14 and will also do sprites for Spirited Heart 2. One of the best manga artist around 😉
– KittyKatStar – She wrote it and helped Arowana with some of the coding. For me, she worked on Heileen 3 yuri romances, she is writing C14, will write some of Spirited Heart 2 romances, and helped editing a lot of games including the upcoming SOTW. A hard worker! 😀
– Arowana – she coded and edited the game and she started to collaborate with me recently, coding/editing SOTW and C14
– Nellie – She helped with the GUI, organized the music/voices, and drew chibis. When working for me, she did the Heileen 3 chibis.

So what are you waiting for, go check it. Is free 🙂

And last but not least, to celebrate this cute weekend, here’s the romance scenes sneak peek for Seasons Of The Wolf, currently under development 🙂

Computer Games

Development diary of Celso Riva