Category Archives: dating sims

Winter is over! A Roommates postmortem

Today the 21st March, is the first day of Spring!

I have to say that this was a very mild Winter, so I didn’t had to shovel snow for hours, nor had problems to drive in icy raods, and so on. Overall under this aspect was a very good Winter! Lots of things happened, first game on Steam and Roommates release. Speaking of it…

Roommates postmortem!

As you know if you follow me regularly, earlier this month I released the comedy dating sim Roommates.

Like Max in the image above, I can say that I wouldn’t be where I am right now without your constant support and motivation/push (some people are more or less nice regarding this, but it’s effective in all cases!).

Roommates is a special game, for several reasons:

was the first game to have a full soundtrack, including theme song, done by a popular group, Leetstreet Boys
was the first dating sim I made where you could play as both genders, and have a variety of romances including yuri/yaoi
was the first comedy game. Is true that many other games had many funny scenes, but if you’ve played even only the demo you can see the difference!
was my most expensive dating sim to date (full soundtrack, 200.000 words of script, 16 CGs, 27 background images, sprites with normal, spring, winter, summer clothes, etc)
was the first one that I coded using the new Ren’Py, incorporating mobile code changes directly in the script without the need to have two separate code-bases

So as you can imagine, with such an ambitious game, there were good chances that something could go wrong! Luckily, everything went rather smoothly: I’m proud to say that even after only a month, it’s clearly going to be my most popular dating sim ever!

I’m particularly happy because I also found a good and reliable writer, Michael Van Horn, who is now working on Loren’s next games. He was supposed to write Undead Lily next, but Loren has higher priority. Maybe he can still work on it after the second chapter of Loren’s saga is out though 😉

In summary: I wish all the next games’ releases would go as smoothly as Roommates! I have doubts that this will happen though 😀

Quick SOTW update

I have also good news about this game: finally finished designing/coding/testing ALL the skills of Seasons Of The Wolf!

Which means that now I can go back adding all the content for the Winter Season (the first act of the game). I am still aiming at finishing that in time for my birthday (11th April) but of course I’m talking only about the beta/preorder version.

The final / full game is more likely to be out in August/Semptember, depending how testing goes (also still have a few images and music to finish).

I have also got some new ideas on how to implement items while playing Diablo 3 on the PS3, so I need to implement that new system too. More info coming in next weeks!

Roommates officially out + video!

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Here’s the official Roommates video trailer with theme song “My Name In Light” by Leetstreet boys!

That was the last thing missing to officially release the game Roommates. More info and download/buy links here: http://www.winterwolves.com/roommates.htm

I have also submitted the game to Greenlight, so if you liked it, please vote for it:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=233332314

The game is also available for iOS:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/roommates-visual-novel/id827116639?mt=8

and Google/Amazon appstores for Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.winterwolves.roommates
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IK44NA6

Meanwhile…

…work on the other games continues! C-14 Dating is coming along nicely, found a new writer for Nicole yuri to speed things up, but fans of RPGs will be pleased to know that I’m going to add more unique skills to my next RPG Seasons Of The Wolf, for a total of 108 unique skills!

I’m also going to remove the “skilltree” system and just make all the skills available to learn in any order, like you see in the work-in-progress screenshot below:

So in summary, combined with the more attributes (6 in total vs the 3 of Loren) the game will offer much more customization possible for the party, hopefully increasing the replayability / fun 🙂

This is the project that personally I’m working on, and I have almost everything needed (I just got the lineart of the kissing scenes!) so you can expect quick progresses in the next months. My current deadline is to finish the first Season of the game (Winter) and begin the beta-testing/preorders in April.

This doesn’t mean that the game is going to be split in parts, but simply that I’m going to begin testing as soon as I complete the coding of a part of the story (Winter in this case). Then, as testing continues and I finish new parts of the game I’ll make them available as well, until the full game is ready 🙂

C-14 dating casting!

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Today was supposed to announce the official release of Roommates, but since the video is not yet ready, and today was a very hectic day for me for personal reasons (I am writing this blog post at 8PM when I usually have it ready early in the morning!) I think today will just show you the FULL CAST OF C-14 DATING instead!! Woohooo!

Melissa is the protagonist, while the other are the romanceable boys. Click the thumbnails to see a bigger image.

Melissa Flores

Occupation: 3rd year anthropology student

Languages: English, some Spanish

Not afraid to get her hands dirty, Melissa is an aspiring archaeologist who has signed up for a summer internship supervised by her professor. She’s an upbeat, friendly person who lives for the moment and enjoys new experiences. Although studying and theory may not be her strong points, she learns aptly through social interaction and getting involved. Loves dancing, meeting people, and asking questions.

Deandre Guillaume

Occupation: Rugby player, 4th year English student

Languages: French, English

Social and cultured, Deandre knows what it’s like to stay in a foreign country and reaches out to Melissa. He may seem carefree most of the time, but he’s serious about his education and has a back-up plan in case his rugby career cuts short. Although generally cheerful, he can get easily frustrated when irritated or stuck. Loves to cook.

Hendrik Luikenhuis

Occupation: Geologist

Languages: Dutch, French, English, a little German

Hendrik is the head geologist of Calen Cave, working under his uncle, Augustin Dupont. Rational and down-to-earth, Hendrik is very approachable and loves teaching the students participating in the excavation. He has an avid passion for his profession, often getting lost in his work. Loves good food and, of quartz, can’t help throwing in a geology pun or two.

Kyler LeGrand

Occupation: 4th year anthropology student

Languages: French Belgian Sign Language, French, English

Kyler is a goal-driven and diligent person planning on a career in archaeology after he graduates. He tends to keep to himself, only speaking willingly when it’s about… archaeology. It’s hard to see underneath his aloof exterior since his stubbornness and judgmental attitude makes it difficult to connect to people. And what luck, he’ll be stuck digging next to the outgoing Melissa!

Shoji Toussaint

Occupation: 1st year university student, major undecided

Languages: French, English

Shoji is a quiet, timid individual who prefers to have his nose in an e-book, handheld, or sketchpad. Although reluctant to engage in conversation, he opens up when the topic involves video games. He’s extremely sensitive and empathetic to the people around him, and gets easily overwhelmed in social situations. Likes being helpful, but struggles with his lack of confidence.

There can be other minor characters, but those are the main ones 🙂

What is C14 Dating?

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First of all I want to remind you that Roommates beta is still going. Most bugs have been fixed so if you wanted to wait to play it, now I really think you can. More info here: http://www.winterwolves.com/roommates.htm
(we’re adding happy endings for Dominic and Sally in the next days)

New otome dating sim game: C-14 Dating!

I’m proud to announce a new game! Here’s a presentation by KittyKatStar (the writer):

“C-14 Dating (tentative title) is an upcoming otome dating sim that combines archaeology, friendships and love.

You play as Melissa Flores, a 3rd year anthropology student participating in a summer archaeological internship. The field school takes place in Belgium, over 5000 miles away from your native California! Okay, it’s a little bit out of your comfort zone, and the fact you’ll be staying in an unfamiliar country for two months can be nerve-racking, but you couldn’t pass up such a learning opportunity! You get to excavate at an authentic prehistoric site, which has uncovered Neanderthal remains in the past.

Maybe you’ll dig up some bones, or even unearth tools that were manufactured by early humans. And of course, you might forge friendships and find romance during your stay…”

What do you think? not bad eh? 😉

The game is not finished obviously, but I waited to announce it until it was in a more advanced state (to avoid being called cruel because I announce games when they’re going to be released years later!).

As you probably have noticed already, the character art is being drawn by the awesome Deji, a guarantee of quality!

In the coming week will do other posts introducing the various characters of the cast. Gameplay-wise will be similar to my other dating/life sim Always Remember Me or Nicole.

The game is otome, but there are plans to make a yuri version, even if not sooner than next year, since both the writer and artist will be busy with Spirited Heart 2 after this game is out 😉

Computer Games

Development diary of Celso Riva