It’s time to talk about my next game. Like many of my projects, its origins go back several years. I won’t deny that HuniePop has been a major influence, especially its match-3 mechanics, but once the game is out, you’ll see that it’s a very different experience.

The managerial / simulation part is bigger in this game, while not being particularly complex. I’d say is a “casual style simulation”. Yes you’ll have finances to manage, a roster of models, different locations and all that, but I’ve finished doing the tutorial now and I believe I’ve presented the information in a very simple way so that even players not used to this kind of games will have an easy time.

In the past, when coding my games, I used to skip tutorials or do them quickly. But it’s wrong, because not everyone is a fan of a certain genre or in general what it’s obvious to you as coder/designer of the game, could be counter-intuitive to a player who is not used or new to the genre.

And so I made a step by step tutorial showing the main screens of the game and what they do. For example below you see the trends screen (accessed by clicking on the magazines in the main desk hub):

In this case it’s a “unique trend”. Unique trends require a specific combo of location and model, indeed each model has a flavor/trait that matches each unique trend, like in the example Anna, the first model you encounter (your former schoolmate) has the Rustic flair, and you’ll do your first photoshoot in her family barn.

During the tutorial the trends are fixed to let players understand better the mechanics, but of course later in the game they’ll be randomized (they update once a month).

Beside the unique trends there’ll be “generic” ones that require only a specific location/set, but work with any model. For example we could have a location like the beach that will work with Outdoor, Vibrant, Public trends, or a location like the Kitchen that will have Indoor, Intimate, Cozy, Soft, etc.

The trends will be useful because when you sell the photos to magazines, if you match the current trend you’ll get bonus money, adding a bit of strategy. There’ll be other things that boost the photos value, like the model’s fame (a famous model’s photos will be worth more), the outfit (ahem, naked pictures will get a big bonus!) and so on.

There’ll be several other aspects that will influence the gameplay. During the photoshoot, which takes the form of a match 3, you’ll get bonuses depending on the model:

For example Miyoki likes Mystery (black) and Romance (light-blue) and dislikes Passion (red). Matching those gems will give you a multiple bonus (or malus, in case of Challenge).

On the right instead you see that each location has an impact on the chances of certain gems to appear: in this case the kitchen increases the ligh-blue by 15%, green by 10% and decreases purple by -10%. So certain locations works better with certain models.

The camera and lighting are two kind of upgrades you can buy, the first one reduces the timer of the move suggestion (gems will blink suggesting the move) and the other adds seconds to the photoshoot timer.

Last but not least, at the bottom of the screen there’s a bar that fills as you match gems and indicates the photo’s quality: the better the quality, the more valuable will be.

As you see, even if I just released Thieves of Dingirra last month, I’ve been very busy on this game. In the following months I hope to introduce each model (I’m still writing the story though) and share more screenshots and also announce the Kickstarter date!

See you towards the end of the month when I’ll do my usual “end of year post” in which I’ll discuss how this year went for me. And if you’re interested in Glamour Photographer be sure to bookmark this page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/winterwolves/glamour-photographer/

So, at long last I’ve finally released the game on Steam! I’ve also made a new gameplay trailer, more fast / cinematic (getting straight to the point, I’d say!) for people curious to see what is this game about:

As you can see, I tried to create a showcase that highlights the game’s main features while avoiding any storytelling elements, since I already have a separate “story trailer” (as Steam calls it) ready. I think that’s actually a good approach, unless your game is a pure visual novel (where there isn’t much gameplay to show), some players are often more interested in seeing the gameplay than the story.

So, what are you waiting for? Grab the game on Steam, do a review and spread the word!!!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/617990/Thieves_Of_Dingirra

Wait… you can’t see it? It means you’re in one of the banned countries (like Germany) or you simply need ot enable adult content in your Steam account. But don’t worry, if you aren’t into adult stuff, this game has a “suggestive option off” (which is the default) which lets you play the game with only some minor sexy outfits or sexual innuendo but definitely NOTHING porn.

In this case you can still buy the game from itchio here: https://winter-wolves.itch.io/thieves-of-dingirra

The inquisition again!

You might be wondering, wait if you can play the game in censored mode, why is it in adult content section? Well, to be honest, I’ve given up understanding this mentality, and also in all fairness, with the recent credit card processors madness, it’s likely not even Steam’s fault (they’re probably forced to be even more strict).

Don’t get me wrong: I’m extremely pissed but at same time, I know it’s pointless to argue, so I just accepted to lose sales from my 2nd best selling country (Germany). If I ever do another complex game like this, I’ll make sure there’s ZERO, really ZERO adult content in it.

And then maybe it won’t sell because of that! lol such is the life of modern indie developer.

Anyway, this brings me to my next announcement…

Doing a partnership!

Yes, I’ve got in touch with another indie, Andrealphus Games, who is a well known adult games creator, about my next game, Glamour Photographer, and we decided to do a collaboration! It has been a while since I did one, last time was over 10 years ago if I remember well.

Anyway, in case you’re wondering, I’ll still be developing the game mainly on my own, writing its story, so you can expect my usual humor (even more, since this will be a crazy comedy game!) and simulation gameplay (it’s not Thieves of Dingirra, but will have some light simulation elements). They’re providing a lot of support, both in marketing and also adding features never seen before in my games like animated character sprites! And who knows, maybe we’ll even get to animate… “those scenes” (ahem) which could be a Kickstarter stretch goal!

Because of this, we’re taking our time to launch the Kickstarter since we want to have a trailer showcasing all the new features, and also this way I’ll be able to add gameplay footage (as you know, I begin working on prototypes before the Kickstarter launch).

I am not sure yet if we’ll manage to launch the Kickstarter next month or January, but in any case stay tuned since I’ll announce it here and also in socials.

I’m excited about this collaboration since I’ll have more time to work on the game itself to make it the best I can! Speaking of which, I’ve finished coding several screens, like this one:

Anna is the first model you get in the game, since she’s your high school crush that you randomly encounter again at a local fair, and you dare to ask her to pose for you. As you see, on the right of this screen there’ll be all the phone numbers of the various models as you “unlock” them in the main story.

Remember the game is set in 1980-90s so yeah, no socials, cell phones or other modern stuff. That explains also the “paper” look of the frames, buttons and so on. The photoshoot will be done with a match 3 gameplay (so finally I can use that match 3 framework I commissioned over 3 years ago!) and there’ll be various meta-gameplay elements that will influence the outcomes like photo quality, current trends, each model has favorite and disliked colors, etc.

That’s all for now, see you next month where I’ll talk more about this game and hopefully the upcoming crowdfunding campaign! And remember to bookmark it if you want to be notified when it launches: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/winterwolves/glamour-photographer

If you’ve followed me on socials you already know about the beta testing phase of my new game, Thieves of Dingirra. The game is currently already available on itchio, with all the content (no censorship). You can find it here: https://winter-wolves.itch.io/thieves-of-dingirra

The beta is already in a very good shape, I believe most of the bugs have been fixed and I know that many people reached the end of the game without problems. Regarding Steam, as usual things are a bit more complicated, but while I haven’t heard back from them yet, I’m hoping that the game can be released in early November! You can wishlist the game from this page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/617990/Thieves_Of_Dingirra/

The biggest game I’ve ever done

Yes, I said this many times in the past, and I can surely say that this game is the biggest game I’ve ever done, by a wide margin. Not for the amount of narrative content: for that, Cursed Lands and Planet Stronghold 2 are still the biggest ones with over 300,000 words each (though even this game has 200,000 words on top of everything else!).

But for gameplay there’s no match: beside having the usual RPG combat, I’ve added a roguelike missions (with branching choices), each missions concludes with a custom boss fight, and of course there’s the whole town conquest/management with all the related stuff (NPC management, upgrade buildings, etc).

You can’t imagine how much time this game took to make. Even though the Kickstarter only launched earlier this year, I’ve actually been working on the project for 5–6 years. As I’ve mentioned before, sometimes you have a game idea but lack the technical skills, or you hit burnout, or your favorite tool (in my case, Ren’Py) just isn’t advanced enough yet to bring your vision to life. When that happens, you end up waiting, hoping the right opportunity will come along.

And this happened this year. I must be honest that I’m surprised myself I was able to code such a complex game without burning out completely (well, I am a bit now, but I am taking breaks !). I had also to do several tricks to make sure the game would run fine on Ren’Py and also on moderately older hardware (and on Steam deck, for example). I think I made a fairly good work, using tricks like hiding the building buttons/icons when they’re off-screen and so on.

It made me go back in time when I used to code on much older/slower computers, and had to resort to those tricks to keep speed reasonable. Honestly, I had a lot of fun doing this part. I also had fun in writing/adapting the story (original draft was made long time ago and without considering to run a party or a complex gameplay) and I hope I did a good job with that too.

I’d like to make more strategy/simulation games mixed with VN/dating sim mechanics. Indeed, my next project will be exactly like that (albeit this time much simpler!).

The Glamour Photographer gameplay

I’m sure most people looking at the Kickstarter page will be mostly drawn into this game by the beautiful manga art. But there’s much more. I plan to have a full simulation gameplay, but very simple/user friendly, of the whole glamour photography business.

Of course, being a comedy game I’m not aiming at it to be super historical accurate or anything but I want to offer a nice gameplay beside… you know, the main attraction of the game! 🙂

So it will have a full simulation in which you can schedule photo shootings, go around to find new potential models, choose a location, check local magazines to see the latest trends (if you make photos following the current trend you’ll earn bonuses) and so on. All from this screen:

Each item above has a in-game function, but don’t worry it won’t be particularly complex. The photo shoot will be done in a match3 style minigame, which should offer some break from the management part. This game has a lot of artwork and I hope the Kickstarter will do well.

If you want to be informed when it launches, you can bookmark the game by visiting this page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/winterwolves/glamour-photographer

I’m also talking with another indie doing adult games for a possible collaboration on this game to make it even better/bigger. Stay tuned for more news next month!

Today I’m opening the closed beta of the game for those who backed the game through Kickstarter and Patreon. I am planning to switch to open beta in maximum a couple of weeks, the amount of time I think I’ll need to finish writing/coding everything!

Here’s a sneak preview of a CG with Labwa for you to enjoy:

The two Wealdlings will have a special treatment since they’re my first fantasy furry romanceable characters. While the other characters will have 2 romance CG depending on choices in the story, the Wealdlings will have each 2 CGs plus the threesome CG scene. One CG is the single romance scene (if you romance only one), and the other is a bonus CG of a scene in the game. In the scene above they’re caught while relaxing in an oasis and the MC has to carry Labwa on their shoulders.

For Di’Aab instead the CG will be about the “moon ritual”, a special ritual that grants him special magic resistance during the story (also in combat):

As I mentioned on socials, I’m really not missing that much: a few main plot battles and scenes, all the romance scenes (I want to do them well so I’m taking my time) and all the epilogues. Since there are many characters and choices there’ll be many variations! I think two weeks will be enough to do them and then the public beta can begin.

The closed beta actually shows already 90% of the story, it ends just before a major plot twist that I don’t want to reveal. In practice once you reach the end of closed beta you’ll see a pop-up message about reaching the end, and then you can just roll-back (using mousewheel or PGUP key) and save the game, so you can resume and finish the story once the full beta (or the final game) is done.

I decided to start the beta already since this game is so big that I’m sure people will find already several bugs to fix, so when open beta starts things should be better already!

What’s Next?

After Thieves of Dingirra, I’m going to run another crowdfunding campaign for a male protagonist comedy game called “Glamour Photographer“. It will put you in the shoes of a glamour photographer during the 1980s. I’ll do a proper introduction when that project launches but if you’re curious you can take a look at the crowdfunding page here:

That’s all for now, see you hopefully in around 2 weeks for the full build of Thieves of Dingirra, the open beta!

I was hoping to announce my next game in this post, but unfortunately, I’m not quite there yet. The truth is, wrapping up Thieves of Dingirra has been more challenging than I anticipated. It’s the most ambitious gameplay-wise project I’ve ever taken on. While the story may not be as long as some of my previous RPGs, it’s still shaping up to be at least as substantial as An Elven Marriage.

Right now I’m finishing all the character’s personal quests, and of course each of them has a different theme/setting, a different boss-fight, and a different reward (beside a boost on the relationship value).

In the screenshot above, for example, if you choose to help Ghamal, you’ll receive a permanent discount at his shop, something that can be very useful later in the game. Other characters, like Labwa, will gain a permanent First Strike buff at the start of every battle. These choices are entirely optional, but I think the rewards provide a nice incentive!

I’ve also started coding the “jealousy scenes.” These will effectively determine which romance path you want to follow, but only if you’re romantically involved with more than one character (except for Labwa and Di’Aab since you can unlock a triad ending with them!). And yes, in this game you can reach 100% relationship with anyone. That doesn’t necessarily mean romance: they can remain close friends with no romantic involvement if you choose.

As you see there’s a lot of things to do and test, even if the bigger town management and RPG part is already finished. I still believe I’ll manage to have a game beta towards the end of the month, but I’ll keep you updated.

As for the new game… well, I think I’ll delay the announcement towards the end of month too, I doubt I can make it sooner, though you never know. To be fair I’m starting to feel a bit burned out by this huge project!

And now I explain a bit how I manage to work on so many games every year.

How my release and pre-production process works

Let me try to explain it better. Imagine two games: Game A and Game B. Each game’s development typically goes through three phases:

• Pre-production (brainstorming the game idea, creating some basic assets, drafting the story or parts of it, etc.)
• Production (the real development grind!)
• Polishing/Finalization (beta testing, bug fixing, etc.)

During this final stage, I’m not doing much hands-on development anymore. The story is already written, most of the art is complete (or nearly so), and the code is finished aside from bug fixing. At this point, I spend a lot of time waiting—either for feedback from beta testers, for that last missing icon or background, or for the editor to finish polishing the text (though lately I’ve been trying to have all text edited before beta even begins).

So what usually happens is this: while I’m in the finalization phase of one game, I like to begin pre-production on the next one. That way, I’m not wasting valuable time just waiting. It’s much easier to visualize with an image:

In the current case, game A is of course Thieves Of Dingirra, and game B is … to be announced!

Of course, not always the phase are of same “size” (or better, time). Sometimes a game for unforeseen reasons, could have a longer production or shorter finalization etc. In any case, I always try to have at least the basic idea, plot and some images done for the game B before I even am into finalization phase. This is how I manage to release many games each year.

Now the game B in question is the comedy game with male protagonist, I have already started working on the crowdfunding page, but I’m still missing the trailer and so on. I’ll see if I manage to do it before the end of the month. Might even just take a small break this time, getting old, etc

But at least I can share a sneak preview from some CG scenes of the game:

See you on next month where I really hope to have Thieves of Dingirra beta ready!