Category Archives: general

posts about general topics, even not related to computer games

Game development is a puzzle game

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rebecca
Rebecca will help you train to keep in shape…! (from Planet Stronghold 2)

Game development feels like a puzzle game to me. How? Simple, let’s consider one of my games. How many roles/elements are needed to make one?

Let’s try to make a list:

  1. gameplay/rules = work of the game designer
  2. programming/coding = work of the coder
  3. artwork = work of the artist (in many cases, 2 or more for backgrounds and GUI)
  4. story/text = work of the writer
  5. music/sfx = work of the musician
  6. marketing/promotion = work of the PR guy
  7. hosting/demo/support = support / web dev guy

So as you can see, for each of my games there should be the need of 8 people. In reality, I almost always do point 1,2,6,7 myself, and sometimes I also do some GUI and write storyboards for the texts!

In the past I used to to really EVERYTHING on my own (using Poser 3d and royalty free music tracks) but luckily I realized that was much better to hire other people to help 🙂

The main problem when working with external people, is that since to finish a game you need all those roles/elements, often happens that I have some areas covered/completed, while others not. Some people work fast in an aspect of a game, others slow downs in different aspects.

In the end that’s why I say it’s like a puzzle game. You need all the pieces to finish and release the product. Unfortunately very often that takes a lot of effort 😀 but like all things in life, nothing comes easy, you have to sweat and work hard.

Another thing I often have to decide is the scope of the game. For example now I am playing with the great freeware tilemap editor Tiled, trying to make isometric tilemaps. For which game? well for Planet Stronghold 2, but also thinking if to make them for Seasons Of The Wolf.

The idea was to have a big map like Loren, that once clicked would let you zoom-in and explore the areas in more details, rendered as isometric map. I think the idea is great and I’m sure that I can make it, the only problem is: how long will take me? will I need extra tiles, so contact artist to make more?

When making those decisions I need to consider that there are two types of fans: those who wants the games fast and pressure you to finish them, and others that say “take as much time as you need”. But besides what fans say, I need to keep releasing games at regular intervals to survive in the competitive world of indie games, so right now, I am unsure if to use this system.

I set myself a deadline – if I can have the isometric map thing working in 2 weeks I’ll use it, otherwise not. Also because in theory very shortly Roommates public beta should start, and then will have even less time to make tests… 🙂

2014: New Year Plan

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mirtillo
My cat Mirtillo sleeping in an unusual way 😀

2014! Happy New Year!

I’m going to change completely my way of working. From now on, I’ll only make games in my native language, Italian.

Heh, good joke uh? 😀

The real plan

OK jokes apart the real plan is:

1) Release Loren on Steam. This is going to happen soon ! Took a bit of time to the coder to implement the achievements on all the OSes, but now everything works. The DLC Castle Of N’Mar will also be released, a few days later.
2) Finish Roommates. The game is long and the writer Michael tested it a lot, but I really think the best solution is start the preorders and the public beta testing, this way thanks to the awesome users in my forums the testing will go much faster. In the next weeks will fix all the issues found and code the scheduler, which will be similar to Flower Shop one.
3) Finish Nicole Yuri version – though this mainly depends on the writer to be honest 🙂 my job in this case will be to motivate her!
4) Release another otome game that for now I’m still keeping “under the hood”, but that I’ll announce in the first months of this year.
5) And of course, finish Seasons Of The Wolf and Planet Stronghold 2. Both games are quite big, but this time I shouldn’t be distracted by other things and will make sure to motivate and help the writer and coder appropriately 😉
6) At this point we will probably be in late 2014. Depending on the situation, either start working on Spirited Heart 2, Undead Lily, Loren 2 or something else. In this case is impossible to make any kind of prediction since there are too many factors and people involved.

Better integration with the story

Looking back at past year, one thing I didn’t do properly was to support the writers more. This doesn’t mean telling them exactly what to write line by line, but (for those who needed/wanted it of course) be more involved in the process as they write.

Some writers are happy to work on their own at their own pace with minimum need of my support/feedback: but in any case I need to check what they do to make sure that the final product reflects my vision and most importantly players’ expectations, and that works with gameplay.

And also I need to integrate the story more with the gameplay, though probably this can be done only by planning better the whole thing from start and writing a good amount of draft/storyboards myself, so will need more time for this.

Always Remember Me on Dailyroyale.com

If you missed my Christmas sale, you can still get a good deal for my game Always Remember Me at http://www.dailyroyale.com/! Expires in the next 2 days (approximately, there’s a counter on the site).

I have many other interesting things going on in the next weeks, stay tuned 😉

2013 the year of ups and downs

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rainbow

Chance is always powerful, let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish. ~Ovid

Looking back to last year post, I’m very sad to notice that this year didn’t manage to release any new RPG 🙁 Even if Seasons Of The Wolf is at good point. But let’s proceed in order.

UP: Early this year I released the yuri version of Heileen 3, called “Sea Maidens“. The game was very well received, and sold only slightly less than the otome version, showing clearly that there’s a market for people who like yuri content.

DOWN: After that, I had several projects going on (as always lol) but the most important were Planet Stronghold 2, Bionic Heart 2 and Spirited Heart 2. As you know, I managed to release only one, Bionic Heart 2.

I had already decided to stop making pure simple visual novel before its release, but when the game finally was out, after the most crazy beta testing I have ever done (at one point I admit I even thought to cancel the game, something that never happened before!) and sold poorly, that was the last drop.

To be honest, I am not sure myself why the game did so badly. Maybe the sci-fi setting? the multiple point of view? the fact that romance played a minor role in the story?

I’ve given up trying to understand the reasons, but as I said, already before that game I made my mind of quitting doing VNs, especially since I also enjoy much more doing RPGs or life/dating sims 🙂

UP: And here comes the other good thing that happened this year: Nicole’s release. The game took much more time than I anticipated, but the final result was really good! Is out only since a few months, but is already looking to be one of my most popular otome games. And the yuri version should be out next year 😉

DOWN: Planet Stronghold 2. I really don’t want to blame anyone in specific for it, since sometimes it seems that some projects are “cursed”. With Loren last year, everything went right. With this title, basically everything went wrong 😀 So yeah, is true that the writer, the coder and even the artist had to slow down for personal/real life issues. But I was too busy managing too many projects too and I feel I didn’t do enough, didn’t motivate people and managed them badly.

Spirited Heart 2 instead was a very different story. Sarah wrote well and fast, but when I was starting to consider adding more variety of romances (yuri/yaoi) I discovered that the artist refused to draw them, after he initially said was fine. I don’t want to make any comments about this, since I’m sure you already know what I think. Anyway, I had to discard all the sprites already done and find another artist! Deji accepted, so while the game will be greatly delayed, at least I have a reliable and skilled artist working on it now 🙂

UP: Loren on Steam 🙂 While the game is not yet out, should show up in mid-January. I am happy because I think that title deserved to be there, even if in recent times seems like they’re much more relaxed and are allowing many titles to get in. Still, is a good achievement (forgive the pun).

So getting back to the quote I put above, luck/chance have a big impact in our lives and sometimes you can’t do much about it. The only thing you can do, is always be ready to catch the opportunities!

That’s it for this year. See you in 2014 and Happy New Year!

Christmas Sale and best of 2013

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IMG_0182
Early wishes of Merry Christmas from my cat Gilda

First of all: I’m doing a Christmas sale with all my games 50% off, including Nicole!

The predefined bundle discounts are disabled, so differently from previous times this works also when buying the various bundles like Flower Shop, Spirited Heart, Heileen series, etc.

Christmas has come early this year 😉 The offer is valid until the end of the year.

Best Of 2013

Like in the past, I want to review a bit the games I released during the course of the year. If I had to make a ranking for the titles I made this year:

Writing

1. Nicole
2. Heileen 3 Sea Maidens
3. Bionic Heart 2

I absolutely loved Nicole writing! Heileen 3 was pretty good too. I liked also Bionic Heart 2 to be honest, and for me would be about same level of Heileen 3, but judging by the sales seems that most people preferred Heileen 3 🙂

Artwork

1. Heileen 3 Sea Maidens
2. Nicole
3. Bionic Heart 2

This is probably heavily influenced by my tastes. I know many people didn’t like much Nicole’s sprites, saying they lack variety and so on. Well, personally I don’t think is so apparent. I put Bionic Heart 2 on last place but that really doesn’t mean I didn’t like the artwork (character artist is same as Loren, my favorite!). Heileen 3 is first because of the setting, landscapes and also because I really love Rebecca’s work (she was the artist of all my Heileen games).

Best Gameplay

1. Nicole
2. Bionic Heart 2
3. Heileen 3 Sea Maidens

Nicole’s gameplay is quite similar to Always Remember Me, but has more variety of items to buy, a more intuitive interface and better GUI. Heileen 3 gameplay was good too, albeit I admit more repetitive than Nicole’s, but I have to consider that the game originally was meant to be a simple visual novel, so the result was still good.Personally, I loved the Bionic Heart 2 “social battles” and I would like to have them again in other games, like the RPGs, though I’m not sure if players liked them or not! 🙂

That’s everything for now, have a good time during the holidays! 🙂

Where your money goes?

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Today’s blog post will be a bit particular. I don’t have many news about my games, so for a change I thought to let you know where YOUR money goes. When you buy one of my games, what I do with the money?

Of course, I spend it all to buy fast cars and expensive luxury vacations! 😀

No, not really. Check the images below to get an idea:

gilda
Gilda when we found her on the left, and today on the right. Quite a change!

grillo
Grillo was literally starving. On the left his first meal, on the right how he is today

nina
Nina is my favorite cats. On the left, she was very sick when was a kitten. On the right, she recovered well!

Yes, I saved many stray cats (and a few dogs from dog shelters) from a sure death, even if in recent years I had to slow down… I have 11 already and is starting to become a bit hard to manage them all and at same time get some work done!! 🙂

Before you think “he’s one of those crazy animal-rights activist who only help animals”, check my Kiva (a popular charity website) lender profile:

http://www.kiva.org/lender/winterwolves

As you can see, I do something also for two-legged animals! I donate to other various charities but I don’t want to make this post too long about myself in particular.

Why I felt the need to talk about this topic? I don’t consider myself a special person, and of course I don’t spend all the money I earn on charity (I need to live and pay people that work for me too!). I did it simply because I think is customers’ right to know how the companies spend the money they earn. Be it big or small, composed by 10000 employees or just one, I think is important to show the people what you use their money for.

I know that for most people the only important thing is the final product. Company A makes a product I want, and I buy it because I like it. It’s fine, I have nothing against this. But what if Company A treats employees badly? or uses money to buy patents to force other smaller companies out of business? or does other bad practices?

I believe the users should ask themselves those questions. I also think customers have a big power, they can influence the companies. They can tell them “what you’re doing is wrong” and that won’t buy their products anymore unless they change. Being transparent about how you use their money, trying to make ethical decisions whenever possible for your employees, the environment, animals and people is not a secondary thing in a world that sadly seems only ruled by “let’s make more profit!”.

OK before I turn into one of those self-motivational gurus, I’ll stop here. Don’t worry, from next week I’ll be back talking about the games 🙂