Category Archives: indie life

2012 the year of Loren

As usual I’m doing the end of the year blog post, in which I talk how it was the year that is about to end for me. Looking back at the post I wrote in 2011, lots of things went better.

First of all, and most importantly, I didn’t had so many losses like last year. In April I lost my cat Orpheus, but luckily it was the only loss.

The year of RPGs and Loren

Personal life apart, the main event of this year for me as you can guess was the release of the RPG Loren The Amazon Princess. I already did a postmortem about it, but now that more than 6 months passed after its release, the response of people that are playing/discovering it is still amazing, and I can absolutely say that will do more RPGs in future 🙂

Does it means that I will do only RPGs? No, of course! I need some simpler games from time to time to take a break and recharge batteries. Heileen 3 was good on this regard, because while is true that making it was still working, it felt almost relaxing to have “just to design and code some simple life simulation rules” instead of balancing 60 skills and testing endless battles like I did for Loren 😀

I’ll still put some RPG mechanics in the other games though, like the leveling skills of Heileen 3 (which I think was something relatively new, at least in the OELVN?) or the “crafting gameplay” that will be present in Amber’s Magic Shop.

This year was my best since I went indie, and this means that I must thank first everyone who is supporting my games (I’m not on any big portal, so every little sale count!) and also a special thanks to all my valid collaborators/partners who are helping me so much to make better games! In no order and using a mix of names/nicknames: Aleema, Anima, Sarah, Megan, Michael, Franklin, George, Deji, Ayu, Matthew, Eddy, Slamet and everyone else who probably missed but that helped me making games.

Future improvements

I think that the artwork of my games is already at good levels, even if will try to have more quantity/variety of images or scenes. However, there are two crucial aspects that I plan to improve in the next year games:

Custom soundtracks

It’s something so obvious that is quite embarrassing for me to say it. In the past games I always used royalty free audio tracks. A bit because I couldn’t afford to hire a musician, and also because I have hard time to explain exactly what music I need, because of language barrier.

However as I’ve seen by the response to Heileen 3 custom track bonus, people really like that. So for all future games I’ll have full soundtracks made and have them available as mp3 bonus content.

Professionally made logos

A friend of mine pointed out that while the art of my games is in general quite good, the logos sucks. Indeed, I made most of the logos myself! 🙂 That’s why I asked M.Beatriz Garcia also known as Deji to create logos for all the next games, so for sure they will look much better!

It might seem a minor detail, but I must say that people often judge games by first impressions. And surely a professionally done logo has much better impact than my current ones.

In conclusion

Even for this year the show is over! I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year, and I’m looking forward to work on the next year games. Stay tuned!

The importance of 2012 for visual novels

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Only three Fridays left before the end of the Year! If we want to believe the Mayans, only two and curiously next Friday is the 21st 🙂

I used to make some generic posts at the end of the year talking about how my year was and the future projects. Heileen 3 testing is going forward even if (luckily!) being a dating/life sim is going much smoother than Loren (which took 3 months to test in practice!).

For those that don’t know yet, there’s a beta demo available here:

http://www.winterwolves.com/heileen3.htm

and well, in practice the game is done except a few short scenes that we’re trying to add before the official release date (but might be added in an update later).

What I want to talk about in this post is the most important events in 2012 regarding visual novels / story-based games.

The importance of Analogue: A Hate Story

Unless you’ve been living on the Moon, you probably heard about that game. But in my opinion was very important mostly because it was the first visual novel made in the west (probably the first visual novel ever, since Recettear is more a simulation/RPG) to appear on Steam.

And it did well. That’s quite interesting, since showed that with the right product/marketing you can compete with other more popular indie genres. Yes, indies don’t make only platformers! 😉

Shortly after even Magical Diary appeared (even if I know that it was accepted long before, but for some reasons was delayed for months). It is more a life sim than a plain visual novel, but it did well too and showed that there’s a market beside the classic FPS or multiplayer games.

The importance of Cinders

Another very important event happened, the release of the VN Cinders by Moacube. When Tom first approached me I knew him a bit because we used to viist the same forums, but I really had no clue that he was involved in some top selling HOG (Hidden Object Games) made in the previous years. I also admit that I had no clue who Vinegaria (the artist) was 😀

So imagine my surprise when he showed me some early work in progress of the game! Top quality art and music in a visual novel? No manga style artwork? that was never seen before as far as I know (well I tried with Vera Blanc but wasn’t really top quality!)

I admit I had some doubts on the potential public reactions, because I thought that manga artwork and focus on romance were both key part to make a selling visual novel, but the success of Cinders proved me wrong. And I’m happy to be wrong, since it was because of that if I decided to make Bionic Heart 2, trying to focus more on story / mystery and not just romance, spending more money on art and with custom soundtrack.

The importance of Walking Dead

It amuses me when people talk about Telltale game and define it “an adventure”. Yes sure, there are a few puzzles that requires some thinking, a few items you can carry, some short action scenes, but you spend 80% (if not more) of the gameplay time doing two things: reading dialogues/story and making choices!

How is called that game genre that is based on dialogues and choices that affect future outcomes? Hmm yes, I think is called Visual Novels!!! 😉

That game is receiving tons of prizes and awards, and once again shows that people are ready to spend money on a very well done story-based game. Of course such level of polish is beyond reach for most indie teams since is full 3d, with realtime animations and so on. But I was happy to see it do well (also because I’d like to play more games like that myself!).

In conclusion

This year was really important for visual novel and story-based games. And I didn’t even mention To The Moon (released last year but appeared on Steam this year too), or the various Wadjet Eye adventures for example.

Of course, it was also a good year for me, mainly because of my game Loren The Amazon Princess, but I’ll talk about it in detail in another post before the end of the year 🙂

Bionic Heart 2 and moving past visual novels

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Right now I’m finishing Heileen 3, but I’m also working on two sci-fi games: Bionic Heart 2 and Planet Stronghold 2. As the title suggests, both are sequels. Bionic Heart was one of my first visual novel, and if I compare the artwork and the writing of that first title with the new one, the difference is immediately noticeable:

One of the first scenes of Bionic Heart 2, the shuttle to Mars

I am not hiding that the first Bionic Heart game was a very controversial game. Was one of the first western visual novels to get some attention in many japanese sites (probably the combo of the sexy android + romance did it) but also one of my worst selling games ever (beaten only by Vera Blanc!).

So why I made this sequel you might ask? Well first of all, I am indie because I have a passion for games. Even if I need to make money to live, I still have room to make some “game experiments” from time to time. Bionic Heart 2 will be one of them.

Second, because I never knew if the insuccess of the first game was because of the sci-fi theme, which typically appeals men more, or because of the game quality that, overall, wasn’t really good.

Apart for some “social boss fights” that are some kind of mini games to be fight picking sentences in the right order, the game plays like a regular visual novel, albeit with multiple point of views. I can say already that unless the game does pretty well, it will be my last visual novel ever.

And here I get to my title. I’m definitely moving past visual novels, at least in the immediate future (God only knkows what I’ll do in 5 years from now!). But don’t worry, by that I mean the “pure visual novels”, like the first two Heileen games. Dating / life sims like Always Remember Me or Spirited Heart are another thing.

Why I made that decision? Because I want to focus more on the gameplay, play mechanics, to reach a broader audience. I always liked to design gameplay, life simulations, and RPGs. While for RPGs I said I won’t release more than one a year, for dating/life sims I plan to do them more often.

Also who knows, maybe I could try my hand in future in making a classic adventure game, either first or third person view. Or do something different, but still story-based.

This of course, unless Bionic Heart 2 does really well. It should be out at the beginning of the 2013 so I’ll find that out pretty soon 🙂

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:

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…!
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.
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?
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 ?
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..
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.

BecauseWeMay sale and game prices

Computer Games

Development diary of Celso Riva