Category Archives: spirited heart

Friday catblogging – moral decisions in RPGs

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In the picture above, the young cat Maja. I found her while on a trip in Croatia and decided to bring her home. She lived with me for 7 beautiful months (sadly, she’s not here anymore).

I’m writing right now the Planet Stronghold quest with the Matricks. They’re giant rocky humanoid, very resistant to physical damage but weaker against Psionics. During this quest, if you side with the Empire you’ll face a big moral dilemma: you have the option to kill their “breeders”, as sort of distraction so you can fight the King Rock (the evil tyrant of the race) with less defenses. Of course, even if we’re talking about aliens, killing breeders is always a bad thing! And indeed, some party members will be seriously disappointed if you do that.

I like how the “Empire side” is turning out. Because even if the ultimate goal is to submit all the alien races, it’s a somewhat grey territory – the decisions you make might seem inevitable since there’s a big war going on, but you’ll often wonder if what you’re doing is ethically correct, and you can still choose to act differently.

About the mid-december deadline, I’ll try my best to met it, however after the Matrick race I still need to write the Arnox and Apex Rahn quest, and then the final battle. My goal was to finish the game plot, apart for the romance subplots that can be done anytime since they’re not connected with the main plot (except when you decide to do the final fight). So I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it, it might be more like 20-21st december.

I want the next version 0.8 to have the full plot so anyone who preordered can play/test it and let me know any problem. Note that after 0.8 is released, I’ll raise the price to $19.95 and then once the final version is out, to $24.95.

Finally, I also got the new boys images for Spirited Heart new game. You can see a mockup below. Frebo is always the best! 😀

Living in a fantasy world

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Who wouldn’t like to? Stop playing the Sims and enjoy a fantasy life with Spirited Heart!

Ahem, sorry about the ad. I wanted to talk about the spin-off of my fantasy life simulation game which I released last year. First of all, I’m still in the early stages so is hard to tell when it will be finished. Previously I said maybe for Christmas but at this point I doubt it, since I want also finish Planet Stronghold first.

I can reveal a bit more info about the game itself. While Spirited Heart was set in the imaginary town of Triberg, and the whole game took place there, in this spin-off there will be already a major difference: you’ll be able to relocate in any town of a whole region. Have yet to decide how many towns there will be, but is very likely the amount will be around 20 or so.

This choice won’t be purely to provide more content, but will greatly influence the whole game, for example:

  • some towns will have exclusive crafting materials. For exeample they will be built nearby mines of various precious metals, essential for certain jobs
  • some will have Masters of certain skills, for example Master in Tailoring. During the game you’ll be able to train and learn skill like before, but to unlock special skill levels you’ll need specific trainers found only in certain towns
  • each town will have different quests: yes, there will be combat in the game! \o/ I always wanted to introduce combat, so people won’t describe this new game as “it’s a visual novel with RPG element” but as true RPG! 🙂
  • based on your character race, season, origins there will be a specific “global quest” that will involve performing certain tasks spread through the whole region
  • being the game online-based, new towns with new features can be added anytime to the game

About the last point, I already explained how this game will take advantage of the online feature. The game on each run will auto-update itself, to provide the user with the latest version available. At same time will notify of new features like new towns, quests or items. That is my goal for this game, to start moving finally to the new era of online games. So, except for last minute technical difficulties, the game will be online only (a big step for me, but I feel is necessary for this kind of game).

As you can see from the thumbnail on the side, I’m also investing lot of money on assets to produce a game with great art. I really believe this will turn out to be one of my most beautiful games 🙂

The title and everything in that picture is just a mockup, so definitely a Work-In-Progress! But I think it already shows off the kind of art you can expect in the full game.

That’s it for now, I’m really eager to begin working on this game, but since is probably my most ambitious game ever, I’ll take it easy and cure it in every small details!

A new Spirited Heart

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I got many requests for a sequel since I released my game Spirited Heart last year. I did a Deluxe version this december, but now is time to start something new. I am still in the early stages of planning/development, and as you can see from the WIP screenshot on this page, there is still lot decisions to be made.

However, I can anticipate a few things:

1) the version 1.0 will focus on the character development, the various jobs/skills, and various job endings. So there won’t be any romance in the first version! Also, the version 1.0 won’t have the demon character 😉

2) But fear not, because I have in mind to release several downloadable content for it, using my new system of autoupdater/patcher right from the game. This means you’ll be notified when a new update is available right when you start the game (and also by email to be sure you won’t miss it). Each update will be a very small fee, between $5-10, and will add new features to the game. The first planned is indeed the romance one and then the demon one.

3) Thanks to this “open ended” structure, it means that I can release an update with 6 characters, but nothing forbids me to do another update with 6 more characters to have romance! Or add a new type of job, a new pet (yes, there will be pets in the game), or even a new race. This means that I can develop a much more detailed game, since each update will be carefully planned. For example when I add the demon race, there will be a backstory behind it (a reason why it’s there), there will be new towns and maybe even new jobs related to it.

As you can see is an approach somewhat similar to those online games, with the difference that you’ll clearly know what you’re paying/getting, and that the game won’t require you to stay online, only to check the version and update it. It will also means that now you will be sure to play the latest version immediately, with all the bugfixes and new features.

I don’t have any estimate release yet, my HOPE is for next Christmas, however I really am not sure since have several other projects going on at the same time 🙂

Merry Christmas with Spirited Heart Deluxe

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Today I’m officially releasing Spirited Heart Deluxe. It is not and add-on or expansion, it simply replaces the older version. It is a FREE upgrade to all existing customers and is my personal way to say “thank you” to everyone that supported me buying the game. I put lots of efforts in my games this year, and since I’m fulltime indie, my direct game sales are all my revenues.

Existing customers can just redownload the game from the link they got in their purchase email to get the new version.

So, what’s so special in this update? A lot! First of all, take a look at the new screenshots:

Image Image Image Image

And now for a complete list of the new features:

– New interactive job system: you can now choose to play each day of work in a fun dice-based game. The old instant result system is still available.
– Titles added: if you reach certain values in two skills you’re awarded by an important Title
– Mission from Goddess: after a while you play, you’ll receive a visit from your race Goddess that will give you a task to complete before you reach age of 30. If you succeed, you’ll unlock an extra unique special ending for each race!
– you can now toggle the romance encounter on/off in the relationship screen
– you can now play until you reach the age of 30
– game texts completely edited/proofreaded

I have also uploaded a new demo, use the links below to try it:

http://www.winterwolves.com/download.php?game=SpiritedHeartTrial.exe (Pc)
http://www.winterwolves.com/download.php?game=SpiritedHeartTrial.zip (Mac)
http://www.winterwolves.com/download.php?game=SpiritedHeartTrial.tar.bz2 (Linux)

and once again, I wish you a Merry Christmas 🙂

Spirited Heart update on the way

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After some minor updates, I started working on the big Spirited Heart update today! 🙂
There will be some major changes:

– you can now play until you’re 30 years old (so 2 more years)
– the penalties even in the Standard play mode will be greatly reduced
– you’ll be able to learn “Titles”. They’re a sort of Achievements, and require high skills values in more than one field. For example you can earn the Title of Warrior if you have Combat Skill at 99 and Magic Skill at 75
– from time to time, a God/Goddess might appear to your character requesting her to achieve a specific title before the end of the game. If you make it, you’ll unlock an extra additional unique ending for each character
– there will be an optional minigame when doing jobs: if you get a good result, you’ll be able to raise the associated skill much faster

As you can see enlarging the two screenshots above, the minigame consist in trying to get as close as possible to the number of the day (that changes everytime) using 4 dices. The fist dice is discovered, and then you have 3 more dices you can pick. If you pass the value, you get a poor result, while if you get close, you’ll earn bonuses in the skill advancement for that week. In case you exactly match the number, you’ll get a big bonus in the job associated skill (sometimes even +4)!