Category Archives: otome games

Nicole’s progresses


In the video above, Nicole’s first encounter with Kurt Madry

Nicole made some big progresses. Oh no wait, I mean… I made some big progresses on Nicole (the otome/yuri dating sim I’m working on).

First of all the game has a brand new GUI:

I’m quite happy about it. You can see the main menu, load/save and options screen, and a in-game screenshot. By the way about the last screenshot, I’m sure Natalie from Winter In Faibrook would agree with Nicole, about what she says 😉

Yesterday I just finished coding Kurt’s route, and writer said should send me Ted shortly. There’s only Jeff left to write. However I don’t want to say anything I could regret later… so for now the estimate release date is still mid-July, for several reasons:

  • we decided to add extra images, so that there will be a “normal” ending, and a special ending. In the normal ending will use sprites over transparent backgrounds, while special endings will be full CGs drawings.
  • even if writer manages to finish writing the last otome route with Jeff at end of June, we still have to write the events in which the mystery is solved. Yes because they’re going to be different from the normal romance route, at least the final part.
  • also, we need to add some mystery events that will trigger in the game during certain points. Won’t be long scenes but needs to be thought carefully.
  • while the main gameplay is done, we wanted to add some nice touches like cellular messages, online shopping (since the main character is a bit of a geek) and so on. Small things but they take time to draw the art and code.
  • the chibi/main menu/GUI artist wants to do an OP to the game (a sort of trailer with music for it to show at the beginning, for those not familiar with japanese dating sims). That will be very cool but also require some time as you imagine.
  • last but not least I need to code all the scenes, add them inside the game and do a preliminary testing. And even if this is one of the main games I’m working on at the moment, I have to work a bit on the others as well… 😉

So, still a lots of stuff to do, and probably will delay the game release, but I think in the end will be worth the wait!

Don’t rest on your laurels

Batman sleeping
In the picture above, my cat Batman sleeping in my messy office

This year I’ve already released two games: Heileen 3 Sea Maidens, the yuri version for  Heileen 3 released last year in December, and Bionic Heart 2.

But there’s no time to rest on my laurels! The show must go on! etc etc.

Roommates

So I’m very excited to announce that Roommates script is 99.9% finished (just some minor tweaks and some gameplay phrases to add). The total word count is about 130,000 which is definitely not bad. It also will have a lot of replayability, since for the first time in one of my dating sims, you can play as male or female main character!

Unfortunately, there is still quite some work to do. The game will feature a full original soundtrack PLUS a theme song for it. I’m quite excited about that, since the theme song perfectly fits with the light-comedy setting of the game 🙂

On the art side, I am expecting some extra romance CGs that between my writer and me were referred as “the beach sex scenes”. So as you can imagine they will be quite “steamy” 😉

I’m also missing all the 26 backgrounds, and the artist I picked (who already did a great job on Nicole’s backgrounds) can begin working on them only in July. So as you can imagine, the game is very likely to be out in August/September, a bit later than I expected, but at least this will leave us a good amount of time for editing, testing, tweaking gameplay and so on.

Nicole

I finished Darren’s path this week, and Kurt’s one is being proofread right now. The soundtrack is finished (with 7 different tracks) and art-wise I am missing four extra scenes for the “normal romance endings”, but artist guaranteed she can do them in one month. There’s still some other art left like the GUI and chibis, but shouldn’t be a major cause of delays.

So I still believe the game beta could be out at end of June, or mid-July at the latest. We’ll see!

…and I haven’t forgot about the RPGs!

I know that a good amount of people who follows me now is because of my last RPGs. Well don’t worry, I haven’t forgot about you: I am definitely going to try finishing another RPG soon. Planet Stronghold 2 looks like will need more time than I thought, so that’s why I’m playing around with Loren RPG framework to experiment with it, using a different layout, higher resolution (1280×720) and simpler interface which could work also on touch-based devices, as you can see in the work-in-progress image below:

mysterious RPG

For what game you might ask ? Well maybe Loren sequel won’t be the only RPG set in Aravorn to be out in the (near, hopefully) future… 😉

Experimenting is fun

If you follow me from the early days you already know that I like to experiment. I like to mix game genres, or at least try new things/features in existing genres.

That’s what for example pushed me to add the Social Boss Fights in Bionic Heart 2. By the way the official video is now on youtube, see it below:

And is why I’m trying to add a simplified (it won’t be Sim City of course!) colony simulation metagame in Planet Stronghold 2:

Planet Stronghold 2 colony sim

As always they’re early work in progress screenshots, but you can get the idea of what we’re trying to do. I think will be interesting to integrate the colony sim with the RPG gameplay. While we’re still working on the details, there will be some influence of the RPG part to the colony sim and vice versa.  Of course playing in Easy mode will reduce the overall difficulty, while playing in Hard mode might be interesting since you’ll have to balance both the RPG and colony building simulation aspects.

Many quests will be directly linked to the colony expansion (like acquiring new blueprints to build new building), so it will also work plot-wise.  You can see now why Planet Stronghold 2 is taking so long, it’s definitely an ambitious game! 😉

At same time, I’m trying a new GUI/gameplay system on the dating sim Nicole:

photoscheduler

instead of the game map like Always Remember Me, I’m going to try using a simplified interface, showing “pictures” that are places you can visit. Then each place will offer a variety of actions that change based on the plot, time of day, day of week, like Always Remember Me.

I’m going to try to experiment also on the plot: I thought today that rather than having a “alone ending” if you fail to romance anyone, the game will end in a different way… since there’s an abductor in the campus, the final scene will see our poor Nicole being kidnapped (of course without revealing who it is, so doesn’t spoil the fun).

More scary than the usual otome games? well for sure, but I think will be very interesting…mouhahaha 😉

Nicole’s cast: Darren Beville

This week is the turn of the last character, Darren Beville, who is the typical shy guy. However I think he looks cute:

Darrenbeville

In the game, Nicole’s outgoing personality will help him to become more open about his problems and who knows, maybe he might help you solve the mystery, in a way or in another 😉

The first encounter with him is definitely not the best, and Chandra warns you about some rumors she heard (excerpt from the game):

    “I let out a sigh as I gathered all of my math books and shoved them into my bag. I looked over to the boy at the desk beside mine, who remained silent but looked equally tired.”
Nicole “Hey there. That any of that crap make sense to you?”
“I asked the question casually with a weary smile, but he only glanced at me for a moment before shaking his head and looking away.”
Nicole “I always did all my homework back in high school, but this is all pretty confusing. It’s such a big step up from what I studied in my last math class…even the notes look like a foreign language.”
“The young man shrugged as he finished putting his books away and stood up.”
“What’s up with this guy?”
“Even when I was younger, I didn’t meet guys who acted this quiet…”
Nicole “Uh…are you going to say anything to me? I was only trying to be friendly.”
“He only glanced at me again before his gaze fell to the floor.”
Nicole “Hey, did the cat get your tongue or something?”
“I smiled jovially while asking the question, but he still wouldn’t look up at me.”
Darren “That’s a rather old fashioned phrase.”
Nicole “It got you to speak up though! Old doesn’t necessarily mean useless.”
“He smiled slightly as he stood up from his desk.”
Darren “Just study extra, you’ll do fine in the class.”
Nicole “Why, thank you for imparting such profound and rare advice. I don’t think I ever would have thought of that in all my years of experience.”
“He didn’t laugh or frown at my sarcasm and simply walked away.”
“…Maybe I came off sounding rude?”
“Or he’s not the type to take a joke…”
“Either way, he seems kinda unfriendly…”
“After the class ended, I hurried to catch up with Chandra on the way back to my dorm.”
Nicole “Hey, Chandra!”
“She looked up and smiled cheerfully when she saw me.”
Chandra “What’s up?”
Nicole “I wanted to know if you knew anything about that guy who sits behind me in our math class…he’s so quiet, he seemed kinda unfriendly. I tried talking to him, but he barely said a thing to me then didn’t even bother saying goodbye.”
Chandra “Ah…I think I know who you’re talking about.”
Nicole “He’s pretty cute, just so…standoffish.”
Chandra “Yeah, that’s Darren. I don’t really know him since he’s so shy, but he doesn’t really talk to anyone.”
Nicole “That’s strange…especially for someone his age.”
Chandra “It is. Some people think he’s hiding something.”
Nicole “I suppose that’s possible…what kind of rumors are drifting around about him?”
“Chandra shrugged.”
Chandra “There aren’t a lot with facts behind them since he doesn’t really have any friends that I’ve seen. Some people think he was raised abroad or something and that English is his second language.”
Nicole “And what kind of factuality is behind that…?”
Chandra “None that I know of, it’s just a guess at why he’s so quiet. You should probably be careful around him though, you never know what someone like that is thinking about.”
Nicole “Yeah, you’re right…he seemed harmless enough though.”
Chandra “Still, there’s a line between shy and suspicious. I wouldn’t want to try finding it.”
Nicole “Mmm…”
Chandra “Anyway, I have to go get to cheerleading practice. I’ll see you tonight though.”
Nicole “’Kay, see you then!”

That’s it for this week, can’t reveal more about this character since would be spoilers 😉 The cast review for Nicole is now complete. Next week hope to give good news about Loren’s expansion and other stuff going on…!

Nicole’s cast: Kurt Madry

It’s the turn of another character introduction from my upcoming otome/mystery dating sim Nicole. His name is Kurt Madry and is a very popular player of the college football team.

You can see a few images of him below:

Kurtmadry

About his personality, he’s quite arrogant and spoiled, and very successful with women.

Unfortunately for him, his grades at school aren’t as good as his skills on the other fields. But for that, Nicole will be able to help him 😉 An excerpt from the game story:

    “All the students in the classroom were getting ready to go when I heard someone sigh heavily. I looked over to see who it was and spotted Kurt.”
“I wonder what’s wrong…”
“We did get our test scores back today though.”
“Maybe it has something to do with that.”
“I gathered up my supplies before walking over to his seat.”
Nicole “Hey there! Is something wrong?”
“He glanced up to see me as he irritably shoved his books and supplies into his bag.”
Kurt “Everything sucks today.”
Nicole “Aw, I’m sure it’s not so bad. What happened?”
Kurt “I failed the damn math test.”
“He cast the paper another dark look before roughly tossing it into his bag.”
Nicole “Ouch…I’m sorry to hear that.”
“I suppose it’s better not to mention that I thought it was the easiest one we’ve had so far…”
Kurt “You don’t know how bad it really is.”
Nicole “They won’t make you repeat the class, will they?”
Kurt “It’s even worse than that!”
“He slung his bag over his shoulder and started stomping over to the door. I followed him quickly.”
Nicole “But what other repercussions are there?”
Kurt “I can get suspended or even kicked off of the football team if I don’t keep my grades at an acceptable level.”
Nicole “That’s so extreme…”
Kurt “It is! They don’t give a crap about how important I am to the team if my grades start to slip.”
Nicole “It’s not too late to get things turned around though, right?”
Kurt “That’s a hell of a lot easier said than done.”
Nicole “Not necessarily…”
Kurt “If you have a point you’re trying to get to, then spit it out.”
Nicole “Maybe I could help you out and tutor you in math.”
“He was already angry but looked at me skeptically.”
Kurt “I don’t really want to get a tutor.”
Nicole “It could help a lot though! Sometimes having someone other than the professor to explain everything is really beneficial. Their explanations practically need translations.”
Kurt “I don’t know…”
Nicole “I’m sure I can help you.”
Kurt “But you’re so new.”
Nicole “So what? We’re in the same math class.”
Kurt “Are you really the best tutor I can get? If I’m going to deal with having a tutor, I need the absolute best.”
“He certainly sounds spoiled…

Later in the game, Nicole will also discover some traits of his personality that will seriously make her think… but you’ll have to play the game to discover what I’m talking about 😉

That’s all for this week! Progresses on all the other games (including Loren’s expansion) are being made but I want first to finish Nicole’s characters introduction before talking about something else 🙂