Category Archives: loren the amazon princess

World at War

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“World at War” is the subtitle of Loren The Amazon Princess second chapter. The war is between the human and the elves: can Loren and her party stop the madness?

Chapter2

In the picture above, while Myrth and Apolimesho shake hands, Rei asks a vital question: “Can the elves really work together with the humans?” that’s what you’ll have to find for yourself playing the new game update, which can be downloaded from here:

http://www.winterwolves.com/download.php?game=LorenRPG-0.85.zip

As always, if you find any bugs, please report them in the game official forums.

Of course, there’s much more beside the new chapter. The game has been improved under various aspects, many bugs fixed and things tweaked. For example, during the final scenes of second chapter, there’s a sequence of battles that you have to fight without the automatic healing option. And I found that the party setup was missing a clear indication of each party member HP and SP.

Newsetup

So in the picture above you can see the new improved party setup screen, that shows the HP/SP for the members you have currently selected to fight.

Another complaint/suggestion I got from the player/testers was about the level up screen. It wasn’t really clear which skills you could learn since all the skills were displayed in full color.

Newlevelup

So as you can see in the screen above, the greyed-out skills are the ones that you cannot learn yet. I think it’s much clear now. Also you might have noticed that I put a reset button, so if the attributes picked by the auto-assign doesn’t satisfy you, you can retry as much as you want or allocate them manually.

Another big change is that I found a bug in the vendor screen, so that the vendors inventories weren’t updating. Now, if you visit the same shop from time to time (you need to advance the plot a bit every time) you’ll see new interesting items available.

There are LOTS more changes in the new version of course, but I cannot list them all! 🙂

I am not satisfied yet by the skills power level setup in the battle, since is easy to forget that you have 3 levels, and using the numbered buttons is not very intuitive, so I still need to tweak it, but except that I believe the battles, the skills and the classes now are really well balanced.

The mages now deal lots of damage, and since the vendors are fixed, you can buy some SP regenerating items and they can become really powerful. Warriors still have the highest HP and can absorb lot of damage, while Thieves are very versatile and now can use their skills more often.

As for the plot, it’s already 140,000 words, so already more than double Planet Stronghold’s plot! There’s still the end of chapter4 and some romances left, so I think will reach 150,000 words for sure, becoming my biggest game ever! And it’s not even a pure VN, but a RPG… definitely people won’t be able to complain about the game length 😉

Other games update!

And now for the visual novel / dating sim fans, here’s an unusual outfit for Ebele that you’ll be able to admire in the upcoming Heileen3:

Ebeledancing

The game is already over 120,000 words, and almost all the 100 scenes have been written. Lora’s path is complete, and only Marie’s one is left. If everything goes well, expect it sometimes this summer 🙂

Also, the artist working on mystery/otome game Nicole had some computer problems, so the art production was delayed by a few weeks, but now she resumed working regularly. Even for this other game, expect a release sometimes this summer!

Past, present and future

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The Past

Magicstones02

Don’t worry, the picture above is NOT of any upcoming games! 😉 It’s from one of my early fantasy/RPG games called Magic Stones, which has still a special place in my heart because was the first game I made to become relatively successful. That though represent the past, what I was doing several years ago. I used royalty free poser 3d models because I couldn’t afford decent artists.

The Present

The present is of course represented well by my recent manga games, and Loren in particular. I never invested so much time and resources in a game before, but now that the game is currently in beta stage, I can say it was definitely worth it!

Lorenaffection

In case you missed my Twitter/Facebook announcement, I released version 0.8 which lets you play through the whole chapter 1. The game has also a very long demo, so you can try it before preordering it!

We have added a lot of new features to version 0.8 based on early tester/players’ feedback, and I must say that the game now is much better. I liked a lot in particular the feature to double-click to repeat last action (very useful in battles, making them much more smooth to play!) and the new “Tasks” feature, in which you can play battles to raise your Fame in a specific town, to obtain discounts in the town’s vendor.

Brezacastle

The. plot is also going on very well, with Aleema (the writer) finishing the last chapter. I can assure you that the final battle will be something epic, and also have a surprising end! But for now, I’m concentrating on finishing the chapter2, since adding all the new enemies and battles is quite time consuming, since I have to test them all.

I also reduced the difficulty on the Easy level so much, that I can say that playing Loren at easy level is almost like playing a normal visual novel. So I think that even if you don’t like RPGs, you should try playing it in easy mode just to read the story, which I think is very good!

The Future

As I said, after Loren I plan to take a break from very detailed RPGs. But of course, Planet Stronghold sequel will be still done this year, since in this case the RPG framework is already tested and finished (and also, is more simplified vs Loren).

Below you can admire a new sketch from the artist for a Marada Shaman enemy:

Marada_shaman

Planet Stronghold: Warzone should be out this summer, though is more likely will be this fall. As for my other projects, beside Heileen 3 and Nicole, I didn’t make much progresses, since my last two months were completely absorbed by Loren!

But hopefully once Loren is out, will have more time to devote to those games, which compared to the complexity of making a RPG could even be considered “relaxing”! 😉

I also have more surprises coming out next months: might do my first online/webgame, and if I can find the right partner also a webcomic. Stay tuned!

Deadlines

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If you follow Loren RPG development on twitter and in my forums, you already know that I failed to met the deadilne of the new version for the 1st March. It was a self-imposed deadline, but I wanted to met it because I am used to keep my word, so I am a bit disappointed at myself…

However, I have a pretty good excuse for not meeting it! The version 0.8 which will be online maximum next weekend (10-11 March) will have LOTS of new features!

Just to name a few major changes (but there are many others):

– new resistance icons, say goodbye to my poorly drawn ones!
– new quick equip item from the character inventory (drag&drop would be too much, better to just use 1 single click!)
– you can now access inventory from the battle. Maybe less realistic, but many people asked for it and I admit is bad to restart a game/load a saved game only because you forgot to equip your character!
– new minigame by the writer Aleema, when you select your character: PC will tell the backstory of his/her slavery, and you choice will determine the starting statistics (a bit like my other game Spirited Heart)
– new redesigned battle UI. You can choose between big or small icons, and the left panel now shows target statistics or resistances. Added tooltips all around the battle to help players understand what’s going on.
– added new playing style “Tactics”. Player starts with 5 skills but get a new one every 3 levels rather than 2. Also eliminated all the level restrictions for the skills, since they higher ones are balanced by the higher SP requirement
– new “smart slot” system, so that you have a slot for weapon, a slot for offhand/shield, and a slot for ranged weapon. During battle you’ll be able to attack (with appropriate penalties) using melee or missile as you prefer
– added city tasks and Fame system. Perform city tasks (predefined battles with specific rules) to get Fame. Fame helps in getting a discount on buying/selling items in the respective town’s vendor
– added double-click to repeat the last action. This works both with offensive but also defensive skills, making the battle flow much faster!

I also made a video showing the new “Character Creation”:

So that’s all for now – stay tuned because next friday (if not sooner!) very likely version 0.8 will be out.

Heileen 3

I also want to talk about my other games, otherwise you might think that in 2012 I will release only Loren. But don’t worry, have other more “casual” and “girly” games in the work! One of them, probably the most awaited, is Heileen 3, which is coming out very nicely. The dialogues are totally hilarious, and I can already say that is going to be one of my most funny games ever.

The artist Rebecca sent me also the last two romance endings, with Marie and Lora, and they’re beautiful. Unfortunately, to see them you must wait until this summer when the game will be out! But I can already show you a sneak peek:

Heilee3femaleromances

The one with Lora is really beautiful, with a field of sunflowers as background 🙂

The light at the end of the tunnel

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In the picture above, Othello looking at the new arrival, our dog Skipper.

I’m starting to see the light at the end of the Loren Amazon Princess tunnel 🙂 If you follow me you know that last week I made public a sort of sneak peek, to see what people think. So far the response was very positive. People like the art, the story/writing, and beside a few bugs (all my fault though!) even the gameplay.

After the public preview, I made a big spreadsheet document with all the bugs and suggestions. I spent the following 2 days fixing them and evaluating the suggestions, and today finally I started to get back into the “content creation” phase.

Yes, because even if the plot is done until chapter4, as I play the game I’m adding the fights, creating new enemies, and also adding some extra movement steps on the map to make the game seem less linear (even if in reality it is, but nobody complained so far!).

The goal is to have the plot fully scripted by mid-March, and Aleema (my writer) said it would be possible, and I self-imposed myself the deadline of end of March for the almost-final release. It won’t be easy, but I’ll try to make it!

The next appointment with Loren is 1st March when I’ll start pre-orders and release a new improved demo.

And the other games…?

I know that not everyone who follows me is a RPG fan, and they might be wondering what happened to the various games I have announced!

Well, to be honest I underestimated the amount of work that was needed to make a huge game like Loren. So while I am still waiting for the artwork and the writing for most other games, I was so busy that wasn’t able to use my traditional “motivational techniques” to encourage my collaborators. In other words, the famous “spanking lazy collaborators”! 😀

So the progress speed for my other games has been slower than usual, but until I finish Loren I don’t think will have time to follow/encourage them.

Also, this week I decided to move the main Winterwolves site into a cloud server, so this added some extra delays (those kind of things are always problematic!). But better do that before Loren is released, just in case somehow it becomes a popular game!

Anyway, just to reassure that the other projects are still going forward, here’s a sneak peek of Heileen 3 male romances:

Heileenmaleromances

From top-left to bottom-right: Heileen with Sebastian on the shore at night, Heileen with Jonathan in an artist atelier, Heileen with Morgan on the ship bridge, and Heileen and John… in bed! 🙂

Heileen 3 is still missing some art, and the whole Marie subplot, but I’d say that is 80% complete (of course, I still need to put everything together and test it).

And below is Jeff, one of the four pursuable characters of the mystery/otome game “Nicole”:

Jeff

I am at good point in this game too, story and art is about halfway finished, even if being a sort of mystery/detective game I’ll have to review everything to make sure that there aren’t spoilers early in the game or plot holes.

That’s it for this week, see you next Friday!

The end is near!

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No, I’m not talking about the Mayan prophecy 🙂 Sadly, I’m not even talking about the Loren RPG, since I think will still take a few months before is finished.

I’m talking about two scary news I’ve read this week. They regard the upcoming MacOS Mountain Lion and Windows 8. As you might know, they both will come with a built-in appstore. But the scary news is that both will DISABLE BY DEFAULT “non signed” apps.

What does it means? It means that if you install the new MacOS and download one of my current games, you won’t be able to play it. Of course, at least in those first new OS versions, there will be a work around. For Windows, you’ll have to switch back to the “desktop mode”, while for MacOS you’ll have to enable the app by right clicking on it.

So, it’s not as scary as it seems right? No, it is. First, because it’s a first step towards a “walled garden”, which will probably lead to the impossibility to run non-certified apps at all in future versions. Second, not all users are tech-savy, so for them running the app might become too much of a trouble, which means that my niche will become even smaller. Others might even not trust installing non-certified apps anymore, despite they are completely safe.

But it’s not over yet, now comes the good part: from what I gathered reading those articles, even if I pay the annual fees to get my games certified (so they can run without any trick), Apple can still disable/ban any app remotely. Let’s say I make another RPG game like Loren, which has some VERY HOT romance scenes at the end. Some users don’t like that and complain. Apple might disable the game permanently! (not saying that they will for sure, but the possibility is there)

Of course, all of this is just a conjecture for now, and the danger is not imminent. I believe will take at least 4-5 more years before all of this will be very common. But still, the future is NOT promising at all.

Considering I sell mostly directly, I have really few options, and the most rational seems to abandon the downloads to move into webgames using HTML5 or Unity web plugin. I have to say that personally I DON’T like this, but is a kind of a forced choice. I don’t want to make more games, knowing that in a not distant future they might become obsolete, forgotten. I’d like people to be able to play my games for years and years to come in an easy way, and right now using downloads it seems a very risky path.

Loren The Amazon Princess beta demo this weekend!

Anyway, for now I’ll concentrate on finishing Loren RPG, since I definitely cannot port the game to another language now! Expect a demo tomorrow or Sunday. Will post the news on my twitter, on Facebook and will also send the newsletter.

How long will be the demo? Well, I am not sure if today will manage to finish chapter1 or not, but will try. In any case, considering you can take two paths early in the game (side with humans or elves) I believe that should be at least a few hours of entertainment.

As for the pre-orders I am not sure if I’ll start them with the demo or wait a bit more. Is something that I will decide in the next days based on how much work I can put on the game before the demo is live.