Category Archives: Undead Lily

The 2017 plan!

3 Replies

The character selection screen at beginning of Undead Lily game (work in progress)

As already said in other places (forums/social networks) this year I am not aiming at releasing 5 games again! 🙂 However, if that happens, of course I wouldn’t mind.

The thing is, that of the upcoming games, many are RPGs. And as you know, those kind of games need a lot of time to be properly designed, coded, balanced, etc. There are also a couple of “simpler games” in the works (luckily!), one of them is Love Bites and the other is <CURSED GAME> (to not be confused with “Cursed Lands” which is another RPG!).

There are a couple more games in the works but I’ve decided to never announce or show anything about a game publicly again, until it’s almost done (just a few months left).

So depending how things go, this year you could see some sudden releases of unannounced games. I am not sure it will happen since many are still behind, but who knows!

Talking only of the currently known games in progress, I would estimate this (I’m only talking about beta versions, not final releases):

  • First Quarter: Amber’s Magic Shop. Writing is done, art is done, all is left is scripting and coding. The crafting works, I’ve added over 250 recipes, but still all the remaining simulation part needs some tweaks. I also am doing the shop-builder minigame, which wasn’t planned but seems such a good idea that I think it will be worth the wait.
  • Second Quarter: Love Bites. The art is mostly done (we might commission a few extra artwork), the writing is at good point, the gameplay will be classic dating sim plus VN mode as usual.

Obviously it could happen that Love Bites is finished sooner than Amber. I’ll give the priority to the game mostly advanced. Anyway, both those two games should be out in the first part of the year. But what about the second part of the year?

Things get a bit more complex. Beside obviously finally releasing the <CURSED GAME>, I would like to work on both Planet Stronghold 2 and Undead Lily but of course not release both! (it would be slightly madness haha)

Also, PS2 will be written by Love Bites’ writer, and I imagine that she’ll want a break after finishing Love Bites 🙂 So I think Undead Lily it’s more likely to be out first. Also remember that for RPGs, I need to spend weeks if not months for the gameplay design and testing, it’s much harder to give an estimate. With a dating sim, once writing, music and art is done, you’ve basically everything and it’s easy to say when it will be out. For RPGs… no.

Another important factor, as you might know since I often talk about it, is the “burn-out”. I definitely don’t want to risk being burned out. Last year I released a card game (PSCD), 3 dating sims and a RPG (Queen Of Thieves). Most of PSCD work and a good amount of QoT RPG design/coding was already done in 2015, otherwise would have been impossible to make so many games in a single year.

This is also why I’ve decided to switch from “full RPG” (like Loren/SOTW) to… something easier to do.

The “select companion” screen has some sort of fighting game vibe and I like it 🙂

And it’s not because it’s less work, but because redoing another RPG design (classes, skills, etc) shortly after finishing QoT was really bad for my morale/motivation haha! Doing something new/fresh will be interesting for me, and hopefully will be also fun to play.

That’s all I can say for now. As time goes on, I’ll make more updates about what’s going to happen when I’m more sure 🙂 Happy New Year!

A roleplaying Summer!

7 Replies

qot
In the screenshot above, Arianna in her “Queen Of Thieves” outfit, and a young Lysander

I am now scripting the Queen Of Thieves last main plot scenes, which include some flashbacks: the man you see above is Lysander when he was young. He stilll does have his beard though 🙂

I’m also using the new map of Aravorn that I had recently redone by a new artist. I must say that even zoomed in, it still looks good:gamemap

So now when there are flashback/main plot scenes I can show the time/date but also the place using the map. The scenes aren’t many, but there are 4 CGs, all featuring Arianna… and some are VERY spicy. OK, I think I have said already enough!! 😉

As I said in previous post I will take my time and not rush things to avoid burnout, also considering that I still have to officially release Heirs & Graces and PSCD free update. They’re in a very advanced state though, so that shouldn’t take much longer.

Back to the title of this post, even taking things easier, it’s quite likely that the Queen Of Thieves testing will take place this Summer, with just a disclaimer: if it will be hot like past year (one month and half, whole July and up to mid-August, with temperatures constantly over 38°C!) I will probably be able to work just a few hours in the morning! Anyway, even if I surely won’t be working/updating the game as I did with SOTW (that game was quite a marathon!!) I should still be able to do a few updates based on testing feedback.

All things considered, the beta COULD begin at end of June. In the worst case, it should be July.

But that’s not enough: for me will be a real “Summer RPG” because I’ll also start doing the design for Undead Lily. No coding, just planning on paper/flowchart, thinking about the combat, skills, etc. That’s what will keep me busy this Summer. What can I say, some people go on holiday in tropical islands and have fun, while others code and design RPGs! 😀

Undead Lily Ace romances sneak peek

Speaking of Undead Lily game, a few weeks ago I posted the Lily’s romance sneak peek. Now it’s Ace’s turn! As you can see even Ace has some interesting “romantic moments” in the game as well!

aceromances

PSCD DLC beta!

5 Replies

quickbattle

In the image above you see a screenshot from the PSCD Free DLC currently in beta!

You need to download the beta version here to try it (on the site there’s still the older version): http://www.winterwolves.net/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=3856

You might need to re-register the game again to see the extra contents.

Beside the four extra romances: Galina, Kaden, Christophe, Lola, I have decided to do a “quick match” mode. In that mode you can play all the cards you have unlocked in the game (tier-based) and do a match with predefined enemy decks.

Using this “tiered unlock” it’s good, since will let me include the mode also in the demo, because players can try it (for example for practice), but without the high tier cards (which you can only get later in the game) will be hard (if not impossible) to win. So it’s a sort of “trial” that might make more people curious / interested about the full game.

If you beat the game once, you’ll also unlock the 5th tier, which is normally unaccessible from the base game, and it includes the most rare cards (legendary ones). Since I had already added them in the code, was a pity to “waste them”, so at least they can be used in the non-campaign mode.

This means that if you won the game already it’s enough to load a save before the end, to get access to all the cards in the quick match mode.

Heirs & Graces update

The beta testing continues, and luckily everything seems to be going smoothly, even if it was to be expected for a dating sim. I suspect Queen Of Thieves testing will be more troublesome 😉

Anyway I’m pleased so far by the game reception and how people liked the idea/writing/art/music.

I must say though that in future (except for the game already in the works) it’s a bit unlikely I’ll do again a game with only one playable gender or romance type. Making a game takes already so much effort that I think it’s best to at least try to cater to two audiences.

So for example in this game I could have added a female character to have yaoi+otome, or add 4 female romances to have yaoi+straight, and so on (probably I’d have reduced the amount of romanceable characters, or made some bisex).

Anyway, this game is done as it is: but for future games I’ll always try to have at least two genders or “romance combos” 🙂

Undead Lily romance previews

As you know from time to time I make some “romance sneak peeks” for my upcoming games, even months before they’re out, because I like to tease people! 😀 Here’s the Undead Lily’s Lily romances (so playing as Lily and romancing both male/female characters):

lilyromances

Some characters have two different ending CG, based on the concept of “dominant/submissive”. I can assure you that they’re very interesting!

Undead Lily new gameplay

14 Replies

map

In the image above, you see the beautiful new map for Undead Lily! As you probably know if you read my forums or follow me on twitter, we decided to change Undead Lily’s gameplay.

It was supposed to be a card game too, like PSCD. However, we made several considerations that convinced us to make it a RPG:

  • first of all, PSCD didn’t sell well. I believe the main reason was the art. But still, card games clearly have less appeal at least for my fans. Or could just be that I need to do more, or focus only on the gameplay part. Whatever the reasons, doing another one right now was a bit risky – it might have worked, but I felt like a RPG was a “safer bet”.
  • I sent the game intro to several beta readers. Most of them liked it a lot, however they all agreed on one point: introducing so many characters at once was a bit confusing. We were introducing them all exactly like in PSCD, and I agree that the end result was a bit messy. In all my other games, like Loren or SOTW, we introduce the characters slowly through the plot, so players have an easier time to remember who is who.
  • Since it was a card game, and card games need to have many cards to be fun, the characters/heroes were battling each other. There was a good variety of cards already (72 creatures + some planned spells). However, to battle each other we needed to unlock a good amount of cards immediately, probably add several more, and that meant even more work, delays and money spent. So this was another factor that made us reconsider the gameplay.

You might wonder: what’s the plan now? It’s rather simple in reality:

  • characters are introduced gradually. There will be a main “hub”, the castle in the center. You can then talk with the other characters (the classic “camp talk”), and then do missions to free the various regions associated to each element. Won’t say more to avoid spoiling the plot 😉
  • each hero starts with a few creatures (or maybe even just 1!). As you battle the enemies in the various regions, you can “win” a creature (a bit like the Pokemon cards). So you can choose in which order build up your “creatures roster”
  • even if each hero has creatures related to his/her elemental affinity, you can bring 3 heroes with Lily or Ace in the missions. We’re also thinking to just allow any combination of the 3 heroes, to not force people to always use the Death element creatures (the one of the main protagonists). Or we’ll use another system, but for sure we don’t want to put any particular restrictions.
  • each creature will have stats and gain experience as they fight, and maybe a few skills. Since there are many creatures, as you can imagine I won’t be able to do many skills each! I think maximum 2 for each creature.
  • there will be a system to balance the problem “unused creatures will remain behind in XP/level”. I have yet to figure out how, either with autoleveling or through some training/power up system, but I’ll make sure that if you don’t use all the creatures there won’t be any penalty.

So far the reactions to the idea have been super positive in forums and social media, and I think the game because of the unique setting + the RPG system has a lot of potential.

This of course doesn’t mean that I have given up making more card games! Not at all. But probably I will do more gameplay-focused games using that system, since I also don’t think the mix with story+card game works very well. For sure, not long story or cutscenes.

End Of July update

10 Replies

lesbian01
In the image above, Sybil talking about her homosexuality to Grace

July was a very bad month for me because of the heat. I think I’ve never worked so few since I went indie! However, for my collaborators it was a very good month. It was the month where I paid them most of any other months ever. I am broke now 😉

Jokes apart, it was good because means a lot of content was made. I have several projects at a very good point, lots of text written and some great artwork being drawn right now.

Cursed Lands

I’ve read the Amazons intro for Cursed Lands, and it was really cool to read the protagonist traveling to the Citadel to meet Karen and the young Loren’s trainer, Leena:

“The path to the Amazon domain is treacherous and narrow.  The Amazons know how to make a territory naturally hostile to invaders, I’ll certainly give them that.
The craggy rock path makes it easy to follow the narrow path without slipping, but I find myself constantly forced to adjust my balance along its uneven surface.
In the distance, I can see the fortress.  With its high walls and imposing towers, it appears intimidating, or at least as intimidating as a distant structure can.  At least I know I’ve found the right place.  There’s no way that this structure can be anything other than the Amazon citadel.”

Queen Of Thieves

The Tiberius otome route was finished, and I am very pleased by the writing so far. Each love interest (male or female) feels really unique and different from each other.

giantsnakes

Coding-wise, I’m “still in the catacombs” 🙂 which means I’m still coding/designing the catacombs levels (level 5 out of 9). I hope to be finished with that by end of August, and then there will be the robbery missions.

As I said already on Twitter/forums, much depends on how things will go, if artist can finish the CGs scenes in time, etc. If everything goes smoothly, which would be VERY UNCOMMON, the beta of this game would be out before end of year for sure. If some things go badly (late artist, writer, somehow I can’t code well, etc) would still be early next year. So even in worse case the wait should be over. (I hope these won’ be the last famous words! lol)

Loren 2

I don’t talk much about this game, mostly because is still very behind. However, at least the story is making good progress now. The main plot is at chapter 2 (out of 4), but of course is only the first draft, and there are still all the side-quests missing.

We’re focusing on getting the main plot done first, and then adding later the various side quests and camp talk.

The art is done, but we could add some more CG scenes as the story gets written. We have already planned some, involving Loren and Myrth, and other characters 🙂 They’re not romance CG of course, but story/key moment CGs. Some are still sexy/cool/cute though!

Planet Stronghold: Colonial Defense

Writer is finishing to put everything in Ren’Py format, it’s taking a while since the game turned out to be very big (over 200k words!). Meanwhile the artist is doing the cards art, which are turning out very good:

flamertankforce_wall

The biggest problem in this case is the coding, hopefully the coder can resume working on the card-framework next month, since that would speed-up the development a lot! Also I was planning to reuse the same framework for Undead Lily…

And what about Undead Lily?

If you follow me on Twitter you spotted the various art updates I’ve been posting. For those who missed them, no worries. Check the “group” pictures below of the good heroes (later changed to the “order heroes”):


the “good heroes”, old style
newheroesthe new style, order heroes

Beside the fact that old heroes were only waist-up, while the new version is fullbody, you can notice the BIG difference 🙂 The old ones were more fanservicey, but fear not since you can choose for each character what version to display. And the ending CGs will have an optional very hot version! You know when an artist can draw human anatomy so well, would be a pity to not take advantage of such skills… right? 😀

I had several more updates for Never Forget Me, Roger Steel, and more. I just talked about those games since they could be, in theory, the closest to be released next. Oh, also that yuri game that MUST NOT BE NOMINATED BECAUSE IT’S CURSED… you know what game it is! well, it’s at very good point too!