Category Archives: strategy games

Announcing Dead But Alive – Southern England

Before you think “what, he has started yet another game?”, this game is not being developed by me, I am only publishing it. Also, this is not an announcement that “work has started on a new game”… but that the game is almost done! 🙂

Most likely in the next few weeks I’ll be able to start the pre-orders and beta testing. But what is exactly Dead But Alive – Southern England?

As the name clearly suggests, it’s about the zombie apocalypse. If you follow me, you know in the past I mentioned in my forums I wanted to make a zombie game. Well, a few months ago Highcliffe Media Publishing pitched an idea I thought it was cool, so decided to publish it. I might still do another zombie game on my own, but as you know, I have so many games going on that it won’t happen anytime soon.

Luckily, there’s this game now 🙂

The game pitch

Dead But Alive is a zombie survival adventure/simulation set in Southern England. A simple camping holiday for a former ex-military officer, looking to rebuild his relationship with his/her teenage daughter, suddenly turns into a fight for survival in a world devastated by the undead. Separated from his/her daughter, he/she must lead a small, ragged team of survivors, build a camp, scavenge for supplies and try to stay alive, all while trying to track her down. The game features a non-linear storyline with moral choices on despair, commitment and sacrifice.

the game “status screen” from which you can decide what to do each day

besides the normal survivors, there will be some “VIPs”, like Caroline… yes you can romance her!

the map will feature different locations, each one with bonus/malus

As you can see from those screenshots, the gameplay will be very straightforward for those used to zombie/survival games. The main goal will be simple: scavenge for supplies, improve your camp and try to survive! It’s addictive and easy to learn, but it won’t be easy… And of course it includes more than 120,000 words of storyline.

Obviously, I made sure that there are romance options! 😉 So in the game your main character is “genderless”, meaning that the game plays from first person view, and your gender is never explicitly mentioned. This means that when you romance a male or female character, if it’s a homosexual or heterosexual relationship it’s all about how you imagine your character.

Another thing that you can clearly see from the art, is that this time it’s not anime. We thought a more serious style for the art was a better idea for this setting, so we’ve decided to not make it anime artwork. It’s lovely handmade and in FullHD.

This game does not use Ren’Py and porting it to Mac and Linux would have been very expensive. That’s why we’ve agreed to only make it available on Windows for now. Depending on how successful it is, we might make Mac and Linux versions later. Theoretically you could get it to work with Wine. We haven’t tested this though.

OK I think I’ve said enough about the game for now. Of course, I will do more posts about it later. As I said, game beta/preorders should begin shortly, so watch this space and/or my social networks for the announcement! 🙂

PSCD – Meet Kaden

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The game’s main cast was already introduced, but there are a few other characters. They don’t take part in battles, nor are romanceable (unless the main game does well, then might consider doing a DLC) but are present in dialogues and scenes and are part of the story.

Let’ start with a rebel guy with a familiar surname… 😉 (for those who played Planet Stronghold)

Name: Kaden Vargas
Nation of Origin: Mexico
Service Branch: Rebel/Originally a history professor

Born in Mexico, Kaden grew up in a household which was less than fond of the human empire, personified in the Neuville royal family. While each country still retained a great deal of autonomy, one couldn’t deny the Empire was the pre-eminent power. Needless to say, many people resented at what they saw as an over-reaching monarchy out to control every aspect of their lives.

Kaden’s family held similar beliefs, and he grew up in environment where every fault of the empire was magnified, while every benefit was diminished. Still, Kaden might have acclimated to the Empire if not for the day when the Imperial Intelligence Agency arrested his mother for sedition.

Resentment turned to anger, but Kaden also realized actively rebelling was a good way to join his parent in prison. So, he kept his head down, earned a degree in history, and searched for a way off-planet, figuring that while expansive, the Empire’s touch would be lighter on the periphery.

So, it was with great delight when he accepted a position on Planet Stronghold, teaching the children of colonists, instilling skepticism in the imperial mandate.

Kaden might have gone this way, when it was announced a second Captain was assigned to Planet Stronghold. Seeing it as a typical grab to expand power, Kaden made plans with a group of like-minded individuals, and when the opportunity presented itself, they would head into the planetary wilds, confident they could survive, even thrive while the Empire was busy with the various alien powers laying claim to the planet.

More news about Queen Of Thieves

The development of the game continues, in particular the battle screen and RPG elements. As you can see from the screenshot below, I’ve changed the layout again, using a classic view in two rows, similar to Loren’s layout, but without a front/back row:

The idea is that since you play with only 3 characters doesn’t make much sense to have a front/back row mechanic. Instead I’m going to replace it with something else. This also means that there could be battles of 3 (party) vs 5 (enemies).

I think I am at very good point regarding the layout. I’m still tweaking the rules/character progression. Initially I thought to lock the HP/SP values to character’s level, since in this game they’ll be even more important than in other RPGs, because there’s limited healing (potions) and no ways to quick regenenerate SP.

Anyway I finished coding the level up screen too (see screenshot above), and I’ve ran some tests, and I think I’ll allow full customization even in this game. This means that if you want to put all your attribute points into SP, you can: however at level 20 you’ll find yourself with a character with a lot of SP but maybe with very low HP/defense, so that enemies would still kill you quickly 😀

Though in practice those are extreme cases, I don’t think anyone would save all the attribute points on each level up and put them all on the SP, it would be kinda crazy. Don’t blame me if you do that and then are stuck with a party that can’t win anymore 😉

Or maybe I will just allow a “respec” option so you can reset your choices any point during the game. I might just do that 🙂

Seasons Of The Wolf DLC “Bad Blood” on Steam

I just released the DLC on Steam as well: http://store.steampowered.com/app/354190/

As always, buying direct from my site will give you a DRM-Free version + Steam key, and for those who bought it early, you can redeem a key on this site: http://www.bestanimegames.com/steam/

PSCD – Meet Mario

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Time for another character introduction for PSCD. He’s a war veteran and a “tough guy”! 😀

Description:
The oldest hero in the squad, Mario has seen more war than most soldiers learn in ten lifetimes. He is the man you turn to when you need a bunker down in a hurry, or cross a deep ravine while undergoing heavy fire.

Mario’s years of service have left their mark on him. His loyalty to the Human Empire is matched by his disdain for all things alien. This bitterness arises from seeing all that humanity has built torn asunder by violent aliens on distant planets.

The defining moment of Mario’s career occurred when his construction squad was assaulted by a squad of Matrick while laying the foundation for a forward outpost. Defying orders to retreat, Mario’s squad bunkered down, and held off the Matrick until a relief force arrived.

Mario was going to be given a medal for his actions, but was punished when, during the presentation ceremony, he struck his commanding officer, and called him a coward for ordering a retreat.

For all his military pride, Mario has a discerning palate, and has threatened bodily harm on multiple occasions for the swill the military cooks before him. He has remarked when he retires, he will finally get a decent meal in his home country.

Other news

In other news:

I’ve been updating all my games on Steam to use the new Ren’Py which will allow Linux achievements and cloud saves!
I’m also preparing a new version of Loren that will offer a simple way to uncensor the game on Steam, simply by deleting a file inside the game folder 😉 it’s already available in the “beta branch”.
I got A LOT of writing again this week! though the biggest updates are for two unannounced projects yet, so I can’t say much about them for now.
commissioned even more art for Queen Of Thieves to make up for the delay with that game. I think will be worth the wait though 🙂
the CG scenes for SOTW DLC are coming along nicely. Artist is planning to finish them by next week, so the DLC should be out soon!
Always Remember Me sequel is a reality, since Eddy’s route has been finished already! I am still thinking about the title, if you want to discuss check this forum thread: http://winterwolves.net/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=3616
Love & Order is now available on Steam too. If you bought it directly from me, you can redeem your Steam key here: http://bestanimegames.com/steam/

PSCD – meet Galina

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Apparently last week’s character, Cristoph (which will be changed into Cristophe thanks to the suggestion of some French friends) has shocked some user because of his abundance of hair in the abdomen part of his body… 😀

So this time here’s a nice and kind lady, Galina. Well, maybe not very kind. Read her introduction:

Name: Galina Litvyak
Nickname: Wraith
Nation of Origin: Russia
Service Branch: Imperial Intelligence Agency
Specialty: Bounty Hunter

Description:
Considered the most taciturn member of the squad, Galina wasn’t always so reserved. In her civilian life, she was a successful bounty hunter. While she started nabbing small-time crooks and thugs, Galina’s expertise had her catching bigger and bigger game. So successful was she, she managed to bring in the head of a criminal syndicate, rupturing his organization in the process.

Unfortunately, this success marked her for death, and in a move to save her life, she joined the military. Not one to squander talent when they see it, her superiors use Galina’s to extract or eliminate personnel when other conventional means have failed.

One incident stands out in Galina’s otherwise brilliant career. While the particulars of the mission are considered top-secret, a whole noble house was brought low as a result, and Galina proudly wears the scar she earned in the course of her mission. Though Imperial medicine is more than capable of healing this wound, Galina refused, since her marking, unlike the mission details, can’t be swept under the rug.

Galina earned the sobriquet of Wraith for her ability to go anywhere, no matter how heavily guarded and achieve her aims. Adding a macabre twist, if her target must die, she will lay two old-time coins on the eyes of her victims, giving Death her due.

It would be wrong to say Galina never smiles, but her tastes runs to gallows’ humor and this is quiet acceptance of the end discomfits most of her teammates.

Short update

So…I’m again in a funny situation where several games are in the making, but each one has an aspect delaying it. One game is advanced for story/art, but behind with coding. Another is behind with art. Another with writing. And so on 🙂

For sure the essential part of (most) of my games is the writing, since without it there isn’t a story, and the game itself. What I’m going to do from now is: with the few very reliable writers, I’ll keep producing stories, so that only art/coding is missing. This way should speed up future games. One thing is to send an artist a clear list of what to do, and a deadline. Different is to commission first some things, then some other, and some other again. Also, seems that writing is the activity that takes more time for each game, so having already some plot ready it’s surely not a bad idea!

Anyways, I also realized that of the upcoming games, except for C14 Dating and Queen Of Thieves, all the others are yuri/yaoi only. It’s not bad of course, but I’ve been considering doing a sequel to my old (but still quite famous) otome game Always Remember Me 🙂 It will be different from the others since will focus on the couple life, and the final goal will be to stay together and not break up with your current partner (in the beginning you’ll be able to select your partner from the four original boys of Always Remember Me). Done this way it won’t be required to having played the previous title at all.

And the best thing is that it would be something I could do on my own (the storyboard of course, writing would be done by a pro writer) so not delaying the other projects 🙂

I’m also working hard on SOTW DLC but now I am missing some art, even if I’ve already commissioned it. If all goes well should have it done by mid-April. By popular request, I’m also going to try adding a “visual novel” mode to SOTW, so that you can skip completely the battles or a least most of them 🙂

PSCD – Meet Cristoph

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After seeing all the romanceable characters (at least in the base game… who knows, maybe if the game does well, we’ll be able to do some future DLCs!) time for the other team members. They’ll be present in the story and the fights, and each one has his/her own specialty. Let’s start with Cristoph, a “dark” character!

Name: Christoph Rousseau
Nickname: Badger
Nation of Origin: France
Service Branch: Imperial Corps of Engineers
Specialty: Mining

Description:
In almost every outfit, there usually is someone with ties to some rather unsavory people and organizations. Christoph fills this role rather aptly. If you need to get something, and can’t get it through legitimate channels, then Christoph can make it happen, for a price.

In fact, it was the search for personal wealth which led Christoph to join the military. While he doesn’t particularly care for fighting and killing, Christoph’s current position affords him too many opportunities to enrich himself.

This isn’t to say Christoph activities didn’t create some enemies, but assaulting an imperial squad is outright suicide. Those few people who did press the issue…well, Christoph definitely knows where the bodies are buried.

Some might consider Christoph a coward, but this isn’t true. He earned the nickname Badger when he was in the middle of his mining shift, when a hole appeared on the side of the passage, and an Apex warband emerged. Thinking quickly, Christoph used his equipment to weaken the ceiling, burying aliens under a ton of rock.

If Christoph has a weakness, it would be gambling. He always has a deck of cards, or a set of dice on his person, and can be found starting a pick-up game when things go slow.

Meanwhile…

Work on the other games is going forward quite well. The SOTW DLC has been fully scripted, so now is my turn to add the battles and test. It’s still missing some art though, but depending how the artists/colorist go, the DLC might be out sooner than I thought 🙂

Here’s the intro scene…but what he is writing about?

“…my terrible mistake that had almost sealed the fates of Althea and Shea”! Wow, Jariel, what did you do? Soon (well, this year, not very soon!) you’ll discover it 😉

Computer Games

Development diary of Celso Riva