Category Archives: Planet Stronghold: Colonial Defense

PSCD – Meet Mario

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 😉

2015 releases plan, and Loren vs Seasons Of The Wolf

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This is a fun mockup image I made a while ago to promote SOTW 🙂

It’s the first post of the year! I imagine people’s main question will be: which games will be out next? since I don’t know myself, and after the big fail of last year (I announced like 5 games but I finished “just” 2), I’ll just say which ones should be definitely out this year (not tomorrow though! could be even Summer or Fall! but still technically 2015).

2015 Possible releases

– Nicole yuri: the game is at a good point. I don’t want to say “first quarter” officially, but it should be really out by April/May max!
– C14 Dating: even this game is at good point, missing some extra outfits and CG scenes, but not much else. I don’t think will be done before Summer though.
– Queen Of Thieves: much depends on the yuri routes writing. This game should be smaller than others (for story’s length) so I think could be out this year!
– PSCD: story and art are at very good point. All depends on the gameplay. I have some ideas but need to make experiments first. I include this on the list even if might be out very late this year!

So that’s it. As always, remember there might be more, or different ones finished. For example, SOTW DLC could be out, depending how much extra art is needed (will be more focused on story-relationship than battles). But as I said I only wrote about those that should be really out this year.

Loren vs SOTW

Back to the title, those who follows me since long time might remember that when I finished Loren, I did a “Loren vs Planet Stronghold” post.

Here I want to try doing the same analyzing the various aspects of Loren and SOTW. Before I start I want to say that personally I don’t think one of the two games is better or worse than the other, simply they’re DIFFERENT 🙂

Story

Many people complained about Loren’s story to be clichè. I think 99% of stories ARE clichè nowadays 🙂 Anyway, with SOTW you cannot really say the story is clichè. Still most people liked the first two chapters, there are many mixed feelings about the third (for some being too open is good, for others bad) and many felt the ending was a bit rushed (the DLC should fix this hopefully).

I still think that SOTW main story is better than Loren’s. SOTW 1 – Loren 0

Characters

Hehe this is quite an unfair comparison, simply because Loren has so much more characters! I read some reviews about SOTW saying that the “characters aren’t memorable”. What? Rowinda isn’t memorable!?! Chalassa? Krimm? Riley!?

Ok Jariel might be too much “classic good elf”. Althea and Shea’s personality aren’t well developed for gameplay/plot reason (since you can play as both). Still is true that Loren’s characters are awesome. Draco? Mesphit? Karen? I could go on… 🙂

So, I’m not going to argue on this. Loren’s big cast and characters is what made that game successful, so here Loren is a clear winner. Loren 1 – SOTW 1.

Gameplay

This is another not very fair comparison since basically SOTW is Loren’s engine but greatly updated. Random items, more advanced skills, custom battle cut scenes, etc etc. And the difficulty had much more meaning. Hard difficulty is hard, and Nightmare… a nightmare 😀

But is not just that, there’s the isometric map, and several small or big improvements. SOTW is the clear winner here. The only thing some people didn’t like is the “prevent grinding” feature I added. I am not sure if I’ll keep it in future games, even if that means that the boss battles will never be balanced (because if you can grind unlimited time…). But if that’s what people want… who I am to argue? 😉

Loren 1 – SOTW 2

Soundtrack

This is a close one. I really like SOTW main menu music, and even the theme song is much better than Loren’s (hehe), but overall Loren’s soundtrack is awesome.

Listen to those Loren’s tracks:

Or those SOTW tracks:

I really don’t want to decide, but if I have, Loren’s is slightly superior in my opinion, but is a very close call! Loren 2 – SOTW 2

Artwork

Hard to say: Loren’s had a different coloring style, but more CGs. SOTW has a better (in my opinion) coloring, A LOT more variety of backgrounds, the isometric map art which I think is beautiful, but less CGs (even if the ending ones are nice, but the romance one can’t match Loren’s).

I think this one is really a draw – if you liked more romance/event CGs then Loren (obviously, since had more romances!) but if you liked more variety of backgrounds and isometric map, SOTW.

Loren 3 – SOTW 3

Longevity

Loren has shorter RPG gameplay, since has no maps and less battles, and most are optional (unlimited grinding). It has much more dialogues between characters though, even if the base game text is just slightly higher than SOTW (I’m not including the DLC).

If you like RPG combats, SOTW is a clear winner. If you like romance/camp talk, Loren is much better, again if only because of the bigger cast.

Another draw? yes, since this really depends on people’s tastes! Loren 4 – SOTW 4

Conclusion

What, the conclusion is a draw!? Really? Yes, really! And believe me is not a diplomatic solution. Even if SOTW took me a lot more time than Loren, I don’t think is vastly superior overall. It depends only on tastes. I have many people who were disappointed because SOTW was more a RPG than a “fantasy dating sim” 😉 but also many who were pleased to see that the RPG gameplay was much deeper and the difficulty better balanced.

It’s like asking: is better apples, or oranges? 😀

Of course, you might disagree with me. In this case feel free to post a comment with your opinion either here, or in the forums!

PSCD – meet Lucius

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It’s time to talk about the first robotic male love interest of my games! Before, there was only the female Tanya of Bionic Heart that was an android, but she was more human-like. Instead Lucius looks like… a real robot, as you can see above 😉

And here’s more about him directly from the writer:

Name: Lucius
Nation of Origin: –
Service Branch: Imperial Robotics

Description:
Built by Luna-Ferrix Industries, Lucius is a rarity; he is among the first generation of self-aware robots developed by humanity. This isn’t to say there weren’t robots before as the RoboAnts demonstrate, but Lucius is definitely something on the cutting edge.

Though constructed as a male adult, Lucius is innocent in his interactions with others. True, he has the accumulated knowledge to draw on, but he has no context to place it. As a result of this, he is very curious about what goes on around him, and will sometimes place himself in situations which, if he was human, would be hazardous to his health.

Lucius is a direct, if trusting soul, and still has some trouble distinguishing between turns of phrase and direct commands, much as the kitchen staff found out when he proceeded to bake enough pies to fill the cafeteria.

Lucius’ construction also raises some further implications. Luna-Ferrix sees Lucius as the first in a wave of robot servants and soldiers which will net them a healthy profit, but other people wonder whether it is morally appropriate to allow one’s ‘tools’ to be aware to start with.

However, despite others’ distrust, Lucius has shown himself to be a reliable, loyal person to those around him.

I am quite curious to see what people will think about his “romance story” 🙂 I am looking forward to it!

Various games updates

Progress have been made on several games:
Roger Steel script is now 100,000 words long! Is still not finished, though 🙂 The game will also feature a very particular theme song by Boossara (same singer of SOTW theme song).
PSCD script is at good point too (the main missions at least).
Queen Of Thieves art is being redrawn by artist and I’m very pleased by the results! Just take a look at the picture below, featuring the new female romances of the game:

From left to right: Therjalla the elven healer, Moirgane the human bartender and Mary-Ann the human blacksmith.

Story-wise, the new writer is fixing the old script, so this part is going fast (since scenes have been written already, she can change some parts but doesn’t need to brainstorm/spend time thinking what to write for most of it). For the yuri romances I guess will take a bit more time. Anyway this time I want to release the game with both romances genders available, so to not repeat something like Nicole… At least there are “only” 3 characters to write! 😉

Computer Games

Development diary of Celso Riva