Progress report

First of all I have to apologize for not delivering any screenshots this weekend.
We worked really hard on the animations, backgrounds and programming of the game.
I would upload some screenshots, if I wouldn't be so tired.
So I'll keep this newspost short... (hard for me, since I love to type long text) lol

Tomorrow we will give the titel-menu a nice background.
After that we'll screenshot some of our stuff and I'll upload them here.
From now on the closed alpha testing phase begins.
But the Grab-System is not there yet. (just basic fighting moves)

Good news is, we are starting with our work on the Grab-System in the next days.
(we have 2 weeks holidays right now)
So if nothing bad happens, there will be a playable demo-version at the end of may.
And jup, we plan to contain a full level in the demo-version.

So stay tuned!
I should go to bed now...




~Wolfenstahl~


P.S:
Just got up now.
Maybe someone noticed this too:
I just realized that the number of votes on the polls is decreasing day after day.
Though they are done already?
Seems very confusing to me.
(I'll remove them later anyway)

So for the results:
- The games name is "Paperheads"
- Not all CG's will have backgrounds, but a few will have
- There will be a tentacle monster in the game

So, it's time to get back to work ^^

Tentacle Monsters?

While working on the sewer stage of the Paperheads game, we where wondering about a thing.
At first we just wanted to include human enemies only.
But we thought... a tentacle monster would be nice, too?
I mean, just having a bunch of (similar) human enemies would be boring.
And a tentacle monster would be a bit more variation.

Again I want to remember, that we want to keep this a small game.
But I guess I'll leave the decision about this to you guys.
After all we want to make a game that you people might enjoy.

Adding a tentacle monster would only be a little bit work for us.
So don't worry about working time/power spend on this.
I would say it's even a bit easier than drawing a human enemy.

So, please vote and give your oppinion in our newest poll/vote.
The time limit is set to a week, because we need a fast decision on this one.
(after all we plan to release a playable demo at the end of may)



~Wolfenstahl~

Some Concept Art

Currently the work progresses as planned.
I hope we can present some screenshots this weekend.
At least if everything goes according to our plan we will do that.

To shorten your waiting time till then I thought about sharing some (old) concept art of the Paperheads game.
Everything has been drawn on paper with a pencil.
The coloring has been done with coloring pencils as well.
Some colors (blush etc.) might seem a bit off.
This corruption happened while scanning the artwork.
Somehow the scanner messes some of the colors up, but I can't fix that.
No matter what I tried, this is the best possible outcome.
(I already improved the scanning quality quite a bit, but still some colors are corrupted)

Anyway, those are only concept art, so never mind that.
Of course there is much more concept art to show, but I thought about throwing in stuff once in a while.
I guess this is better than throwing in all at once.

Concept art of a Game Over Scene

On this one the blush is more red/intense than on the original (pencil coloring on paper), due to scanning corruption

The scribbling has been done on a computer after scanning.
There is also a version where Verdani's body is scribbled full of text.
(I just decided on uploading the non scribbled version)

I hope you all enjoy the concept art.
And I hope it somehow shortens your waiting time for the first ingame screenshots.



~Wolfenstahl~

Finally a name!

Paperheads News:

Today I have rather good news.
First of all, I decided to finally stop the poll/vote for a name for the first game.
Hereby I officially announce that the first game will be called "Paperheads".
As already stated, the so called Paperheads is the name of the organization Verdani is fighting in the game.
So the name has at least some meaning and connection to the game.
Thanks for everyone who participated in the poll/vote!

Currently we are working as fast as possible on the animations.
And I'm also experimenting more with Game Maker.
It's easy to use if you know at least the basics about programming.
And the programme can do much more than I thought at first sight.
At least we do good progress, so I'm confident we can do it within our set timelimit.



Wolfenstahl News:

The other good news relate to the Wolfenstahl game (second game).
Ferania now has her voice actress.
That means all important roles are filled.

Furthermore our main artist made some drafts from 2 of the bosses of the Wolfenstahl game.
(Those are bosses from the Wolfenstahl game, the second game. NOT from the first one!)
We just do occasionally stuff for the Wolfenstahl game.
Especially drafts with a pencil, when we are not at home and thus unable to work on the Paperheads game.
(obviously we need to be at home to work on the Paperheads game, because we need a computer for our work)
But I'll save on the details for now, I don't want to spoil too much.

Chao

 

This is Chao, one of the male characters in the Wolfenstahl game.
He will be one of the bosses you encounter with Ferania or Shiwa.

Strammer Max

Strammer Max, or short "Max", is one of the favorite demons and the right hand of the Demon Queen.
He is over 2 meters tall, and his physical strenght is even feared among demons.









As you might guess, for the Wolfenstahl game I plan to use more agile bosses.
(not all will be agile, but the more imporant ones will be)
Since the playable characters (Ferania & Shiwa) are pretty agile themselves.
So it's more fun to fight someone who is pretty fast himself.
Or at least that's what I think.
(that's the way I felt about the Megaman games I used to play)



~Wolfenstahl~

So much stuff to do

The last days where pretty hasty.
But I guess our progress goes almost as planed.
I'm also messing around with the Game Maker software lately, so I haven't been able to color that many CG's.
(after all the goal is to set up a game, not just doing the CG's and animations)
So you can await some ingame screenshots soon.

And to be honest, I'm currently practicing my coloring skills on a Shiwa Wolfenstahl HCG.
Since her hair are pretty dark, it's way more important to get the structure of the hair right.
And yes, that's what I'm mainly practicing right now.
(Verdanis or Feranias hair aren't that hard, because their hair color is pretty fair haired)
After all I want to support our artist, so we can work on CG's much faster.
(That's the reason I'm practicing)


As I promised before, I'll place a "done" HCG of a Game Over scene here.
(I put the coloring on this one, our artist did the lineart though she could do the coloring herself)
This is the quality we aim at:

One of Verdani's Game Over scenes against a regular Paperhead.

The mistake in the CG has been corrected.
So it's the way it should be now.

And regarding the background.
I left it out, yes.
But some CG's will have background in them.
To save time we decided to just use background if it makes sense.

I added a poll/vote on this matter as well.
So if you all wish to have backgrounds in all CG's we will of course follow this wish.
It would take more time to do this, but I don't want to give the impression that we are hurrying along.
We take this project seriously, and so we want to fulfill some of the wishes that the community has.
At least if it's something that's possible for us to fulfill.
(I mean, we have a pretty solid concept and we planed everything out, but there is always some room where you can do compromisses or fulfill wishes of the community/fans)



Several people keep on asking for a demo version.
As I already stated on a board, I don't think it's very usefull to present a demo version without the Grab-System.
Since this is one of the main-factors of this H-game.
We still have to do more animations in order for the Grab-System to work.
After all the enemies need several different options for grabbing the heroine.
So I guess it's realistic to say that a playable beta-version demo will be out at the end of may.
(we try to do it faster, but I can't promisse that it will be done earlier, so better stick with "end of may")
We have 2 weeks holidays at the beginning of may, so we hope we can give the game another huge production boost then.




~Wolfenstahl~

Vote for a game titel/name

I just decided to make a list of possible names for the Verdani game.
But since I really have a hard time on deciding for one of those names, I thought it would be best to open up a vote for it.

The vote might end in about 2 weeks, but in case there is a clear "winner" in about 1 week, I'll may decide to just take that as a given.
Oh yes, and of course you can choose several options.
Not just one.


Furthermore I slightly updated the mascot section.
Shiwa now has a revised image uploaded, with slightly darker hair color.
(it's the same image, but the coloring is better and it's now the way it should be)
I also inserted the nickname of the teammember who is voice acting Shiwa into the information.
I haven't decided on the voice actress of Ferania yet, but there are several candidates.



~Wolfenstahl~

mascot section implemented

I finally took my time and wrote down some information on our mascots.
(the two in our banner)
Maybe I overdid it again.
But yeah, I think those informations should answer most of the questions.
It even gives a hint about our second game (main game).
Or at least on the storyline of it.

Whatever, I'll have to come up with a good name for the Verdani-Game (test game) soon.
One of our team members is suggesting names like:

- Verdani Nation
- Legend of Verdani
- Sex City
- the Unknown



But I'll have to think about this some more.
I'm still not convinced by any name so far.



~Wolfenstahl~

Easter holidays and other stuff

Actually I wanted to set a full CG on display here.
As well as setting up an information section for Shiwa and Ferania (our mascots in the banner).
But I had so much stuff to do, that I completely lost that out of sight.
Well never mind, I'll do the information section for both of them tomorrow.

Anyway, I wish all of you guys happy easter holidays!
At least here in our country we have easter holidays.
So I'll hope we do some progress this weekend.

I'm still wondering, if I should do a proper background on all our CG's?
I mean, on some CG's there has to be a background, yeah.
But on all?
I would rather do several CG's without a proper background.
So the game would be done faster and we can focus on the "real" project, the Wolfenstahl game.

I just want to remind, that the main goal of the Verdani game is to get ready for the real stuff.
We do it to test the Grab-System and some other stuff, before implementing it into the Wolfenstahl game.
And yeah, since it's our first game, it's to gain experience in game making and of course to gain some reputation.


Regarding the CG question I mentioned earlier.
I guess I'll open up a vote option, after I put the full CG on display here.
So stay tuned.



~Wolfenstahl~

The game is still missing a name...

I thought it would be a good idea to post another update.
Especially because of the confusion caused by april fools day.
As already mentioned, this project is dead serious.
And that means of course it's no joke at all.


We are still thinking about a name for our first game.
Our team (Projekt Wolfenstahl) as well as our second game (Wolfenstahl) already have names.
But we have no name for the first game yet.
Possible names could be:

- Never Surrender
- Paperheads
- Verdani vs the Paperheads

Or something along the line.
But actually nothing sounds really satisfying.
(Paperheads is the name of the organization Verdani is fighting against)
But I might come up with something later.


Anyway to show some progress I guess it would be nice to present a draft of a CG.
I don't want to share 100% done / colored CG's, since it might spoil some parts of the game.
But showing small parts of the content, shouldn't hurt.

This would be a full CG draft, after the draft the lineart and finally the coloration will be done.
In our team, one person does the draft and lineart, while another one does the coloration.
But we actually do only 1 or 2 CGs per week.
Since we also have to do sprite graphics.
(solely done by our main artist who does the drafts and lineart)
School or work/jobs is also an issue that slows us down.
But we'll try our best to work on a constant pace.

Since our main artist is graduating from school this summer, we expect some faster progress around 1st of june.
So we hope that we're done with the game at the end of july.
At least this is what we planed.
But lets save the details for later.



~Wolfenstahl~