another delay

Well, things really aren't working out as planned lately.
So we need a few more days for the next beta demo release.
Especially because I'm away for two days.
Which means I'll be only able to work on the game again on saturday.

I still have to implement the new CGs and events for them.
So I need at least 2 days.

But yeah, the good thing is, I feel like the game content has been doubled.
The stage is much longer now, there are some new animations and CGs.
And some new events.


To compensate a bit for letting you all wait, here is a draft for one of the new CGs:

~Wolfenstahl~

a bit behind schedule

Well, things weren't going that fluent the past days.
I needed more time to get one of the Paperhead subtypes to work.
And in general we want to implement some more stuff.

So what we want to add now is:
A better looking interface/HUD.
(the old one seems to huge... and somehow out of place)
And we want to add some nice addition to the HUD that takes up some more time to implement.
(you'll understand why, when you've seen it)

We also want to change or add some small details here and there.
So yeah... all that small stuff takes up quite some time.
But at least you'll notice some large changes on the next update.

I guess it's better that way.
Because everyone will be able to see, what we're going to aim for with this game.
(comparing the old version with the new one)

So, stay tuned and prepare for some (hopefully) good surprise.
I hope that we will be able to do it before thuesday.




~Wolfenstahl~

Quick Status Update

I've just seen that I haven't updated my blog the last days.
So I thought I just throw in some quick status report.

Well, the 60 FPS change is already done, and it's running.
I guess it was a success and it took care of the "sluggish gameplay", that many people complained about.
I also did some minor bug-fixes.

Here's a quick list:
- Double tapping for running
- Paperhead grab "delay" 3 sec
- Cumming Animations
- Change Framerate from 30 to 60
- Savepoint heals fully (HP and stamina)
- Less Enemies on easy mode (about 15-30% less enemies)

You can still run while holding down the V-Button.
But you can run now when pressing twice into the same direction.
(I left both options ingame)

I also did some rebalancing with the stamina system.
Running needs now less stamina, and it's slightly faster than before.
While kicking needs a bit more stamina.
So kicking through a whole area isn't always possible now.
Sometimes you just have to slash at enemies, then kick your way out again.


I also added multi-grabs for the Paperheads.
(2 Paperheads can grab Verdani now at once)


So what do we want to add for the next demo release?

We still want to add:
- 2 or 3 new CG scenes
- 2 Paperhead subtypes (variety to the enemies!)
- 1 new task/event/riddle you'll have to solve
(again, it will be a bit simple, but I'll do harder stuff the further you progress)
- some new areas (the stage will get more rooms)

I hope we get this done till the end of the week.
So stay tuned, the next beta-demo version is close by.
And it will be heavily improved, while bringing along some new content!
(or at least that's what I feel, when I look at the past 3 weeks... I think it's really a whole lot better now)



~Wolfenstahl~

Back to work

Finally we are back.
Or lets say, we were back a couple of days already.
But since we had no really interesting news, I felt it wasn't necessary to write a new post.

First of all, the FPS change from 30 to 60 is a real pain in the ass.
I might just have skiped that and better done the next project right from the beginning as 60 FPS.
But it's to late now, since I've already done most of it.
(all that's left is to bugfix stuff that came along with the change and fine tune some of the timers, I didn't got all of them right I guess)

Before I start to write long bothersome text, that most people might not be interested in, I'll give you some new animation picture:

Yup, 2 Paperheads can grab her at once.
This won't be possible for the other enemy-classes due to several reasons.
But at least the regular Paperheads (main enemy) will be able to do that.
We will implement only 2 different hentai attacks for the dual grab.
Maybe we will add 1 or 2 more attacks later, but we'll see about that.
I'm going to finish this game while maintaining the same level of quality.


But I guess I realized something important for the next game:

It somehow feels weird to have only 4 enemy types (and 3 special looking bosses at the end of each stage) and some subtypes who only have a slight difference.
Even though there are tons of animations, I somehow feel that it would be better to have less animations, therefore more enemy types?
For example, 10 enemy types and half the number of animations each.
(or something along those lines)
As I already said, I will maintain the same quality, and we will work through this to the end.
But this is just some thought I had, regarding future projects/games.



So lets get to the next subject that is bothering me.
It bothers me for quite some time now, and actually some post on some board I read, somehow made me write about this subject.
... to be honest, it's not just that post.

(prepare for some longer story text lol)

When I started "Projekt Wolfenstahl" several years ago, this group consisted just of myself.
And I never planned on doing an h-game.
I used to follow Kyrieru's blog all the time.
(I believe his blog is around for at least 2 years? or even longer... well I followed his blog right from the beginning, and even watched his streaming video and stuff)

So about 2 years ago I thought to myself:
"Why not try yourself at doing an h-game?"
I guess this was the moment, that this whole project was really born.
Well... I started working on concept art and stuff.
And soon I wasn't alone on this whole project, when my girlfriend joined in.
(as main artist, that is, but lets skip the details)
We then started working on this project together.

The real work started on march this year.
At first we had no time to work on this "full time".
But soon we had the time.
And so we thought about doing a good game, and selling it later when it's completed.



Well, I'll be honest to all of you, regarding my current situation and my future plans.
Not too long ago, I had a job, and I was even trained for this job (had to learn it 3 long years).
Funny thing is, I kinda got an allergy against the materials I was working with... and it grew even worse the more time passed.
So in the end I couldn't work in this branch (industry) anymore...
Well, whatever, I tried different stuff, but actually in my country it doesn't look too good, if you have no job-training for the job you apply...
Either way you get no job, or a really bad one, with a bad payment...
That's the way it is.

Now I have 2 options, option 1 is to learn a new job (which would take 2-3 years, depending on the job), and during this time I would only get a... yeah... laughable amount of money... I guess...
And it's barely enough to live from...
(the job center says, if I'm "lucky" I'll get more money... but I'm not the kind of guy who relies on his luck...)

Option 2 is, to try to establish my own company.
Well... I already did most of this process.
And as far as things are going right now, it's my only realistic option.


I always dreamed of doing my own anime/manga game company.
I mean... there are lots of people who share this dream, yeah...
And I know it's not easy...
But I'm running out of options anyway, so I'll just try my best at it.
All the other options are looking even worse, and the worst thing that could happen is that I fail.

Well, that's my current situation right now.



Regarding our future plans:

So my artist and I are building up this company that's producing h-games.
And of course we plan to do a lot of games from now, working full-time on them.
But I also plan to get some more people to work together with us.
For example, I decided to buy the BGM instead of doing it myself.
And I would also like to pay my friend for the translation.
(one of my friends will translate the game from english to japanese, she said she does it for free... but I want to pay her for her work... I mean, it's "work" after all, and I think it should be rewarded)

Of course all those people are not working full-time with us on this project.
They are just doing small stuff, or stuff that only takes 1-2 weeks.
(after "Paperheads" is done, we will have worked about 3-4 months each full-time on this project)
So the payment will not be that high, because it's just 1-2 weeks (full-time?) work.
But payment is payment, and when everything sums up, it will be a good amount of money.

I used to tell one of the guys (game dev) I used to work for in the past:
"You can't earn money without doing proper investions"
Yeah... you always have to invest money (and time) into the right stuff, so you can earn money afterwards.
So that's the way I think about this whole topic.

And it's not just those small things... if possible, I might want to employ some other artist to work with us on our projects.
It's just an idea.
Since animation, backgrounds, CG's etc... they all take up really a huge amount of time.
And if I'm able to find the right person for the job, and if there is enough money in our budget, why not employ some other artist?
Currently there are lots of ideas running around in my head, regarding this matter.

But lets just say:
They are just ideas... it's not that I have the intention of turning them into reality right now.
I just think, it's never wrong to think about stuff.
You don't have to "do" it.
But you should at least "think about" it.

So... when the time comes, one might have made up his mind.
And thus one doesn't have to waste time thinking about all of that then.
Maybe doing a wrong decission, because one hasn't thought carefully enough about it... etc etc etc.
(uhm... lets talk about something else, it's getting way too much off topic)


We want to build up this company (Projekt Wolfenstahl).
And if it goes well and we have enough budget, we will also expand a little bit.
(by this I mean, adding some people who are working full-time together with us, to our team)
So we can work on new games a whole lot faster, maintaining a good quality and stuff.
But who knows if it will work out?
So I just let this be a dream, for the time being.
(this means, that we are happy if it works out as a 2 people company, for the time being)


I hope that this post gives some interesting insight into the stuff that's going through our heads right now.
We will continue working on this full-time.
And I hope we can deliver the next demo-release next week.
It won't have that much new content, just some new animations, bugfixes, balancing changes and the 60 FPS stuff.
But it should make a major difference, I guess.
Stay tuned!



~Wolfenstahl~

Status update

Just to let you guys know:
We are not dead!
Currently we are working on the already stated improvements, but it really takes time.
We also had some other difficultys, but we will deal with them.

Anyway, I'll be not at home for about 4-5 days.
So I just wanted to let you know that I'm not making updates for probably a week or so.
But I'll continue to keep you up to date after I'm back and I made some more progress.

Thanks for all your support, and see you all in about a week!



~Wolfenstahl~

upcoming improvements

First of all one thing that several people mentioned:
"2 or more Paperheads can't be hit at once"
The running slash attack should be able to do that.
I won't "fix" that because it's actually not broken, and it's the only purpose of the running slash attack.
(it's only good against several opponents, against single enemies it's pretty much useless)



After reading all the comments, oppinions and suggestions on several boards/forums, I finally made my mind up.
I won't respond to every question/suggestion, because I think this blog post should say everything.
(and it would be a bit too much work to respond to everything right now)

What we will change:
- double tapping for running (but the V key will still be there for running too)
- changig framerate from 30 to 60 fps (several game devs suggested that to me)
- cumming animations
- Paperhead grab delay of 2-3 seconds (after breaking free of a grab)
- less stamina loss when running
- less enemies on "easy mode"
- savepoint heals fully (HP and stamina)
- several minor bugfixes


I'll also implement some new areas and at least one more maze/riddle with a CG scene for it.
And if we can make it, we'll complete the animations for the Paperheads. (still some missing)
At least that's what we are aiming for for the next release.
It's just a small amount of "more content" yes, but this is because all those fixes, rebalancing etc.
(especially the change from 30 to 60 fps, because all the timers, animations etc. have to be adjusted)
It all takes at least one week, because we have to test it all throughly so no new bugs happen.

I know, it's a lot of work, so in order to fix all that and to implement some new contend.
I would say that the next demo release is scheduled for about 2 weeks from now on.
I'm not at home for about 5 days next week, so... maybe it could take a bit longer.
(if something bad happens, maybe 3 weeks from now on)

Whatever, sometimes you have to make adjustments.
Though they are taking quite some time, but I intend for our first game, do be at least a "good" game.
(I mean, it won't be perfect I guess, but it shouldn't be crap either)
I think these adjustments are really necessary and I hope they'll satisfy most people ^^

For all the people whose suggestions have been kinda declined.
Please don't be disencouraged and please comment further on.
I just can't add "everything" to the game, because it has to be "done" someday.
(and the more content a game has, the longer the developement takes, and the higher the risk that it won't be finished ever etc.)
Also there are some things that I just don't want to add, due to several reasons.
(for example I don't want the player to be able to run through "all" areas, I think sometimes you just have to fight, the game would be a bit too easy, if running through all the time would be possible)

It's hard to add more animations or more sprites for each animation, because the resolution is way to high... this means, doing a "new" sprite, or even a whole animation takes up way too much time.
(we need around 3-5 days to implement a new enemy type, because of the sheer amount of animations that have to be done)
We still have to do a lot of animation work.
So I guess a climaxing animation is the only thing we could "add".
(no staying cumshots, no clothing destruction (Wolfenstahl game will have clothing destruction though))

It's hard to find a middle ground, but I guess this changes should take care of most things.
So, lets hope for the future that everything works out well.



~Wolfenstahl~