Fixed version: Paperheads 20121202 trial ver0.9b

I'm surprised myself that I had the time to fix it this fast.
I fixed the issue with the loading system, the game should work now for everyone.
(I simply deleted it and replaced it)

In case the game has problems, place it in a folder like "C:\Paperheads".
Don't use special characters or spaces in the folder name.

Here is the download link:
[Paperheads 20121202 trial ver0.9b]


Thanks again for all the feedback!




I also talked to the team regarding the CG-scenes text.
As some of you noticed, we removed a lot of the text from the game.
(maybe some of you remember the poll/vote about this matter)

So far all the texts had been written by me, but I'm currently pretty busy with school, other real life stuff, as well as programming, managing the blog (yeah I still do it myself), and doing several other things. Unfortunately I can't manage to bring up more time, and the rest of the team is also pretty busy.

We also want to pull this off as fast as possible, since we're already working way too long on this game. So even if someone else would write the text, we still need to implement it into the game, translate it, etc.
(unfortunately, this is not really an option, since all those actions would cost us extra-time, for reference, please read the older blogpost regarding the poll/vote)



The good news is:
We are currently doing our best to finish the game this year, if possible.
All that's left to do is the last 2 bosses, as well as the 3rd stage and a bunch of CG's.
(yup, obviously, we didn't implement everything we worked on into the current trial version)

Paperheads 20121201 trial ver0.9

Well, finally it's here, one of the last demo/trial versions before the complete release of the full game.
It contains the complete 1st stage of the game.

You can download it here:
[Paperheads 20121201 trial ver0.9]


If you've played any of the old versions you'll notice considerable changes.
(especially to the overall difficulty and difficulty of the grab-system)
In case you think the game is too easy now, feel free to switch the difficulty in the options menu.

The ingame tutorial works now too.
Please read it if you need help with the game.
(it's short and it has screenshots)

Have fun playing the game!
And please give us some feedback, especially regarding the boss-battle.



~Wolfenstahl~

nearly there!

I've got good news for you guys!
the newest version is currently undergoing tests, and if everything goes well it will be uploaded this weekend.
(maybe already friday, but this weekend for certain)

the game contains a lot of changes and upgrades.
mainly the stuff listed on my last blogpost.

it should be easier to play now, so everyone can enjoy it.
(in case you like the previous difficulty, just switch it in the options menu)
even the Grab-System is easier to use now.
I somehow feel like the grabing plays a smaller role now, but it's still there as it was before.

so in case you found the previous versions too difficult or you were not satisfied with something, please try the new version once it's uploaded.

we still need a couple of days for testing, but the weekend isn't too far away.
spread the word and stay tuned!



~Wolfenstahl~

patches and rebalance

it will still take some time until the final demo-version will be out.

but to inform you about the future changes:
(we are currently working on these)

- short tutorial implemented
- arrows show the direction you should go to
- indicator that shows "Fight!" when you need to kill all enemies
- GRAB-System now has an "easy mode" which makes it easy enough for everyone to escape
- enemies have less HP now
- Boss implemented
- all CG's have been improved + some new CG's


this should make the game overall more enjoyable.
since the difficulty decreases quite a lot.
(you can still change it into the harder modes on the options menu if you like)
soon the new demo will be out, so stay tuned!



~Wolfenstahl~

to busy to post

I just realized that I haven't posted for quite some time.
well, I'm pretty much busy with real life, so I might pass the blog on to someone else from the team.
and nope, in case I get even more busy with real life, and I might be forced to leave the team because of this, it doesn't mean the end of the games.
the rest of the team keeps on working on this and the upcoming games.
(and I'll support them whenever they have questions or problems they might face during developement)
so no need to worry!
they are well capable of handling stuff on their own.


anyway, since they continued to work, there is lots of new stuff for the game.
a new enemy type has been animated completely, and the second stage is being worked on.
of course there are several new CG's too.

the new enemy and second stage will only be in the full version of the game.
but I'll release a new upgraded demo version as soon as possible.
(it will contain the complete first stage + boss battle)
since we are planning to do some more modifications to the game, it might take a while until the next demo version will be available.
(it's mainly balancing issues, but also some additions)


here are some sample pictures for the new enemy type:

boss battles

I've thought a lot about boss battles and how they should be.
somehow a boss should feel different than a regular enemy.
so I decided to leave out grab-attacks from boss battles.
the other difference would be, that when a boss starts an attack, you can't stun him by hitting him.

he will take damage, but he also will be able to continue his attack.
so the trick is to keep an eye on the bosses movement, and then react accordingly.
every attack the boss does can be avoided by different movement.
(running away, jumping, or just running up or down)
but of course you have to find out what methode of dodging is possible.

why does the boss have no grab attack?
well I think it would be better to give him several attacks, instead of a grab attack.
the grab attack somehow slows the gameplay down too much.
since boss battles should feel different and they should rather be tense, I think a grab attack is out of place.
instead they will have 2 different CG's you can unlock upon a game over.
there will also be a savepoint right before the boss battle.

unexpected real life stuff...

yeah, I haven't postet for quite some time.
which is pretty unusual, since I do blog-updates all the time.

the truth is, some things came quite unexpected.
like family members that have to go to the hospital for quite some time.
extra chores I've got to do in the household because of this.
and of course trying to get a new job or so.
well that aside, everything else is working out.

it just means that we have to push the release date further, because we couldn't really work on the game for about one week.
(or at least we were not able to do some major progress)
from today onwards we should be able to focus again on our work, so you'll get to see some progress soon.

regarding the matter about cutting down on the game content regarding the time limit...
well I think I'll include everything into the game I wanted to, and I'll just push the release date back until everything is done.
(though this means that the game won't be completed in august for certain, maybe end of september? well... we see about that)
at least my family accepts that I work on a game and I've got a little bit support there.
so I don't need to rush anymore.
(at least at the moment that is)

the only "cut down" stuff will be the text during CG scenes.
I already covered the explanation for this in the last blogpost.
and yup, I'll go with solution Nr. 2.


since someone asked about why we want to translate this game into japanese:
why should we not do it?
the more customers we get, the better it is.
and I guess the japanese people are very important as customers.



~Wolfenstahl~

poll about text in CG scenes

I thought again about this subject, and yup, I guess it's best to do this poll.

Here are the 3 solutions again:


Solution 1:
I include all the long texts.
I still try to find japanese quality testers, but I think the game won't be completed in time...
(I also have to make significant changes in the text-system for this to work out, since I can't use japanese characters, so I have to print them on png-files and then implement them as graphics)


Solution 2:
I'll erase most of the text that pops up during CG scenes.
Just leaving a bare minimum to explain the situation.
So I don't need japanese quality testers.
(the japanese translation "as is" should be good enough for this)


Solution 3:
I'll erase ALL text from the hentai CG scenes.
Thus erasing all problems at once.
Since erasing is faster than changing the text-system, I would save lots of time.
(I'll just translate the ingame text and the opening text to japanese, but I won't have to change anything important here, since I already use graphics for the important stuff)



Since erasing all text kinda makes variations in the CGs pointless.
We would also save our time here.
Well... I guess I'll include at least all the variation CGs for the tentacle h-scene inside the folder of the full version then... because it was a lot of work to do it.
And it kinda be wasted effort then.
Well, I'll wait for the end of the poll anyway.



~Wolfenstahl~

current status

Well, I haven't postet in a while.
Of course we are still working on this project.

I build in a difficulty for the grab-system, so now you can switch between the system as is.
Or you could choose an easier system.
I'll explain this in a future blogpost.


The reason why we haven't done any updates in quite a while is... because we ran into a few more problems.
And we were pretty busy in finding a solution.

The first problem would be... we still don't have any quality testers for the japanese text.
The second problem is... if I would include japanese text, I would have to make significant changes in the game... which would take me another couple of days.
(maybe 1 week, because I implemented lots of text)

It's all really annoying, and I somehow fear that we will not be able to make it in time.
So... what solutions do we have?


Following solutions come to mind:

Solution 1:
Well... I could still try to find a quality tester (I don't have even one person for quality testing... and I originally wanted to find 2-3...), then let them check the text, after that I'll implement everything etc.
But I guess it won't work out in time.
(I have to make significant changes for this to work out)


Solution 2:
I'll erase most of the text that pops up during CG scenes.
Just leaving a bare minimum to explain the situation.
I'll skip the quality testing of the japanese texts, because noone might care about 1-2 sentences that might or might not be correctly translated.
(my friend who's translating can do correct sentences, after all she's japanese, but she's not familiar with hentai-text, so this is the only issue here)


Solution 3:
I'll erase ALL text from the hentai CG scenes.
Thus erasing all problems at once.
Since erasing is faster than reprogramming it all, I would save lots of time.
I'll just translate the ingame text and the opening text.



One fact is... since I'm going to display this game on DLsite, it must have japanese text, or no text at all...
I think I understand Kyrierus approach on his first game (which had no text at all).
Especially when you have a low budged or now budged at all, you should minize the load of work, and focus on the more important parts of a game.
Meaning gameplay and hentai CG's?



To be honest, I slowly get the feeling that this project will be a little bit "more smaller" than expected.
Meaning... in worst case scenario it will only have 2 stages and 2 bosses.
(but still 4 main enemy types and several subtypes)

Adding a CG gallery, adding text, story, etc. etc.
All the high rez sprites, lots of animations and everything is pretty nice.
But it eats up a whole lot of time... yeah.
It eats up way more time than expected.
At least I learned lots of stuff and I think, whatever the outcome will be, I know how to approach on the next project, where to set my priorities and everything.

Please don't forget that this game was always meant to be only a "small" game.
And I kinda think it all got way out of hand mindway...
Well, lets see this through to the end, shall we?
I'm not going to give up.
But I understand that I can't do a perfect game within the set time limit... and I can't work on this forever...
(especially because this is the first game I ever did)
(so actually I'm surprised that I was able to overcome all obstacles so far)



I'll also do a poll later, or maybe tomorrow, regarding the "solutions" on the CG text.
Since I think it's an important matter.
If enough people care about the text... I might do it anyway.
(despite the fact that it pushes the schedule back a whole lot further)

Or... I'll do a japanese version without text on the CGs...
And I leave it there on the english one?
Aww... well... I'll think about it again, and then I'll list all the solutions on the upcomming poll.



 ~Wolfenstahl~

japanese quality testers

Since up till now still noone answered to my request, I asked Koyuri to translate my request into japanese, regarding japanese quality testers.



こんにちは、丁度私達は英語文章を日本語へ翻訳しています。ただし、変態専門用語？とかもありますので１００％正しい日本語かどうが分からないので、日本語文法と変態用語？に詳しい方がいられましたら是非ボランティア程度で訂正してくださると助かります。英語が出来る方は大歓迎。

感謝にテスターとして新しくアップデートされたゲームを無料で差し上げます。

興味がある方はここの連絡先に返事をしてください。
wolfenstahl(at)hotmail(dot)com

チームWolfenstahlより

Grab-System

Well, I already decided to make a more simple grab-system for the "next" game.
And I originally planned to let it be the way it is now for "this" game (Paperheads).

We don't really have the time to change too much on this game.
So this might be the last major change...
As I already mentioned, we are 2 weeks behind schedule already.

But I think this is another important matter to discuss.
It's no use finishing this game, if people don't enjoy it.


So here is the plan:

1. Either I let the grab-system as is.
So we have time to concentrate on other stuff.

2. We input an option to allow the player to choose between the grab-system as is.
And a simpler to use "mode" where it's pretty easy to free oneself from a grab.
But of course this will eat up some of our precious time again.

So you'll still have the regular grab-system.
And for everyone else there will be a pretty easy grab-version of it.
Since you can switch between both, everyone should be able to enjoy the game.


Please vote at the poll I just started, so I can see how you people think about this matter.



~Wolfenstahl~


P.S:
I'm still looking for japanese quality testers/readers.

japanese quality testers, patchnotes and random talk

First of all, as I already mentioned we are currently translating the game into japanese.
Therefore we are looking for a couple of japanese people who are able to read english AND japanese.
Yup, this is just a voluntary quality checking job, nothing else.

So what do we expect from japanese quality testers?
Well, first of all you should be able to read english and japanese.
We will send you some of our translated text-scripts, and it would be nice if you would read them and give your oppinion on those texts.
Since we want to implement some good japanese texts.
Later on you'll get the japanese demo-version firsthand.

The japanese test readers won't get a "new" or "special" version.
It's just the japanese one with some censorship, so it'll come along with the rules of DLsite etc.
So to all you "non japanese" people out there... please don't disguise yourselves as japanese.
You won't get any new content, just the stuff everyone else gets.
The only difference will be that it's japanese.

So please be honest, when applying for quality testing of japanese texts.
This is really only to ensure that the japanese translations are "good" and understandable.

If you are interested, feel free to contact me:
wolfenstahl(at)hotmail(dot)com




Well, let's get to the ingame changes next.


This stuff has been fixed/changed:

- several bugs that have been reported
- several balancing issues
- 30 FPS to 60 FPS to improve performance and make the game more responsive
- Paperheads have a 3 second grab delay (they can't grab right after Verdani escapes a grab)
- faster running speed
- less stamina reduction when running
- savepoint now heals fully HP and stamina
- double tapping for running (regular V-Button for running is still ingame)
- the mid-boss Paperhead got a new attack
- better looking UI

The escaping system / continue system has been changed.
Now Verdani can freely escape, no "I have to fight" message anymore when escaping, except the room where she's tied up.
(but there are some normal occasions where you can only proceed when fighting your way through, this has nothing to do with the continue system though)
But you'll have to defeat several enemies in order to "reset" the KO counter.
(about 10 enemies, but on "easy" it's less and on "hard" it's more enemies you have to defeat)
Otherwise a second KO will cause instant game over.

This should give the player more freedom, as well as encourage the player to defeat enemies, instead of running through the stage.



Stuff that has been added:

- cumming animations
(they'll occour when Verdani has been grabbed for some time already, they won't come right away)
- 2 Paperheads can grab her at once
- 1 Paperhead subtype (the second one isn't in the demo yet)
- 5 new CGs
- improved dialoge system
- new areas
- new riddle/task you have to complete in order to advance in the game


There is also one big room where you have to fight off a whole lot of Paperheads.
If you cleared out several other rooms, this room will contain less enemies.
(so visiting different locations of a stage and killing many Paperheads is rewarded with making certain areas easier to clear later on)
If you cleared all other rooms, you'll only encounter about 10 Paperheads here.
If you just ran straight through, it should be about 20 enemies.
(in case you cleared out only "some" areas, the total number of Paperheads is between 10 and 20)
(it's also depending on the difficulty level, how many Paperheads appear in total)

This room exists also to show people how the game "should be" later on.
Except that there are more different enemy types.
(2 completely new types and several more Paperhead subtypes)
There are no annoying platforms/edges (or whatever you want to call it), so the programming is a whole lot easier, as well the implementation of AI is possible.

We also plan to make the last 33% or 24% of the sewer stage consisting only of one plain platform.
So escaping a fight by just switching the platform isn't possible from that point on.
(making the game as it is originally intended to be) 



I hope I didn't forget anything that has been patched/changed.
Yeah... there was lots of stuff, so it's easy to forget something.



I guess it's time for some random talk then.
From this point on this blogpost just contains some thoughts and general stuff.
So you don't have to read it if you're not interested in it.

Well, regarding the "company" stuff, we made some decision.
We decided that our current main artist is our head/boss.
This is due to various reasons... for example me still trying to get a regular job.
(well... I don't have high hopes on this one I admit... but I'm not giving up yet)
And I can't manage a company AND have a regular job, it's just too much.
Furthermore our main artist kinda does the stuff that is representing "Projekt Wolfenstahl".

I mean... noone ever notices who does the programming, the community never sees the programmer.
I'm currently doing the blogposts, yeah, but who cares if someone else would do it?
It's not important... at least not for the customers.
I'm not trying to say that the job I do is "cheap".
Or that I'm replaced easily... I'm just trying to say, that people would notice it if the art changes.
If the CG's or characters are different, if the animations change in quality etc.
That's what people notice in first place.

So you could say, our artist is the "main core" of it all, right?
I'm just backup artist myself, and all my other actions aren't "the face of the game".
Yeah, so that's the main reason for our decision.
Right now our main artist is the head of Projekt Wolfenstahl.
I'm just managing the blog and some other stuff.

Well, in case people have wondered what's going on on our team lately.
We had lots of issues to take care off.
As things are going right now, we'll have to rent an appartment and move there.
Meaning we will have to finish this game in time (at least mid-august).
And as long as I don't find a job, it's pretty much depending all on the success of the game.

If I would have a free wish... I would just wish that our efforts pay off.
And that we create a game that most people enjoy.
(I know that I can't satisfy "everyone", but if it's "most people" I'm fine with that)
So if it all works out, we can probably earn our daily bread just by making H-games.
Which sounds a bit weird... if you ask me.
But... yeah... if you can make something, that's "rare", if you have the talents to do so... if you love the job you have... and if you "can" earn your daily bread with it... you should do it!
At least this is what lots of people told me.

So it's kinda betting everything on this one card...
Usually I'm calculating every step I take, and this feels more like gambling to me...
But I'll give it a shot.
And our boss (main artist) thinks the same way.

On one side I'm hoping to get lots of impressions, lots of criticism, so I can improve.
But on the other side it's a pitty that I can't implement everything into this first game.
I would love it to be "perfect"... but I'm afraid that this is an unrealistic thought.
We have a timelimit after all... and we really need it to be completed by that time.
And we stated at the beginning of this project, that our first game will be a "small" one.
Just to get first impressions, to learn how things are working out etc.
It's kinda do or die now... lol

So yeah... it's guranteed that it will be "completed".
As well as it's guranteed that we WILL maintain the same amount of quality we did so far.
Because... we are highly depending on this being at least a minor success.

Speaking of "our first game".
Well yeah... this is the first time in my entire life that I programmed a game.
I only did minor programming stuff at several other hobbies I had.
Our main artist also never did any spritework.
She had only drawn regular artworks, and she also made her first attempts at creating game sprites.

Since we learned lots of stuff... yeah... it was definetely the right decision to start with this game.
Intending it to be only a small project and all.
During programming I did lots of mistakes (30 FPS *cough* and lots of other stuff) .
And I won't make them again.
Also the pseudo 3D-stuff was a huge mistake I guess...
It's way easier to do a 2D platformer.
And it's a whole lot more fun to play it too...

Imagine a female, valkyrie like knight (it's NOT a valkyrie! just imagine the looks of it) with energy wings flying through the air, fighting against other flying knights, monsters etc...
Adding some ranged attacks, high speed combat, counter moves etc...
And of course not just flying, but also some great dungeons where you can't fly for some reasons.
That would be pretty cool, compared to a pseudo 3D game that has a ton of hentai animations, but no spectacular gameplay.

I'm not saying that Paperheads is a bad game.
I'm just saying, we realized what's "more important" and we can finally see how things work out best.
We are going to finish what we planned so far... and then we will take the next game from a different direction.

Focusing clearly on gameplay, action, some riddles/tasks you have to solve.
Some spectacular boss battles... and of course the storyline and the CGs!
Hentai animations will slide a little bit into the background.
Though there will still be some of them.
(but annoying "grabbing" will definetely be less seen, though it will be still there, but it will be simplified)

Well... I'll talk about this kind of stuff more when the time comes.
I feel that I've said everything that was on my mind for now.



~Wolfenstahl~

new version available

Well, I had to fix a few newfound bugs.
It was just some minor stuff, but I thought it would be better to take care of it.

So... yeah, the new version is out now.
It's still a "beta demo" though.

Here is the link to it:
[Paperheads v2 beta download]


There are just too many fixes I did, so I'm not listing them here...
Anyway, I already wrote about those on my earlier blogposts.
The contend should be doubled right now.
So please enjoy yourselves.


And yes, please write further comments too.
I'll keep this news post short because I'm really exhausted right now.
(it's also way too hot here... yeah... summer...)


~Wolfenstahl~

final testing!

The last few days were pretty harsh.
I just managed to fix a couple of bugs that came with the latest addons.
Some of those bugs were pretty weird, but they should be gone now.

We just need a few more hours for testing.
If no further bugs are found, we'll upload the new beta demo.

So await the new version in about 12 hours from now on ^^


Here you can see a screenshot of the new UI:

I really love the new UI.
It looks slim and elegant, just like Verdani herself.



~Wolfenstahl~

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~

Paperheads demo out now!

I just wanted to point out:
Please read the tutorial (at least the controls and the Grab-System) before you start out.
Even if you don't read it throughly, please at least look at the screenshots.

[Paperheads] Tutorial

If you have any questions, please read the tutorial first.
It took me quite some time to type all that text, and it should cover most questions.
If it's not in the tutorial, I'll answer it of course.


Here is the link to the demo:
(please link to this blog directly, so people can read the tutorial and information themselves)

Paperheads beta v1



Some additional information on the demo:

This games purpose is to be a hentai game.
Which means, the Grab-System is the focus, not the beat'em up parts.
(I already stated that when I began this project)
The beat'em up part is just an addition to spice it up a bit.
Because the Grab-System alone would be a bit boring.
But keep in mind, this is no beat'em up with hentai... it's a hentai game with beat'em up elements.

The tutorial function is not ingame right now.
Due to several reasons.
(the interface isn't 100%ly complete yet, we want to chance the picture of Verdanis face in the future)
When I implement it, I'll implement more pictures, less text.
And I mean reaaaally by far "less text".

The game works as planned, and I don't want to do any major changes in the controls part.
I know that people wish for customizable controls, but to be honest, I kinda failed at that.
I tried it for about 2 days (up to 8 hours a day) but whatever I tried, it was no use...
Somehow the system wasn't able to detect all keys, and there where lots of other issues.
So I dropped this... I'm very sorry, but it seems that it's more than I can handle.
(I'm using game maker, by the way)

I also tried several scripts and guides, but it was no use at all.
So I'm very sorry, but I can't change the fact that I'm incapable of implementing it.


Regarding the CGs and text:


I just wanted to point out, that we are by far not there, where we want to be.
Regarding the CGs and CG scenes.
We will implement a lot more CGs in the future.
So every enemy type will get at least 3 different CG scenes.
Also, currently most scenes just have 1 picture, we will change this and build in variation when the time has come.
But not now.
I just implemented one scene with several different variations in the pictures.
And even here, I didn't implement all the pictures yet.
(I also cut down the text of that scene, so... to match the text, I also cut down on the pictures)

I'm talking about the tentacle scene, yes.
And I'll include the full scene, with all pictures, into the final version.
It's currently the only scene with several pictures, and I don't want the other scenes to look pale compared to that.
(doing variations into a CG scene is a whole lot of work... so we have to take our time for this)

The text for all the scenes should be fine.
Except the tentacle scene, that one will get a pretty much longer text, as already stated.

For future reference:
- CG scenes should have only about 3-5 different variations (there will be exceptions that will be much longer)
- CG scenes will have about 10-20 text-blocks (there will also be exceptions that are longer)
- every enemy type will get at least 3 CG's
(Bosses might get 2 CG's only, because you might not want to lose to them all the time)
- there will also be "good" CG's in the future, when you complete a stage etc.


What we will add in the future:

- more CG's
- CG variations
- Boss battles (with own Grab-System attacks/animations)
- we will complete the sewer stage (currently it's only about 30-40% done)
- we will add 2 more stages (subway & harbor)
- we will add 2 more enemy types and several subtypes for the Paperheads.
- in total there will be 3 bosses to fight
- there will be voice for the Paperheads
- 2 Paperheads should be able to grab Verdani

...and some more stuff, but I'll cover that in one of my next posts.


Regarding the Grab-System and our next game:

(after we finished the Paperheads game, which will be hopefully at the end of july)

I thought about simplyfing the Grab-System a bit.
Also there will be no pleasure meter in the Wolfenstahl game.
Roughly spoken, it will still be the same system.
Just several parts that are not needed will be cut out.
(all the "pleasure" relating stuff etc.)

Since the Wolfenstahl game will be a Megaman clone, you won't be grabbed too often.
(since you can shoot and all)
And of course, we will focus much more on non hentai content (gameplay) in the Wolfenstahl game.
(I even want to completely leave the Grab-System out of boss battles, since it would spoil the megaman-like feeling... and least out of the boss battles with the regular bosses)
But... lets talk about that stuff, when the time has come.
I just felt, that I should mention this at least.



Thanks for reading!
And have fun playing the game.



~Wolfenstahl~


P.S:
If you have read the tutorial while I was writing this article, please take another look at the arrangement.
I added 2 categorys while writing this article ^^"
It's not that important, but I could be interesting.
(I didn't touch the text that was already written, so you don't have to read it all again, just the new parts)

Those are:

3.2 Grab-System additional information
5. Difficulty System


I'm really tired now...
Time to go to bed, good night and have fun testing the demo everyone! ^^

Text to the CGs?

Yeah, I planned to have text to all CGs in the full release.
But for the demo I decided to do text for the special scene.

Whatever, I did everything important already, so I thought I should maybe include text for more than just the special scene?

The point is:
I could write loooong text, after all I do that every day.
I only see the main problem in the fact, that I'll have to write text for about 30-40 CG scenes.
And it would be overkill... if every scene gets a pretty long text.
(we are no professional VN company... just 2 people working on this project seriously, and several others giving slightly support (voice acting, translating etc.))

So I went with following decision:
I'll only write some "short" text for the scenes.
I'm well aware that short texts end up being a bit crappy, because you can't "squeeze" all the details of a game over scene into a few lines of text...
But I'll include longer texts for special scenes to make up for that.

This means... mostly "short" texts, but here and there a longer text.

I guess this is a good compromise, so we can keep the work at a minimum.
Also the translation into japanese won't take that much time, if we do it this way.
So I really think this is a good solution.

I also hope noone gets disappointed too much.
But it's really hard to do a good game, within a set time limit, without any limitations.


Anyway, that's all for now.
I'm writing all of the texts now, then I'll go to bed.
So tomorrow I'll just have to write down the story (I already came up with one) and give out the game for final "inofficial" testing.
If all goes well, the demo will be out on thuesday, just as promised.


Oh, and one final notice:
I already wrote a pretty good and long text for the tentacles.
But I'll include just a small version into the game.
Because I want to save the long text for the final demo-release (end of july), when the game is done.
(it might be one of the longest and most detailed CG text in the game... and it'll be a little "thank you" for all the tentacle lovers out there)

So please, don't be disappointed by the short version ^^"
I don't like the short version either... but it's just a temporary measure.

The other scenes should be fine as they are.
Since there are no longer versions for them, I can't complain myself.. lol

Enough chit chat, time to get back to work!



~Wolfenstahl~

Everything's coming along nicely

Well, a small status report once in a while doesn't hurt.
The menu works now as intended, options etc. that is.
The tutorial option still has no function, but I'll work on it tomorrow or on saturday.
(it's just screenshots with text and explanation anyway)

I'm still adding details to the backgrounds, and yeah, it takes a bit longer than expected.
But this isn't really a problem, it's just a matter of time.

For tomorrow I'm aiming to do:
- 2 simple events for the game
- one new CG
- some more testing, balancing and bug fixing
- as well as placing enemies into the different areas
- adding again some more details to the backgrounds

To tell you something about the events:
One event needs to be completed in order to proceed, while the other event is just an instant game over scene.
I might add some text to only this one game over scene, if I have the time left to do so.
(since it's really just a "dead end", but if you want to unlock the CG, you'll have to go there at least once)
Of course later all CG scenes get text.
But as mentioned earlier, I can't make it in time for the beta-demo.

There will be more events like this, the more we complete the game.
I mean: events that you need to accomplish to proceed, as well as events where you get a game over.
I won't share the CG to it before the demo release, since there should be at least some surprises.
So there will only be 4 CG's in this beta-demo version.
3 of them where already shown here on the blog.
(1 was just a draft, 1 was only a small portion of the CG, and the last one was completely shown)

But of course we will add more to the game later.
We aim to make about 30-40 different CGs (or lets say, CG scenes).
Most of them will be done in july, and of course we won't show all of them here.
(there have to be some good surprises and secrets left to uncover, right?)


So after I completed my goals for tomorrow, I'll see what's left to do for the weekend.
I guess it'll be mainly testing, balancing and bugfixing.
Maybe adding some minor details and stuff.
But I want to have it all done on saturday night.
So on sunday (and maybe monday) some (selected) people can test the game.
After that I guess, most bugs should be taken care of.
And yes, if everything goes well, the demo will be available on thuesday or wednesday.

That's all for now.
Time to get some sleep.



~Wolfenstahl~

Difficulty settings and options?

So far we implemented the basic hentai attacks for the Paperheads.
There are more to come, but not for the beta-demo version.
(there are more than enough for now)

Currently I'm thinking about the difficulty/balancing, the difficulty options, as well as the options themselves.
While I come up with quite a lot of possible solutions for a difficulty system.
I still have no great idea what to place into the options section?

Window mode and fullscreen are at least one option I should place there.
But in fact, F4 is the standard button for this...
So it's kinda pointless doing an option menu just for this.

Otherwise I could place the difficulty settings into the option menu?
Maybe I should try looking into the keymapping stuff.
So people could customize their controls?
But I've no idea how much time this would cost me, implementing this.

Yeah, I guess I'll take a look into it.
After that I can still decide wether to implement it this week or not.

Currently we are also working on the backgrounds.
We want to be "ready" for Saturday, then do some final testing and balancing.
After that we'll finally release the beta-demo version.
(So yeah, it'll be 100%ly available at the end of may)

Oh, and I thought it would be better if I concentrate on the game itself first.
So we included just a few CG scenes, and we included no text for the CGs so far.
(we will cover this in one of the next demo releases)
The game needs to be tested in order to get rid of bugs (there are sometimes some).
But CGs and text is much easier to be corrected or altered.
So they have a lesser priority during our main developement phase.
(we occasionally do some, but I guess most of them will be done in july)


So, that's all for now.
I hope you all look forward to the release of the demo.
There are just a few days left after all ^^



~Wolfenstahl~

Voice Acting

Again everything is going quite smothly.
During the past days, Amelia did the voice acting for Verdani.
As mentioned before, there will be nearly no spoken sentences, but all the voices will be recorded ourselves.
The sound effects are partly done ourselves, partly taken from various random pages throughout the internet.
(til now I would say, about 80 % of the amount of sound-files are done by ourselves, out of scratch)

So yeah, the game has now sound effects, voices etc. ... but still no music.
I highly doubt that I'll be able to add music to it for the upcoming demo-version.
So I hope no one is disappointed about the missing background music.


Anyway, what are our plans for the next two weeks?

Well, we will add some hentai-attacks for the Paperheads.
Then we do some more background tiles.
Making about 30-50% of the first stage available in the beta-demo.

And of course we have to write some text for the game over scenes.
So there's lots of time consuming stuff to do, but since everything works out so far, I highly doubt that we'll have any unforseen troubles.

Not that spectacular news, but I just wanted to give you all a brief status report.



~Wolfenstahl~

Tentacle Monster done

A few days ago we've done all the animations for the tentacle monster.
As stated before, we will only implement a small number of enemies.
But therefore they'll have lots of different hentai-attacks and animations.
(I also plan on implementing some subtypes of enemies, they'll be pretty similar to others, but may have some different special attacks or hentai-attacks)

The Grab-System is already done, as well as the continue system.
(where you have to struggle in order to be able to continue, before the enemy comes to the heroine)
Oh yes, and the whole Grab-System, continue stuff and everything "ingame" regarding the tentacle monster has already been implemented.
(the only thing that has to be done is the overall CG stuff for the tentacle monster, there is just one CG currently done, today we'll do the variations in this CG scene, and in the future we'll add at least 2 more scenes for it)

Here's a picture of the animations:

You'll find more "new" sprite excerpts in our game description section:
Game Information [Sprites / CG's]

I also updated the Game Information section overall.
I may have forgotten to edit something, but at least I reworked the most certain part.

Anway, I'll have to take screenshots of the Grab-System and write a tutorial for it in the upcoming week.
Currently we are finishing some other spriteworks, just occasionally doing CG's.
(in fact we haven't done that much CG's during the past month, we focused on setting the game up)



Here's a little reward for being so patient:

This will be one of the possible CG scenes when losing against Chao.
(yes he's wearing a tuxedo in this game... and cool sunglasses)
And yes, Verdani is already "broken" in this scene.









I guess I wrote enough stuff.
I'll better get back to working on the game.
It's not long before the end of may, so stay tuned!



~Wolfenstahl~

good news for everyone!

I finally managed to get the Grab-System working as it should be.
I must admit that at one point, it was pretty frustrating...
I couldn't find the mistake I made, but after taking a few hours off, and then returning to the programming, I finally did it.
So... taking a break once in a while isn't wrong I guess.
(uh... yes... currently I'm actually working full-time on this, since I'm a workaholic, I can be quite a fanatic at times)

Anyway it's working now!
I just need to add some more h-attacks to it, then combining some of them.
After I did that I guess there's nothing that can stop us anymore.
I'm just glad the Grab-System works as planned.

So what's left to do is adding overall stuff, finally doing the levels and of course the voice acting.
Doing the levels is pretty easy (currently we just have our testing stage), the hardest part is comming up with some riddles or other stuff to make the game more interesting.
But we already came up with some things, so what's left is to implement it.

When I release a demo version at the end of may, the basic system will be working.
But I guess it won't be the full sewer stage, not all the enemys will have all the hentai-attacks they'll have later on, not all CG's will be done etc.
At least it will have all the core parts of the game, but it's still a beta-version.
I won't bring out new demo-versions regularly, because most of the changes won't be noticed that easily, so I only bring out new ones when there are major changes.
(which means, every 2-3 weeks maybe)
But let's look forward to the end of may... with a bit luck we might even be able to do more stuff than planned.


Amelia is currently practicing for the actual voice acting of Verdani.
 Up til now the game has no sound an no voice, not even music.
I must admit that I'm no expert for music, but I learned several instruments for several years.
So I guess I'll be fine, somehow.
I have some software to do the music, but I haven't had the time to work with it that much.
And it looks like I'm missing the right soundfonts.
I seem to always chose the wrong ones which never sound harmonic when combined... so if someone could help me with selecting the right soundfonts for such a game, I would be extremely grateful.
(a set of soundfonts which sound harmonic would be nice)


So when Amelia has done the voice acting, Verdani has her voice... but there are some other female characters in the game as well.

The good news is:
Our team just got a new member, and I'm reeeaaaally happy that I got to know her.
She'll do the voice acting for Neamera, which is pretty important to me, since this character appears in several games... but I won't spoil the fun now... thehehe ^^
(haven't said much about this character, and I still want to leave her in the shadows a little while longer)



Another good thing for all the japanese people out there:
Our new team member is translating the game into japanese, so I hope we'll have a japanese version.
I guess the menu can stay in english?
But at least the dialog and the scenes should be in japanese.
And of course, the CG's for a japanese version must be censored.



So as promissed some information on "what's different than planned".
I'll keep this short, since this post is pretty long already.

We just wanted to do a pretty simple game... just like Doubledragon, regarding the levels/stages and the fighting.
But now we worked on the whole system to have some interaction with the surroundings.
So for example in the sewers, you can jump down into the water, or jump out of it etc.
(some controls may seem a bit unnatural, but I'll do a tutorial for the demo, there I'll explain everything with pictures and text)
We also implement some stuff like collecting a key to pass through a locked door, or other things you have to do, in order to proceed.
So it's no plain "fight yourself from the left side of the screen to right one" anymore.
There are different passages you can go through, and some might even lead to a game over, if Verdani messes something up.
So it has some exploring content, but I'll try my best to not make the riddles too hard.

I think this even makes the game more enjoyable, and it doesn't feel that short either.
(doing the graphics takes so much time that I think it would be wasted, if I won't do a good and enjoyable game out of it... anyway, since I'm only the back-up artist I have plenty of time for programming)


What's unchanged:
- the Grab-System
- Fighting style
- having a boss at the end of each stage/level
- having 4 different enemy types (and a few subtypes)


Last but not least, I'll present a draft from a tentacle scene:

The lineart as well as the coloring has already been done.
All that's left to do is adding some variations, like it's usually done on CG's.
(like having the same CG but with different facial expressions, and some different details)
Currently we plan on having about 30 different CG scenes.
Which means 30 completely different CG's, but they'll have some variations/different facial expressions... like usually done on CGs.



~Wolfenstahl~

Tentacles incoming!

Based on the stuff we did so far, I guess we can proceed to the hentai-content.
This means the Grab-System, as well as some other little additions.
I should cover in my next blogpost some details on "what's different than originally planned".

Since our artist took some time in animating all the stuff, I kinda programmed more than planned.
So the time wasn't wasted, and it should add something to the overall gaming experience.
As you can see in some screenshots, I did a 3D-like platform system.
I must admit that it's not 100%ly perfect... there had been some issues, but I found some solution to solve it.
Overall it improved the game quite a bit, and it offers some special options and gameplay style.
I thought about adding a subway stage later in the game.
And with the stuff I already programmed it's rather easy to set this up.
I guess it's best to explain this a bit more based on screenshots when the demo release is near.
Just words won't do it, it's too hard to explain.

We will also start animating the tentacle stuff now.
It might also be the first stuff to be used in the Grab-System.
Anyway, I'm going to bed now and I'll write a report on what's different in my next blogpost.



~Wolfenstahl~

Finally some screenshots

Today we put again a lot of effort into the game.
We sorta finished the title menu for now.
(we still have to implement some functions into it, but that doesn't matter now)

The HUD has been finished, and we also worked on some other stuff.
Don't worry, we will add more details to the levels/backgrounds.
So the sewer won't look that boring.

The hentai stuff comes with the Grab-System, but I implemented a game over picture anyway.
As you can see on the screenshots, you can walk on 2 platforms.
But you can move upwards and downwards on a platform, just as you like.
(but this has no big effect right now, not sure if I should do something bigger out of it... since it's pretty time consuming and all, and I never planed do work this 3D-like system (with 2D graphics) out too much... except the Grab-System, this is where I want to put the focus on mainly)

Right now, walking inside of the water doesn't do much either.
But Verdani will be less mobile (can't run while inside of the water) and she also might have some other disadvantages while walking inside the water.
I'll save the details on this for later.

And yes, there will be some sort of level-design.
At least it will be a little bit like a maze, with dead-ends, rooms filled with surprises etc.
It's not hard to do that, and I think it add's a good variety to the game, without consuming too much time.
(I'm even thinking about adding some traps that could assist the Paperheads in catching Verdani... but... yeah... it's too much to talk about now)

Before I write even more text... I should rather present you the screenshots.
(the screens are all 800x600 which will be the main-resolution for the game, but if possible I'll add an option for smaller resolutions, I'm just not sure if I can do it, and if the text is still readable...)
I hope you'll like what you see.

I hope the screenshots gave some first impression on what the game will be later on.
Of course a demo-version would be better than any screenshot.
We will work full-steam ahead, towards that goal.
But now, it's time for me to go to bed.
Stay tuned!




~Wolfenstahl~

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~