My family kicked me out, and I have to leave this weekend, since they think I only do worthless stuff all the time.
So I'm currently looking for a small appartment, as well as a job, since Paperheads was a major failure.
It's not just the pricing of the game on DLSite, it's the game in general.
On the last vote it only run for about 75% of all fans, which is in my oppinion, a big failure.
And this is only one of many critical points, that one can mention about the game.
(I mainly mention it, since everyone can easily see it for themselves)
But we worked too long on this already, and so it's been a forced release (despite the problems), instead of canceling it and letting it disappear into the shadows of the internet.
And nope, the boss doesn't want to lower the price, since it will be a slap into the face for those people who already buyed it, and we really appreciate the support of those people.
But yes, the price is too high, as well as the time spent on it, and everything else...
(well, it was a big failure, as I already mentioned)
Looking back at the whole project, it didn't start out too well either, and we did lots of mistakes here and there along the process.
Well, it was our first game after all, and we learned of the mistakes we made.
Of course we will not repeat them.
Our new game does run a lot better than Paperheads does, and it uses far less ressources, since we use smaller graphics, as well as external loading of CGs and other stuff.
There is also a very strong emphasis on gameplay.
And the hentai stuff is mainly concentrated into CG scenes consisting of several pictures per scene, as well as a lot of text accompanying the CG scenes.
(the CG scenes all have backgrounds too)
In other words, it will be definitely better than Paperheads, though it will be a completely different game.
Hentai sprite animations are only planned for the bosses and certain enemies.
(so it's mainly CG hentai, but not only)
Here you can see some screenshots of the current "prototype" and of a CG scene:
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| CG scene 4 out of 8 pictures |
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| dashing and moving platforms |
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| 3 different ammo types: regular, penetration & explosive |
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| walljumps and mobility are essential parts of the game |
In case you like what you see, and you want to support us, we are happy if you donate us a small amount of money.
Eventually, we will be able to gather enough money to be able to finish the game we are currently working on.
Otherwise we have to give up on it for the time being, until we get another chance to work on it.
Since without donations, we are forced to pick a regular full-time job in order to be able to continue to live on.
Last but not least, we want to thank all the people who bought Paperheads, or donated money.
Your support really means a lot to us, thank you very much!
P.S:
Starting friday, I might not do any blogposts for a while, since it can be difficult to get internet access in the upcoming weeks.
Maybe I can go to a friends place to get internet access, but I can't promise that.
So there is a high chance that I "disappear" until I get an appartment for myself, with working internet connection of course.
Depending on how long it takes me to find an appartment and get internet, it could take 1-2 months.
(well, a friend of mine waited at least 4 weeks to get internet access... so better calculate with this...)
But one thing (besides 'death') is certain: I'll be back!
Eventually, we will be able to gather enough money to be able to finish the game we are currently working on.
Otherwise we have to give up on it for the time being, until we get another chance to work on it.
Since without donations, we are forced to pick a regular full-time job in order to be able to continue to live on.
Last but not least, we want to thank all the people who bought Paperheads, or donated money.
Your support really means a lot to us, thank you very much!
P.S:
Starting friday, I might not do any blogposts for a while, since it can be difficult to get internet access in the upcoming weeks.
Maybe I can go to a friends place to get internet access, but I can't promise that.
So there is a high chance that I "disappear" until I get an appartment for myself, with working internet connection of course.
Depending on how long it takes me to find an appartment and get internet, it could take 1-2 months.
(well, a friend of mine waited at least 4 weeks to get internet access... so better calculate with this...)
But one thing (besides 'death') is certain: I'll be back!
be sure to have him lower the price later on then, (a good time is when you release the next game), sorry about your troubles...
ReplyDeletethe new game looks kind of megaman like with the wall sliding, is this intentional? :)
also those cgs are hot as always keep up the good work
That could be a viable option, I'll ask if this works out.
DeleteIt's intentional, that it's similar to megaman, yes.
(it's some sort of megaman-clone, but it does have a few differences, aside from the hentai content)
I'm happy to hear that you like the CG's ^^
(this time there will be a lot monster and tentacle CG's, no "humans" this time)
Well, I'm done packing my luggage, and I got to leave tomorrow, so I'm going to bed now.
Hope I won't be without internet for too long, since it's like hell without it...
You showed so much promise.
ReplyDeleteIt's very sad for a supporter, you know that?
What happened to other people? Including your "Boss".
Thought you work as a team?
Well, it can't be helped.
DeleteNot enough money --> not enough food etc. --> not enough time to work on such projects
(The money we get through donations, and trough DLSite, will maybe last for one month to pay the bills, but not more)
Since Crescentia (our boss) and I are the only ones working full-time on the game, it all only affects us.
The others find it sad, but it's not affecting their everyday lives.
So only both of us have to look for jobs, the others had their own jobs all along.
(and they never worked full-time on this)
Our teamwork looks like this:
Crescentia does all the art and graphics.
Ingame sprites, CG's, etc.
(which is a major part of the work, and kinda the "face" of the game and everything)
Then we have someone who does the translations.
The music is being bought externally. (not part of the team)
Last but not least, there are several test-players (who are not getting paid).
I do the programming, and I also write all of the texts (for CG scenes etc.).
I also take care of the fanbase (blog and forum), and I take care of the team as well.
(translating texts together with our translator, looking for someone who is doing the music, communicating with testplayers, hearing oppinions etc., bugfixing together with testplayers, and all that stuff that needs teamwork)
So I'm basically something like a right-hand man for the boss.
Well, most of my life I worked as some sort of right-hand man for some guy or girl, who was the head of a team.
(which kinda always makes me 2nd in command)
So I'm pretty much used to it, and I kinda like to work in this position.
I'm not sure you could write off Paperheads as a failure just yet, it's only been out a few days! I'm donating the full price once my next paycheck comes in, for my own part, so just hang in there. I'm sure the sales will come in with time! :D
ReplyDeleteThank you very much!
DeleteI think the first week after game release is the most important, but hope dies last.
Hello Wolfenstahl!
ReplyDeleteFist of all, I had hoped the game does better because it's not bad at all. Gameplay-wise, it's better than 90% of the stuff on DLSite.
My take on why it didn't sell well commercially (yet) is that, since the vast majority of paying customers for a hentai game will be Japanese, on the one hand it's too hard with all the rape for an audience that likes softer content. As in, the people who like dating sims and those schoolgirl games.
On the other hand, it's way too soft for the audience that likes it a little harder.
Let's compare it to Iris Action, the closest competitor that comes to mind. Iris Action doesn't just have a couple of human enemies that do a little raping, it comes with animals, tentacles and all sorts of monsters.
In addition to that, you can turn on a ryona option that makes many of the scenes a little harder yet.
Wolfenstahl lacks variety in enemies and the raping is just too softcore for its audience, while too hardcore for the other crowd. There seems to be very little middle-ground that's commercially successful, at least on DLSite and hentai games in general.
That said, the comparison isn't necessarily fair because the first thing you see are the previews and Iris Action just has a much higher quality CG and it's animated.
This is sure to raise a few eyebrows on here, where Japanese don't write comments as western audiences are much easier to offend by sexual violence of any kind.
Either way, just my take on it.
I still like Wolfenstahl and think it's a good game and I really hope your next one will turn a profit for you and everybody else involved.
Just as a heads up, Paperheads is on English DLsite now!
ReplyDeleteDonate for your 10$
ReplyDeleteYour first game not has fail. Just to small number of peoples learned about this projekt. Generally, from 1000 peoples donated only 10. And i think you can cash in on pirates.
ReplyDeleteAdd a note(you needed help) to the game, and donate button. And give game free on torrent. Donaters when download game from torrent, probably support your projekt. And like a bonus your popularity will grow.
How this idea?
I was really hoping to see this project succeed but from a management and business perspective there are some really big flaws that you guys did do.
ReplyDeleteI have done a Business Management degree in Finland and now work for a decently sized company. Am also trying to start up my own now as well using what I have learnt.
The first big mistake really is yeah, the project was really ambitious and you guys overstepped your skills (hard to have predicted this issue so don't feel to bad about that). But having seen how this project developed, you guys didn't listen to feedback as well as could have been. Before the game launched, there were already plenty of comments about the price of the title and everyone said they'd pay about 5 bucks for the title and no more. Only a few said 10 bucks or more. So why was this not considered more carefully?
Secondly, DLsite and Japanese... what a big mistake that was. Plenty of people have warned that it was a mistake already when you guys first announced it (back when you removed all the game text to do the translations). I don't know why you guys through the Jap market would be this magical money maker. Especially when their game tastes are SO different from western tastes!!! Heck, just look at normal games: JRPGs versus Western RPGs... that should have made your alarm bells ring when you decided to aim for the Japanese market. This also limited you greatly on your Western consumers.
I don't know about everyone else but I CANNOT purchase through DLsite even if I wanted to. I also didn't donate as I just wasn't satisfied with the game at all.
Now I say all this in the hopes you learn from what I say and consider it for your next game...
The whole fear about taxes was a bit silly as it really wasn't an issue. All you do is you charge your local tax rate for all purchases and declare that as income locally where you are based. So if the price was 5 Dollars, take your local tax rate from that (or on top of that and raise the price)... simple...
Also is this game on DLSite english version?
Getting away from those issues. Yeah you had performance issues, but for those who could run the game, and this is now getting more to just my personal tastes... I found the game a bit boring.
I played the first level completely, it was quite fun and then as I went into level 2 and 3 I was expecting more variety in enemy types. But was disappointed here. Boss fights were fun but had little reward to them and the lack of animations on them was especially disappointing. In-game animations was what was so cool about this game in the first place and then you take that feature away from moments that are supposed to be special? Where is the logic in that?
This game could have done fine even with just in-game animations and no CGs. Some of the CGs were cool, but others were a bit meh. Since there were so few check-points the process of finding and getting all the CGs was especially annoying.
Then, the train level... cool mechanics but so much downtime, just beating the same enemies over and over to get around, and again if you wanted to find all the CGs, this process was crazy.
For your next game, I'd like to see it smaller, cheaper and just go back to the basics. Less CGs, more in-game animations and perhaps a simplified struggle system that features better animations than your current system. Also no more censorship :(
sry if I say . . . but that sounds a little bit hard for me
Delete=( the poor guy worket a lot for it >[]<
Well, if you've read my recent posts and comments, you already know my (and the boss's) standpoint on this topic.
DeleteSince we partly agree, and partly disagree with you.
(and, you can't compare regular business to hentai game business, as well as tax-systems of one country, to the tax-system of another country)
At any rate, I think we already know what we have to do with the current game we are working on.
(as I already mentioned, you should see in the recent blogposts and comments where I agree with your opinion and where we made changes)
And some of the points I'm disagreeing with you (for example your advice to do less CG's, more animations), are basically a matter of taste.
As some people love CG's more, while others love animations more.
(and of course there are those people who love both)
I also fully agree with vosmug2 on the things he says about DLSite.
The western market is not big enough for hentai games.
Or lets say, people are less likely to pay for hentai games in the west.
(and the possible methodes to sell hentai games are really limited in the west, since lots of services are forbidding adult content to be sold via their services)
So DLSite is very important to us.
Since when is Dlsite a mistake? Is the best bet as long as hentai games go, even with all the restrictions their market is way bigger than ours, I'm pretty sure the west market is not enough to support this kind of games.
ReplyDeleteNeed use all available methods for money extracting(not only dlsite).
ReplyDeleteMore methods -> more auditory -> more money.
For example, I don't have chance(and don't see reason) to buy game from dlsite. And started japan game on my computer its too hard(and waste, i don't know japanese).
A quesion please. I and my friend want to buy this game but we can´t buy things from DL-site. =( could you sell your game also in your own site ?? ^^ the only other way that i know would be that you send me the game per post with an USB-Stick with a password and i transfer the money to your bank. and iff your money is there you can send me per E-mail the password ^^ I would really love it to play your game! AND i would pay the game , the post, and the
ReplyDeleteUSB-stick so please help me with that!!! >[]<
There is an english patch on this blog, so the game runs in english.
ReplyDeleteAnd sadly we don't have any other means of selling the game other than DLSite.
Since as long as it contains adult content, it can't be sold via most methodes...
ohh nooo =( how bad . . . the problem was not the speach but now where i know that i only become the game throug dl-site i can give up -_- well sry for disturbing you with my stupid problem =(
Delete