Slow progress and stuff

Well, I guess calling it "slow progress" is really optimistic.
We had all our hands full with real life stuff, so we didn't do much on Geisterhand the past weeks.
(jobs, problems, other stuff that has priority)

Just in case people might wonder:
We are currently not working full time on this.
But we did in fact work full time on this, as long as the money raised from Paperheads allowed us to.

The reason I'm saying this is, so people hopefully understand why we did a lot of stuff a couple of months ago, and why progress is getting slower and slower lately.
So don't expect any announcement of a release date, as this game will most likely take a couple months (at least) until it's done.

We also planned to add some stuff, so the developement time is being longer than originally planned.



Planned additions for the future:

First of all, we decided to include hentai sprite animations for every enemy.
But keep in mind, that since I don't like this to interfere with the gameplay itself, the animations ONLY happen when Sheylas HP drop to zero.
(so when she is K.O)
Instead of respawning automatically, you will have to press a button to do so.
So you can enjoy the animation as long as you like.
Also, we need to do voice recording for this, I guess.

The CG scenes only come up, if you lose all your continues.
(so this stays the way it is)
Also there will be a "skip CG scene?" question at the beginning of a CG scene.

Regarding the controls, there will be an option that lets you switch controls between 2 preset settings.
Controls A - will be the regular controls as they are now
Controls B - will be modified controls, based on the feedback I got from several people

Since I can't really cut down on the number of buttons for the skills etc. (since it just feels awkward, in my opinion, but I understand that everyone sees this differently) it's just a different button layout.
But no changes in the number of buttons or gameplay.

I mean... I don't want the player to hold down a button to charge an attack up.
(since holding down too many buttons is bad, and might cause trouble on certain keyboards)
And I also don't like the idea of letting the charged shots charge automatically, since they use up SP (energy) on use, thus lowering the SP with every shot, making the player unable to use the SP for the bullet time/time alter mode.


Well, that's everything for now.



I updated the links on the right side once again.
If you haven't done so already, you probably should check out the hentai games from cheshireCat and Kajio.
They both released their games some time ago.

cheshireCat:
http://dreamingofcheshirecat.blogspot.ca/?zx=e9007938276229f2

Kajio:
http://hkajio.blogspot.ca/?zx=a6fcb807aa0b86a

Geisterhand trial version

Since everything seems to be fine, I think it's safe to release the demo version.

You can download it here:
[Geisterhand Trial]


Aside from several missing sound effects (mainly for the boss),
everything is implemented into the game.
The CG for the boss isn't included, but of course it will be included in the full version.
(it's just that we decided that having 4 out of 13 CG scenes in the trial version, should be enough)

If you're not able to read japanese, you can switch the language setting in the main menu.


Known issues:
- there are some typos in the CG scenes
- on "very easy" there is a bug with the respawn function, but it's nothing critical
(respawn does work, but sometimes you respawn right on the spot)


Taken out of the readMe file:
(there is also a japanese readMe file)

===[Controls:]===

* Arrow keys for movement.
* When you're caught by an enemy or a spider net, randomly hit ANY keys to free yourself.
* Press [Arrow Down] + [Space] to fall through certain platforms.

* Perform wall jumps by pressing [Space] when you're clinging to a wall.
* Press [Arrow Up] + [D] to shoot upwards.
* Press [Arrow Up] + [W] to shoot charged special shots upwards.

[Space]    - jump
[A]    - bullet time/time alter/slow time
[D]    - shoot
[W]    - charged special shot (only available after beating one of the bosses in the full-version)
[S]    - change ammo type


Btw. clinging to a wall in order to enable wall-jumps does NOT work if you're falling too fast.
This means, if Sheyla starts to drop (losing height) after jumping, or if you fall down into a pit etc.
This is also the case when trying to wall-jump over too long distances.
It's no bug, it's fully intentional the way it is.
(2 out of 10 testplayers wondered about this, so I thought I should mention it)

Simply said: "if you fall too much, you can't cling to a wall."
And yup, this means a broken wall-jump-chain makes you fall all the way down.

Have fun playing the game, and please report bugs and other issues!


P.S:
Just in case someone is bringing the topic up again:
No, the DL link is not broken, I uploaded the trial version on Mega, that's all.
I've read the ToS of several other hosters, but everyone seems to prohibit adult stuff... so yeah...
Mega is the only choice right now.

I'm okay with people uploading the demo version on other hosters, as long as they link to this wegblog.
But I'm not doing it myself, since I don't want to deal with deleted files, blocked accounts etc.
(well, that would be the consequence for uploading adult stuff I guess... at least that's what happened on mediafire last time I did it)

Music implemented - final testing of the demo

Good news, everyone!

We've got all the important pieces of music for the demo version.
So the critical release condition has been fulfilled!
I'm just doing some final fixes, small adjustments, as well as... uh... yeah... "blocking" some of the content that's not supposed to be in the demo version.

I also implemented some sound effects, but lots of sound effects are still missing.

After I'm done with these things, I'll hand the demo-version out for testing.
If no critical bugs get reported within 48 hours after handing it out, I'll release the demo-version on this blog.

So... yeah... I'll finish work on the demo-version today or tomorrow.
That means it'll get released on this blog in about 3-4 days, I guess?
(if no critical bugs get reported... otherwise it might take a couple days longer, but I believe this won't happen)


P.S:
Geisterhand still needs only ~250 MB Ram on my notebook.
The game also starts up pretty fast.
So yes, I'm convinced the final version will run on nearly any computer ^^

I also want to thank everyone who helped correcting the tags on the Paperheads gallery.
(the stuff I mentioned in the last post)
Thank you very very much!

Good news & funny facts

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Geisterhands heroine: Sheyla

Today I wanted to tell you guys (and girls) something about Sheyla,
the main heroine of "Geisterhand".

Geisterhand is german and means "ghost hand" in english.
And yup, it's the name of our second game.


Unlike Paperheads which was a spin-off, Geisterhand is the real thing.
Uhm... maybe I should explain this a bit more in detail.
While Paperheads featured some of the characters you might see in future games of us,
they were almost all out-of-character in Paperheads.

For example:
Verdani wouldn't dress herself like she did in Paperheads.
(originally she doesn't even like makeup)
Also Neamera would never even want to be the boss of such an organization.
While Chao wouldn't work together with Neamera,
and Ledun is "originally" some guy that transforms into a werewolf.
Furthermore the world of Paperheads has nothing to do with the "original story",
or the world the original story takes place in.
(in Paperheads all the characters had been depicted as "normal" humans,
but in the original story all of them are not regular human beings)

That in mind, lets get to the core.

Geisterhand

Geisterhand plays in a world similar to ours,
were demons and monsters appear occasionally.
The story takes place in a modern world,
similar to our world as it is right now.

The main character 'Sheyla', isn't an everyday human being.
Aside from firing regular bullets,
she's also able to focus soul-power into her bullets.
This way she's able to fire strong shots with special properties.
(yes, you can view this as "magic", though I refer to it as "soul-power" (SP),
basically I guess it's the same as MP, Mana, whatever you want to call it)
After defeating the bosses she absorbs their powers,
in order to be able to use a new type of charged shot.

Sheyla is really swift and agile,
in fact she's one of the fastest beings on earth.
She accomplishes this by using soul-power to boost her movement (and the speed of her bullets), though she can only keep this up for short periodes of time.
If she uses this ability, her senses are also sharpened to keep up with her movement speed.
The bullet time/time alter mode shows this by reducing the speed of everything except Sheyla and her bullets by 50%.
This means that she's able to move twice as fast as normally possible.
(as well as shooting twice as often,
in the same period of time that the enemies experience)


What's not directly shown in the game:
Sheyla is a trained and experienced assassin,
and she's mainly working as an agent for the government.
Taking on risky jobs is pretty normal for her,
as well as killing all sorts of opponents, including demons and monsters.
Though being send onto a monster infested island is a completely new experience for her.

Sheyla is a pretty sweet girl, naturally friendly and cheerful.
(though beware, some of this is only faked, since well... she's an assassin,
and being "underestimated" is always good)

She's really brave, though she's not that self-confident.
Wait what? Brave but not that self-confident?
How does that work out?

Well, view it like this:
She tends to be brave, but she knows her limits.
Especially because she's an assassin, she likes to pick her enemies off guard,
or surprise them with her swift movement.
If she somehow fails, she's tending to escape quickly.
She likes to pick fights with strong enemies,
but she's not dumb enough to keep on fighting when she's at a clear disadvantage.
Hence she's kinda brave, but not too confident in her skills in a head-on engagement.
Well, since she's a woman she has a disadvantage in strength against most enemies anyway.
At any rate, she knows what she's doing,
and she's being successful the way she's doing things.

If you've got any questions about her, feel free to ask.

On a side note:
Sheyla is the very first character I ever created myself, this happened more than 8 years ago.
I've also used to draw her myself, but currently Crescentia is drawing her.

Small status report

The last 2 weeks we made no real progress,
since Crescentias notebook broke down and it had to be repaired.
Well, everything is fixed now.
Since we do backups of everything on a regular basis, nothing bad happened.
It's just that no graphics had been made during this period.

We also decided to not do any hentai animations for the bosses,
because the character sprites are way too small.
You can't even see anything specific on them...
so creating those sprites is just wasted energy I guess?
(well, maybe for some people it's still good despite being such small sprites, but it's hard to satisfy everyone without making compromises, and we rather invest our working time into something else)


Since we're short at least 2 weeks, we decided to cut down from 15 to 13 CG scenes.
(well, we want to get it done as soon as possible, while being as good as possible, and I doubt that those 2 scenes would make a big difference in game quality, but it allows us to finish the game in less time)

Well I'm a bit clueless about the CG scenes narrative as well.
So it's better if I only have to come up with scenes for 13 instead of 15 CG scenes.

I guess I should try to explain this a bit more detailed:
I don't know if my CG scene texts are good enough, and I find it especially difficult to write non-repetitive text, since well... it mostly happens the same.
The biggest difference is that on each CG a different enemy has sex with the heroine.
And while on some CG scenes she enjoys it, on others she doesn't.
It's not that it's the same text all the time, but you could say that there is a similar feel to it.
At least that's what one of the testplayers told me, and I think she's got a point.

Well... it's always:
Heroine loses --> gets captured --> gets fucked etc.
Since the monsters mostly can't talk, there isn't that much room for dialoge.
(it's mostly just Sheyla saying something or thinking)

The biggest thing I learned out of this is, that in future games,
I'll do the CG scenes more as part of the story, so I can avoid this repetitive feeling.
E.g. if the heroine has to rescue some girls from slave traders,
and she fails, she gets sold as a slave herself etc.
That way the CG scenes narrative, as well as dialoge during CG scenes, isn't repeating itself.
Because it's not just being fucked, it's also happening something else, at least in theory.

But of course this means, that doing one CG scene per enemy isn't quite working out.
(it's more of a "one CG scene per stage" then, well... this cancels out the need to lose all the time, so the player just has to lose once to get the CG and then he/she can concentrate on winning the stage)

It's just an idea right now, and I'll have to think more about it.
At any rate, this only matters for future games.
(the current game is fully planned out and it's on it's way to completion)



Good news is, that we found someone who is supporting us by doing music for the game.
I can't share that many details yet, but I'll give out some information as soon as possible.
So I guess it's not that long until the demo will be released.
(and yes, we suck at doing music ourselves... we completely wasted our time, but well... you never know unless you try)

Originally I wanted to write about the improvements I made to the game while Crescentia's notebook was being repaired.
But this post is already too long.

Well, I'll do that some other time.
Tomorrow, or maybe in the next couple days I'll write an article about the heroine.
And yup, I'll also post a nice artwork of her which is NOT in the game.
(well... it actually is... but in the game it doesn't have all the colors it originally had, so the version of the artwork I'll post here is better than the one in the game, because it has full color instead of being yellowish)

A game without music?

(Below you'll find some information about the game mechanics)

We are working on changing some things in the menu, as well as changing stuff on the HUD and lots of other minor stuff.
(all of this basically according to feedback from our testplayers, so it took some time until we had the feedback to work with)

It seems that we'll also implement a "very easy" mode, so less skilled people can enjoy the game, too.
(the game is originally intended to be played on "normal", while "hard" is for those people who think it's too easy)

Other than that... what does a game feel like, if it doesn't have any music at all?
Well it's... weird...
So yes, we are currently working ourselves on doing some music of our own.
(since we have a tight budget)
But this will take some time, since we haven't done it before.


Basically this means:
We have absolutely no idea, when the demo version will be released.
It might be next week, but it might also take another 2-3 weeks.
(well we are working on the graphics and CGs, even the stuff that isn't in the demo... but as long as we don't have any music, we thought it would be better to not release a demo, because this time, we want to show what we can really do, and we want to present it as good as possible)



I noticed I haven't talked about the game mechanics yet.
So lets get to it.


Game mechanics:

Basically in this new game, you play as "Sheyla".
She's some kind of agent (actually she's an assassin), and she takes on various kinds of dangerous missions.
In this case she's on a mission to take out several dangerous demons.
Before she can kill the final boss, she has to take out 3 different bosses first.
In the "full version" you can select the several area's and play them in whatever order you see fit.
You can also replay every stage as often as you like, since there are HP and SP upgrades hidden in the levels, it's possible that you have to replay some stages, if you don't want to miss them. 


Sheylas main weapon is her gun.
You can load 3 types of bullets into it:

First of all the "regular" ammo, you've got unlimited of it.
But it doesn't do anything special.

Then there is "armor piercing" ammo (AP), which is especially effective against armored enemies.
It also pierces several enemies in a line, so it's good against enemy crowds.

Last but not least, there is "high explosive" ammo (HE), uppon contact it explodes, doing AoE (area of effect) damage.
Since the explosion stays for a brief moment, it even hits enemies that run into it.
Damage wise this is the strongest ammunition in the game, but don't waste it on weak enemies!


After beating one of the bosses, you'll unlock 1 of the 3 special bullets for each ammo type.
It's a charged shot with special attributes.
They are also needed to gain access to some of the hidden areas in each stage.
So if you haven't got the necessary special shot the first time you play a stage, you might have to come back later.
(special shots are not unlockable in the demo version)


I should also mention, that you can shoot upwards.
You can't move while doing this (this is intentional).
This might seem weird to some people, since Sheyla is pretty agile at everything else.
(I somehow felt that shooting upwards shouldn't be "always" possible, well, there are only some occasions where shooting upwards makes any sense at all)


Bullet time:

Sheyla has the ability to slow down time.
This effects everything else, except Sheyla and her own bullets.
So this skill gives her a significant advantage in nearly every situation.
(basically it slows everything down to 50% of it's original speed)
There are several points in the game were you should use this skill in order to get past enemies more easily.



Movement:

The game has a lot of commonly known platformer aspects.
For example moving platforms, platforms that crumble away if you step on them etc.
It does NOT have any "death traps", instead of this, there are several "traps" that reduce your health over time.

Sheylas main abilities are dashing and walljumping, and you'll have to use both of them a lot.
Dashing is a fast move, and it also makes Sheyla "smaller" (as it is in some Megaman X games).
This enables her to dodge some attacks, as well as dashing through narrow passages, where she doesn't fit in while moving normally.
Dashing is also necessary to jump further.

The walljump I decided to use might feel unusual to some hardcore gamers, but I decided on a relatively simple to use walljump.
Walljumping "actually" never fails, and it needs no special timing or skill to execute.


The only "rules" (and this might be the "odd" thing) that apply to walljumping in this game are:

- you can only stick to a side of a wall ONCE, you have to switch wall sides after this, or you have to land on solid ground
(this means, you have to jump from left to right, right to left etc. you CAN'T stick to one side only)

- you stick to a wall about ~1 second, after this you'll fall down
(you can't stick longer than ~1 second to a wall and after falling down, you can't stick to a wall again, unless you land on solid ground first)

- if you fall "too fast", you can't stick to a wall
(if you fall down for ~2 seconds, your falling speed is too high, and you can't hold on to a wall anymore)

Aside from these simple "rules", walljumping is always working.
(and yup, those "rules" are necessary to not make walljumping too easy, because then Sheyla could climb up anywhere... and I didn't want this to be possible in this game)

I'm currently thinking about making changes to this system... but actually it works out pretty well.
And changing anything would mean to change quite a lot of stuff.
(it's not impossible... but since it works out as intended, I think it would be a pitty to do changes, if it's not required and if the majority of people like this kind of walljumping)

Well I guess it depends on the feedback I get after releasing the demo version.



This time the game also has "continues", which means, you'll have to lose all continues in order to get a game over.
But you can also switch the continues off, so you'll instantly lose once your HP hits zero.
(this is only recommended for experienced players, or if you like to see all the CGs pretty quickly)



Other things worth mentioning:

Most enemies don't damage you, if you touch them!
(but there are some who will... slime monsters and certain others, but they are a minority and they are not included in the demo)
But if you run into attacks/bullets, you'll obviously take damage.

CG scenes have effects (flashing etc.) and lots of text, but no sound effects.

There are several secret areas throughout the game.
If you're paying attention, you can find some extra ammo or continues.

Basically you can dodge anything that comes at you, it just needs some skill to do so.
(or the use of Sheylas bullet time skill)



Well, I hope that we can present you a fully working demo version with music soon.
If everything goes according to plan, you'll get one completely working demo version, instead of some beta-pre-version of the game.


If you have any questions regarding the game, controls, or anything else, please feel free to ask.

Cleaning up

As you can see, we've got a new header, and I took my time and cleaned up the blog.
I hope it's much better now.
(and yup, I deleted the old votes, and I brought the links to other blogs up to date)

All the Paperheads related stuff is in the [Paperheads] category now.
While you can find some fan-stuff (though it's only one patch so far) in the fan-based category.

Thanks to Russ you can find a russian patch in this category.
Thank you very much for your contribution!


Other than that, we took a bit longer than expected (as usual lol).
But it's nothing bad, just a slight delay.
All that's left to do is the graphics for the boss and the boss battle itself.

I've made some screenshots of the game, enjoy!

Progress report

It looks like we will be able to present you a demo for the new game pretty soon.
If everything goes smoothly, it should be done shortly after this weekend.
(at least if there won't be any critical last minute bugs)

And yes, since we are working on the new game, we are obviously not adding content to Paperheads.
(especially because of all the problems with Paperheads, I've written about them in the older posts)

We also thought about changing stuff on the blog, so there will be some major changes in the upcoming weeks.
(updated links, updated header, change of categories, and I guess the old votes will be deleted, well, it will be cleaned out and brought up to date in general)
But I'll take my time in doing this, since it's not that important at the moment.


But lets get back to our new game.
We've already decided on a name, but we will keep it to ourselves until the demo will be released.

What the demo will contain:
- a completely playable stage with boss battle
- 5 CG scenes (roughly 59 pictures in total) with background
- lots of text in the CG scenes (japanese and english, you can switch the language ingame)
- effects in the CG scenes (screen shaking etc.)

There is NO sound in the game, as we have no money for music.
We also had no time yet, to do something about the SFX itself.

And yeah, it's a platformer this time.
Most of the stuff is already done, and in fact... you won't see everything we've done so far in the demo version, since we are saving lots of stuff for the full version.
(so you won't see the CG scene I've placed into an earlier post)

Currently we are working on getting everything ready for the demo release.
So please be patient, it might take longer as planned, in case unforseen stuff happens.


Here are some sketches and sprite samples, to shorten your waiting time:

Yes, the CG drafts shown here are already done and implemented into the game/demo.
We just want to keep as much as possible for the demo release, without spoiling the surprise.
So it hopefully will be a nice present for you guys and girls.


P.S:
And sorry if I didn't respond to questions, I'm pretty much stressed out, and I tend to rush things lately.
So I might overlooked some posts/comments or questions.

I'm back

Well, I'm back.
The past few weeks I was moving from one place to another.
For the time being I'm going to live at a friends place, until I get a job and an appartment of my own.


But lets get to the more interesting part:

Regarding donations:
Only very few people donated so far, and we want to thank everyone for their donations.
Especially we want to thank Munchman (from ULMF forum), for his generous donation.
Thank you very much!

All the donations we got so far, really help us to continue making games, and we would be happy and grateful for every donation that is being made in the future.


Regarding the new game:
We are currently working on getting the demo version done.
Like Paperheads, the new game will be sold when it's completed.
This means, that the demo version will not contain all the stuff we worked on so far.

It will only contain one complete stage, with all the CG's for it.
(including the boss fight etc.)
Content wise it's around 25% to 33% of the content the final game will have.

I share the rest of the details in the upcoming days.


P.S:
I know I missed a lot in the past weeks.
Paperheads had been released on english DLSite:
http://www.dlsite.com/ecchi-eng/work/=/product_id/RE111186.html

Moving into appartment & screenshots of new game

Well, I guess I get directly to the point.
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:

CG scene 4 out of 8 pictures

dashing and moving platforms

3 different ammo types: regular, penetration & explosive

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!

Paperheads released

It's finally out now on DLSite.

Here is the link to the game:




In case you encounter any troubles starting the game up, place it into C:\Paperheads, or a similar directory (D:\Paperheads, E:\Paperheads etc.).
Also you should make sure, that your drivers etc. are up to date.
Of course you should try out the demo version, before buying the game, to make sure that it runs on your system.





If you're looking for the english patch, you can get it here:
[English Patch]

And the uncensor patch is here:
[Uncensor CG]

Password for both is: prowo

Beware though, that the uncensor patch contains all CG's in a folder.
(even the deleted ones!)
So if you don't want to get spoilered, don't look into the CG folder.

How to apply both patches:
Just place both file contents into the "Paperheads" directory.
Overwrite all existing files, and it should work.

Thanks for the help! + some thoughts on the next game

First of all, we want to thank all of you for your support and cooperation.
And especially I want to thank Kyrieru for his advice and help, without him I wouldn't have been able to fix this.

The game is now being reviewed by Curious Factory (or DLSite?) once again, and I hope it passes this time.
Anyway, as soon as this happens, I'll post the news on this blog of course.


But lets get to a new topic:
I always mentioned, that we don't want to invest more time (and money) into Paperheads.
So everyone who thinks about this statement can easily guess that we will be working on something new.
(while occassionally fixing stuff on the Paperheads game)

Budget wise, there is no budget currently...
Which means, yes, we can't pay for music or other stuff right now.
And so far, it will all depend on the sales of our last game (Paperheads).

We planned it out as a 2 months project (with the possibility of it taking 3 months, but not more than this).
So if we assume that Paperheads doesn't go on sale, I'm going to have to look for a job.
This would mean that the game won't be finished in 2 months, but well, the ammount of work is still aproximately 2 months full-time, it doesn't get more work, it just gets delayed quite a bit.


What we planned for this 2 month project:
- platformer based gameplay
- strong focus on good and fun gameplay
- graphics in pixel art (small graphics)
- one heroine
- 11 enemy types (all different ones)
- 4 bosses
- 4 stages
- 15 CG scenes with several pictures each, as well as text and backgrounds
(so it's definitely a lot more than 15 CG pictures, and it has story this time)


These things are optional:
- voice for the heroine
- sound effects
- music
(all depending on budget)

And also optional but unlikely:
- hentai sprite animations (unlikely to be implemented)


I don't think that we will apply grabs to this game, but in case we do, it will be different than in Paperheads, I don't want to make it too complicated anymore.
And it shouldn't slow down the gameplay, this time the game should be fast.
(so yes, the heroine you can play is actually quite fast)
At any rate, we might not contain any hentai sprite animations in this game.
Yes, I know that lot's of people like them, but the budget for this game is really tight (well, even "tight" is pretty optimistic, considering the fact that it's pretty much non existent right now), the graphics are really small, and we decided that it's best to skip them this time because the game should be done in 2-3 months.

Hentai sprite animations are really time consuming, and we overdid it with Paperheads, as every enemy type that has had grabs, had an overkill ammount of different hentai animations.
(while looking back, I think that one animation per enemy would have been enough)

On the new game, there is more focus on the (hentai-less) gameplay, as well on the hentai CG-scenes and the text of the CG-scenes.

I would say, that we implement hentai animations on the 3rd game we make (if we even be able to finish the 2nd one we just started), as well as slightly bigger graphics so it's more enjoyable.
(not as big as the graphics of Paperheads, but bigger as the graphics on the new game are)


There isn't much to show yet, but as soon as we get enough stuff together, I'll do a blogpost.
But I think this will be not earlier than 2-3 weeks from now on.
(well, we just started the "real" work this week, the last weeks we planned, learned to do pixel art, etc.)

So yes, the upcomming blogpost will hopefully be finally the release of "Paperheads".
Lets all hope that it will get trough this time.


P.S:
No the next game won't be a game with our wolfgirls, because I want both of them to be playable in a game.
(we will have only one playable heroine in the next game, so it's going to be someone else)
But maybe it will be their turn in the 3rd or 4th game we make?
(depends on budget, since a game with 2 heroines means twice the work, especially on the CG's)

Trial Version 1.03 & new vote

Thanks to Kyrieru I was able to improve the game a bit more.
It uses up even less GB Ram now, so the system requirements should be as follows:

2 Ghz
2 GB Ram (Win XP)
3 GB Ram (Win 7)
800 x 600 Resolution

Here is the download:
[Paperheads trial v1.03E]

password: prowo

(sorry, but there is still just only one file-hosting service to download from, I'll chose another one in the upcoming days)

The game itself now uses up 1 GB Ram to 1,3 GB Ram for me, depending on the OS and the computer/notebook I start it up on.

I also hope that the further reduction in RAM usage fixes the problem that a lot of people had with their Nvidia graphics cards.
I can't test it myself, because I just have ATI cards.
(or older Nvidia cards)
And I don't know what exactly causes this problem with the newer Nvidia cards...

So please vote at the new poll, if it now works for you, or if you still get errors.
Thank you very much! 

Known issues:
- the game doesn't run on computers with Nvidia GT and GTX-series
(please post a comment, if this issue has been fixed)

New demo version & vote

After DLSite reported an issue with the game again, I tested the game on several more systems.
But as it turns out, no matter where I tested the game, I never get the reported error.

That's why we need your help!
I opened up a vote, and I want to know for how many people the game runs fine.
(please only vote if you fulfill the system requirements)
So either I find someone to co-op with to solve this issue, or in case (nearly) noone has any issue at all, I can tell DLSite that they should just put it finally on sale.

The more people vote, the better it is.

Here you can find the new demo version:
[Trial ver1.02 eng]

password: prowo

In case you can't download the game, please vote at the appropriate option.
(I've edited the vote once, so it's reseted now, sorry for the inconvinience)
And it would be great, if you would write into the comments what issue you had.
Thank you very much. 


Here is the old version, for anyone who wants to try it out too:
[Old Trial ver1.0 eng]
(don't vote for this one! only for the new one) 

We decided to delete the old version here, to avoid confusion.
(it will be placed into the download section of the blog)



Both with english patch and uncensoring for the CG's that are available in the demo-version.
There is only uncensoring for the CG's, not the ingame graphics.
(you can take a look at the CG's without starting the game, but if you don't want to get spoilered, don't look)


The system requirements are as follows:

2 Ghz
3 GB RAM (Win XP)
4 GB RAM (Win 7)
800 x 600 Resolution

There is a chance that the game runs on weaker systems, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Have fun testing, and please don't forget to vote!

Release delay

パフォーマンスの問題のため、ゲームにいくつかの変更を加える必要がありました。
現在Curious Factoryがゲームの最新バージョンを見直しているところです。今回こそうまくいく事を強く願っております。
(注意:時間がかかる可能性があります。)

変更についてのお知らせ:
CGの枚数が42から34に減りました。
ステージ1用のExeファイルそしてステージ2，3用は別のファイルにあります。

さらに、MediaFireは私たちのいくつかのファイルを降ろしたので、ファイルホスティングサービスに切り替えるつもりです。
(しかしそれは大きい問題ではありません。ゲームの公開が早くなる事を願っています。あと、次のゲームプロジェクトのコンテンツを表示できるようになるまでまだまだ時間がかかりそうです。)


Because of the performance problems we had to make some modifications to the game.
Currently Curious Factory is reviewing the new version of the game, and we hope that it works out this time.
(but be aware, that it might need another week)

To inform you about the changes:
- the number of CGs have been decreased from 42 to 34
- there is now one exe-file for stage 1, and a seperate one for stage 2 and stage 3

Furthermore, we are going to switch the file-hosting service, since mediafire took down some of our files.
(but this doesn't matter right now, since the game release should be hopefully soon, and the next game project will take some time until we can show some content)

Donations opened

Here you can find the blog with the donation option:
[click here]


Like I stated on my last blog post, our team talked about starting to accept donations.
Our boss decided to open up a new blog, where you can donate to support us.
The blog exists also to show those who are interested in artwork, how you best draw CG's and stuff.
(coming up in the next days or so)
Though there will be no adult content shown.


The money donated on that blog goes to our boss's account, and it will be used to support our projects.
By supporting our projects I mean, we need money for our daily lives, so we can continue to work on making games.
(money for food, rent, etc.)
Also some of the money will be invested in BGM for the games.
So far we used up our savings to be able to invest enough time into making games.
(to tell the truth, right now noone of us has a job, and we would love to continue to work full-time on making games)

Thank you very much for your support!


P.S:
We are done with testing the game, and I hope we were able to remove all major bugs.
Currently the game is being checked up by DLSite, and it should be on sale in the next days.
Of course there will be a blogpost here, once it's on sale.

Last minute problems...

 scroll down for english text

ゲームをテストしてた最中にまた最大な問題が発生しました。
パーフォーマンスの問題をコントロール出来るように頑張って解決をしようと思いましたが、解決できなかったようです。
解決できないって事は、パソコンによって遊べないって事になります。
(残念ながら僕は素人のプログラマーなので、正確な原因を突き止めることはできませんでした。)


現在これを解決する唯一の方法は、最初からゲームを一から作り直す事ですが、全くの現実的な解決方法ではありません。
これまで仕事とかで貯めてきたお金で何とかゲームを作り上げましたが、お金がほとんど残ってない状態になり、ゲームを再構築する余裕はないんです。
原因は僕のプログラミングなのは知っています。でもこれでゲームのキャンセルをしてしまったら、気長く待っていた方、パーフォーマンスの問題があっても遊べる状況である方に申し訳ないからです。


まぁ、僕にとっては別にお金がなく、またはお金を出す価値がないって思う人がいて、それらの理由で違法ダウンロードでゲームをDLする人もいればそれで良いと思います。
本当にゲームを楽しんでくださる方は開発者をサポートすると思いますし、最も重要なことは、それらの人々が存在していることだと思います。
問題もいっぱいありながらも僕はその思いでゲームを完成させることが出来ました。
そして最終的に誰もゲームを購入してくれなかった場合は、私が単に失敗をしてしまった原因とみます。


この問題に対して、少なくとも何かをするために、僕は次のことを行うことを決めました。
僕は公開されるゲームと新しく出来上がるデモ版をアップロードします。デモ版は技術的にフルバージョンと同じ量の資源を消費します。
(すべてのグラフィックスなどが含まれていますが、"ロック"されているのでアクセスはできません。)

デモ版が実行できる場合は、フルバージョンも実行できるということです。
100％確実にしたい場合は、デモ版のステージをクリアすることをお勧めします。
それと、ゲームは２BG メモリーを使うので、３GBか４GB メモリーのあるパソコンでしか遊べません。
(OSとその他もメモリーを使いますので。)



何人かの人々がゲームをプレイすることができない可能性がりますが、それでも私たちがゲームを続けられるようにサポートをしたい方に私たちは寄付金の受け入れを開始する可能性を考えてみました。
馬鹿な失敗を犯してしまった事はまことに申し訳ないです。始めてのプログラミングだったので、次回からはもう同じ失敗しないよう頑張りたいと思います。







During testing we ran into another unforseen problem.
It seems that though we tried our best to get the performance problem under control, it didn't disappear entirely.
This means, that the game seems to be unplayable on some computers.
(unfortunately, since I'm a novice programmer, I'm not able to pinpoint the exact cause of this)


Currently the only solution to this that I can see is, to start building up the game from scratch, which is no viable solution.
I financed the developement of the game so far with money I had saved during previous jobs, but since there is nearly nothing of it left anymore, I can't afford to rebuild the game from scratch.
I know that my poor programming skills are the cause of this, but I think it's sad if I just cancel this game, because people enjoy playing it, and because some people are still able to play it despite the performance problems.


I think I’m okay with people pirating the game, if they don't have the money to buy it, or if they don't think it’s worth it, because of the problems.
The ones that really enjoy playing a game will buy it to support the developer and the most important thing is, that those people exist.
That's what I think, and that's what made me finish development, even though there have been so many problems.
And in the end, if no one buys it, it simply means that I failed and in that case, I'm fine with it.


So to do at least something against the problem, I decided to do the following:
Along with the release I'll upload a new demo version, the demo version technically uses up the same amount of ressources like the full version.
(since all the graphics etc. are included, but "locked" so they can't be accessed)

If the demo version runs on a computer, the full version should run too.
To be 100%ly sure, you should play through the complete stage of the demo version.
Other than that, since the game uses up 2 GB RAM, you should have a computer that has 3 or 4 GB RAM in total.
(since the OS and other stuff uses up RAM too)



Because some people might not be able to play the game, but still want to support us so we can continue to make games, we tought about the possibility to start accepting donations.
I sincerely apologize for the stupid mistakes I made while programming the game, it's my first game project and I'll do my best to not repeat those mistakes on future games.


~Wolfenstahl~

Finally done!

scroll down for english text & screenshots

やっとゲームが完成しました。
もうすぐDLSiteで売る予定です。ご期待を！
(他の販売オプションは今の所予定しておりません。)
今の所バグの修正や色々とテストしています。

そして、只今大問題が発生しており修正に時間が掛かっています。。。
一番の問題は、資源が物凄くいっぱい場所を取い、
このゲームだけで２GB　RAMを使い切ってしまいます。
(というわけ、２GB RAM以上のパソコンしか使うことができません。)


原因は最大グラフィック、CGなどなど使用しており、そしてすべてプリロードされています。
RAMを始める前からゲームグラフィックがロードされます。
 なんとかRAMの使用量を削減できるかどうか色々試してみたのですが、残念なが２GBRAM以下に軽減することはできませんでした。


BGMやグラフィックの切り取りややり直しはおいておいて、他の唯一の方法はゲーム自体の再プログラムコアパーツ。必要なときに外部からのデータを格納し、それをロードするとう方法。
しかし、それをやるには余りにも時間が掛かるだろう。。。
(もうすでにお金と時間を使い切っています。。。)

も うとっくの昔にこのゲームを完成したかったんだ。本音を言うともう一回やり直しが出来るほど力はありません。
それだったら最初から他の新しいゲームやグラフィックや、コードを作ったほうがいいです。

今までたためてきた経験を他のプロジェクトに使いもっといいゲームを作る予定です。
正直にいうと、我々が作る将来のゲームはKyrieruさんと同じ方向にいくと思います。
別に彼のゲームをコピーしようとは思っていません。ただ彼のゲームを遊んでいる時、とても楽しい気分になるので私たちは彼みたいな道を歩むことを判断しました。
(目障りなグラブから離れて、もっと２Dアクションとチャレンジゲームにする予定です)


 過去を見て　2012年の3月に作り上げたゲームがとうとう完成するなんて変な感じがします。
我々全員初心者として始めて作り上げたプロジェクトです。
 (ゲームアート、プログラミング、翻訳、アフレコ、音楽などなど)
 二人はフルタイムで半年間働いて、他の人はいくつかの小さな課題をやってくれました。
すべてのチームメンバーとヘルパーとすべてのファンのサポートに沿って、ありがとう！


Well, the game is finally done.
We are planning to sell it on DLSite soon, so stay tuned.
(no other sales options are planned as of now)
Right now we are testing the game, and fixing all bugs that we might encounter.

We also ran into a problem that did cost us a lot of time to fix...
The main issue is, that the game eats up a LOT of ressources.
As far as it is now, the game alone uses up roughly about 2 GB RAM.
(so you need MORE than 2 GB RAM on your computer in order for the full version to run!)


This is because of the large graphics, CGs etc. and the fact that it's all being preloaded.
Yes, the game loads all the graphics it has, right at the beginning when you start it up into your RAM.
We already tried everything to reduce the RAM usage, but we were not able to reduce it beneath 2 GB RAM.

Aside from removing/reworking some of the graphics or music, the only other way would be to reprogramm core parts of the game itself, in order to externally store the data and load it up when it's needed.
But those solutions would cost too much time to do...
(we spend way too much time and money on this already)


We wanted to finish this game a long time ago already, and to be honest, we are not willing to rework so much stuff...
it would be easier to build up a completely new game from scratch, with new graphics, new code, and external data usage.

That's what we plan to do, using all the experience we had made with this project, taking it over to the next one, and doing a way better game.

To be honest, I believe most of our future games will be oriented into the same direction that Kyrieru takes with his games.
I'm not saying that we will copy the way he does his games, but I admire the way he makes
his games playing experience feel, and I think it would be the right decision to shift the gameplay feeling into a similar direction.
(away from annoying grabs etc. more towards 2D platformer action, and challenging gameplay)


Looking back, it's a weird feeling to get a project finally done, since all of this "officially" started back in march 2012.
It's our first game project that we ever did, and all of us started out as novices.
(game art, programming, translation, voice acting, music etc.)
In total 2 people had been working about 6 months full-time on this.
While several others helped out with smaller tasks.

Thanks to all team members, helpers and of course all our fans for their support all along!

final working phase

最近色々と忙しいけどちゃんと仕事(ゲーム)は進んでいます。
Currently we had been pretty busy with lots of stuff, but of course we are still working on the game.

下に載せてある写真は、フルバージョンで現れる新たな敵です。
Here you can see some of the new enemies that will be available in the full version of the game: