Saturday, October 25, 2014

Creating new games!

I figured it would be a good idea to tell you guys and girls what we're up to.
Yeah, we're about to do a new game, and set the game with the kemonomimis (Ferania and the others) aside for now.


The reason for this is simple:

The game with Ferania is too big, and there are too many unknown things that we would have to test and explore first. Because of Crescentias arm injury we were not able to test if animated CGs really work out for what we had in mind.
And there's still some other stuff that makes this whole project pretty much a risk, as we don't know how long it actually takes or if it works out in the end.


In other words:

After ~4 months of not working on any game, we're starting with a new, smaller game project first.
We should be able to deliver this game way faster than the game with Ferania, that's why we're doing it.

Feranias game has planned to include:
- animated game over CGs
- animated grab CGs during gameplay
- 12 different enemies
- 6 bosses
- 1 final boss

which is... a lot...

Our new game has planned:
- regular CG scenes with text
- hentai sprite animations during gameplay
~5 different enemy races (Orcs, etc.)
- 1 final boss

which is, without a doubt, a lot less work to complete.

I think nearly everyone can understand that this game should be way faster to make, by looking at those numbers alone.
(and yeah, I tend to be stubborn when it comes down to sticking to the plan, which sometimes isn't that good, but it prevents me from adding more and more content that was not planned to include from the start lol)

Once we reached our goal and the game is "done", we'll look how well it's received and stuff.
Depending on the support we get, there might be room for expansions and additional enemies and things. But don't bet on it... if there's not enough support, we will simply leave the game "as is".
(and by "as is" I mean the stuff I mentioned before)

As soon as we've got some "minor" things to show, we'll hand the game out to our patrons on Patreon in order to get some early feedback and possibly more support through new patrons that are interested in the game.
(this is kinda a "bonus" to the already existing rewards, no extra reward tier planned for this, I'll cover this topic in a seperate blogpost once the time has come)


Game heroines:




Yep, it's 2 heroines this time.
The purple haired girl is named "Sion Valor" and she already had a brief appearance in our webcomic, the black haired girl is "Medusa Serpentine".
Both are magicians, and yup...
There need to be 2 heroines because of some stuff in the game mechanics that I had in mind.
(plus, other reasons... like... if we do a game with 2 heroines, it might attract more attention than a game with only 1 heroine, like everyone else does... right?)

It's still less work than Ferania, despite having 2 heroines.
Mainly because we don't need to give them different poses for casting different spells.
I mean, they both get their own graphics/sprites!
But they only need ~1-2 poses for casting magic, they don't need a new pose for each spell they cast.
(Ferania has attack combos and stuff... that's a lot more work)

I don't want to make this blogpost much longer, so I'll stop here.
I bet some of you might have a lot of questions, feel free to ask me in the comments below!
Also feel free to ask me questions about these two ladies ^^


P.S:
Ah yes, work on the new game will start around 1st november.
And yes, we WILL get back to Feranias game later on!
I have no intention of dropping that one, as I really love to make a game with Ferania.
(it's just too big and our funds are pretty much non-existing... and we only invested 2 weeks of work into Feranias game before Cres arm injury happened, so no big loss)
I really think it's better to start off with a small project rather than... well... trying to tackle something as big as the game with Ferania.

8 comments:

  1. I can understand the thought process, sometimes you need to do something to keep the motivation and all that going.

    Lord knows I've planned out several games, but they always fall apart due to the fact while I can get motivate and plan it, neither me nor my friend can do anything but write - so we get bogged down looking into coding and art, then the motivation kinda withers away after a while.

    I'll be looking forward to playing another game though!

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    1. Well, I'd love to do a game with Ferania... but then again we're pretty much out of shape after pausing game developement for such a long time.
      Also a smaller, faster to make game would probably give us at least some more funds to work with, which in turn would allow us to concentrate more on making bigger games.

      Plus: new fans!
      I think creating a couple small games before doing a larger one might attract more people in less time, which is a good thing.

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    2. I can certainly understand. Everytime I try a project it gets bogged in something and the motivation just withers away after a while... I'd really like to actually release something beyond the one strip game I've made...

      More fans is always good! My wallet is always ready for you guys.

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    3. I think in our case it's less a lack of motivation, it's more a lack of funds, since we have the will (and means) to push something through.
      I can easily motivate myself (and Cres as well), but some of our larger projects already fail during the planning phase, due to being too large (thus too expensive) and since it would be too risky to do such a large game without certain knowledge that it will sell well.

      Originally I wanted to do some other game with Sion, but... that has to wait.
      Maybe some other day.

      I really need to keep this one small, and I do hope that my usual stobbornness helps me with this.
      (while not being too stubborn... since "some" additions might actually make sense later on... improving the game a lot while not blowing it out of proportion)

      And thank you very much for your support! ^^

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  2. Can't wait to hear more about this game. Is this going to have standard levels, or are you going for a Metroidvania style?

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    1. I thought about trying the random-generation (rogue-lite) thingy with this one as well.
      So, the levels would be more like "arenas", with a bit platforming to do, but more focus on combat.

      You don't have to kill every enemy, you just have to reach the far right side of the "arena".
      Tough killing enemies would give EXP, which you can in turn use to upgrade spells and stuff.
      (at least that's what I planned for the game concept til now)

      So there is no backtracking (no metroidvania I mean)

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  3. Sion Valor...if she ever puts on some twintails and is tsundere....I...the grade S...I mean, Medusa could pull it off, too, but...the purple hair~<3

    Ahem, more on topic: I think this is a great idea. Though it makes me sad from a fan point of view, from my gamer point of view, it'll only make the Ferania game that much better in the end.

    I'm definitely excited! Let's hope for everything to go well.

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    1. Sion is actually no tsundere, she's more... uh...
      If I'd have to put her into a "category" I'd say she acts like a troll.
      (the modern "internet version" of troll)

      It's... well, she's kinda fishing for people she can fool or make fun off.
      She pretty much acting innocent and dumb at times (but she's actually very smart), and if someone falls for it and kinda gives her any reason to fool them or make fun of them... she simply does.
      (out of pure amusement)

      Thank you very much!
      And yes, I hope that it all works out in the end ^^

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