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.