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)