Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Filed under: simulation games

Queen of Thieves customers

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In the image above, my cat Leon seems almost in a meditation pose :)

So, who will be the customers of the game Queen Of Thieves? Take a look below:

(download)

Yes, I was talking about the in-game customers! For those unfamiliar with the game (which is still work-in-progress) it will feature a shop simulation similar to the popular Recettear game. But one thing that annoyed me a bit of that game was the fact that there were only 3-4 different customer appearances :) So in my game I asked the artist to draw a sort of doll-dressing game, and as you can see, the combinations can be a lot.

The main variations are by body shape (normal, fat, old) and by social status (poor, middle clas, noble, guards, priest, wizard). And of course there are several minor variations based on face shape, hair and beard color/shape and hats.

Beside the example above, there will also be female customers of course!

The writing is being done right now and art-wise there is really not much left to do. The game will be a bit different from my usual ones, even if I haven't yet decided how I'll do the mission part. I would like to use a sort of 2d boardgame view, where you move your characters in a sort of turn-based strategy game.

I am not sure yet if I'll also include RPG battles, even if the temptation is strong, since I have lots of armor/clothing/weapons ready to use, but the playable characters would be max 3 (the three sisters Joanne, Kira and Thalia) so it would be a somewhat simplified RPG.

So in theory it could be an otome life simulation game with strategy and RPG elements :D I don't want to rush things with this one since I have anyway other games in production, so I'd like to experiment a bit with a different gameplay system. Time will tell, as always!

The other games

Meanwhile, all the other games I announced are progressing, and we're waiting for the UI/skills/items art to finish an alpha build of LorenRPG to release it to public to get feedback about the battle system. I think it could be ready next month, so stay tuned.

Promotional sale

Promo sales: this week promo sale is of the game College Romance: Rise Of The Little Brother that is only 4.99 until Sunday (included).

Remember Me update

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In the picture above, Gilda sleeping inside a bread bag! Looks like she found it very comfortable :) "Remember Me" update
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Everyone interested in otome / dating sim games will be pleased to know that beside the game I published this week, Love & Order by Christine Love, I'm also making one completely on my own :) It's called Remember Me, and it will feature the same character artist as L&O, and a very extended simulation part. There's also a custom song made for the game, which has been written / composed by the skilled Matt Myers and features the young talent singer Cristina Vee! The story of the game starts with a dramatic event. The main character, called Amarantha (my homage to a friend developer who always supported me with precious suggestions and encouragement in past years, Amanda of Amaranth Games) is dating Aaron since about a year, when one evening during a date on the beach...
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The two were walking together, hand in hand, watching as the sun descended beneath the horizon. The evening was wearing on and the warm colors of twilight were starting to fade from the sky. Amy wasn't sure why Osher, Aaron's father, wasn't approving their relationship. Maybe because of her social condition? because she had to take a part-time job  in a ice-parlor during summer, to pay for her studies? All her thoughts would soon disappear because something worse, much worse would happen. While going back home on Aaron's motorcycle, they had a car accident. As Amy wakes up in the hospital, she discovers thanks to the help of Eddy, a young doctor, that Aaron has lost short-term memory, completely forgetting about her and their relationship! The game will let you pursue four young boys, each one with completely different interests, personality, and approach. The hardest task, and also the "best" ending will be to try to get back Aaron's memories and become her girlfriend again, since you'll have to find out a way to restore his memories. But depending on your actions, Amy could find out that after all, maybe Aaron wasn't the right man for her, and fall in love with someone else instead (or she could also end alone - a sad ending).
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The other dateable characters are: Eddy the young hospital doctor, Lawrence who works with Amy in the ice cream parlor, and Hugh, who owns a fashion shop in the town center mall. There are also other secondary characters, like the annoying Abigail, Aaron's ex-girlfriend, who shows up in the most unappropriate moment...! More info about each of them the next weeks. The game will also feature a map that will let you move freely from location to location, and a time system, dividing the day in several parts: 'dawn','morning','noon','afternoon','sunset','evening','night'. On each place you'll be able to do several actions that will consume one or more day time units, unlock scenes, or change your four main statistics (see the status bar on the left). So for example you might go to the library and read a book from afternoon to sunset, or even evening, to raise Culture. Note that the stats aren't definitive yet, since I might change Culture/Creativity which are rather similar with Athletic or something like that. There will be a morale system, so if you attempt to perform actions while your morale is low you'll fail. There will be also money, that you'll need to use to do several actions in the game like going to the pub, buy stuff in the mall, and so on. And there will be much many other hidden things in the game ;) And don't worry about the writing, since this was completely outsourced - written by a native English speaker, and I'll have another review the whole game texts again just to be sure there aren't any typos! I have no estimate release date yet, but if all goes well I think end of March might be LIKELY, but not 100% sure.