Fatal Hearts - Awaiting Release

[mikey]

Hmmm, I wonder whether this was a "business decision", adding the minigame to make it more appealing - I remember there being only some puzzles at the beginning, but I suppose RPG/battles are somehow still THE feature - so was this driven by the success of Cute Knight?

Well, in any case, I was kind of hoping there would be no minigames or at least no RPG-style minigames, but I guess that it was inevitable and I'm probably an extreme minority, not liking a RPG-ish minigame.

More sadly though, I suppose this is yet another proof that there is no way of reasonably selling a pure VN.

Nothing against your game though. It's the system, that's wrong ^_^.

[papillon]

It's still a puzzle really. I can't explain how because that would give away part of the solution. But trust me, that's more strategy than it is RPG. You will lose that fight repeatedly until you understand the puzzle.

The game has always been designed to include all kinds of challenges, from research and language puzzles to arcade games (the Joust game shown on the webpage - in character you and Lucy *really are* playing a videogame at the time). It's about trying to find puzzles that fit the storyline as much as possible. It wouldn't make sense to have you puzzling out secret codes in order to put your clothes on in the morning. The 'business' aspect of it is that I need to make sure there are X challenges in every chapter. And I can't make any puzzle too similar to any other puzzle. So occasionally it's a stretch to find something that fits. This wasn't a stretch, though, this fit the storyline perfectly.

What's going on there is a fight sequence that is vaguely alluded to in every path - this is the only path where you're actually present when this fight goes down, most of the time you just hear that it happened. But since this time the viewpoint character is there, it makes sense that you get to be actively involved in the way the fight goes. And what better way to represent a fight in a puzzle fashion than turn-based RPG?

This doesn't have anything to do with Cute Knight and it doesn't prove that you can't sell a pure VN - I was never trying to. Not with this one anyway. Is Summer Schoolgirls 'pure'? Fatal Hearts is what it was always meant to be, a hybrid.

'Puzzle' was always a problematic word, since people who remember the teaser demo will recall that the 'webs' puzzle isn't actually a puzzle either. You don't really have to solve anything, you just have to do something (move the webs). Puzzles, activities, minigames... I think 'challenges' is probably the best.

[mikey]

Thanks. I was just thinking about whether you would be willing to put so much money or effort (FH is now IIRC in its second year of development) into something without minigames, a pure VN - would you invest in it, from the pragmatic viewpoint? Sure Summer Schoolgirls was more or less a pure VN, but it was rather small. I ask because the only other real commercial developer in this area is also making Shira Oka in a form of a dating sim-ish thing. You could probably name VioletIris who want to publish a pure VN as a counter-example, but I kind of think that the selling of that VN once it's done will just be a kind of "let's see what it makes", instead of being a project that was being designed to return the costs and make something extra for their developers. Okay, if you want it's not proof that original pure VNs (meaning without minigame intermezzos or downright hybrid gameplay) are not seen as rentable in the West, but the fact is you aren't making one and neither is anyone else. Or would you honestly consider making a VN without any extra minigame features with the same effort (putting in money and a long development time)? And hentai doesn't count I don't know the shareware/$20 world that much, so that's why I ask.

[papillon]

Honestly, I don't know. Summer Schoolgirls sold well enough to be worth pursuing - and it's tiny and done on no budget at all.

I'm going crazy with FH partly because I *can* - Cute Knight paid off in a big way and I have the money and the time to sit back and fool around with a game I wanted to make. It should make back the cash I've put into it, unless it flops. Will it make back the TIME I've put into it, possibly not. But I really wanted to do this, it was an idea that grabbed me.

Everyone in the business is nagging me to get a Cute Knight sequel out and I'm just not even touching that until this is done.

And a lot of people in the shareware world, if they're going for money rather than labor of love, tend to aim at a development schedule of six months or less. So no, if you asked the people around me whether two years on a pure VN was a reasonable thing to do from a business perspective, they'd say no.

Can it be done? Sure, if you want it enough. But SS took me a lot longer to write than I expected it to. And this is taking forEVer. So you have to want it a lot...

[papillon]

as for hentai not counting - i *wish* I could afford to finance and create a proper hentai game! Unfortunately the game I want to make, while pure VN, would probably take as long as FH to produce, not be able to be sold anywhere except DLsite, and be rejected by everyone there for being not nearly porny ENOUGH.

[Sailor Kitty]

Misa wants!

I'm gonna nag my father for this. Is this a GXB or a GXboth? Is there GORE? What I have puzzled together is that the khaki poeple are part of a cult.

How old is kristina?

[DaFool]

Very interesting discussion.

Well, I'm not commercial (yet?), but anyways, I was contemplating my next project and thinking of doing projects which are deemed unfeasible from a commercial perspective.

as for hentai not counting - i *wish* I could afford to finance and create a proper hentai game! Unfortunately the game I want to make, while pure VN, would probably take as long as FH to produce, not be able to be sold anywhere except DLsite, and be rejected by everyone there for being not nearly porny ENOUGH.

Aha! That seems to be the thing I am targeting, starting with NT (well, except for the 'pure' VN gameplay part). (Yes, by golly I might have found my niche!)

Best of luck for FH, it is great you have so many artists on board.

[papillon]

Christina's 15 - since this is non-hentai I don't have to pretend that everyone is of legal age. Most of the characters fall between 15 and 18. Primarily GxB with one GxG ending and some extra subtext. There is some blood but not to guro levels, it's generally just people with blood smeared on them, not people disemboweled. (Well, and one picture of a heart, which is slightly ew.)

I would love for this to be ready for release by Halloween. I don't know if it's possible, but it would be great for marketing.


General status update:

Remaining to be scripted - One chapter of one branch.
Number of files in the graphics folder - 165
- of which are backgrounds or CGs - 121
- of which are complete.... ??? (That's harder to count.)

Character sprites complete - 13
- not complete, 4

(If you're doing the math in confusion, there are logos and such that are neither CG nor character, and there are also alpha masks for all the sprites and logos and such)

Size of the sound folder: 9MB.
Size of full install: 25MB.


----

A secret surprise for anyone checking this thread despite its lack of updates!

This sketch was made by an artist who had to back out of the project. Therefore, since this picture cannot be used in the game, I'm putting it here. (I do have many artists who ARE actually working... quitting-people generally quit on their first picture.)

[papillon]

newly completed, an option for those who prefer their boys a little less bishie...

(Not my type though)

End of tim-path reached preliminarily.

[papillon]

End of Tim-path reached. Other than polish and soundtracking*, the script is now 100% complete.

Number of endings - 14

Number of jpgs (backgrounds/CGs/etc) in data folder - 133

Number that still needs to be DONE - about 45. some of which are assigned and in progress, some of which aren't.

Sprites still not done - 3, one of which is a lot of frames and the other two of which are not.

Size of sound folder - about 20MB. (* Most of the music for the soundtrack now exists but didn't when the script was being written, so I have to go through and apply songs in the right place now that I know what music I *have*. I may need one more piece of music.)

Money spent - I'm not sure you want to know. Hundreds already and plenty more to go.

[monele]

Progress progress . I'll always consider a 100% on script to be a huge milestone.... (since I've never really reached that XD)

[papillon]

another video teaser showing tiny bits of gameplay...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGv55l2nePU


(This is made because I'm a marketing troll - I need to start talking to people about 'I have this upcoming game' and have something to show to prove that the game exists.)

[monele]

Neat particles ^^... Seems like it'll be very varied .

[papillon]

sprites now in for Tim...

[Sailor Kitty]

I hope he is a gettable character, because he is MEEEP!