Are you going for two Kickstarters this year? Personally, think you should finish one project before starting a new campaign. People who follow your work may know you work on multiple projects, but those who don't might be concerned if you haven't yet finished your previous project.

Well Hazel is basically ready, aiming to release it next month or March If I can do a KS for another simple game let's say in April, and I finish it (or is in beta) in September/October then I could do another one before end of year. We'll see. In any case that's a reason why I will probably not make any KS for bigger games (CoM will be an exception). Hazel is a relatively simple game but from the initial concept already 6 months passed. It's crazy to see deadlines that some devs put, clearly they've not a clue how long making a game takes (indeed a lot of them are late by YEARS lol).

Uncanceled KS projects I have yet to receive, so far delayed by:



1 month

6 months

6 months

1 year

7 months

6 months

8 months

1 year

2 years

2 years

1½ years

3 years, 3 months

2 years, 8 months

2 years, 3 months

3½ years

4 years

3 years, 9 months

3 years

4 years, 8 months



Damn, I backed a lot of crap... Only 3 or so of these have stopped giving updates, so I guess there's still hope for most?

Wow. I knew it was bad, but...!

I think a couple, maybe 3 months of delay is still acceptable, but longer than that...no.

And yes, I really think I'll use KS only for smaller games there's literally a gazillion things that can go wrong during a project, and the bigger it is, the higher the chances of delays!

The only game I backed that got released on time was Crayon Chronicles. The game was already in a advanced state though (had 3 years of development before KS); what was left was mostly polishing.



Most KS devs are relatively inexperienced, which is why they miss their deadlines by a wide margin. Another problem is some devs have the "flaky artist" mentality. They have lots of ideas, but lack the focus to get anything done.

Yep, I think while crowdfunding in theory should help newbies to raise money, there's nothing worse than inexperienced people (in any field), because they rarely get things done. I probably started like 10 games between my 18-27 years and didn't finish a single one. Then I decided to become full time indie. And still, made mistakes. See PS2 out 9 years later or Curse of Mantras which is late too by years.

But for all the new KS, I'll do them only if I'm 100% sure * I can finish them on time.



* well, of course if I get hit by a bus...

So with Hazel done, I am back fighting with CoM gameplay and preparing another KS. I am doing a slice-of-life yuri game this time, and more comedy, since I think what people need/want right now. It's also about a really uncommon kink and I think it hasn't been done before. We'll see, maybe will be good or maybe a disaster, but that's what crowdfunding is for, right?



I am also working "in my spare time" on ToA: An Elven Marriage, writing scenes as I get the inspiration, already up to 50k words (draft of course) which is not bad since the game will probably be still big, but shouldn't pass the 200k words (hopefully lol).

Made good progress this month on CoM, lot of tweaks (you discover how much powerful a card is only when you actually try it in certain circumstances) and luckily my summoning spell for Anima worked, she showed up to help me with one thing of the game, so now the AI is much better than before (can still be improved though).

It's taking so long because differently from PSCD:

- there are 120+ cards but AI should use the same spells as the player (so they don't need to be too dumb!)

- player can do any element in any order, so need to "balance" as much as possible

- in some cases I had to raise both heroes "base HP" since otherwise the battles would end too quickly. In some fight I have the AI start with some creatures already on the battlefield, but feels like cheating so I'm trying to avoid that

- there are a lot more battles: PSCD had 30, this one has 12 x 6 = 72 fights plus I think 3 more for alternate ending based on choices

and the stories are going to be rather hard to write too. So... it's tough, but differently from the beginning where I was a bit discouraged, now I can see myself finishing the demo maybe this year, still taking breaks to do some smaller games because releasing only 1 game a year is a bad idea right now

So with Hazel release done, I'm making the point of situation. Things that SHOULD happen in this order:

- new yuri game KS. Slice of life, comedy, very particular kink

- Summer In Trigue release (maybe this summer?)

- Curse Of Mantras gameplay beta and new KS to make the story. Storyboards are all done and I have already designed/tested 24 battles out of 72 right now !



At this point I'll release CoM first, and ToA: An Elven Marriage later. However, I've already done a good amount of work on that game story, the draft is currently at 60k words (final wordcount will be likely 120-130k at least)

An update, and it's not an April Fool's

You've seen the new KS by now, it's going slow but I think eventually I should reach the goal. I spent this month working on CoM in practice, I wasted a bit of time because halfway I discovered the spells were unbalanced (lol), in the sense that they had little impact on a battle, so I checked them all again (100 spells... lol!).

Anyways, I'm very confident I could have a pre-order version with a good portion of gameplay in June at the latest. Then I'll need to do the KS for the stories probably this Summer (if I manage to finish At Your Feet sooner).

In April and May, I'll also go on with An Elven Marriage because next year will be TEN years since Loren release, so seems a good opportunity to do another game with Saren/Elenor (and later than that it would be crazy!).



I have another game which features all romance combos that I could KS this year, of course depending how things go. Main issue is doing a KS before a previous one is finished, even if people that know me knows that if I do a KS, I do it only when I'm sure I can finish the game (like for CoM, I first want to have all gameplay, then the stories I'm sure I can do them).

So time for another update! The At Your Feet KS has ended, and I'm making good progress on that game. But at same time, I'm still working on Curse Of Mantras and ToA: An Elven Marriage.

I know is weird, and you might think that working on so many things at once is bad, but it's actually better for my mental health. With PS2 I was always working on a single game, for 10-12 months straight. Now instead I alternate thing based on how I feel that day. If I woke up well rested and full of energy I work on complex coding stuff. Otherwise, I just write storyboard, script, do some small photoshop retouches, etc.

In practice, it's not like I'm working on 3 games and slowing down. I think I can actually get things done faster this (absurd) way



Also as always I have many people helping me out. There's a surprise game that I might announce next month (or this Summer anyway) with all romance combos

Another update!

Things are going well with At Your Feet, in practice I have only some CGs missing, but I already have all the story ready. Artist said she's trying to have it all done for end of August

And then some good and bad news: good news is that now that burn-out has passed (crossing fingers) I was able to review Summer In Trigue script and preserve the original multi-branching story with some effort. It means that it could be my next game to come out (finally! lol it was announced 4-5 years ago haha).

The bad news is that since I'll be focusing on it, I don't think I can have the Curse Of Mantras beta. But I'll have it later this year. Probably better since I need to release both those yuri games before November/December, the cursed moment of the year. Once both At Your Feet and Summer In Trigue are out, hopefully by October, I'll focus on Curse Of Mantras (I already have enough content for half of the battles, but still need to script / review the tutorials/beginning of the story).



In short the release schedule is looking to be:

Summer In Trigue

At Your Feet

Curse Of Mantras (beta this year, final game next year)

Current status:

- doing At Your Feet beta

- finishing Summer In Trigue (hopefully for October)

- planning a KS spin-off of a relatively recent game with male/female MC and all romances combo

- planning the next Tales from the Under-Realm game

- working on CCG Curse Of Mantras (almost all cards and all the backstories planned)

- working on ToA: An Elven Marriage (first of the 4 Elenor/Saren spin-off games), already wrote 40k words draft



Yes I've been busy lately

I'm excited for all that is to come!

Thank you! I think I'll be releasing all those in the next 2 years, it will be nice when it's over an I can relax... just kidding, I never relax lol

My new KS will be live in the next days: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/winterwolves/love-sucks

NOT a sequel of Love Bites, just taking place in the same world (there'll be some cameos). No need to have played the previous game

Time for another update!

Starting this month I'm going to begin working on Love Notes. A good amount of the story is done, so it shouldn't take too long. I am even aiming at having a beta in December maybe. (But of course I won't release it during that cursed period of the year )

I'll also work on Curse Of Mantras, since I'd like to do a KS for it early next year. If I make in time also a alpha demo towards end of year to see a bit if all the months spent balancing the cards and designing the progression system was time well spent!

Next year after Curse Of Mantras release I might be working (finally!) on ToA: An Elven Marriage. I already wrote 50k words draft but there's still a lot to do (final game size should be around 150k words which with "only" 4 love interest is not bad). Anyway we'll see if I get burned out again after CoM release haha (I hope not!!).



I have also a few other "secret" smaller games in the works but I won't speak in public about them until they're at good point

Phew was a while since I last updated this!

Anyway, Curse Of Mantras is at good point, beta demo coming surely next month, final game... depends how many bugs people find But I guess April/May max could be a good estimate!

However I'm already very tired from the coding, so I'll take a break after CoM to work on the next TFTU game which I already planned and started writing a bit. Like the first game will be yuri with 2 love interests but this time it will be VERY dark with deaths of main/secondary characters etc

Time to update this!

Curse Of Mantras is out, will be on Steam sometimes in March. Pissed that they're making it Adult Only, but honestly I don't have the strength to fight anymore. Tbh I'm just happy that this BIG game is done



What's next? Well, I'll be working on ToA: An Elven Marriage, but being a RPG will take me a LOT of time, I'm aiming at a beta towards end of the year but not sure if that will happen! Meanwhile though, remembering what happened in the past, I'm also doing some smaller games while I'm done with this big RPG.



There are two games I'm currently working on, both yuri only: one is the next TFTU game, which will be a bit more mysterious, more dark, and with more branching and a bigger cast than the previous one. It will have several cameos, and take place way before Loren's event, when General Samael was just a guard captain. Whoops I've already said too much

The other one is so behind that I'm not even going to tell you anything except that's another dark/mystery game, but set in modern times, and should feature same art as Summer In Trigue (Deji at sprites and same artist for the hotter CGs ).



The goal would be to have one of the two finished this year, before the next big RPG. Mabye both, but that won't be easy

Another update: the TFTU After Midnight KS is about to end, and if doesn't reach the 7000 goal will just mean less scenes with Cynthia (though I secretly hope it makes it, or at least close).

So that will surely be the next game to come out. I'm also working on ToA: An Elven Marriage, and I've already written 90k words, but since is a RPG takes a loooooooooooooong time to code and make sure there are no plot holes and so on. I still hope to have a beta towards the end of year but not sure I'll make in time.

I have a few other projects but they're still behind, and mainly depends on artists speed. Some made good progress recently. So I might make a surprise announcement or KS after TFTU After Midnight is out (hopefully in September/October).