Hanako Games

Projects That Might Have Been

#1 by hanako - Mar 2 2019

If you're new here, I always, always have more ideas for games than I have time and resources to make. So every year I post a few of the ideas that have tempted me and see how many of them catch people's interests. Almost certainly, these games will never be made, and even if they are, it's not necessarily the one with the most votes... but it's interesting to see what people find exciting ideas-wise.

Naturally the poll description is a bit scanty, but if you want to know more about one of these concepts, ask and I can give you an overview.

Re: Projects That Might Have Been

#2 by Runespoor - Mar 2 2019

I would love to hear about options 1 to 4!

DnDnChildLabour sounds intriguing, I'm enough of a Batman fan that "lesbian Batman adventures" puts me smack in the middle of "take my money" and silly protectiveness about my fave character ever, the word "Imperial" calls intrigue and shenanigans to mind, and I have no idea what Dialover is!

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#3 by hanako - Mar 2 2019

It's no fun if you ask about everything at once! Pick one at a time.

(Not actually Batman, obviously. I don't even want to imagine what that license costs.)

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#4 by Canyon - Mar 2 2019

I would probably buy #s 2, 3, and 4 just based on the short description. I voted for # 3, but it was close.

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#5 by FantasyFan - Mar 2 2019

Do tell more about "Lesbian Batman Adventures," please!

(And I still want that vampire-raising sim . . .)

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#6 by hanako - Mar 2 2019

so obviously I can't use BATMAN batman but I can tell a story about a dark, brooding, crime-ridden city, and the secret heroes who fight to defend the streets, using only their wits and their training and not any super powers...

And no one would ever suspect that the delicate, sophisticated, snobbish, ex-child-prodigy-musician, ridiculously wealthy heiress, known for destroying people's careers with a single cutting remark, is actually spending her nights punching crooks and foiling robberies. Or that she'd be personally involved with a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who is now her hired help.

Actually, I Re: But WHY aren't you working on.... I have slightly more plot details for the idea now. It kind of wants to be a linear story - how these two meet and overcome their wildly different backgrounds in order to Fight Crime and Fall In Love - rather than having much in the way of meaningful branching, so it would likely need some combat & mystery minigame elements to move the tale along. So it might be mostly story, but with the occasional battle or 'have you figured out these clues' quiz.

I love the characters, but my ideas for how to make a full game out of them are still pretty vague. I don't really want to make the kind of game where you go hours between interactions.

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#7 by MillaMaxwell - Mar 3 2019

I want to hear more about the imperial fairy harem simulator and the D&D & child labor one.

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#8 by FantasyFan - Mar 3 2019

Voted for the vampire raising sim since I'd REALLY like that one to happen, but the lesbian Batman game sounds awesome too, especially with the mystery/minigame aspect.

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#9 by hanako - Mar 3 2019

MillaMaxwell:

I want to hear more about the imperial fairy harem simulator and the D&D & child labor one.

Only the first question counts.

So, I'm not well versed in Chinese history, but I've seen many stories (some more historically based than others, sometimes pure fantasy, but same principles apply) in what I'd call the chinese-imperial-harem subgenre. The basic tenets are, more or less:

- protagonists are usually the daughters of Disgraced Nobles or otherwise socially precarious and desperate to improve the family condition
- entering the harem is almost always seen as the gate to wealth, power, and success, until the new blossoms discover
- there are a LOT of women vying for the attention of the emperor
- there is a RIDICULOUS amount of bribery and backstabbing
- and also friendship! if you dare trust anyone
- there is a complex power hierarchy within the harem
- falls from grace can be VERY sudden and VERY nasty
- advancement is often tied to becoming pregnant by the emperor
- but real advancement only if you give birth to a living son
- of course there's the problem of becoming pregnant by someone else...
- there are always, always secret relationships going on. and someone will probably get executed.

This is of course all rather sex-specific. And that can't be rectified just by saying 'lesbian emperors can have magic babies' because the distinction of what kind of child you give birth to is of critical importance. So when trying to ponder whether it would be possible to do a yuri version of this, I eventually came up with elves/fairies/SomethingMagical. If fairies fill the 'male' role (ruling by power of their magic, reproducing with human women but not with each other, possibly spawning either human or fairy babies) then all the tropes work.

Other than setting and genre I don't know a whole lot about what I'd do with this. Loads and loads of characters, all with their own inter-relationships, their own agendas, and all quite possibly ending up dead. So some LLTQ similarity, except unlike Elodie you're starting in a much weaker position. Elodie only had to keep power. A harem blossom has to fight for it. How far can you get by being nice to people when some of them would gladly poison your tea?

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#10 by Canyon - Mar 3 2019

It was what I voted for anyway, but I would completely buy a game based around things like that. There would be such a great contrast with how cute fairy artwork usually looks with behavior like that.

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#11 by Runespoor - Mar 4 2019

I kiiiind of hate myself a little bit for picking "Imperial Harem with Fairies" (you had me at "backstabbing" and bedroom politics) than into "fabulously wealthy heiress Fights Crime At Night" at the moment (no worries, I'd gotten that it was, you know, Zorro-and-Batman inspired rather than actually Batman, I just have a weird fixation there).

I'm still super curious about DnDnChildLabour, if you wanted to talk about it a bit!

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#12 by Grishster - Mar 5 2019

This is a fun poll that you do each year, hanako!

When I first read the poll question “What do you wish I was working on after Wolf Hall?”, my immediate first thought without looking at the poll choices was “Magical Diary: Snake Hall” lol

Question:
Who of us could deny being a female protagonist (SnakeHallPC) who is getting to know her new hallmates (Raven, Barbara and Suki) while roaming the dungeons searching for Damien?

Answer:
No one.

As for the current poll, I was curious about the Vampire Raising Sim since I’ve only joined this forum recently. Could you talk about what this is for a little bit and how interested you are in finishing it?

Re: Projects That Might Have Been

#13 by hanako - Mar 5 2019

Runespoor:

I'm still super curious about DnDnChildLabour, if you wanted to talk about it a bit!

So, this is the one game in the list that isn't romantic at all. The idea is more that you're trapped in some Evil Victorian/Dickensian Orphanage situation. You and your ragtag team of fellow orphans are sent down into the dungeons to fight monsters and fetch loot. What do you need loot for? Well, in the long run, to pay out your indenture. You are already in debt to the orphanage for what they did to get you this far, and you are not allowed to leave until you have paid off that debt. So you have to earn enough money to buy your team's freedom. However, along the way you'll also need to pay for your room and board, any luxuries you want to buy to keep up team morale, extra skill-training, better equipment, healing... So you've got to make decisions on how many risks to take and how best to pursue your profit goals in order to win your freedom, while trying not to get all your underage, exploited, refugee, orphan friends killed.

Mostly a random dungeon explorer with some management aspects and a bit of social commentary. But no romance, since part of the point is that these characters are too young. (You're probably about 10-12, which while it's fair age for a budding crush, under these quite unpleasant circumstances it's better to leave romance out entirely)

Re: Projects That Might Have Been

#14 by hanako - Mar 5 2019

Grishster:

As for the current poll, I was curious about the Vampire Raising Sim since I’ve only joined this forum recently. Could you talk about what this is for a little bit and how interested you are in finishing it?

It's a Princess Maker style game where you are the butler who used to be in service to a Great Ancient Vampire Lord, who has suddenly and unexpectedly dropped dead, leaving you with his cute vampire 'child' who knows absolutely nothing about anything. You have to rapidly turn her into a powerful vampire in time for her to restore your blood bond so you don't follow your master into death. To do that, it's the usual mix of classes and jobs to raise stats, while dealing with your vampiric charge's tendency to bite anything that catches her interest.

(I often argue that LLTQ is not really a Princess Maker clone because it has a strongly defined plot, a cast of characters who are actually DOING things instead of just waiting around for the protagonist to earn stats, and a ton of lose conditions. Also no randomness, no 'careers', the epilogue is much more about the choices you've made rather than your balance of stats... Anyway. Lu Bu Maker is a Princess Maker clone. Cute Knight is a Princess Maker clone, despite the lack of a 'parent' figure. This game is a Princess Maker clone, though it has some hopefully-interesting tweaks to the mechanics. While there may be a few hidden subplots to find, for the most part you're just working on balancing your stats and making it to the end of the game and seeing what career you receive.)

A gameplay prototype exists, though I'm still adjusting some balance aspects, especially around the combat and stress mechanics. It needs more story and a lot more art, because the art will probably be the main draw. I haven't touched the code in a while because I don't want to be distracted working on another project when we need to focus on Wolf Hall, but it will probably get finished eventually IF I make a good art connection for it.

The main downside to this game is that it really is just a cute, simple Vampire Maker, but coming from me someone might expect it to be another LLTQ and be disappointed. It's just a silly little thing really.

Re: Projects That Might Have Been

#15 by Salaris - Apr 28 2019

I'd be curious what you mean by "Dungeons and Dragons and Child Labor". I'm big on D&D, but obviously the latter portion sounds a little more worrying. I could see a lot of angles on it, though, like playing a kid working for an adventurer's guild, or a magical academy student that is being used for clearing dungeons that "real" adventurers don't want to deal with, etc. What are you thinking of?

Re: Projects That Might Have Been

#16 by hanako - Apr 28 2019

See earlier post:

The idea is more that you're trapped in some Evil Victorian/Dickensian Orphanage situation. You and your ragtag team of fellow orphans are sent down into the dungeons to fight monsters and fetch loot. What do you need loot for? Well, in the long run, to pay out your indenture. You are already in debt to the orphanage for what they did to get you this far, and you are not allowed to leave until you have paid off that debt. So you have to earn enough money to buy your team's freedom. However, along the way you'll also need to pay for your room and board, any luxuries you want to buy to keep up team morale, extra skill-training, better equipment, healing... So you've got to make decisions on how many risks to take and how best to pursue your profit goals in order to win your freedom, while trying not to get all your underage, exploited, refugee, orphan friends killed.

Mostly a random dungeon explorer with some management aspects and a bit of social commentary.

Re: Projects That Might Have Been

#17 by Vivien B. - May 1 2019

*sighs wistfully at the Imperial Fairy Harem Simulator (especially if it would involve body type diversity)* <3

*sighs at Dungeons and Dragons and Child Labour, too*

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#18 by KitCat - May 3 2019

Oh... what is your next is?

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#19 by Salaris - May 11 2019

The idea is more that you're trapped in some Evil Victorian/Dickensian Orphanage situation. You and your ragtag team of fellow orphans are sent down into the dungeons to fight monsters and fetch loot. What do you need loot for? Well, in the long run, to pay out your indenture. You are already in debt to the orphanage for what they did to get you this far, and you are not allowed to leave until you have paid off that debt. So you have to earn enough money to buy your team's freedom. However, along the way you'll also need to pay for your room and board, any luxuries you want to buy to keep up team morale, extra skill-training, better equipment, healing... So you've got to make decisions on how many risks to take and how best to pursue your profit goals in order to win your freedom, while trying not to get all your underage, exploited, refugee, orphan friends killed.

Mostly a random dungeon explorer with some management aspects and a bit of social commentary.

That' has the potential to be really dark, but still sounds pretty fun. I like the concept.

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#20 by hanako - Jun 24 2019

In frothy things I'm certainly not writing:

https://hanakogames.tumblr.com/post/185821861732/okay-so-just-because-a-book-is-out-of-copyright

Re: Projects That Might Have Been

#21 by Vivien B. - Sep 22 2019

A slight Steam bug resulting in merging together the images from Neverwinter Nights and A Little Lily Princess (of all games!) made me remember the Dungeons&Child Labour idea... ;) I'd have loved to play that if it was a thing.

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#22 by Hoosha - Mar 14 2020

Would you ever consider making a yaoi game Hanako..?

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#23 by hanako - Mar 14 2020

Consider, sure, but... I'm really the wrong person to do that, I think. I'm not really that into yaoi. Especially the way I typically see it done in anime. I read slashfic, but some of my favorite slash made my gay neighbor in college completely crack up at how unbelievable it was in his eyes.

Projects are a lot of work and it's generally better not to get into something if I'm not super-enthusiastic about it, and I don't really have that audience, and I worry everyone would end up being disappointed. I'm happier with a gay option than trying to do an all-BL game.

Maybe if it were a smaller, one-pairing-only game? I dunno.