SnowStorm - News of the month (August)

I hope you didn't get either a Snowy or Stormy summer ^^ (well in the southern part of the globe it's not summer though, so who knows?)

In this post, I will talk a bit about the gameplay and few features that I added/plan to add. 

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For some reason, the game happens in what seems the 11th century in northern lands.

After a long introduction where your gameplay choices (like in sandstorm) will lead you to join one of the 3 clans of the Njardarheimr Village, you will start finding your place in that village while trying to understand what's happening there. 

Why are there 3 hostile clans still living in the same village?

Why some children are forced to leave their parents and switch clans at the age of 12?

Where are the elders?

What are those strange blue stones in those mountains caves?

Why are they doing those strange rituals, is it traditional beliefs or thirst for power?

What battle are they preparing?

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After that introduction (which will be the demo (and v0.1 in a more complete form)), you will enter a second phase.

In that second phase (which will start at v0.2), you are part of one of the 3 clans. 

The Hvitr Fenrir (White Wolves), living close to the mountain. Artisans, workers, strategists...

The Myrk Hrafn (Dark Ravens), living in forests and caves. Independent, mystic, erudite...

The Bloba Bjorn (Bloody Bears), living close to the sea. Sailors, hunters, warriors...

Not being born in the village, your allegiance to one of the clans is not as definitive and strict as it is for the villagers, you will have the opportunity to switch clans in the future depending on your actions. 

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Each clan has at least 2 love interests (and maybe 3 sometimes...), that you will discover little by little as I post their lore in the future.

While you are part of the clan, you will obviously have more interactions with the girls of your own clan, but you can still meet/date some of the girls from the other clans.

The goal of the game is not to build a Harem, it doesn't make sense. However, it won't be very problematic to date several girls, especially when they are from different clans^^. But at some point in the late game, you will have to make decisions and some sacrifices. 

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Regarding the gameplay, it is still 95% VN, but with some freedom allowed during the weekdays. Each week, you will have 3 action points, those action points are used to pick an event/girl you are interested to know more about and advance their personal story. Those events can also increase your relationship with one of the 3 clans, which will help in case you want to switch clans in the future. Some events are exclusive to the clan you are part of. Once the 3 action points are used, at the end of the week, the main story will advance as a traditional VN. The events you have not picked during the week will usually be available in the following weeks (along with part 2 of the events you chose before, etc) until the main story advancement conflict with those, then they will be permanently locked.

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The idea is that a week of gameplay (few selectable girls events + main story advancement) represents a complete update. I believe it will take 2/3 months on average, it will really depend on the support and the help I can get for the game. It's bigger than Sandstorm, but at the same time much easier to add content and more pleasant to work with overall. (In Sandstorm, when I want to add a new scene/event, the work is multiplied by 4 or by 5, as I have to do it for each road each time, and using the same assets, the same scenes for one month, it's not very interesting for the dev.  And the player will think that no much has been done when playing only one of the 5 roads, although there was, in reality, a lot of work).

I like to create very different scenes, and Snowstorm will allow me to do that without the need to make it again and again for each road until I can release something, so it will be much more motivating for me, as well as for the player, as he can follow a higher percentage of the content during the same playthrough. I believe it will still be interesting to have 3 playthroughs, one with each clan, as some events are exclusive to the clan you are part of, and as in sandstorm, stuff won't happen the same way or from the same perspective, but overall you will mostly miss what you were not very interested in and chose to miss. 

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That's all for this month, in the next news update in September, I will give more details on the advancement of the demo and the schedule for its release.

Until then, you can enjoy those different sceneries ;)

Take care :)