Friday, April 15, 2022

Once Ever After has released!

My newest and fanciest game is out! Please take a look:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/951860/Once_Ever_After/


Description: Everyone knows how the story goes: innocent, 18-year-old Red Riding Hood goes into the woods and is corrupted by the naughty, naughty Big Bad Wolf. Ingrid is the newest Little Red Riding Hood: she doesn't know what awaits her in the dark woods, but she knows that it seems exciting.

But Ingrid's world is only one of an infinite number of Tales, and those stories are starting to bleed over into one another. War is coming, and Ingrid doesn't even know what war is. Nothing will ever be the same, and the only weapon Ingrid has to face the changes is sexy fun.

Features

  •     A 20-30 hour RPG across multiple alternate fairy tales.
  •     25+ base scenes with 200+ images total.
  •     30+ chibi images illustrating cute plot moments.
  •     All characters have access to multiple classes and skill trees that can be mixed and matched.
  •     Visible enemies instead of random encounters.
  •     Modern quality of life features like autosave slots.
  •     Quest log to organize required and optional content.
  •     Optional post-game challenges leading to second ending.

This game includes a lot of new writing from me, tons of sexy images drawn by Crescentia, and a whole lot more! It's the equivalent of many TLS updates and is a complete story even in Early Access state, so please consider giving it a try. ^-^

24 comments:

  1. Hey greetings from Germany. Will this game be available somewhere else too? Its sadly not available in the german steamstore

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    1. Regrettably it's not at the moment. I had really hoped that Steam and Germany would work out their problems before this release. T-T

      I will eventually make the game available via other stores, and if you're following the blog you'll definitely see when that happens. But the reality of the market is that Steam is dominant, so for an ambitious game like this, I need to focus on that release first.

      Steam generally tries to block this, but FYI if you can purchase the game via another region, it will remain playable in Germany.

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  2. WOOOOOO!!

    Gonna get it as soon as I get home today.

    Looking forward to it already.

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    1. Been playing on and off the past few days and I'm loving it so much it's hard to put down but RL stuff takes priority of course. Still, I've played maybe 5 or 6 hours so far and I'm deeply satisfied with everything I'm seeing.

      It's everything I expected and more. I'll be sure to drop a review on Steam once I've gotten through more of it.

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    2. I'm glad to hear that it's lived up to your expectations! I will be grateful for your review later. ^-^

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  3. One of the rare times when I grab a game on release, only played through the intro so far but already having a blast. Your games are just solid gold quality Sierra!

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    1. I appreciate the kind words, and hope you enjoy this one!

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  4. Thanks for the fantastic game. I left most of my thoughts in the Steam review, but I wanted to put this here as thanks -
    "The very best games use their mechanics to bring greater impact to their narrative; this is one way that good games distinguish themselves from visual novels punctuated by interludes of gameplay. Once Ever After succeeds at this very difficult task in a way that remains compelling from start to finish."

    Finishing the game reminded me a lot of the first time I played through The Last Sovereign, when after winning a great battle the main character got whisked off to captivity in a foreign empire, and I was informed that the story would continue in the next update. I suspect that playing TLS I feel something like my grandfather did waiting each week for the next episode of a radio serial.

    In any event, the end of Once Ever After leaves me wanting more, so if you are inclined to continue the narrative with new characters or old, I hope this game's financials are sound enough to warrant that investment.

    Thank you again, it was delightful and thought provoking.

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    1. I'm very grateful for your Steam review, but what's more important is that you enjoyed what I was going for with this game. ^-^

      I tried to design this one as an essentially complete experience, but of course there are more stories to tell, both for Ingrid and the setting. For now, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and polishing it as much as I can!

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  5. will this be free at some point in the future?

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  6. Honestly, I'm not too excited about the protagonist being a woman...

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  7. Is Once Ever After finished in terms of story or are you going to add more to it in future story?

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    1. Essentially finished. The current version can be played start to finish and the only potential additions will be side content. However, an OEA2 is at least theoretically possible.

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  8. No wonder the art style looks familiar! Might give this a go when I can

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  9. Just finished this game; I loved it, as expected! I really like the mechanics of the universe, and the characters themselves were amazing.

    I know that it's not likely planned, and even if it were it wouldn't happen any time soon, but I would love a sequel, even if it's just a different Fable with a new protagonist set in the same universe (multiverse?). Thanks for all the effort you put into making great games and stories and good luck with The Last Sovereign and whatever your next project ends up being!

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    1. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed all those elements. ^-^ Please leave a review if possible!

      I am actually on the fence about a sequel. I have definite plans: it would begin with new characters in the Beauty and the Beast Fable, then as the plot ramps up, the characters from the first game would join. After introducing so many Tale-specific mechanics in this, I'd actually be free to do some even crazier things with the premise.

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  10. Found a mistake. You're told to look Northwest to find Frieda. But instead, I got to her in the portal northeast. Just thought I'd mention the mistake.

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    1. Very possible, but could you specify the exact line of text that says northwest?

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    2. During the talk with Brunhilde in her house after rescuing Ulfina, she says "For that, I need to send you to a woman named Frieda. She lives in a Tale just alongside Hoodton - check the northwest part of town.". I'm guessing that's what Regreme was referring to. The portal to the Overgrown Tale is indeed in the northwest part of Hoodton, while the portal from there to Frieda's Tale is in the northeast of the Overgrown Tale, so I think the text is correct.

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  11. Reporting a bug

    In-game name "Vault Entrance" room. Pressed backwards after dialog to avoid enemies who aggro'd me. Had the "we can't leave" dialog and then Ingrid got stuck because an enemy had filled the space she would walk back to

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    1. Thanks for the report. I believe that this one will be fixed in version 0.6.3, when it goes up on Steam.

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