A Princess of Lilies

A Little Lily Princess is now available on Steam



Or on my website, where you can also find short demo versions to try out the engine and gameplay.

Coming Soon

The 'Coming Soon' page for A Little Lily Princess is now available on Steam, so you can wishlist the title to be notified when it is released.

The game will launch first on the hanakogames website for the discounted beta-testing period. That’s the time to get in if you want the chance to make any suggestions for tweaks to the romances! All customers who buy on the hanakogames site will receive Steam keys when the game launches.

Stat Building, Simplified

or rather, "resource gathering", which might be more accurate in this case.

In A Little Lily Princess, you will encounter the familiar schedule-planner to set your activities for the week and boost those numbers on the side of the screen:

(You may notice that those bars don't go very high. There's a reason for that, which we'll get to in a moment...)

After you've selected all your activities and begin the week, the outcomes for each day's activity are determined:

And at the end of the week, those icons are totted up and added to your side stat total.

When the weekend rolls around, you have the opportunity to pursue extra scenes with various characters (common scenes happen every week regardless). To unlock a scene, you must meet the stat requirement. If you choose to play the scene, you spend the associated stats.

In this screenshot, Jessie has a free event available. Lottie's event requires 5 Belief, which the player doesn't have at the moment, so can't be played. Lavinia's event requires 3 Grace. If the player chooses to play Lavinia's event, the Grace stat will drop from 4 to 1.

That's why they're really more resources than they are character stats. They represent things that the PC has done recently, not changes in her overall skills. Having 10 Grace doesn't mean she's changed to become more graceful, and spending 10 Grace doesn't make her suddenly clumsy.

More importantly, the targets for any single event are always within reach. It can be a problem in some sim-style dating games where you're interacting happily with a character only to discover at the last minute that you needed 200 Wisdom in order to get their happy ending... and you need to back up several months and grind that stat in order to get it that high!

Here, you are constantly spending and regaining. It's worthwhile to build all your stats instead of just one, because you never know what might be needed for the next event. The low cap means that an event can't ask for more than 10 of a stat, so even if you have nothing in that stat and need to build it way up for your next event, it won't take too long to meet the requirement. The intent is to create a feeling of consistent progress - progress which requires a little effort, but not a huge amount of frustration!

Motivational Bonus Art

Since I actually am trying to get Black Closet moving again, I had some chibi versions of the characters done up as enthusiasm/inspiration.

This isn't exactly how they appear in-game obviously but important personality notes shine through...


C|| Thais, Mallory and Althea 1/2 by Philaphobia on deviantART
C|| Rowan, Vonne and Elsa by Philaphobia on deviantART

as for the monstrosities

That would be this:



Secret Flirts - Nintendo DS


Do not buy this game unless you are addicted to collecting terrible games just so you can impress people with how bad your taste is. Which is okay. Some people are into that. Some people gift Secret of the Magic Crystals to each other.

If you want to know why I'm mocking it, check out this Let's Play thread. Nuff said.

High School Dreams

I know, you totally want to see a Western 3d hot-pink mall-bunny dating sim, like, for sure.



Compared to some of the monstrosities I've seen on DS, though? This doesn't actually look that bad. I mean, it's still the sort of bizarre shopping-focused fictional high school experience that is alien to me outside of television, but at least the people involved have put some effort in and the writing on display doesn't make me want to track the authors down and shove them into lockers. And the game's only five bucks so if the style works for you, have fun.

Black Closet - Rowan

Oops, I almost forgot about Rowan. That's... Kind of a common reaction.



Naturally, she's the minion with the best starting Stealth score. And you desperately need someone who can carry out tasks without getting caught. Better hope she's really on your side!

Black Closet - Mallory

The Ingenue. The Pollyanna. The New Girl. And the shortest girl on the team.



No surprise that Social is her top starting skill.

Black Closet - Vonne

Behind every great leader is an awesomely organised assistant.



At least, as long as she's on your side and not secretly betraying you...

Black Closet - Thaïs

A spoiled brat prone to throwing temper tantrums, sure, but you have to expect there's more to her past that shell. One of the characters who's evolved the most in production.

In gameplay terms, she starts out with the best score in Intimidation so tends to get deployed when you need to rough someone up - er, convince them.

Black Closet - Althea

Introducing the first of your minions - er, loyal Student Council members.



Like you, Althea is a senior, which means that you've had a lot of years of history together, and university looming on the horizon. If, that is, the school doesn't come crashing down in a scandal first.

Most elegant young ladies keep their love lives under wraps. Althea is unusual among St. Claudine's students in being openly a lesbian... and willing to play "prince" for girls who aren't quite sure what they want. She flirts with just about everyone, except you.



(And if you're familiar with a game character of the same name in development, it's a coincidence! Neither of us knew the other had such a character going, and they're not exactly similar.)

gee thanks google

Searches related to "magical diary":

magical diary walkthrough

magical diary review

magical diary download

magical diary sequel

magical diary wolf hall

secret of the magic crystals

... noooooooo.......


On a happier note, I do actually have someone working on some new test sprites! It might EVENTUALLY get underway!

December 2012 Big Visual Novel Sales

So it's becoming something of a tradition in the gaming world to have massive blowout sales in December, right? May as well join in the fun.

So, for this month, almost all of my games can be purchased (in download format) for $5 each. Simple, flat-rate, no fuss. How much of a discount that is depends on how much the game cost to begin with!

To get this offer you'll need to use a special discount code - instructions for this and several other December-only offers can be found at this webpage. If anything on there isn't working, please let me know!

In other development news, The Royal Trap is still merrily ticking along gathering artwork, and I hope to be able to release it in the first quarter of 2013.

I am currently playing around with something so experimental that I can't properly describe it, and so early/artless that screenshots would look like nothing but a bunch of lines and boxes anyway. It is distinctly not a visual novel, but might be classable as a dating sim... sort of... but NOT a stat-raiser. It involves schoolgirls, solving mysteries, and having things like Object Cards and Location Cards. At least, it does at the moment. This is still early enough that wild new ideas and completely new plot arcs are popping up and being shot down all over the place.

Sorry for the lack of information regarding future developments on Magical Diary. Due to life being life and change happening over time, it looks like in order to move forward I will have to give up on my plans for someday being able to release a cohesive mega-game of freshman year... because it does seem that I'm going to have to throw out all the existing art and start over. This is always a painful thing to do, even when it's a good idea. Nobody likes letting go of a plan, or wasting a bunch of half-made assets. So this is why Wolf Hall has never gotten off the drawing board. my new year's resolution - to bite the bullet, give up on the old, and look for the new.

not trying to strike a match here

So I spotted someone on the web describing one of my games as the "WORST DATING SIM EVER." This caught my interest - is this someone who actually plays these games? Why is this game the 'worst ever'? Worst GAME ever I don't usually bother following up with because that tends to mean someone who is totally disinterested in either the graphical or gameplay style, but why worst dating sim? What is it being compared to?

... Of course, I had an inkling of what the actual answer probably was, and was not surprised when he answered and proved me right.

"Because you have to play a girl."

Definitely THE worst ever, huh?

(Note - Obviously I do not demand that people who are not into this stuff suddenly force themselves to play and pretend to like it, what fun would that be? Just... Think of the assumptions packed in there.)

rose colored rear view mirrors

Vaguely glancing at the Let's Play True Love thread is a bit of a shock.

I remember liking this game.

This shouldn't be a shock, it's a pretty clear influence on a lot of my work, Summer Session being the most obvious. (For some people, it was TokiMemo that was the big influence, but I've never played it, even the girls sides, and don't know all that much about it.)

So it's a surprise to me to look back at this game and go "Wow, that's awful."

The art really hasn't aged well. It's not just the number of colors, which wasn't really their fault, we did have more technical limitations then. It's not just the particular style of huge eyes and harsh technicolor highlights which was in vogue in that particular era of anime but makes people cringe nowadays. Even my untrained eye is finding the anatomy pretty ropy.

And that protagonist... what a creeper!

I liked this game? I must have been seriously bored.

Of course, compared to the other h-games of the era, it doesn't look quite so bad. Some of those ancient relics are truly... special. Someone even mailed me a free legit box copy of DOR once just to prove how painfully bad it was. (AND IT WAS.)

Really, it's hard to imagine how I got into this field when I look back at what I had to try and catch my interest!

Magical Diary

So, if you haven't heard by now, Magical Diary is out on Steam.

If you bought it from me directly and want a Steam key to add the game to your library, forward your email receipt to my support address. The achievements you've already earned in-game should automatically unlock when you launch the Steam version if you install it to the same computer you were using before.

If you haven't already bought it... what are you waiting for? Limited-time discount GO GO GO.

Hanako Games development updates

There's so much going on, and so little that's in a good position to tell you about! (But if nothing else, jump down to the end of this and answer the question.)

Magical Diary



Today's patch (1.0.32) replaces the slightly dull trophy room with custom icons for each achievement. Not a big deal, but it makes recording your progress a bit more fun and colorful.

Long Live The Queen

Still waiting on title screen art before it can go into official beta. No one's at fault here, a bunch of unbelievable life craziness hit all three of the key participants in this project.




On the bright side the long delay got me to look at the way class results / skill increases are displayed, and make them more animated and less dull.

The Royal Trap

So far only one route has been completed... and that's the one featuring Mister Sparkly.



Lots more writing to do. There are at least three more full routes to go, with another still hovering in a 'maybe'.

I've also put a bit more work into game menus, giving them some simple animation and dressing up the load/save screen (haven't done options yet though.)

Summer Visual Novel Writing Contest...

... doesn't actually have any information about it yet, other than to say that yes, I do think I'm going to try running it. Someone is working on a character sprite, and I will get together a rules post for approval probably next week when I'm less overworked.

And then, the question...

If I said I was working on a project called "Black Lily Veil", what would you expect it to be about?

(Just trying to see what associations this title would bring up in people's minds. I'm not actually working on that idea... yet.)

I'm just borrowing this for a minute

Okay, no, I am shamelessly stealing this quote from a forum post, because LOL.

Probably as result of reading certain kinds of LPs on this forums i'm thinking next milestone should be a cross between unicorn breeding and otome game.

In which you're continually torn between lust for irresistible beautiful men and the need to remain forever alone, so your unicorns don't hate you.

The app market is still full of thieves

Apparently someone tried to grab a flash dating sim off deviantart which wasn't even complete yet and put it for sale under their name on Android. Yikes! However, the actual author found it and got it taken down reasonably swiftly.

(I just stumbled across this by vague websearch, I know none of the people involved.)

Magical Diary - A Victory for Evil?

So, at the end of Magical Diary, players have the option to upload their character to the Online Yearbook to display to others.

This also means we have a record of play distribution. Obviously this won't cover ALL players, only those who choose to upload their characters, and therefore, the statistics may be off. But it's still interesting to look at. We have five romanceable characters, and four of those have two ending possibilities, Romance or Friendship. It's also possible to end up alone, either through not starting a path or through screwing one up midway through.

Of the ~900 current uploads:

14% ended alone.

5% were Virginia Romance.
2% were Virginia Friendship.

9% were Ellen Romance.
3% were Ellen Friendship.

16% were Grabiner Romance.
2% were Grabiner Friendship.

20% were Donald Romance.
3% were Donald Friendship.

and finally...

24% were Damien Romance.

While it's slightly tricky to be sure from the records, I expect quite a lot of the 'end alone' were people on Damien's path, too.

So there you have it, mathematical proof that people still prefer the bad boys. :) (To be fair, the game does sort of steer you in his direction for your first playthrough.)

(as for the missing 2%, blame rounding.)