Important about Love's Heart

Hello everyone!

Unfortunately, today I don't come with good news. As I feared and had been predicting myself, I can confirm that Love's Heart has been rejected on Steam. The reason? It's not allowed to develop the story in a high school even if I clarify that the characters are adults. I'm sad, but not surprised. I imagined that, with all the time the review team was taking to give me an answer, they would end up giving me one like this. I can't complain because they're right, really, Saint Mika Academy where the game takes place looks much more like a high school than a university. The classrooms are clearly high school classrooms... the subjects aren't what you'd find in a normal university... The decision makes sense.

Now then, the question is what I'm going to do now. I don't know if my itch.io account is still quarantined, probably yes, which prevents me from uploading updates of my games there and I won't be able to publish updates of the game on Steam either. Should I keep developing the game and publishing updates on patreon while sending notices on itch.io? I could, but downloads and sales would probably drop considerably because very few people would want to join my patreon even if it's free. Should I remake the game in RPG Maker giving Saint Mika Academy an obviously university-like look this time? Even if I could, which I couldn't because it would be a lot of work, Steam has clarified that I can't try to republish the game even with modifications.

What am I going to do then? I've been thinking a lot about it these days and I've come up with something. I've thought that I would like to make a remake of the game using realistic art for the backgrounds and characters. In the past, I made two polls on my patreon asking you if you wanted this and you always voted no. The reasons you gave me I think can be summarized in that the game's art would look strange to you. And you're right, it certainly would look strange. That's why I've also been thinking that, instead of using realistic art, I could use anime art but following the same style as Yuri Party! Do you know anime games like Complex Society? I'm attaching an image of the game's cover, where you can see the anime art of the characters.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate that kind of art for the characters, but I feel it wouldn't fit well in Love's Heart. I honestly think realistic art would suit it better, even if it means a bigger change. I feel like that anime style would indeed look too strange.

So, in summary, I'm thinking I want to make a remake of Love's Heart with realistic art, this time setting it in a real university campus that actually looks like one, and remake the game from scratch. This time, I would do it in Ren'Py and it would have changes compared to its RPG Maker version, yes, but it would also have improvements. Allow me to make a list of pros and cons:

Pros:

• Improved art for characters and backgrounds: I know many of you like the anime art of the characters made in VRoid. But, please, let's be honest for a moment. You like it because you're used to it, because that's how you got to know the game. I once made a poll asking which type of art I use you like the most and VRoid came in last place. If I start this game from the beginning, don't you think you could get used to the new art and that it would actually look nicer?
• Improved sex scenes: the sex scenes in the game are images I make in VRoid and modify with Photoshop. They were fine when I started a few years ago, but now I have better resources to make much better sex scenes, I think it's time to move past VRoid. Also, this would even include animations, just like in Yuri Party!
• Improved gameplay: the game would no longer be in RPG Maker, so you'd see the screen in 1920x1080, you wouldn't have to move the character through the environments anymore, but instead click on the places you want to go, just like in games like Harem Hotel. And, just like in Yuri Party! and Yuri Demon, all the game's images would describe the characters in the environments, they wouldn't be backgrounds with characters superimposed.
• Haruna would have more personality: in the current game, Haruna's image doesn't appear when she speaks. That would be fixed in this remake, she would appear as another character in the scenes, just like in my other games.
• APK file for Android/iOS: without a doubt, one of the questions I get asked the most is why the game doesn't have an APK file to play from your phones. RPG Maker doesn't let me compile games into APK format, which makes mobile gaming very difficult. But by making the game in Ren'Py, this would no longer be a problem, you would have an APK file.
• Fewer bugs: currently, to develop the game, I have two versions of the same game, one in Spanish and one in English. I'm Spanish, so I work with the Spanish version, and then I copy and paste everything manually into the English version to translate the dialogues manually. This not only takes a huge amount of time but many times I forget to copy things from the Spanish version to the English one, which ends up creating bugs. By making the game in Ren'Py, I would only have one version of the game, which would reduce bugs, and translation would be much easier for me, saving me a lot of work.
• Same gameplay, same number of characters or even more: the main mechanics of the game wouldn't change. The game would still have a day/night system, you would still go to class or skip it if you want, you would keep studying in the afternoons, you could visit your favorite characters whenever you want because they would still have their schedules, all the current side characters would still be there, the nighttime gameplay would be maintained, there would still be personal quests and the same main story. Everything would be the same with the difference that my work would be more comfortable, allowing me to expand the game by adding more characters and more enjoyable sex scenes for you and easier for me. I could also easily implement the system where you can shower with your favorite characters, something that currently isn't implemented in this version of the game because a main character is still missing and it's complicated to make the corresponding images without that character.
• Special cameo: probably none of you noticed this, but I'm going to reveal it. Have you paid attention to Haruna's classmates? In the new update of Love's Heart, ClassChat was added, which is a chat the classmates of Haruna have among themselves. One of those characters is a blonde girl named Arisa, who comes from another country. That's right, guys, that Arisa is the same as the protagonist of Yuri Party! However, with her anime style and the few conversations I've implemented in the game so far, none of you could realize it other than by noticing the names match. When I created Yuri Party! I already considered the idea of someday making a remake of Love's Heart, that's why I gave the same name to Arisa in that game and in Love's Heart. And by making a remake, I could introduce exactly the same character model of Arisa from Yuri Party! into Love's Heart so you could interact with Arisa and she could be another character in the game.
• All characters will have their appearance at all times: as you know, neither Haruna nor the secondary characters are represented by images when they participate in conversations; they can only be seen in specific moments and sexual scenes. In this remake, since each image would be made in the style of Yuri Party! and Yuri Demon, all characters would have their appearance and appear, giving more life to all the characters, especially the secondary ones.
  

Cons:

• The development of the game would go back to the beginning, so I would have to work on all the mechanics of the game, although this time they would be better made and more comfortable, and it would take some time to reach the development point where I am now.
• There would only be one Haruna to choose from. In order not to have to make each render where Haruna appears three times and not increase the size of the project, you would no longer be able to choose between one of the three Harunas, but would only have the Asian Haruna, although her name would still be changeable by the player.
• The price. Love's Heart has always been free and always will be. But that would be the original Love's Heart, the one made with VRoid anime art. If I remade the game from the beginning, it would be a huge improvement, but also a huge amount of work for which I would like to earn money. However, don't worry. The price would only apply to the final version of the game. Until then, I would continue working as I do now: an early access paid version and a slightly older free version, and it would stay that way during the game's development. So, even though it won't be possible to play the full game for free, those who can't pay would still have hours of free content with sex scenes with all the characters. Also, as is obvious and doesn't even need repeating, those of you who support me on patreon each month would get the game for free.

These are all the pros and cons I can think of, although there are probably more.

Before finishing, I would like to say that I have sent a message to Steam asking if I could submit this remake of the game for review with all these huge changes, and this time it would definitely pass the review. I don't see why Steam would refuse even though they said I couldn't upload the game even with modifications, because these are such major modifications that they almost completely change the game. Even the title of the game changes.

That's right, guys, this remake of the game would no longer be called Love's Heart. Its new title would be: United by Love's Heart Do you like it? I think it's a title that describes the game well and includes the word "United," which you know is shared by many of my games. It also puts a strong emphasis on the fact that this game is a remake.

I also wanted to tell you that making this remake doesn't mean giving up on the original Love's Heart. What do I mean by this? I understand that many of you are fans of the original game and might be against this new game, especially those who paid for the original on itch.io. What happens to those who bought that game? If I give up development, would they have bought it for nothing? Not at all. I've thought that while I'm working on the development of this new game and can keep updating it on Patreon and Steam, and publishing posts about it on itch.io and earning money from it, I can continue working on the original Love's Heart and keep both projects in parallel. That way, no one would have any reason to be against this project, right? After all, the original Love's Heart will continue to exist. The remake will help make my game more known and allow me to earn money from it, because I need the income to keep dedicating myself to video game development and to make a living from this. That's why I also deeply appreciate those of you who support me on Patreon, it is truly a huge help for me.

Does this idea I had sound good to you? Finally, before saying goodbye, I also want to tell you that I am preparing a small prototype of the game to show you the idea and hear what you think. A simple one with the basic mechanics, of course. And also to launch it on Steam if Steam gives me the green light, so I can start publishing updates for the game there.

Here I want to attach some images. The first is the cover of the remake version of the game. And the others are the main characters of the game with their new realistic designs.

Haruna:

Katsune:

Katsune (fox girl):

Fuyu:

Kokoro:

Yuri:

Professor Mia:

Nana:

I understand that they might seem strange to you at first, but please, try to forget that the original version of the game exists and focus on these designs. Don't you like them?

This is the cover:

This is everything I wanted to tell you. To finish, I would like to post this link to a Patreon post explaining exactly this, but with a poll included, since itch.io doesn’t allow polls. It’s to know how much you like or dislike this new version of the game. I kindly ask you to answer honestly but to keep in mind the idea of trying to give this version of the game a chance, please. And if you want to give me a more detailed opinion, I’d love to read your comments about it.

I REPEAT: The current Love's Heart WILL NOT DISAPPEAR. I’m only making a remake to take my story further and earn more money, but this remake will not replace the original game.

Have a great day!

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