Miranda
Story and Graphics by Chaotic
Link to Play online or Download
Link to walkthrough

Miranda is an older game that Chaotic has decided to convert to Free to Play at vdategames.com.  As I have mentioned a couple of times, Miranda is the inspiration for Ariane in Paradise, so if you want to get a taste of what AiP is like, play Miranda.

Over a year ago, I was declaring Rachel Meets Ariane to be finished, and was looking for inspiration for my next project.  I started playing a lot of other peoples games, but I was getting frustrated.  The truth is, I have grown accustomed to playing Renpy games. Online HTML games were getting annoying.  So I did the only thing a programmer could do and converted some of these games to Renpy.

I converted many Tlaero Mortze and Chaotic games because they all were created with Tlaero’s Adventure Creator, though with different versions, so the results varied.  But now I have this great collection of games I can’t share because they are not mine to share.

Miranda is a flawed game, but has a lot of potential, which is what drew me in.  My impression was, “With some improved graphics and a little expansion, this could be a great game.”  I was seriously considering doing just that, but with no access to the main model, I couldn’t do much.  Then I thought, “What if I remade it with Ariane?”, and started to do that instead.

All it took was that initial inspirational push and I went from there.  The initial scene, from the meeting at the pool, to the second meeting in the hotel lobby, is pretty much beat for beat the same in both games.  (Actually there is one MAJOR difference, but I’ll get to that after the public release of Ariane in Paradise).  From the lobby in Ariane in Paradise you go downtown shopping, from Miranda you go to a volleyball game.

I wrote Chaotic and sent her an early alpha test link. She noticed the similarity right away and appreciated the homage.

The other thing that the two games have in common is the objective:  Both games have two stats “influence or charm” and “sexy”, and you have to reach certain levels at certain checkpoints to advance the story. The other is you have to find out 4 things:

In Miranda, you have to find out she likes 80’s music, studies philosophy, likes to hike in the jungle, and is secretly a nudist.  You can also optionally meet her good friend Faye.

In Ariane, you have to find out she likes to dance, does gymnastics, has an interest in Astronomy, and likes the outdoors.  You can also optionally meet her good friend Rachel.

I’ll talk more similarities and differences later, but for now enjoy Miranda.

Darkness Falls

Written by Tlaero
Graphics by Mortze
Link to Play online
Link to Download

From Tlaero: “Darkness Falls” is an episodic detective series set in the same universe as Dreaming with Elsa, Redemption for Jessika, Finding Miranda, and Saving Chloe. Today I’m releasing the complete Season 1 of Darkness Falls to the public. Season 1 ended up being 5 episodes as well as a bonus scene for getting all of the achievements.”

From Saving Chloe, we learn that a portal to another universe has caused humans in this universe to be gifted with super powers. Veteran Detective Blake, and his young hot partner Michelle Won work on homicide cases in this universe. They have no powers themselves except for detective brains, but start finding cases involving people that do.

There are cameos by characters from the other games, including a common event indicating that this game is on the same time line as the other games.  There are also a few new characters with different powers that arrive in the last case.

It sounds like Tlaero is leaving the scene, or at least taking a break. That means Darkness Falls may be the last Tlaero story we get.  She leaves with a novella called AAA, available for download here.

Message to Tlaero: Been there done that, I’ve taken long stretches off to clear the brain.  Doesn’t matter if you come back to the genre, or find a new genre to conquer, you are a great artist, looking forward to what ever you do next.

3D illustrator Mortze is now working with another writer Ikansabot who also writes games for Lessons of Passion.  They are working on a new project called The Science of Lust.

Two Golden Hairs

Written and Illustrated by Fleet
Link to Download

I like to do three games with these posts, so I decided to find out what Fleet was doing. I’ve corresponded with him on various forms and he helped me beta test Something’s In The Air, so I’m kind of a fan.  His visual novels are simple and the low res graphics always seem to have a charming “handmade” feel to them.

He released this one about 6 months ago, based on folklore from the Brother’s Grimm, and of course putting an erotic spin on it.  It’s pretty short, but fun.