Balance of Power
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Android
Balance of Power is a romance based visual novel, set at a University in a world where everybody has a ‘power’.
Uncover secrets and deal with magical mishaps alongside 7 pursuable characters, each with their own hardships to deal with.
What’s harder than trying to adapt to University life with none of your old friends to support you? Doing that exact thing at a University where everyone has their own individualized power, even if they are usually more mundane than ‘super’.
Join the protagonist as they settle into undergraduate life at 'The University of Waterford'. Help them to meet new people, make new friends and solve problems both personal and magical in nature.
Maybe even find love?
P.S It seems like there's a dangerous individual about. Make sure to stay safe.
- Ability to play as any gender + choice of pronouns.
- 7 characters, available to romance or befriend.
- Different story for each pair of characters. No need to re-read the same plot beats over and over.
- Demo that’s 30k words long, with the full game expected to be over 100k.
- A mix of comedy, drama, romance and terrible puns.
- The chance to be a mafia boss?
Discord: https://discord.gg/TCBFJveEXR
Tumblr: wizard-raz-studios
Twitter: @Balance_VN
Ko-Fi: Ko-fi.com/balanceofpowervn
Download
Development log
- Balance of Power: Development PauseMar 22, 2023
- Balance of Power Demo 1.2 AvailableOct 31, 2021
- Balance of Power Discord GroupMar 29, 2021
- A Sincere thank you, and a discussion of our next steps.Dec 01, 2020
- Last push for the KickstarterNov 21, 2020
- Kickstarter Live Now :DNov 01, 2020
- Kickstarter Live Tomorrow :DOct 31, 2020
- The Plan for the Polyamourous RoutesOct 22, 2020
Comments
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It's great to see a wholesome and friendly story done well. All of the characteres are interesting especially Jack who is so cute :3. Take all the time you need and good luck for both games.
University of waterford lol, did you get the name from the city in ireland or is it just a coincidence
Hello!
I think it's a coincidence, but I can't say for absolute certain 🙂
We did look at a mix of areas in the UK and nearby for naming ideas, so it's possible I saw the name and remembered it later without context haha.
Cami
Hi, can we expect the full game to be released in the near future (which would be during this year I mean) ?
Hello,
Thank you for your comment.
Unfortunately I very much doubt that the full game will be released this year, or even the next one.
Development of Balance of Power is currently on hold for a few different reasons (I have made an announcement with the full explanation).
Even when I resume development of the game, unless I am in a position to work on it full time or I find a new partner to work with, the release of the remaining 6 routes will take longer than a year.
Best wishes,
Cami
What was your previous writer supposed to be working on? Like, did you have a basic outline for the game already and they were just supposed to type it up, writing full routes, or what?
I ask because I'd love to help if I could, no payment necessary. I just like the game so far and while I have no problem waiting however long is needed, I want to help.
Hello 🙂,
Thank you for your message.
My previous co-writer was predominantly handling Jack and Violet's route, as well as helping out with Casey, Marissa's and the 7th route. We worked together on the outline for all the routes and I was set to help out myself with Jack and Violet, but it's quite different for me to be helping and for me to be the sole writer for their route (and all 7 routes in general).
It's a mixture of workload and also just that bouncing ideas off of another person helped massively with my confidence in my writing and etc.
I've been making progress with Tommy's route lately, and I've written Ellis's, so it's likely I may be able to release a portion of the game while I work on the other routes (by seperating it into parts), but I predict the full game will probably be a while off whilever I'm working alone.
Truthfully I'd love to work with other people on it 😀, however I wouldn't want anyone to work for free. I'd have to figure out something with anyone I partnered with in that respect.
I'm currently focusing on 'To Grant A Wish', as I'm about to run the Kickstarter for it and it's almost finished, writing wise, but then I will be throwing my full efforts back into Balance of Power and will be able to do the game justice ^^. At that time I'll definitely be looking into potentially working with other people.
Cami
Alright, well I write fanfics and my offer to help or even just to be someone to bounce ideas off of stands if you ever need it.
Honestly I just like writing and helping people, so I don't really care about compensation personally, especially in cases such as one person making games and being unable to do it all themselves. It's a lot of work.
Hello :) ,
Apologies, unfortunately we don't have the game in any other languages yet. I'd love to have it translated in future though 🙂.
Cami
Well, if you're ever interested in translating it into Spanish I could love to help, after all, this is such a wonderful game!
We look forward to the update with the whole village. Good luck to you!
Curious to see if this is still in development. According to Tumblr and Twitter, it looks like last update was over a year ago.
Hello,
It is still in development yes ^^.
Balance of Power is currently on break right now while I work on To Grant A Wish, for a few reasons which I have shared on the Discord and will soon put in an official update.
But Balance of Power is still very important to me, and I am determined to bring it to life with the quality it deserves.
story has so much potential. cant way to see more.
Is this still in development or has it been abandoned?
It's not been abandoned 🙂.
YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS
Great game and can't wait for the finish of Tommy's route in the halloween thing. I love the plot as not to spoil it; I won't say. Keep up the great work! As an artist I love Ellis too :)
Is Tommy's path going to be done soon? Thanks!
Hi 😊
Thank you! I'm really glad you enjoyed.
I'm actually working on Tommy's route now after tentatively finishing Ellis's route.
It might still be a while until release though I'm afraid, since I'm currently working on this on my own. Truthfully, I could do with finding a co-writer, but since I'm funding it out of my own money, I can't really afford to pay for a writer right now.
I'm going to do my best though so that everybody gets to see all of these characters stories come to life 🙂
I do write random stuff on my free time and if you need any ideas let me know! I don't want any money for it either :)
I really enjoyed this demo so far! The art style is super cute and I love the premise with each character having their own ability. Really enjoying Jack & Violet's scenes in particular.
Just a quick question, but is the gallery in the latest version up to date? I thought I played through every possible route in the demo, but I've got 3 CGs still missing (between the one where you meet Elanora and Tommy&Jack's Halloween)
Hi! Thank you so much! :)
I've had a look at the CG's in question, and I think that 2 of them are probably the CG's for Endings 1 & 2 which are somewhat jokey endings that can be unlocked by consistently choosing certain types of answers. I'm not sure what the 3rd missing one is however. The remaining ones after are all from the Halloween update, so I'll have a look if there's maybe a small glitch with one of them :)
Ooh I just got the secret endings! They were pretty fun!
The first CG on the last page is still missing, something in the Halloween update I missed maybe?
Can anybody use the "Back" button
I like everything, saw something about a new update hopefully coming soon, very curious about powers and things
Hello, everyone, how would you guys feel about me, if I created a let's play on this game, to basically give it a small promote? I have a youtube channel but it has Zero subscribers, and I want start making video on visual novel games since I heavily love them, so I thought, with the fans blessings and creator's, I could post a link to my youtube channel to watch me play the demo. Hopefully, I am not asking too much, I want some of the hardcore fans to watch either for enjoyment, guide, or whatever you want. I thought if I am going to invade like this at least get some support on it before I post anything.
Thank you
Hello :)
Thank you for your comment. I'm actually really happy when people make videos playing our game, because it's really interesting for me to watch and hear people's thoughts or see them play.
I'm releasing an updated demo soon, with the DLC character intros and some fixes (such as adding more choices in the final chapter and an ending), so it might be ideal to wait for then, but either way, you have my blessing :)
I hope you enjoy, and thank you for your interest in our demo.
- Cami
Thank you if want to subscribe here is my youtube channel link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv8Gb4LDmgiBSHHg3JCU31g
I just finished the demo and I was reeeaaally into the story, buuut I think that *visually*, in the sprites, the characters look somewhat bland and generic. I guess that happens because (1) most of the clothes are very bland (although very realistic) and (2) all the characters have the same nose and mouth. That made it kinda hard for me to want to get to know the characters more and have a relationship with them.
The only exception for me was Tommy, that looks unique and like an important character.
As I said, this only goes for the sprites. In the "cutscenes", the characters looked much better.
I also think it could use a little bit more choices in some situations like a reaction when Tommy is bullied.
THAT BEING SAID, I repeat: I reeeaallly liked the story, great job. I'd very much like to play the full version and have a throuple with Tommy and Ellis 🙃.
Thank you for your comment :)
I can kind of see what you mean with the sprites ^^.
I definitely was a little hesitant when it came to accessories or etc, where maybe I could have made them a bit more distinct ^^
Hopefully for future characters/games, you'll like the designs a bit more :)
I'm glad that the cutscene art looks good though :)
I'm currently working on adding more choices to the final chapter for the updated demo, and I'll definitely look at adding more choices in earlier scenes as well.
Thank you for your feedback, and for your interest in our game :D I really appreciate all the support that we get.
I hope you enjoy the full game when it comes out.
-Cami
Vou jogar quando terminar eu volto
Is the game still in progress? I know the fail of the KS was a huge stepback, but I really liked the game, so I hope it's still under development !
Hello,
Thank you for your comment 😊. I'm really glad you enjoyed it.
Don't worry, I'm still making the game. I'm currently in the process of making an updated demo with a few new endings and introductions to the DLC characters for the sake of a second Kickstarter if we hold one. But no matter what, we're still making the game. It's just a bit more slow going right now as it takes a little longer when funding it ourselves 🙂.
If you want, you can follow the development on our Discord server, which is where I'll probably post the updates first 🙂, and also just chat to fellow fans and etc.
You can join here: https://discord.gg/TCBFJveEXR
-Cami
Thank you for your answer! I am very happy to see that the development continues! Looking forward to the next kickstarter!
Wonderful news :). It's a relief to hear this project is still in the works as this promises to be a fun game with alot of promise.
i like what i see so far! i feel like it could use a few more choices (for example with the final action sequence with tommy and ellis i would have liked to have been able to choose how i felt about ellis' actions) but its enough for me to very much want more already.
I'm sad that I missed the Kickstarter, but...I just found this, and wow. I love it! I'm mostly torn between Ellis and Casey, and I want to give both of them a hug. Definitely looking forward to where this goes!
THIS GAME IS SIMPLY AMAZING ????????
the story is very well - written , the characters are incredible pretty ( specially the blonde one in the end , but ... oh well :"l i hope i can see they again somehow !! ) , and the music is just *chef kiss *
Thank you so much :D
I won't spoiler too much, but all hope is not lost with the blonde character. There is a 7th route after all ;).
Thank you for your comment, and I hope you enjoy the full game when it comes out :)
Cami
Omg, I just finished the demo and I am hooked! The characters are very enjoyable as each one has well thought out personalities and wonderful reactions to the protagonists responses. I am looking forward to the future development of this game. 😁
Thank you :D
It's really nice to see comments like this. I've started working on the full game now, so I hope you enjoy it when it comes out :)
Cami
I was just trying to donate today, but the kickstarter already ended. Honestly, I'm already hooked on the story(especially the route with Ellis and Tommy) so I'm happy you are still planning on continuing the project. If there's another kickstarter at some point I'd be happy to get involved.
Thank you :D
I realised I'd not yet taken out the line that said the Kickstarter was still live, sorry about that ^^
I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it though :)
The plan is for there to be another Kickstarter when I've finished writing/programming the game, so your support would be really appreciated :)
Thank you again :)
It's a sad day... I finally decided to check itchio for more visual novels and found this one, but the Kickstarter just ended :(
Anyways, the demo was really awesome! I love every character so far and look forward to reading even more! This one is going in my bookmarks folder for sure.
I wish you luck with further development on the game, and I hope it turns out as great as you want it to be :)
Thank you very much :)
I'm glad that you enjoyed it :D
I hope that you'll enjoy the full game just as much when it comes out.
I just want to say, if there's any way to donate the money that would've gone to you if the kickstarter succeeded, please let us know, because I'm sure I'm not the only one who would still like to help you make this game in one way or another.
Thank you :)
It means a lot to hear that ^^.
It's something myself and the other creator have discussed a few times, because it would definitely be helpful considering we're making the game no matter what and each donation would improve it. The only thing is that I have my worries about allowing people to make donations outside of the context of a Kickstarter, because I want to make sure that people are getting something worthwhile in return for their money. If someone donates, say £20, I want to feel as if they've gotten something back that matches that value.
It's something that we're still thinking about ^^
I'm the meantime though, I really appreciate your words and support :)
Cami
it dosent seem as if the kickstarter will reach its goal within the time limit (i still have hope anyways) . I am really excited for the game and i want to know if you will start a new kickstarter make the game without any funding or just give up. I already supported with 20£ and if you start a new kickstarter i would defenitely put them in again. Im sure other people feel the same way.
Hello :)
Yes, sadly I think you're right (although I want to remain hopeful myself ^^).
Thank you for supporting us. It's easy to get demoralised with the Kickstarter not succeeding, but there's nothing more motivating than seeing that there are still people who want to play the finished game :)
We won't give up, even if it fails. Luckily, £1000 from the Kickstarter is from a family member, who's said they're going to give us that money even if it fails. The current plan is to use that to buy the sprites we need and a few backgrounds, and continue working on the game. When we have a version that's complete apart from the remaining art that we can't afford (which will be CG's and backgrounds), we'll try and re-launch the Kickstarter. If it succeeds, great :). We'll buy the CGs and backgrounds we're missing and can release the game as we originally intended it. If it fails again, we'll probably release the version with just the sprites, so people can at least see how the story ends ^^.
I'll probably make a longer post going into more detail when the Kickstarter ends, but hopefully this should at least reassure you for now that none of us intend to let this game go unfinished.
Thank you again for following this game and for backing the Kickstarter :)
Cami
Thanks for replying^ー^ since I couldn't find the answer anywhere on the kickstarter page. When do you think the second kickstarter will be launched? Do you think it will have the same perks? Or do you not know that yet? Sorry I'm asking you so many questions but I just have so many.
No worries, they're valid questions and I imagine there's quite a few people that want to know the answers :)
We'll probably launch the 2nd Kickstarter either-
When we have finished all the things we can do by ourselves such as the script and sprites/programming.
Or
When we think we have enough followers/backing that it'll be successful.
Whichever comes first (I'd imagine it'll be the former.)
We'll probably offer the same perks (with maybe some extras), although before we launch the second one I was planning to get some feedback about what people would want to see ^^.
That's our current plan. It might change in the future, but if it does I plan to keep everyone updated and in the loop :)
Cami
killua zoldyck ????? HUNTERxHUNTER ????!!!!!
Haha, I'm aware of the resemblance Ellis shares to Killua, although it was unintentional ^^
Hopefully I'm able to properly distinguish him as his own person in the game ^^
that's ok I love killua ^^
I adore this so much! I was crushed when I realized I was just playing a Demo. Do you have a projected release date for the full game, or is it still pretty deep in development?
Hello and thank you :)
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
The release date for this game is somewhat dependent on the Kickstarter campaign that we're currently running. If it's successful then we hope to release in the first half of 2022 at the latest. If it's unsuccessful then release would take longer since it would have to wait while we can get the funds ourselves (or else we'd have to make it much smaller scale.
We don't really have a projected release date if the Kickstarter is unsuccessful, although I would continue to do what I could for the game, and make sure the script and programming is finished so that it's only art assets we were waiting on ^^
Either way it goes, when the Kickstarter is finished I'll make a post with the planned next steps and make sure to cover plans for release :)
It seems that when i try to open the game it wont open. Do you have any idea why?
Hello,
I'm afraid I'm not entirely sure. It might be that there was a problem when you extracted the folder? Sometimes that can lead to the game not opening.
I can only suggest re-downloading and trying again. If that doesn't work, I can try and help further, but I might need more details :)
Thanks i will try that soon
All the boys are cute but Ellis is definitely best boy :3
I also really like the OST that played on his first appearance!
Thank you :D
I'm glad you like him. Ellis is definitely a cutie when you can get past his initial defensivenesss <3
I was very nervous about the music we had in the demo haha, since we were working with what we could get at the time and that was somewhat limited :) I'm glad that you liked the music for his intro :)
this is really amazing and the best visual novel ive played! I really hope that the game can have the proper resources to be completed you have my support. <3
Thank you so much! :D
It always blows my mind to see comments like this and see the support we've received thus far.
I'm really glad that people are enjoying the characters and story and it makes me excited to share more :D
I really, really liked this! I think it's such a shame that it isn't getting as much attention as it deserves, it's really up there with a lot of other VNs that I've really liked.
I'm really excited for both Marissa's and Jack's routes, and I do hope you at least get enough funding to make the base game.
I'm also super glad that you're planning on doing polyamorous routes as well, because I've kind of been questioning for a while if I might be or not, and it would be nice to see a game with good representation since there are so few.
Thank you so much! :D It's always really nice to hear that someone has enjoyed our game :)
I'm glad you're looking forward to their routes :D Marissa and Jack are definitely fun to write for :D. I'm still hopeful that we may be able to get the funding we need, but I've also got some plans for if not, we definitely won't be giving up on this game :)
I always knew I wanted to include polyamorous routes if I could :) I wanted people to be able to experience the friendship or romance in our game in whatever way they wished and I think there are some really fun and interesting dynamics for me to be able to write :). I hope you're able to find an answer you're comfortable with soon :)
really interesting so far! I cant wait to finish the rest of the demo!
Hi, Nice work on your game so far and best wishes with your kickstarter! I hope you don't mind that I made a video of my first impression.
Hello! Thank you :D
Completely the opposite, I'm really happy that you did. We've heard feedback on the story and characters, but not in depth feedback on the aesthetics like that, so it gave us a lot to think about :). There's definitely a few things that we can take from this to make it better going forward and that kind of feedback in invaluable :D
Thank you again :)
I am very sorry to be commenting when I just started playing the demo, but I need to know if the finished game will be free or not. I cannot afford to spend money on games at the moment, and I am not sure when I will be able to in the future, so I need to know if I will be able to play the finished product. The storyline is interesting so far, and I do love the art style. It would be a shame to miss out on this game.
Hello ^^,
No need to apologize :)
Unfortunately the current plan is for the game to be in the range of £10 - £15 to help make back the costs of making it, and fund any future projects :) . I've been in the position of only being able to play free games before, and I do hope to be able to make a game that we can give out for free to give back to the community, but it will probably have to be a little smaller in scope, or when we have more money to spare as a 'studio'. At the moment, we're just getting established and we need to see if we can make a profit just to know if we can feasibly be indie-devs at all ^^.
If you want any recommendations for some great free games though, I can happily share some. I hope one day to be able to add to that list myself.
A great start! I'm eagerly awaiting the kickstarter and the eventual full version!
Thank you :D I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm both nervous and eager for the Kickstarter myself haha.
This looks so good! The demo was awesome! I'm in love with Tommy my precious cinnamon roll ><
Can't wait for the full release!! Thank you for this amazing piece <3
Thank you so much for this comment! :D This was a really nice thing to read. I'm glad you like Tommy. I definitely have a soft spot for him myself haha, as you can probably tell from my icon ^^.
This demo was fantastic! I'm already in love with your characters, especially Ellis and Tommy. I can't wait to see where the game goes from here! I saw that you mentioned a kickstarter, but I didn't see it linked anywhere and couldn't find it with a google search. Is it currently active? Either way, I'm definitely gonna keep an eye on this project and any future projects you put out.
Hello. Thank you so much! :D I'm really glad that you enjoyed it.
Sorry for the confusion haha. The Kickstarter isn't live yet :) The plan is to raise awareness for the game in October, and start the Kickstarter in November for the best chance of making our goal :)
Thank you for playing our game and following, it really means a lot to see a message like this :D
This is a very good demo, and I enjoyed it a lot. Tommy and Ellis are both especially adorable, but it does make me wonder: would it be possible to get into a poly relationship with them both in the full game? Because their relationship already feels like it's the start of a romance, and I don't want to have to betray one to get the other...
On a different note, the demo file was very large for a game its size, and I note that you've got a very large number of sprites that are either duplicates or variants that I don't think are ever used in the game. It would probably make sense to only include the necessary sprites in the distribution package to reduce its size.
Anyway, I hope this goes well. Good luck with the game!
Thank you so much! :D I'm really glad you enjoyed it. It's my first game so I've been pretty nervous about it haha.
For the first question, we did actually really want to allow the choice for polyamorous relationships :) The current plan was to have polyamorous/matchmaker routes as a stretch goal in the Kickstarter, where you can either be part of the romance, or watch it play out. I really want to include this even if the stretch goal doesn't get met, but it would probably have to wait until we have made some money from the game so we can pay for the art and stuff ^^.
That's a really good point about the file size also. I hadn't really thought about it, but I could definitely get rid of a lot of those sprites. Thank you for the advice :D
Well, I hope you make your goal; the game thus far is certainly deserving of it. :)