There’s a new indie visual novel on iTunes that isn’t all that new. It’s The Flower Shop: Summer in Fairbrook, a port of the PC game The Flower Shop. Winter Wolves has tweaked the dating sim to make it more appropriate for portable play on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Best of all, the portable version is much more affordable! It’s only $1.99, $18 less than the computer version…

A year ago, Tycoon Games released a visual novel set in the 17th century called Heileen. It starred a young woman named Heileen, who was going with her Uncle Otto, his mistress Lora and her friend Marie on a boat trip to the new world on a business trip. Now, over a year later, Heileen’s story continues Heileen 2.

If you haven’t played Heileen, brace yourself for spoilers. Heileen 2 begins with Heileen, Ebele, Robert and the ship’s cat, Black, stranded on a deserted island after the ship sank in the original game. They’re living day to day, managing to get by thanks to Robert’s fishing skills and Ebele’s cooking and gathering skills. Heileen still missed and wonders what happens to her old friends and family that were on the ship, and wonders if they are gone or still somewhere out there. One night, while they’re around the fire, Robert gives Heileen some tarot cards he found on the beach.

The tarot cards given to Heileen are magical. They not only seem to relate to her actions, but they are also able to influence her dreams. They can allow her to see people from her past that were lost in the shipwreck and interact with them once again…

n the past, visual novels haven’t really been one of the most popular genres. Their popularity and fanbase was mainly centered in Japan. That’s starting to change now, with the translation of many Japanese visual novels and creation of original, English language ones.

That’s where Tycoon Games comes in. For a while now, the company has been creating visual novel style games, like Summer Session, Heileen and even Spirited Heart. The real trick is creating visual novels that aren’t just about reading text, and Tycoon Games succeeds in delivering games that offer sufficient choice and challenge. Their latest offering, Bionic Heart, is its best endeavor yet…

There’s nothing like a good ole interactive fiction game. Bionic Heart by Tycoon Games, is now in the first stages of beta testing (also known as the closed period).

Bionic Hearts is a comic-book style downloadable interactive fiction game for the PC, Mac and Linux that takes place in London in the year 2099 in a world where Earth’s climate is so ravaged by pollution and global warming that most of the world is covered in an unending rain. You play as Luke Black, an information engineer working for Nanotech, one of the leading nanotechnology companies of this time period.

Interactive fiction (IF) is basically a adventure game but, instead of searching around for an item, you talk to people and make choices that will effect the outcome of the game. There is usually still an inventory but the game play is much different. Think of it as a Choose Your Own Adventure type game…

While visual novels are common place in Japan, and a fairly standard game genre, they haven’t found the same audience in North America or other regions yet. That’s slowly starting to change, and quite a few independent developers are starting to take a chance on the genre. Tycoon Games is one of them, and has recently released its second visual novel adventure game, Heileen.

The star of Heileen is, appropriately enough, Heileen. She is a young woman who’s lived with her merchant uncle Otto and his mistress Lora ever since her parents died. Otto is headin on a trip to America for business and has decided that this time Heileen will be joining them. He says that it is because he wants Heileen to expand her horizons, but she thinks he has some kind of alterior motive.

Visual novels are still new territory for gamers outside of Japan. In Japan, the genre is thriving, but they’ve slowly started to grow in popularity in other areas thanks to games like Phoenix Wright and Time Hollow. Independent developer/publisher Tycoon Games has just created Heileen, a new historical-fiction visual novel for PCs, Mac and Linux computers to help expose more gamers to the genre.

In Heileen, you play as Heileen, who happens to be the niece of a merchant in the 17th century who is traveling to the New World…