Playable Teaser now on Patreon
Hello! It's been almost a month now but I won't really be sharing a proper "August Progress Report."
Why not? Because I'm not going to spoil anything related to the ending of Project Red. This month has been focused pretty squarely on the games final boss. And you won't see that until the game is out. So what are we here to talk about then?
A new playable build! Now, I want to immediately address the fact that this build is available exclusively on my patreon. This is something that I never super wanted to do. And had adult games not been threatened to hell and back, likely wouldn't have done. Unfortunately we all know what happened and there's no point talking about it again.
Download the build here
All that I will say is that making a game isn't cheap. Especially if you want your game to have original art, music, maybe some voice acting. Eventually you're going to need to pay for other people to produce work for you. Unless you have every skillset under the sun. I'm lucky that I can do all my art and sprite work. A lot of people are hurt by this far more than I am.
But regardless the fact of the matter is that I did take a hit. And with the full release being in a very questionable position now it's hard to say that the game will ever break even. But I still want to do cool shit. I still want more music and some AWESOME stuff that I'm working on behind the scenes. And so I made something extra for two reasons. First, to thank the people that ARE supporting me through this. All my current patrons. You guys are amazing. And secondly just to offset the costs that I have been spending at least a little bit.
Now with that out of the way let's talk about the Project Red Playable Teaser
This playable teaser is a short combat focused build that covers Chapter 3 and 4 only. But it also comes with a number of major changes. To begin we see the title screen. A familiar screen I imagine. One of the major QOL changes I've been working on is integrating mouse support with the game. And the title screen now is fully mouse supported.
Upon selecting a new game you'll see that the previously talked about UI improvements are all present in this build. New text boxes and tons of controls that you can access during dialogue. You'll also see a very different level of content selection. Prior builds featured two options. NSFW or SFW modes. All or nothing. This obviously force people to deal with content they really didn't like if they wanted to engage with the game at all. Well now that's no longer the case. There are 3 preset modes that cover different levels of R18 content as well as an option to customize and better filter out what you want and don't want. This however is not yet extensively tested so things very well may slip through the cracks. If you play the build and see something that should be disabled, please report it like any other bug.
Next up as this is majorly a combat showcase, this build includes the new Soul system. This PT allows you to access both the Fool and the Magician classes to experience different stats, skills and loadouts. Souls alter Red's weaknesses and strengths as well as change up what weapons she can use. There's lots of new ideas to play around with here and this teaser is just scratching the surface of it all.
Choice Card scenes have seen a massive QOL update as well. Prior builds forced you to select a card without any idea of what it did or meant, just to get that information, making you click each card just to understand all your options. Now everything is clearly displayed on screen at once. Each card is tied to an action and for some extra goodness it is also fully mouse supported. Hover over te text window or the cards themselves and watch them react to your movement.
Now this is a MASSIVE one. Goddess Statues have received a complete reworking. Let's tackle these options in order.
1). Offer a Prayer - This behaves exactly as it did before. allowing you access to the Vestal Skill Tree. No changes.
2). Record a Memory - The new way to save your game. Simply select this option and the game is saved. Time doesn't pass. No items are required. I'm sure some of you are ecstatic to hear this lol.
3). Level Up - A brand new option that will be discussed bellow.
4). Offer a Sacrifice - A one time choice that boosts affinity with Ichor. Not really usable in this build since you cannot access her skill tree.
Level Up! Selecting Level Up at the Goddess Statue will take you to a new screen were you can spend Memory Fragments on boosting Red's basic attributes. What are Memory Fragments? New drops that you can get from defeating enemies. While Red's stats naturally increase as she levels up, each Soul starts at level one. Make sure you spend your Memory Fragments to keep your stats up and cover the weaknesses of your Souls. Or double down on one play style and just stick with that. You do you.
Camp Fires have seen a minor update. Resting now costs 10 minutes instead of 30 and no longer gives you the option to save as it's no longer needed. However Resting now serves two purposes.. 1. It heals Red, of course. 2. It causes enemies to repopulate the forest. So you have choices you can make here. Want to grind exp for a new soul? More power to you. Want to just leave enemies dead forever? You can do that as well. Play the game however you like.
Mirrors have also seen a QOL update. Didn't it suck having to enter a map, jump in the mirror to activate it. Sit through a loading screen. Walk up to your mirror. Sit through another loading screen. And then resume your activities? Well we've cut all of that out. Mirrors SHOULD automatically activate as you enter maps that include them. And each mirror lets you instantly travel to any activated mirror with no need to stop by the Forgotten or sit through an extra loading screen.
A brand new feature! Gramophones (don't be fooled by the game calling them Record Players, just let Red not know, it's cute.) have been added to rest spots. Chill out and listen to some tunes.
A number of tracks are available by default and additional records can be unlocked by completing side quests at the merchant camp.
A number of new enemies are also added to the game. I won't talk too much about it but I'll show them as I continue to talk about some of the remaining features that I don't have pictures of on hand.
The games first proper dungeon, relating to the Slime King boss is fully arrived in this build,, giving you a taste of the real game at long last. Survive the gauntlet to reach the boss and complete the demo.
Life after Death is a brand new mechanic. Game Overs don't really exist anymore. Dying in battle will instead respawn Red at the last used Goddess Statue with her Memory Fragments lost. Find a red butterfly at the area of your death to reclaim them. I'm sure this system is familiar.
There's even more stuff but my brains a little fried so, we'll just leave it here. I know putting a playable build behind a paywall kinda sucks but the plan IS to publicly release this eventually. Once I've gotten enough playtests in from my patrons and fix bugs or other issues. So if you really wan't to play it but don't have $3 or don't like patreon you can just wait for the public release. And if you CAN'T wait well I'm sure the build will leak onto another site. Probably. I mean I'm not gonna post it, but someone probably will lol. If you want to support me though, consider joining my patreon for a month. Playable Teaser available here
Comments
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HYPE
Unfortunately I'm poor
QoLs are very nice, not really much that can be said about them beyond that (though mouse integration kinda surprised me I never really thought about it).
What exactly is the diff between standard mode and hardcore mode tho?
Honestly, I never really felt pressed for saves but Record a Memory is nice I guess.
On the topic of Goddess Statues, Offer a Sacrifice seemed to inflict some kind of status effect on Red when successful in the previous build? I never figured out what exactly it did because it wore off too quickly for me to get into a battle, and forgot to ask about it. So, has that been wholesale replaced by boosting affinity with Ichor?
Oh hey, enemy respawns! Now I can't softlock myself out of the medicine quest like a clown!
How do gramophones work in lore lol
And is gramophone just not a word in lore, is that why it's called record player?
Or does Red just not know what a gramophone is lol
Respawning with resources lost? Finding something at the location of your death to restore them? What is this, some kind of ... Hollow Knight? It is a cool system tho.
Will stats from memory fragments also get dropped when you die and get recollected with the butterfly, or are those permanently there?
Haha, no worries. It'll be made public soon enough.
Mouse integration definitely wasn't necessary, but it always stung a bit when I watched my first play tester try to use a mouse at certain moments only to realize it wouldn't work. I've secretly wanted to update that for a LONG time haha.
In regards to the different modes, Standard generally contains material that would be deemed consensual on some level. So as an example, the camp sign events would be enabled in full on a Standard mode playthrough. Hardcore mode then adds in sequences that involve nonconsensual actions. So a sequence like how you can have the Drunkard catch Red when she's stuck in the hole. Hardcore mode also contains things the bladder mechanic that a lot of people aren't really into. And of course, in custom you can enable and disable content for a tailor-made experience.
As for the Goddess Statues, the statuses related to Offer a Sacrifice do still exist. And to reveal another QOL update this build lets you hover the mouse over status affects you or an enemy has to display their name, which is a start. Later I will add full on descriptions for what everything does. But to answer what the statuses do, basically you have a percent chance of either entering "Seeing Red" or "Blessing of the Goddess." Seeing Red makes Red act out of control for 2 turns, but has her do 2 normal attacks instead of one. While the Blessing gives you a brief period where HP, MP and ST regenerate and you have boosted resistances to most status effects as well as an MP cost reduction. But the effect expires after walking a certain number of steps. Regardless you also gain an affinity bonus with Ichor though which blessing she gives you is of course up to her whimsy.
Yeah I think the medicine quest in particular could be a bit of a pain depending on how you used resources. And since crafting and cooking were added to later builds/parts of the game using similar monster drops at times it felt like the perma death mechanic just wasn't working anymore. But I'm happy to riff off the souls formula and make the respawns largely tied to player choice.
Gramophones are certainly more magical in Wonderland! But Red definitely doesn't know what one is beyond "it plays records" lol. This is what happens when you record dialogue early and then realize a gramophone would look much better than a simple record player :P
You will not lose any stats you invest memory fragments into! Just whatever fragments you had on you at the time of death. And if you die again then they vanish for good. Statues can be pretty spread out so there's some risk/reward to consider whenever pressing into a dungeon, especially if you're running low on resources.
Always appreciate the lengthy comments dude!
I assume Standard still has the wolf's scene because it's important to story?
Cool to finally know what the sacrifice does! I LOVE GAMBLING! lol
The way you word it, does Seeing Red not expire after walking some steps, or do they both expire from that?
Red doesn't know what a gramophone looks like, she needs to be more cultured!!!! (jk)
I see, so use em or risk losing em. Makes sense.
It's no trouble, I'm quite invested in this : )
Standard will still have the prologue sequence yes, however it will omit some of the images.
Seeing Red as a status is battle specific so I believe it only lasts for 2 turns. Walking won't remove it. Conversely the Blessing doesn't care how many fights you get into and will stick around until you've walked enough. It should definitely have some interesting exploits in the finished game