Progress Update + The Future of Project Red

Hello there!

Happy May! April was...a lot for me. Both physically and mentally.  And there's still some stuff I'll be dealing with for the next few weeks. All in all I fell short of my own goals when it came to completing Chapter 7.  That being said we're a week into May now and Chapter 7 is roughly complete.

On top of completing the April demo, I also had to do more work on Chapter 6 than I realized as the actual conclusive scenes while drawn, were never written into the game itself, so between these two things and my personal life issues it became kind of impossible to also complete Chapter 7 before the end of April.  But now that that's all taken care of I'd like to share a look at the content of Chapter 7.  Originally titled "The Cave" I think I'll be renaming the chapter as "The Rabbit Hole" which is perhaps less clear, but actually more accurate to the lore of my Wonderland and what the real focus of this chapter is set on. But without further ado let's take a look at the general idea of what happens in this section of the game.

Chapter 7

To begin with there's actually a big side quest that can only be completed once you've finished Chapter 6.  If you've thoroughly explored the Farm House after meeting Scarecrow you may recall this ladder on the 2nd floor that led to a locked Attic with no way of opening it.  Well that key can be found if you explore the Crow's Nest.  Now this entire sequence I should stress is, entirely optional, but even so I will not be spoiling any of the actual reveals or story here.

What IS important to discuss is the nature of how this quest ends.  There are three choices here. Tell the truth of your findings to Scarecrow, lie about it or simply don't speak to him and continue on your way. There is no right or wrong answer here. You just have to decide what you think is best to do, given the information you have.  Nothing less, nothing more.

Whether you decide to do that quest or not the real way forward is the exit through Broomhill Village.  Red will come across a sign at a crossroads.  The way forward leads to the Yellow Brick Road.  The way to the left leads to a creepy Mansion with a locked gate.  And the way to the right leads to an old cave.  For now Red decides to explore that cave hoping to find the weakened and cornered Werewolf that Hati shot back in Chapter 4. This kicks off the official start of Chapter 7.

After exploring the cave however Red instead stumbles upon the Sick Man she encountered earlier that night. He's passed out in a corner of the cave with a bad fever. If you haven't gotten his medicine you'll have to backtrack to finish up that quest before you can progress with the story so, I'd recommend finishing that at the start of Chapter 4.  But of course with the guy being passed out getting him to drink his medicine presents a problem.

Nothing a little mouth to mouth can't fix though.  Red herself may be a shy girl when it comes to things like this, but her commitment to helping this guy out weighs her own embarrassment. The two go on to share a wholesome moment together as Red nurses him back to health and they officially become acquainted with one another.  The man introduces himself as Skoll.

But as Red tries to escort Skoll to safety outside, the floor collapses beneath their feet.  This locks you into the main dungeon of Chapter 7. As you'll soon come to find, this cave is no den for a Wolf. But something far more eldritch in nature.

Skoll joins the party properly as the two search for a way out, but at every turn they find strange organic growths. Walls of pink flesh block the road forward, tentacles sprout from the floor and walls and try to snatch Red, and the cave is full of large, Leech like creatures that try to drain the pairs blood. It's not a good place to be stuck in.

In battle Skoll wields a metal pipe and focuses on Blunt Force type damage. Hati of course focused on Gun skills and Pierce damage.  Scarecrow on Alchemy and Slash damage with his Scythe.  And the Witch will be a master of Magic.  Each assist character functions as a bit of a showcase of the various combat and damage styles and they provide hints on what is effective in each dungeon.  There's another new enemy in this section as well.  A humanoid monstrosity resembling an amalgamation of various Leeches.  If you see him, you should run.

Worried about being locked in a dungeon with no save spots or campfires?  Fear not for Cheshire is here too.  Cheshire's shop will feature enhanced options since you're in a bit of a tight spot and she'll be your safety, providing you with everything you could need. Items, saves and resting will all be done through Cheshire for the remainder of this chapter.

Eventually you'll finding pulsating, beating hearts sprouting from the ground of the cave. This is the main gimmick of Chapter 7. Find these hearts and destroy them to remove the pink fleshy walls that are blocking your path.  But be careful as with each heart you destroy the Demoleech will become more and more aggressive, intent on stopping you.

But keep going and eventually you'll find the root cause of it all.  The Tentacle Beast.  A living wall of flesh and tentacles that has spread throughout every corner of this massive cave. And with the help of Skoll you'll have to slay it.  Once it's finished you can finally return to the outside world and give Skoll a little send off before you venture on towards Chapter 8.

While Chapter 7 is roughly complete now, it still needs quite a bit of polish and finalizing some of it's unique mechanics, especailly in regards to the Demoleech who will act as a sort of Nemesis/Mr.X kind of brute that's constantly trying to impede your progress. So there will be a lot of logic to mess around with there before I get it to a level I'm satisfied with.  Right now he's fully functional for combat and has his respawn mechanic and animation set up.  But his proper pursuit and scripted sequences are all still waiting to be fleshed out.

What comes next?

The next steps for me are to jump straight into chapter 8.  7 might not be fully complete but it is playable from start to finish so I'll begin working on the art and assets necessary for chapter 8.  Luckily everything I need has already been made from the pre 1.0 builds of the game so it's mostly just redrawing old art and bumping things up to match the current style.  For example Witch has her battle arts set up and ready to go but the pre 1.0 build didn't feature the purple under color to her hat and clothing so I'll need to adjust those.  As well the boss is done in the old sprite style and Witch will need a full walking sprite now as she becomes fully playable.  Since I don't need too much 100% new stuff I'm still expecting to finish this chapter in May.  It should be a relatively shorter one to develop just because of how much of it is already drawn so unless I decide to really go crazy with redraws or expanding the lewd content of the girls I should be okay.

But as for you guys and this page, unfortunately we've reached the point where I will no longer be updating the current demo.  Currently as of 1.8 Chapters 1-5 are available entirely for free.  And a good chunk of chapter 6 is also there including an optional dungeon with Broomhill Sewers.  Now of course those chapters are not 100% done.  But there's also nothing left to really add to them that would make for a substantial update.  At least not until the full game is finished.

I don't expect there to be a proper update to the demo until the game is completed now.  The next update will be an exact copy of the full games opening hours, with guaranteed save compatibility between the demo and the full game.  And of course it goes without saying that I still expect to release the full game this year.  At the rate of 1 chapter developed per month, and Chapters 8-13 remaining it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that I'll likely be working through October to complete the game.  From there I'll probably give myself a month or so to dedicate to pure playtesting and polishing.

How can I continue to get updates on the games progress?

There's multiple ways to continue following the game. If you're here on Itch already well, these devlogs will continue to be posted each month. Transparency is important to me and I will always make sure to update you on my progress so you can know what's going on and have a rough time table of when to expect the full release.

If you'd like more informal updates though I've revived both my Twitterand Blueskyaccounts as platforms where I will post WIPs of things I'm working on and screenshots of game progress as I make them.

And of course my Patreongets the most access to everything I do.  There is a free tier of course that gets similar information to these devlogs and the paid tiers get access to even more images and full CG's as I make them (save for major spoilery ones.)

If you have requests for other social media you'd prefer to follow feel free to leave a comment and I will consider making an official page.  For now  that's about all I have to share.

It may be a while before you can sit down and enjoy a new gameplay experience with Project Red, but I hope you'll look forward to the full game and the final demo later this year.  As always your support is greatly appreciated and I'm so grateful to everyone who has left kind words, criticism, reviews and all that. Patreon supporters and those that have paid for the demo here as well have eased the burden of my goals for extensive voice acting and original music. The game wouldn't be where it is today without you. So thank you.

Talk again soon.