Hello all.
I have been figuring out what to work on next for this game. I need to expand the first basement (the one with the brown walls, which was actually the second basement to be added), and also add another underground area, and also add stuff to the castle. I have been doing that, including adding more stuff to the light puzzle, but there's nothing "put together" to make the build "flow" better (have a start and an end).
For those that have played, the idea behind the light puzzle is that Lavinia uses this light puzzle to slowly open the way to the lower underground levels, so there's some back and forth in the game. Right now there is some sort of "path" you must follow to reach an "end screen" but that ignores the puzzles that are part of the castle itself, so maybe I should work on castle puzzles now.
A few days ago I thought it would be cool to have a "stalker rat monster". If you're an old follower of this game, you probably remember this image:
I didn't explain what that image was about. That was from some "Haunting Ground" like game I wanted to make, and I worked on the AI and all that (and that's also how I learned to make somewhat-realistic characters with realistic hair like the one Lavinia uses). The game is basically dead at the moment, but it's something I'd like to go back to after The Nightmare, if I can get either Patreon or Crowdfunding money for it (so if I earn your trust at the end of this game, keep that in mind when that time comes).
Anyway, I have been working on making a "lite" version of the AI of that game. My idea is that, at some point in the game, you "set free" one of the rat monsters and it's following you in the castle. While that's not part of the story in The Rats in The Walls, I think that could be interesting to make the game "more gamey" and not just have the protagonist walk and "discover the horrors hidden under Exham Priory".
But I think first need to expand the first basement and add the castle puzzles (including adding castle furniture and all), so there's an actual route you must follow and have the "event" that frees the rat monster, and also have animations of the monster grabbing Lavinia and all that, similar to the chase sequence.
I also want to modify the rat monster a bit (specially the head) so it actually looks like a rat. TBH right now it kinda looks like a human dog =_=.
I can't tell you when this will be ready, because I still have a lot of complications, and I am trying to grab free time here and there to make this happen. Again, thanks for the encouragement. If you want to support this game's development, please purchase it, but remember it's taking a while to be finished. If you would rather wait until it's more advanced, or even finished, that's ok too.
