So I have officially resumed the development of Red Haze, which will be the final freeware game I make for a while (going to try a higher detail & effort commercial project afterwards). I think this project is truly something special, will blow the water off what I've previously released, and be a pretty good send-off and experience before stepping into the world of making money off small little games I make. You can find Red Haze's Steam page here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/428860
However, Red Haze is a very complex project. It uses very unorthodox gameplay design decisions (as a small example, there are no Game Overs in Red Haze, only consequences and branching pathways), and the game is all about the details and execution of its ideas to create an immerse atmosphere and world. This is no easy task, and if Take the Dream IX's beta testing phase taught me anything, it's that a lot of small things you wouldn't of predicted can go right under your nose.
As such, I am starting Red Haze's testing phase very early to help squash things as they come. I want to work with some willing people both to make the game more technically and grammatically competent; but also to hopefully make it an enjoyable and oppressive game.
I'm opening the floor to Red Haze testing. you can start as early as now, and I'm not going to close off testers until I've run out of keys (and I ordered enough, hopefully). I'm grateful for anyone who is willing to take the time to test the game, but there are some things I should inform you of first:
-THE GAME IS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING FINISHED AT THE TIME OF WRITING!! If you hop into this early, don't go into it expecting a full, fufilling gameplay experience. What I've spent most of my time doing in Red Haze up until now is scripting. I finally finished almost all the core scripting very recently, but I wanted to get all the core scripting and mechanics done early so then when I get into designing (as I'm now starting more fully) I'll be able to design with all of the game's core elements intact, and don't accidentally corrupt earlier areas or save files by making huge changes to the game's base code. While the game will probably expand pretty rapidly (I am a pretty fast designer when I'm into it), at the time of writing all that exists in the game is a few rooms with some interactive things. Voice Acting is mostly not done (Rockette will be fully voiced in cutscenes in the game, but isn't at this point in time), there are some placeholder elements, and there comes a point the game just stops and can't be continued not very far in. While you'll know when I've updated the game with more when it updates via Steam, please keep in mind what you're playing is a work in progress, and not anything close to a finished product.
-I want this to be long-term, not short-term. Development for this game will probably at least go on for a couple months, maybe a bit longer. I don't just want to hand you a beta key, you test it this one time, and then don't mess with it until the game is completed. I do need semi-regular feedback, and will probably message people who signed up for the beta to test a current build if they can and give some feedback on things at least once a week usually. If you're signing up for beta testing, don't expect this to be a one-and-done type of deal, I appreciate those willing to dive into the game multiple times in various states of completion to give feedback on things.
-You're free to do recordings, but don't try to pass it off as an LP of the finished game. Videos are helpful to me, and encouraged. as it lets me observe player behavior, reaction, and response to moments in the game. But do not mark these as the first part of/or a full let's play of the game, please mark the videos as being Alpha/Beta testing videos, and not some 'early' look or start to some Let's Play series. There's not nearly enough done in the game for that at this time of writing.
-While I won't come for your head if you slip out some big story detail in Red Haze you come across in beta testing, I ask you keep most alpha/beta discussion to the below Discussion Thread, and not talk about big story things outside of it.
DISCUSSION THREAD HERE: http://steamcommunity.com/app/428860/discussions/0/371918937280530773/
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TO APPLY FOR TESTING:
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01.) Make a post on this thread, introducing yourself and telling me that you're interested in Testing (MAKE SURE TO READ ALL OF THE ABOVE FIRST): http://steamcommunity.com/app/428860/discussions/0/371918937280530773/
02.) I will add you on Steam as a friend, but not message you.
03.) Message me back when you've accepted my Friend Request and tell me that you're interested in Red Haze Testing.
04.) I will give you a Steam key for Beta Access to Red Haze, which you can activate on the Steam client (Testing will work for Windows/Mac).
05.) Give any feedback, thoughts, comments, questions, or whatever in the above topic (MAKE SURE TO READ THIS WHOLE POST FIRST THOUGH), and be prepared to test it again in the near future when I release more updates via the Steam Client, and may message you at least once a week to ask for impressions/to test certain things in the current build.
Thank you all very much for your time, and thank you to all who help through this process.