Been busy working on the Red Haze update and one other project, so I thought I should give an update on both as Halloween has passed.
The update is delayed a little bit, I was debating whether to release it in chunks or all at once. I've redesigned a lot of the eventing to help with the lag issue, fixed a few bugs and typos I know about, and am finished with adding new secrets in previous rooms. I could release that right now, but I've decided to hold off a bit as I want to do an 'all at once' release I think. And as I've been working, I've been expanding some of my ideas and the updates gotten a little bigger. The original plans I had for the Lighthouse are done, but I added a few more rooms and a new far more dramatic finale for the Lighthouse path I hope you'll all enjoy, but isn't quite done yet. There's also a new area which kind of increased in scale, and as I've been increasing the areas and the story a bit I also realized I need to get back into contact with Serene Harper, the voice actress of Rockette, for some new lines (as it'd be weird if some of these scenes weren't voiced when so much of the game already is).
As the game's scope has increased, and I'm starting to realize Red Haze without exaggeration is going to be a 15-30 hour long game if you're going for all the endings/secrets and such, I have decided I'm going to increase the game's price at the end of the year from $1.99 USD to $2.99 USD. I thought I should announce this ahead of time, and the change will not happen until early next year after the Autumn and Winter Steam Sales. Red Haze will be available during both sales for $1.75 USD (12% off), but after those sales the overall base price will go up to $2.99 USD partially to reflect the boost of content within the game. I hope the game will be worth it.
I'm learning I should stop putting dates on things, what usually happens is I have a bad tendency to both get distracted/caught up with life things, and then while I'm being very productive I start getting ideas and being the type of person I am I decide to implement those ideas as well rather than just sticking with what I originally had planned in scope. I think accepting and dealing with this part of myself is crucial, and at least having done several games in the last couple years I'm becoming more aware of how I work. I have a bad tendency to delay things if I date them, so I might just take the stance it will be done when it's done, and even still I end up releasing a few games every year. This will not change next year either, I have several projects in partial completion stages that will probably see the light of day next year, and for this year my goal is to finish the Red Haze update and release one more project of mine before the year is up. To decide which one I'll be asking the official Yai Gameworks Discord, which if you're interested to join that you can find a pinned topic for it in the Close Your Eyes: Intermission Steam Discussion Board.
Depending how strong work ends up being, how I balance it with my other project decided to finish this year, and how much I decide to expand and get done, the Red Haze Update could be finished anywhere from this week to early December. The truth is if I focused solely on it and kept to my original plan it could be done as early as tomorrow, but I want to expand it and I think it'll be a better update that will hopefully blow fans of the game away if I put in the extra work and content. I do thank you guys for sticking with me even if I'm absolutely terrible at dating things and getting things done on the time I say I will get them done, I'm going to try to improve on promising dates in the future because I've realized I'm terrible at it.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask in this comments updates and I'll try to answer while I'm focused on this update for the next week or a few (whichever it ends up being). Thank you for you time, and hope you all had a happy Halloween!