ALPHA 2 / CHAPTER 2 RELEASE

TLDR:

I am releasing Alpha 2 as-is. Chapter 2 is mostly done - with the exception of the last part, but I need a break.

Everything has been rewritten. If the story doesn't make sense to you, make sure to re-read it from the beginning.

The MC now has a back story, and the circumstances around meeting Sam have changed.

There are 2 routes in Chapter 2.

On that note - be advised there are some VERY spicy scenes.

They may or may not be what you want.

NSFW content will be 'progressing' in general, in future releases.

I've been sitting on this release as it is for about a month.

Even though Chapter 2 still has another section that's currently unwritten, I'm not getting more work done at this time.

As for the release of Chapter 3 - expect something like a full year.

I may release the end of Chapter 2 sooner.

You are also welcome to check out the project's YouTube Channel, where I may occasionally upload a video.

The Red Levity YouTube channel

You should read the story in the way that you want to, whether you're advancing the story on "auto", or manually clicking/tapping.

If you're reading on AUTO (As I intended it):

You may want to pause at certain times for details.

If you are manually advancing the story:

There are a ton of little built-in pauses in the text.

If you advance the story manually, you don't need to click every time there's a pause. These pauses are there in an attempt to give sentences a natural cadence/feel.

I would suggest you don't read in manual mode though, I would get tired of clicking...

With very few obvious exceptions (like a cutaway/cinematic),

No pause is longer than 3 seconds.

There are a few number of pauses that will require a click, but these are few and far between.

You may also find that the shift between animations can be a bit disruptive. Most have been timed - it should function somewhat decently on AUTO.

There are hotkeys for navigating the story - they are all accessible from the Main Menu screen.

Quick notes for PC users:

Page Up = Previous screen

Page down = Next screen

Ctrl = skip

There is no hotkey for enabling/disabling Auto-mode, but I could probably make one.

BACKGROUNDS

I have changed almost all the backgrounds. They are now semi-static backgrounds for a less distracting read.

They are not animated with AI, but old-fashioned effects...

As I previously said - I never wanted the backgrounds to move as much as they did. I wanted static camera angles with living worlds. What we have now is closer to an image than a video, but still not static. I think it mostly works.

Some backgrounds have "hidden" details in them.

Some are very subtle - you may not notice them if you're on a mobile/tablet.
Movement may be more, or less subtle.
No background is completely static.

OPTIMIZATIONS

All previous animations have been optimized, taking up much less space while sacrificing a small amount of visual fidelity.

This was done to keep the size down, but as the animation count has grown a lot, the game is now over 1GB. There is no way to remedy that. The animation format (*.WebM videos) is extremely efficient. For many of the animations the videos are smaller than 1 static *.PNG would have been.

The sprite count for Sam has grown from less than 100 to more than 330 unique sprites.

Not all animations are excellent, all are serviceable, with some - I think - being very good.

My approach has been to create as much variety as possible.

There are a couple of animations that may be discarded in future releases.

As you move further into the game, animations will start to shift into a more personal, POV style, with Sam being shown in mostly close-ups. You can expect this to be the default from here on.

Before optimizations, I found that with multiple characters on the screen, an older device like the Samsung Galaxy S6 Lite could not handle it. If you're using an older device it should work well enough, although you may experience occasional lag.

Hopefully nothing game-breaking.

AUDIO AND MUSIC

All told there are now 13 music tracks, most of which you will hear in this release.
All of them (except for 1) were created for this story.

If you read the first release, you will recognize a few, but those have also been updated (except 1).

Despite all this music, I will spare your ears - I don't think it's a constant barrage of music.

Perhaps still too much for some people's tastes.

There are ambience loops, as well as a few sound effects.

I've recorded some of these sound effects myself, while others are VST's (virtual instruments) and such.

An honourable mention is an old mandolin harp I have. It's effective for creating the same sort of horror sound effects you could make if you were to strum a bunch of strings at once through the open lid of an acoustic piano.

I wanted to record far more ambience outside, but my handheld audio recorder broke (one of the condenser mics has a defect) and it's just too expensive for me to buy a new one right now.

It's a Zoom H4n and I think it's served me well - and worked for something like a decade.

The fireplace sounds are recorded in my own house with a studio condenser microphone.

INTERFACE / GUI

I've changed it a couple of times while working on the project.

It's now much bigger and easier to read.

More could probably be done to the interface, I may change it further.

I'm the sort of person who would be annoyed about an interface that's not user-friendly.

But... Making something like this, I can now appreciate how much work it is, to make everything.

As previously stated - do not expect perfection.

As always I'll listen to constructive feedback and change things if I agree with the suggestions, and am able to.

With that said - Rewriting the Prologue and Chapter 1 nearly killed the project.

Do not expect general rewrites in the future, as it is something I struggle a lot with.

The parts after the Chapter 2 house will likely be expanded a bit.

You may see a chapter selection screen with the Chapter 3 release.

IN GENERAL

Chapter 2 has some quirkiness to it, but I think it turned out mostly good.

It has a lot going on. This isn't like the Visual novels you're used to.
What can I say - I hope you like it!

At times it's a very emotional story. I feel this is the dynamic that would exist between Sam and the MC.

They are both very sensitive 'people', with the MC being more on the anxious side, and Sam being very supportive and sympathetic.

The world they inhabit is not very welcoming of these traits, so things are tough at times. They need each other.

There are two people I would like to thank, although they shall not be named.

One helped me with corrections, and the other helped me with the rewrite.

In doing this, these kind people also helped me stay focused and motivated.

About the corrections, a lot are actually not implemented at this time, since the way he did them, it would require me to copy+paste whole sections of game, potentially causing issues. I may upload another version of Alpha 0.2 at a later date.