Take the Dream IX
Close Your Eyes - The Twisted Puzzle free DLC Steam Page now live
Close Your Eyes: The Twisted Puzzle is a free piece of DLC for Close Your Eyes that takes place after the events of the original game, and before the events of Close Your Eyes: Intermission & Close Your Eyes 2. The Twisted Puzzle is a short experience that will be releasing again for free somewhere between May 26th - May 31st.
I'd also appreciate if you haven't already to vote for Close Your Eyes: Intermission on Steam Greenlight:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=912371754
Close Your Eyes: The Twisted Puzzle DLC releasing next week
Close Your Eyes: The Twisted Puzzle is a free piece of DLC for Close Your Eyes that takes place after the events of the original game, and before the events of Close Your Eyes: Intermission & Close Your Eyes 2. The Twisted Puzzle is a short experience that will be releasing again for free next week if all works out. I hope you all enjoy this little teaser.
I'd also appreciate if you haven't already to vote for Close Your Eyes: Intermission on Steam Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=912371754
Close Your Eyes Intermission - Chanting Piece
Firstly, I'm still trying to get Close Your Eyes: Intermission through Steam Greenlight. I'd appreciate if you'd consider voting for it at the link above, if it gets greenlit in time and if testing goes well I'll be releasing this in late May/June.
Secondly, the Chanting Piece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJkm-Emc37o
Close Your Eyes: Intermission - First couple minutes of gameplay
Want to keep most of the game a surprise, but figured the Greenlight page could do with a bit more gameplay. Can find the Greenlight page here to help vote for it to be on Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=912371754
Despite these first couple minutes being a bit slow and barren (and I want to keep the rest a surprise), I hope it gives at least a bit of the idea of the atmospheric direction. Releasing it next month (May) if it gets Greenlit in time for $0.99, the idea behind this game is it takes place after the original game but before Close Your Eyes 2 (and indeed, this is not CYE2), it sort of blends the original CYE style with some more akin to an ARG/Creepypasta (more on that in the game itself), and a new flavor. This beginning sequence is both kind of a tutorial to some basic concepts of the game, but also a detractor to get those this might not be aimed at to go to something else or get a refund or something as the game is a bit of a doozy and this is probably the least interesting part of the game, but the easiest. Won't say much more than that, but should be interesting how it goes down.
Close Your Eyes: Intermission Steam Greenlight Page now LIVE!
It's a bit of a sloppy set-up for now, but I mainly want to get it through Greenlight while keeping as much of it secret as possible.
Close Your Eyes: Intermission is a spin-off sequel to CYE, continuing the story but I will clarify IS NOT Close Your Eyes 2. Follow Marshmallow Monk into a nightmare land in a game that combines elements of the original CYE, an ARG, a Creepypasta, and a new flavor.
I hope you guys enjoy, if it gets Greenlit in time it'll release in less than a month (during May) for $0.99. Appreciate those who look at the page and consider voting!
Thank you for your time.
Close Your Eyes game releasing next month ; Greenlight Page tomorrow
"Close Your Eyes: Intermission" is not Close Your Eyes 2, but not completely separated from it. It'll cost $0.99, and again release in less than a month from now. I'll post when it's Greenlight Page is up tomorrow, but hope you guys look forward to it!
COMMUNITY GAME PROJECT - Home Invasion Horror with Volunteer Collaboration
Anyway, I was planning to make a Home Invasion Horror Game in-between other stuff this year anyways, and thought it might be fun to turn that into a community project with volunteer work I can put together for a game titled, "HYSTERICO: Cryptic Grounds."
More information in this link, though right now doing some base conceptualization. Some may only pop in for that, but I'd appreciate those who are interested who might help out a little.
Topic which will be the central hub for this projects discussion/development until it (hopefully) gets its own Steam Page here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/428860/discussions/0/135509472110960447/
Noiseless Signal, Future Updates to Red Haze, & Yai Gameworks Updates
Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer, or you can just call me Ryan. In the act of transparency, I thought I'd talk about future plans for the next year or so for Yai Gameworks.
Firstly, I'll tackle Red Haze updates as this can be kept a bit brief. I'll continue working on updates for Red Haze quite frequently for the next few weeks as I fix things people find, finish the Trafficking Dungeon and add in the Lighthouse Upper Floors and Final Door Area when you get all 26 endings. You'll see updates pretty regularly, might have noticed some have already hit recently, and the Trafficking Dungeon will be finished within the next couple days. If you find any bugs or typos, please post them in this thread (any ideas or discussion can be had in the discussion forum): http://steamcommunity.com/app/428860/discussions/0/135508833655990580/
Now, something I have to be honest about is I'm poor as dirt. I love making games, but in some ways I wish I was more talented. I can sort of do art and program, but if I'll be honest my skills are limited in those areas (I have been practicing and improving), and so I often struggle with the idea already if I can pursue my passions, if I have the right to, those kind of things. But I believe a life worth living is a life chasing dreams, so that's what I'm going to do until I can't no more. Red Haze I already knew wasn't going to change my money problems. At the time of writing, the earnings from Red Haze are almost enough to pay off half of my medical expenses from an emergency room visit I made last July.
In about a month or so, I'm going to launch a Kickstarter for a project named Noiseless Signal. You may have noticed its name among others in the credits for Red Haze. The reason for the Kickstarter is mostly to pay for the future of Yai Gameworks, so while the Kickstarter is for Noiseless Signal it's more specifically for funding the next year of game development for me, Rincs, and other people who help out in small ways on my projects. I also hope you guys find Noiseless Signal interesting, I'm just now starting real development, so it'll be rapid development between other things to get a demonstration of what that project has in store.
The reason for this rush is due to the recent Steam Direct announcement. If you haven't heard, Valve will be replacing its Steam Greenlight system with a new system where users can just post their games to Steam once approved as a developer, but the added thing is that each game will have a fee which is undecided right now (Valve says a fee for submitting a game could end up being anywhere between $100-5000 USD). The reason given is to stop shovelware, but there's a big issue with this for me as someone who is poor as dirt and how I make games. I don't have money, I certainly don't try to make shovelware and instead make game experiences I hope people will enjoy and I work on multiple things at once and try to make shorter but worthwhile experiences I release a bit more rapidly than the average indie developer but at a cheaper price point (as well as I like to release free things every once in a while)...
Basically, this system is extremely threatening to me, but I'm going to try to approach and work through it. But before that gets implemented, I want to get one more game through Steam Greenlight in Noiseless Signal, to make one less title I don't have to make a fee for. More so, I think you guys may like Noiseless Signal a lot once you learn more about it, it's goal is to have a dream-like desolate atmosphere. I'll have a lot more on it soon (obviously if I'm having a Kickstarter/Greenlight thing in a month), but also want to use it as an opportunity to secure other games coming to Steam through the fee and allow me to work on them, like Close Your Eyes 2 and the remake of Blank Slate.
Back in 2013, I did a crowdfunding thing on Indiegogo for a game named Complete Isolation that raised a little over $2000. That hasn't released yet, and I've been releasing every game I've made since then to the people who helped fund that until I release the game, but I want Complete Isolation to be something special. The money earned from that was 100% for music for Complete Isolation, but since then I've been using the funds from that to make the music I've made in all my projects so far. I thought I should mention this as while the funding campaign will be going through Kickstarter, four years ago I did do a crowdfunding thing for a game that hasn't released yet, but the reasoning isn't because the game was abandoned, it helped fund the tools, samples, and ability for me to do music for my projects in every project since then and Complete Isolation I want to practice to have the skill to fully make one day.
This campaign in comparison is for Noiseless Signal (a game that will be releasing sooner than later), but also more so for Yai Gameworks as a whole to allow us to continue releasing games on Steam despite being poor and to allow me to continue pursuing my passions. I hope it does well, and I hope I can continue to bring my little games to you guys if you enjoy them.
I'll be posting a lot more about all of this and Noiseless Signal to you guy's soon, but I thought I should mention this now as opposed to later to give you an idea of what's to come.
Thank you for your time.
Red Haze Now Released!
Out now, costs $1.99 USD and has a 5% discount for the first weak. Won't go any cheaper anytime soon.
I hope you guys enjoy it!
Red Haze: Finalized Release & Thoughts
Red Haze is in active crunch right now, and will be releasing February 6th - 8th. 6th is the goal, 8th is the deadline to allow two days if something comes up last minute. This is finalized, It's basically going to be non-stop work for me, except to break on the 24th & 25th as I'll be playing Resident Evil 7.
Red Haze will be releasing for $1.99 USD, and have a 5% discount on release for the first week, so will be $1.89 for the first week. It won't go on sale for a while after that, until the Summer Sale, which will be discounted the exact same amount, 5% off, $1.89. I also promise it won't be bundled. I like to reward early buyers, its a big policy for me whenever I do releases. I think there is value both to myself and to fans and early adopters to allow a wide window of time before going deeper into discounting. And to be frank, it's not very hard to come by a couple dollars.
Game will also have Steam achievements on Windows PC, cloud saves, & Steam Trading Cards. Unfortunately there will be no achievements on Mac for the time being due to a technical limitation, there is by chance a work around but my efforts thus far have caused issues with the Mac version. Playability over achievements is what I decided.
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So, some thoughts here before I send the game out as a product. In some ways Red Haze has turned out to be a much better game than I thought it'd be, and in others it hasn't quite lived up to what I wanted it to be. It has been a fantastic learning experience for myself, and I think my future endeavors will benefit from having made Red Haze. I've in earnest learned far more about game design, RPG Maker, myself, spriting, music making, and more during its process I think will help me with future projects.
I don't know how Red Haze will do. I don't think I can know. Before I released Close Your Eyes, for example, I thought people weren't going to like it. I knew all of its flaws, I knew how it could've been better, and I was thinking its purposely cryptic story was going to frustrate people. It turned out doing a lot better than I anticipated, turns out the things I liked about it shined above the flaws for most. Even Take the Dream IX did better than I anticipated, I think it's the shittiest game I've ever made and I finished it out of sheer will to show I could finish it.
So when it comes to Red Haze, it's hard for me to place how people may receive it. I'm expecting some "ow the edge," and some people to find elements of it cringey, and that's fine. The subject matter kind of naturally aligns itself to that, and I don't think all will like my voice acting choices I made for Red Haze. And if I'll be honest, I think the element of Red Haze that most didn't live up to what I wanted it to be was its narrative. There's a story, and in some ways I think I managed to make some interesting story scenes and developments, but it didn't quite come together like I wanted it to in its earlier stages. Characters were cut, scenes were as well, and thus entire plot elements dropped.
On the other hand, I'm anticipating how people receive the game. I sent out some keys to random people who don't know me, I don't know them, and I think it's telling I got the same feedback from everyone: A bit of a slow start, but they slowly get more and more into it and start getting more engrossed in its strange world. Which is good, that was my singular biggest goal with Red Haze, to make a branching game that's not to be experienced in but a single playthrough, but several, with lots of secrets to uncover, endings to obtain, deeper areas to discover, and oddities to figure out. It uses a very unorthodox gameplay design I won't go fully into detail to here, but I think while some things didn't come together how I would've hoped, I think (and hope) it'll be a game that will be very much worth people's $2.
I think it won't be my magnum opus, but I hope you all enjoy it. It's taken a lot longer than I would've liked due to life, motivation, one hell of a year in 2016, working on other things at the same time, breaks, and adding more and taking away at the same time at Red Haze as time has gone on.
I'm kind of expecting some initial negative reviews by people who only experience the tip of the iceberg and never get to see what lurks deeper in the game, and the voice actress for Rockette is worried because she voiced in another RPG Maker Horror game in the past (Uri's Boogie Man, as it were), and has trolls who stalk her and she predicts they'll try trolling the review page for this game when it releases since they resurfaced again for her recently getting word she was voicing in this game. She tried apologizing to me about it, but to be honest I'm not too worried. Even if people not trolling dislike the game, I think there's a lot I can learn from that.
2017 is a big year for me since I either make or break this game making thing for me, but I have a lot of things slated for this year. My plans have changed since my last update on 2017 plans, which I'll try to share in the future. I decided to not go for as strict deadlines, for one, and re-arranged projects a bit more. That'll be for another day, however.
For those helping with testing, there will be a pretty huge update hitting tomorrow, and a second big update hitting at the end of January. I appreciate everyone who's been helping test the game and spotting things I may have otherwise missed.
A late welcome to 2017, and I look forward to seeing y'all play Red Haze. I hope it lives up to your guy's anticipation & expectations, and surprise you in some ways. I will say this though, it by design is a very different game than Close Your Eyes. It was highly experimental for me, and while I learned a lot from it, it's to be seen what y'all think of it. I hope it's enjoyable.