Where can I read The Crimson Maid patch notes?

This page lists official Steam announcements for The Crimson Maid, including the latest post "The Crimson Maid Is Out Now". Each entry links to the full changelog on Steam.

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The Crimson Maid Patch Notes & News

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The Crimson Maid Patch Notes & News | SteamScope

What's in the box?

GrimTalin SRLsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

27d ago

We are are just a few days away from the release of The Crimson Maid! We wanted to take this opportunity to go over what's included in the game. Let's talk numbers!

The Crimson Maid has sixteen chapters, with an estimated playtime of about five to six hours for the first playthrough. Of course, your mileage may vary significantly depending on your read speed, your inclination to explore every nook and cranny, and your desire to talk about everything - or nothing at all - with the various characters in the game.

There are four endings, ranging from very bad to downright romantic. A couple of them are more straightforward to unlock, but the other two not so much - you'll have to get out of your way to get them.

Everything in The Crimson Maid revolves around the titular maid, Irina. But your family and your relationship to everyone in it are major components of the game. Each has a story you can get into in depth, or not. Many things are optional in the game. A lot of the times, you can even ignore Irina if you want to.

The game takes place on the Rosenthal estate, consisting of seven locations, including the mansion, the old house, the courtyard, the greenhouse and more. As you revisit some of these locations in later chapters, you'll get access to new parts of them to explore.

If you like numbers and trackers, in the pause screen the game keeps count of all the documents you've read, inspectables, mementos, secrets and moments of flair during conversations, and more. Speaking of mementos, these are collectibles split into: 8 ceramic tile puzzles, 12 family photos, and 5 robins to feed. Once unlocked, you can find them inside your journal, along your thoughts and doodles related to the events you're going through as you play. It has 40 pages of musings by the end of the game, in case you were wondering.

The Crimson Maid can be experienced in 4 different languages: English, French, German and Simplified Chinese.

We hope you're excited about the richness of the content to be found in The Crimson Maid. We can't wait for you to finally play the game! Don't forget to wishlist and follow it to keep up to date with the latest news!

The thing about doors

GrimTalin SRLsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

84d ago

Catalin from GrimTalin here, game director. I've been traumatized. In a game, I clicked on a door, but, to my folly, I was too close to it. As it opened, it hit me in the face and pushed me into the wall. I got stuck between door and wall, to spend eternity there - or until I reloaded the game.

In another game, I opened a door and it clipped through me. I nonchalantly walked out of it. That was a happy day. Other times, I was stuck inside it or the game physics popped me next to the door.

These are memories that have scarred my soul...

So, in The Crimson Maid, I took it upon myself to make less evil-inclined violent-prone doors. It wasn't that difficult, honestly. If we take into account the position of the player relative to the door, there are three scenarios: he is inside the door frame as the door closes, in the arc of the door as it opens or closes, or safely outside. Obviously, we don't have to do anything in third one.

If the player is in the frame as the door closes, first I make him take a step back, to a predefined safe position, so that the door doesn't hit him in the face, then I rotate the door. The player camera also lerps a bit downward, as if looking to the door handle, for a nice immersion effect. Detecting this situation is straightforward, using a box collider inside the door frame.

For the second scenario, when the player is going to be hit when the door rotates, a similar approach as before is applied. The main difference is that I use a capsule collider here to approximate the area covered by the rotating door.

Depending on which side of the door you are in both scenarios, you are moved to one of the two safe locations, one on each side. The positions and look angles are determined by the two helper arrows in my blueprint. The player movement is done by a simple timeline that interpolates between the current position and the safe one. Only when the player is repositioned can the door rotation start. If the player is already safe, then the door starts opening or closing immediately.

A quick and easy approach, easy to set up with a couple of colliders and two helper arrows. Everyone should do it. Or not, it's not that big a deal, but it makes things feels nice and polished. By the way, you can also catch an opening door mid-movement and close it right back - but enough flexing!

I hope you'll soon enjoy the untold wonder of opening and closing doors in The Crimson Maid. Please remember to wishlist and follow the game for more upcoming news!

Preparing for release

GrimTalin SRLsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

92d ago

It's been a long road, but we're nearing our destination! Catalin from GrimTalin here, game director.

We started working on The Crimson Maid in January 2023. We've revealed our first demo in December of that same year. Since then, there were many who asked us when is this game coming out. While we don't have the exact date yet, it's going to be very soon. Here's where we're at.

Most importantly, the game is content complete - has been for a while now. All the chapters are done, all the gameplay has been polished and every bit of this intense and extensive story has been transferred from our hearts into the game. We can't wait for you to check it all out!

In case you've missed it, we also announced our collaboration with none other than Wales Interactive, experts in the narrative games field, to bring The Crimson Maid not only to PC, but also to PS5 and Xbox. The console ports were one of the things we've been working on lately and we're happy to announce the builds are already certified.

We're very happy about working with Wales Interactive. We've clicked with them immediately when we met David and Richard, their two CEOs at Reboot Develop, and we've had great chemistry with Sam, our producer, as well as Ben, Shaun, Christie and the rest of the team.

One of the benefits of our partnership is that The Crimson Maid is now fully localized in English, German, French and Simplified Chinese. And we surely needed their help here, as our game has more than 70.000 words. It would've been impossible for us to take on this endeavour without them. Now, I don't speak any German or Chinese, but I can take a very amateur crack at French and, I have to say, the game feels great in the language of the romantics. These are professional localizations, not your run-of-the-mill AI translations. I had to explain to the loc team what the subtle meanings behind various dialogues and documents in the game. We went over the short poems you can find, verse by verse, so they could come up with quality adaptations.

All's good and well, but I'm sure you're wondering what's next. We're currently getting ready for June's Steam Next Fest, where we will have a new demo. It includes acts 3 and 4, the first one taking place inside the mansion, and the second inside the old house where Irina resides. While the first two acts are more introductory in nature, the following two set the events in motion, have more intricate interactions with the characters, more puzzles and give you a better taste of what you'll find in the full game. If you haven't tried the demo yet and want to experience the first two acts now, make sure to play them as soon as possible, before we update the demo in the following weeks.

We will also release our new gameplay trailer soon, so make sure to wishlist and follow The Crimson Maid to check it out as soon as it's available.

P.S. As I'm a geeky developer and I've recently played some games where doors hit me in the face and my character clipped through them, I want to do a brief devlog about how doors work in our game. If at least one of you is curious about doors, just write "doors" in the comments and I'll do it. I might do it anyway, but with your support I can defy any opposition I might encounter on the matter.

Meet the character: Leon

GrimTalin SRLsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

418d ago

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/3e599a3c1491d573e346c80acad3d00ff4e51320.png Leon is the heir of the Rosenthal noble family and a much esteemed pillar of the community. He is married to Catrina and they have two sons, Marius and Remus. Coming from a long line of military figures, Leon himself is a decorated war hero, having fought during the Independence War, along with his brother and father - a general in the Romanian Army. When asked, though, his views on war are not what you'd expect - he abhors the notion completely and has raised his two sons as pacifists, breaking the tradition of his lineage. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/b6e497a1b069618d6085c4d5da8ce0d21632d85d.png Leon was the sole inheritor of the family fortunes, as his brother was disowned after he allegedly committed war crimes during the Independence War. Yet, long before receiving his inheritance, Leon had started a family business with his wife, Catrina - a small stained glass workshop that he grew into a large factory of renowned craftsmanship. After his father's passing and against his will, he split the inheritance with his renegade brother and invested a large part of his half in social projects, such as an orphanage, a school for young girls and a canteen for the poor. He became famous not only for his craft, but also for his generosity and his dedication to the wellbeing of his community. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/3d23d6290edef2c959e3829b973b4ff381fcc78e.png When Leon retired, his decision was decried by all of his clients and associates. Rumours are that it was not simply age that led to his retirement, but rather a strange illness that overtook his mind. While sympathetic to his condition, it was the general consensus that his successor, his son Remus, couldn't possibly live up to Leon's reputation, both as an artisan and as a fair and skilled businessman. Nor did Remus seem interested in continuing his father's charitable work.

Core Pillars: Light Puzzles

GrimTalin SRLsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

467d ago

We see The Crimson Maid, if we're allowed to be a tad pretentious, as an evolved point-and-click adventure game. You have dialogue trees, exploring, inspecting, finding items, and, of course, puzzles. But our goal is to make a game that is easily played by everyone.

Playing with the environment

To kick off, probably the simplest puzzles in our game are those that rely on basic interaction with the environment, coupled with finding and using items in the right places. Such an interaction can be, for example, finding a coffee pot, filling it with water by interacting with a sink, then placing the pot of water to boil on the stove. These actions help with embodying Marius and to immerse yourself in his surroundings. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/118dbcdc40d1dc90fade23f8ba5b2be3e909cdca.jpg

Tactile contraptions

We always loved the idea of looking at a box, unable to open it, only to find there is a hidden compartment or a knob on its bottom that unlocks it. And we made a few such boxes in our game too. These are a joy to interact with, spin around and try to figure out how to pull and push their various bits to be able to unlock them. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/72efe0d30842985eb0d2c7324574a97d27305b82.png

A bit of a challenge

There are a handful of more difficult puzzles in the game, that require logic and careful observation of more complex systems. We tried our best to make them as intuitive as possible, so that it's easy to understand how they work, but it takes a bit of thinking to figure out the solution. Now rest assured that we aren't talking about puzzles so complex you need a piece of paper at your side and hours of head scratching to solve them. Our goal is, as ever, to immerse you in the world and to get you to feel what Marius would. A bit of a disclaimer though: there is an above average difficulty puzzle, though for that one, Marius, through your choice, can decide to give up and get some help from someone else. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/9bb2750ae375937c97ecca7e3358365b1b0e7ab6.png

Optional ceramic puzzles

As shown before, you can also find these puzzles made of interchangeable ceramic tiles in the game. These are completely optional, and act more like a distraction. Or do they? Could they have another purpose? In any case, one thing we want to make clear: these are not puzzles with sliding tiles. I think there are only three people in the world who like those and neither of us in the team is one of them. No sliding was involved in the making of this game, only swapping. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/d7b1bcbdf6cfcac9a12bd5a92bb057ef8e63f4b6.jpg That's what the puzzle solving side consists of in The Crimson Maid. I suppose one could say that figuring out and collecting everything is sort of a puzzle in its own way, but let's not count that. We want to reassure you that this is meant to be an accessible game, easily approachable by visual novel or walking sim fans - it has significantly more game mechanics than those genres, yet is not a traditional point-and-click game. It is, first and foremost, a narrative driven game and everything is there to support the story. So don't be afraid to click around to learn how everything works and reacts. It's not like you have a needle in your arm and you're pulling blood from your vein. It's just pixels on a screen. :) Please don't forget to wishlist the game!

Core Pillars: Compelling Story

GrimTalin SRLsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

488d ago

It's no secret that The Crimson Maid is a heavily story driven game. The narrative is the main raison d'être of our game. Below are some of our approaches in creating this compelling story. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/29617f938bdc10cef81d5824816dbe6101bc986a.png

Character driven story

The core of our narrative are its characters. The events in the game are all character driven, meaning everything that occurs in the game is caused by characters taking action according to their desires, not because we're trying to force our plot into their lives. Marius, Irina and the rest of the family members all have their own agendas, histories and sympathies. Our hope is that you'll have fun getting to know these characters and understanding their motivations. And ultimately strive to influence their fate, as much as one person can influence another's destiny. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/112bf49506960359e37ffe1a40cbe1cfe0054e7f.png

Learning secrets through dialogue

The main activity in The Crimson Maid is talking. Or, rather, as a player, reading what the game's characters have to say. You'll usually have a choice to react, change the subject or dig deeper into the current topic. All this talking will often reveal secrets about your counterpart, which will otherwise remain hidden if you decide not to ask a certain question or press a certain matter. You can, of course, focus only on the important topics, marked as such, and you will experience an interesting story with themes of lust, guilt, sin and redemption. But we assure you, if you take your time to be more thorough, the story will reveal itself to be much richer and the histories and motivations of all our protagonists much more intricate and interconnected. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/9369a8b568ab052b9555b99ce9ed332abac39c10.png

Their thoughts on paper

Another great source of insights are the various documents our characters leave around the house. A reply to an inquiry about some unpaid invoices by the Rosenthals might not seem relevant at first, but a closer look might reveal something unexpected. All that being said, we take care not to overwhelm you with documents. There are no books with of tens of pages of filler text to go through in the game. So be at ease, when you find a new note, it's likely going to take you less than a minute to go through it.

Active player or passive observer?

You can experience The Crimson Maid much like reading a book or watching a movie. You don't have to get involved, just go along for the ride. Or, if you're inclined to, you can find ways to steer the story. There are plenty of moments when something you say or do can reveal new dialogues or trigger new events that will weigh on how the game evolves and ends. Speaking of which, there are four endings to discover. Which one you will get depends just as much on what you don't do as it does on what you actually do. Intrigued by all of this? Curious to experience and influence the romance between Irina and Marius? Inclined to disregard the whims of your family or determined to understand their dynamics so you can help them patch things up? Fret not! It won't be too long before we finish making The Crimson Maid, we promise. In the meantime, please don't forget to wishlist the game.

Demo update

GrimTalin SRLsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

753d ago

We have some exciting news! We just updated The Crimson Maid demo with a new version that includes lots of improvements. Excited to find out more? Here are some of the changes:

lots of UI improvements and animations to make the game more intuitive
new interaction icons
proper Steam Deck support, including specific graphical settings for the best on device quality with a playable fps
UI adjustments for Steam Deck to make it easier to read texts
added vibrations for various interactions and cutscenes
more tutorials for the game's actions

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/d13ca3cebff7f79c04bbb0d3fefbae5f052e2396.jpg

the intro cutscenes were renamed to Prologue and the playable acts are now Act 1 and Act 2
you must now find the bird seeds in Act 2 to be able to feed the robin
improved the well puzzle with animations, vibrations and extra hints
journal is now opened automatically in key moments
character movement improvements, including overall speed, head bobbing, different speed for strafing
improved controller support
interact icons now appear from further away
changed how character names are displayed during dialogues to make it easier to follow who is speaking
journal entries now fade in when they've just been unlocked to make it easier to track your progress
lots of bug fixes, including the LOD distances for the characters, subtitles not showing on Steam Deck, bird cage inside the car not being hidden during Act 1 intro

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/6690957e77ca4dcea65a4d3415fba99100c2b148.jpg

Steam Deck and Unreal Engine 5.4

Regarding Steam Deck, there is an important note. While the game works perfectly fine on it, you will need to install the UE prerequisites when you boot the game. If you've previously installed them, then you'll need to uninstall them. This is a known issue and it happens because we had to update Unreal Engine to version 5.4. Unfortunately, there is no current fix as far as we know and we're waiting either for Epic to solve this on their end or for Valve to update their redistributables list with a newer version of Visual C++. In the meantime, you can run the game as long as with each run you either install or reinstall the UE prerequisites. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/894bea2f3b3b6bb2ff5150f241e0b0fed35f97ae.jpg

Something new about a character

There are plenty of objects you can inspect in the game, as any adventure game has. But one of our first goals in this game is to not make something interactable just for the sake of it, so you can read something along the lines "What a lovely painting!" We want you to inspect objects to learn new things, relevant info about the Rosenthal family or Irina, their present or their past, about Marius, his memories and what defines him as a person. Another rule we have is to keep the amount of objects you can inspect high enough to make the world feel rich and lived in, but low enough to not overwhelm the players, making them lose interest in exploring. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/8fba4ca7412ff5b67538841cdc6979109b208690.jpg

Interactions at a glance

Get close enough to an object you can interact with and an icon appears over it. Get even closer and roughly look in the direction of the object and the icon scales up, while a label indicates the type of interaction. Click or press the interact button to perform the action: inspect, pick, read, talk or interact - this last one is for a more complex interaction, for example for puzzles, placing items, triggering something etc. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/0f03ee9bae91a098f9c9f3154870e03f01deaf58.jpg We implemented this intuitive system to make it easier for you to spot important objects when you explore and to process at a glance the actions you can perform. We didn't want you to pixel hunt that one item or interaction needed to progress, but to highlight things as soon as you get close enough. Furthermore, important objects that you need to interact with to progress the story are marked with an easy to spot red exclamation mark, similar to the important dialogue topics.

Always with a clear goal

Sometimes adventure games can be a bit obtuse. What makes sense in the designer's mind isn't necessarily the most intuitive thing. Other times you have to stop playing, only to come back days later not remembering what you were supposed to do. To make it clear at all times what you have to do next, we have an objectives system. The current quest and its goals can be checked at any time. Objectives update constantly depending on your progress. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/be7dc6e68106043b375fb77ef82bfcd05dd108b4.jpg When you need to bring fresh water to your father, that objective is put on the list. Need to find an empty cup first? That's another objective on the list. Interacted with the well and realized you also need a bucket? Yet another objective on the list. Found the elusive empty cup? We're taking that objective off the list. Completed the well puzzle and now you have a cup of fresh water? The list now displays only one objective: bring the water to your father. This system ensures that you can enjoy playing the game, not become lost and frustrated. We want you to figure out not what to do, but how to do it. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/8cbf5d0e6706f6e40d1b7c98c6ed143eb6eff72b.gif In a future post we'll talk about another of our core pillars - light puzzles. Remember to wishlist and follow the game and check back frequently for more updates on The Crimson Maid!

Core Pillars: Optional Depth - Part 2

GrimTalin SRLsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

951d ago

In this week's post we continue with our dive into the core pillars for making The Crimson Maid, with the second part about optional depth. As stated in the first part, there are plenty of ways to get more out of the game, but it's up to you if you want to explore them. Aside from the optional dialogues, the tile puzzles and the documents, all described in the previous post, here are some more game features that allow you to immerse into the story just as deep as you want.

Your thoughts on paper

A key mechanic in The Crimson Maid is the journal. Marius, who you play as, will often write down his thoughts on events, people and discussions. Some of these thoughts will be revealed just by following the main path of the story, while others will need a bit more involvement from the player. Try to go over optional topics, solve optional puzzles, find collectibles, inspect the environment etc. to unlock all the journal's pages. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/33fc8e6f113edd2d7fa293313d95dd06da7026ae.jpg In-game, you'll notice empty areas in the journal where you still need to unlock some of Marius' musings. And you can also check out your journal progress in the main menu, by going to Chapters and checking out how many journal entries you've unlocked for each chapter, out of the total available. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/51044b6ac4a841cfe09a51a28d9124fae9c64064.jpg

Feed the birdies

Did you notice that Marius has a pet robin? He took the little guy with him when he left home to the seminary. Now that he returned home, he brought him back - you can spot him inside the car. Marius loves these cute birds and there are several birdhouses around the property where robins can take shelter and eat the seeds left for them by the Rosenthal family members. As you explore, when you encounter a birdhouse, you can interact with the seeds box to feed the robins. It's the wholesome thing to do! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/36b4f6899db2fc58e4ba1851c0802c9bea57605e.jpg But of course kindness is not the only reason why you should feed the birdies. For some reason, your selfless act makes a robin bring you a tiny piece of paper with verses on it - who knows where it's from? Better collect them all and read the entire poem.

Lost snapshots

Leon Rosenthal taught his children how to take pictures and paint over them - it became one of their shared hobbies. Find these lost pictures around the estate, depicting portraits of the Rosenthal family members at various moments in their lives. Marius will keep them in his journal, so these precious memories are never lost again. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/fe198e9ad7bb7fdcfbc5e79a00ddbceadfb321aa.jpg In a future post we'll move on to another core pillar - meaningful exploration. But in the meantime remember to wishlist and follow the game if you haven't already done so. And check back frequently for more updates on The Crimson Maid! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/8cbf5d0e6706f6e40d1b7c98c6ed143eb6eff72b.gif

Core Pillars: Optional Depth - Part 1

GrimTalin SRLsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

959d ago

One of our core pillars for making The Crimson Maid is optional depth. To put it simply, there are plenty of ways to get more out of the game, but it's up to you if you want to explore them. Below you can find a few examples of optional activities and content in our game, with more coming out in a future post.

Talk your heart out

The Crimson Maid revolves around dialogues. You'll have ample opportunities to speak to the characters inhabiting your family's mansion and its surroundings. Some topics are important to the game's progress, clearly marked with a red exclamation mark. But there are a lot of optional topics that help you learn more about either Marius or the person you're speaking to. As you talk to them more, you'll unlock new topics and they'll get more personal with the things they reveal. You might learn some secret about them or someone they'll gossip about. Or you might spot something in what they say that will help you put another piece into the puzzle of what's happening around you. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/2a1d861b25b7fd5ae1ed0f5174ac848f55b1b7d4.jpg For example, did you discover that in Act 2, if you ask Catrina, your mother, about your father's condition, she mentions something about the doctor treating him. If you explore this new topic to the end, you can afterwards speak to Remus to further inquire about the doctor - a rather important character you'll meet later in the game. The story will make sense without exploring all these extra topics, for sure. But the experience will be much richer and complete if you take the time to get to know these people, their secrets and their motivations.

Puzzle these out

As you explore the various locations of the game, you may find these tile puzzles lying around. They are optional to solve, but are a great distraction when you want a bit of a change of pace. If you solve a tile puzzle, the resulting image will also be unlocked in your journal, sometimes accompanied by a brief recollection from Marius' childhood. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/4de19725057d209d555fa8f14a2057e72f82ff46.gif To keep things fresh, the tiles positioning is randomized every time you reload the chapter. By solving all tile puzzles, aside from earning the mandatory achievement, you might also be a step closer to unlocking... Well who knows, but maybe they're not just an innocent distraction after all?

Snooping is fun!?

Why are people so disorganized? They keep leaving documents, letters and personal notes around. As a responsible young man, Marius should probably find them all. And give them a good read - maybe that's not very responsible in real life, but in a video game it's the definition of a well behaved individual. Especially if one wants to find out untold secrets and hidden affairs! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/c6e092b9e6e6fdb8428ba415b60f34283b6dd0a1.jpg Some of the documents found in the game will unlock journal entries. Some might help with solving a puzzle. Others are there for extra depth, but each one offers insight into the life of this family and their acquaintances. We make it a goal to keep them brief and meaningful - this actually ties into another of our core pillars that we'll talk about in a future post. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/8cbf5d0e6706f6e40d1b7c98c6ed143eb6eff72b.gif Next week we'll continue with even more details about our Optional Depth core pillar. Be sure to wishlist and follow the game and check back frequently for more updates on The Crimson Maid!

Learn more about The Crimson Maid

GrimTalin SRLsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

972d ago

We are so happy to have finally announced The Crimson Maid to the world, accompanied by a playable demo! We hope you had the chance to try the game or at least you're planning to soon. We wanted to follow up with a Q&A about the game and the team, so you can decide if the game is a right fit for you. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/1a07f104c65923e95fe1c84a661d73bad8da37dc.jpg What is The Crimson Maid? It's an adventure game, in the classical sense of the word. You explore a mansion and its surroundings, talk to the people inhabiting it, pick up items and use them to solve various light puzzles, read optional documents, find collectibles and more. You'll spend a lot of time speaking to people, with lots of optional dialogues - while you don't have to go through all of them, they add a lot of depth to the story and the characters. Who is making the game? The Crimson Maid is a collaboration between two indie developers, Catalin Marcu (me) from GrimTalin and George Remus P. from Darkania Works. We've previously made Last Days of Lazarus together. And we have lots of experience making games, both indie and in other companies - 17 and 10 years respectively. George's career highlights include Gray Dawn and the upcoming What Have You Done, Father? While I have created The Adventures of Elena Temple and Long Ago: A Puzzle Tale to name a couple of the more recent titles. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1359920/Last_Days_of_Lazarus/ What is the scope of the game? The demo has three chapters, two playable and one with cinematics only. The current plan for the full game is to have 20 chapters in total, 17 of which are playable. They vary in length, but plenty of them will be quite longer than those included in the demo. We're estimating about 3-4 hours of gameplay, but that will vary a lot depending on your playstyle. As you read above, we're just two people making this rather ambitious game, so we have to keep its scope in check to be able to complete it. Will the game be voice acted? The cinematics will feature voice acting, but the in-game dialogues will be text only. There will be thousands and thousands of lines, so it's well outside our budget to hire voice actors for so much dialogue. Even if we had the budget, we believe that reading the lines yourself makes for the best immersion into the story and better connects you to its characters. There isn't any off-putting voice acting to break the immersion. It's just you, your imagination and the story. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/86d29827986fb43867293d7e4205228ac54a3125.jpg How about localization? Our current plan is to release the game in English only. But we're also prepared technically to localize it in other languages, should we run into a big pile of money. Which means that only with the right partner will we take on this endeavor. With the amount of dialogues in the game and their crucial role to the experience, we can't risk having any subpar localization. What is the story about? You play as Marius, a young and inexperienced priest to be. He left home a couple of years ago to study at the seminary, straining his relations with his family - his mother and brother in particular. When his father becomes inexplicably ill, Marius rushes back home to be by his side and try to understand what happened. But he will have trouble focusing on the task at hand when his attention is diverted by the beautiful young maid working for his family. Will they fall for each other? Solve the mystery together? Run into unexpected obstacles? Only by playing the game will you find out. But be prepared - this noble family has a dark legacy. Blood will be spilled, hearts will be broken and destinies will be shattered. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/0c524a6cc000355e372f4773db0298776953d4f0.jpg Is this an adult game? Definitely not. There will be plenty of flirting and maybe some passionate scenes, but everything is tied to the story. There will be no gratuitous nudity, nor is the purpose of the game just to charm the beautiful maid Irina. You have a mystery to solve and as you progress, things will escalate in unexpected ways. Who is the game for? First and foremost The Crimson Maid is for adventure gamers. People who enjoy exploration, puzzles and lots of text. Fans of visual novels and walking simulators should also find it up their alley. In general, it's for players who prioritize storytelling over complex gameplay. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44772296/8cbf5d0e6706f6e40d1b7c98c6ed143eb6eff72b.gif When is it coming out? We hope to release The Crimson Maid sometime near the end of 2024. But a lot of things can change between now and then, so please take that as just a very rough estimate. Follow us on our development journey and don't forget to wishlist the game!

The Crimson Maid news & patch notes

The Crimson Maid news & patch notes

Playing with the environment

Tactile contraptions

A bit of a challenge

Optional ceramic puzzles

Character driven story

Learning secrets through dialogue

Their thoughts on paper

Active player or passive observer?

Steam Deck and Unreal Engine 5.4

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Something new about a character

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Always with a clear goal

Your thoughts on paper

Feed the birdies

Lost snapshots

Talk your heart out

Puzzle these out

Snooping is fun!?

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