Crimson Gray Beta v2 (Patreon)

Sorry this update is late in coming, I have been spending creative energy on other things. I have made sure to try to get other things in motion, though - for example, the next time you see the game, it will hopefully have a custom GUI.

This update is mostly polishing, so only play if you're interested in that. But I do have a question for anyone who played the previous version: did you make use of the q.save, q.load, and f.skip options? I'm looking to cut less useful functions from the GUI to give everything a minimalist feel, but if people like these I will keep them.

Aside from visual/auditory improvements, there's one major balance change in this version. I think part of the frustration some players experienced was that all routes from the kidnapping event lead to the final confrontation, which has the most difficult requirements of the game. I've added another happy/couch ending on that path, where Lizzie asks John to run away with her as she does in other routes. Hopefully this is a way to let players have some happiness early on without reducing the difficulty of the true ending. 

(Links were sent via PM. As before, message me if Patreon excluded you from the list for some reason.)

Version Beta v2 Changes:

- Reported typos and bugs are fixed.

- You can now turn adult content on/off in the options menu. This doesn't remove all mention of sex from the game or make it really SFW, but it does remove nudity and sex scenes. 

- The new route mentioned above.

- I also added new bonuses for reaching multiple endings.

- There are now notifications when the player unlocks a new ending bonus.

- Minor changes to make the early kidnapping route more consistent.

- Thanks to Lamsey, the action track now loops without a pause.

- Several sound effects have been added, most notably one for Lizzie drawing a weapon. I experimented with some other sounds, but felt many were overbearing.

- Placeholders replaced: game icon, gallery lock icon.

- There's now a custom background for Lizzie's basement (you've already seen it at the top of this post).

I'm not sure what this game's path to official release will be, but it will keep moving along in the background as I focus on TLS 0.28.0. Meanwhile, I've taken another shot at pitch text, feedback welcome:

-

John is a young man suffering from severe depression. As he loses his sense of purpose in life, he begins to see the world in unfocused gray. Just when he begins to lose all hope, John meets a girl... a very special girl.

Though Lizzie appears affectionate and devoted, it quickly becomes clear that she's so violent and unstable that a normal boy would run away from her. But when John sees her, he sees someone else suffering from a mental condition. John is willing to risk his safety for a chance to help Lizzie gain some mental stability. Lizzie is willing to murder everyone in school if she believes it would make him happy.

Your every choice will impact both characters' mental states, changing their fate. John might reject Lizzie, succumb to his depression, or die violently. Lizzie might lose control and ruin her chances, or become obsessed with shadowy conspiracies that may or may not exist. Or just maybe the two of them might be exactly what the other needs, and their story could end in happiness...