Crimson Veil News

This week was mainly spent working on completing those new illustrations. I have 4 more illustrations to get through out of 11, so I’m making some good progress. Work on the game’s end was spent on some smaller things, namely text on interactable events within the Rosenblad Estate.

Now that the Countess in Crimson quest is nearly complete, I’m starting to shift focus to the second quest, Terror of the Seas. The majority of the maps are done, as I have stated before. It’s a matter of finalizing some of the rooms, laying out the puzzles, and finally scripting the events. Truth be told, I’ve gone back and forth on how exactly I want the scenario to play out. As I was drafting the scenario, I realized that having Mila control a crew of pirates with a ship would be handy for a future scenario. But how would a crew of vampire pirates sail during the day? To resolve this conundrum, I decided to use this opportunity to instead explore a facet of vampirism that was only briefly touched upon. The concept of a blood thrall.


One of the earliest Bad Endings has Mila turned into a thrall, which can remotely perform tasks for a vampire, seemingly even during the day. Here are the ground rules I’ve established for them:

A thrall is born when a hypnotized victim is continuously bitten and healed of vampirism by a master vampire (through holy water or some other means). Thralls are addicted to getting bitten by the vampire that caused those bites. Though they are not undead themselves, the bodily fluids of a thrall can corrupt other humans and make them thralls of their master vampire. Thralls also grow an appetite for blood, though they do not need it to survive. Thralls can be better controlled than a hypnotized victim, and perform tasks more naturally than hypnotized victims can in a tranced state. Thralls can blend into society and do a vampire’s bidding during the day and remotely. A thrall can also be manipulated into not realizing they are a thrall, creating a sort of “sleeper agent” out of the victim. A thrall’s control can only be broken if the master vampire is destroyed and even then, the thrall will go into withdrawal, longing for their master long after they are dead. Widowed thrall’s often seek ways to revive their master or somehow become vampires themselves to continue their bidding in some way. This behavior can be treated with extensive therapy, however the victim’s bodily fluids will remain infected, unbeknownst to them. In rare cases this can cause multiple humans to turn into a thrall if the master vampire is resurrected.

Having a thrall around seems rather useful, so why have there been no examples of other thralls up until now? In most cases, having a victim turn into a vampire is more satisfying as a bad ending. But, I feel that the vampire route is the perfect place to reintroduce this concept!

Lastly, I have this week’s art teaser. This is for the Countess in Crimson’s Bad Ending:



The full version is currently available for all my $5 and up patrons. Check it out if you want to help support me.

https://www.patreon.com/MKRUdesign

That's all I have to share with you this week. Until next time everyone!

Happy Sunday everyone! Here’s the weekly progress report!

Implementing the partner system has proven to create a few issues with the way some of the skills function. For example, the bat transformation skill has had to be reworked so that it could function with allies. You are no longer forced out of this form during battle and the skill affects your whole party, but to compensate for this change, your attack and defense take a larger hit. The Invoke Fog skill also had to be reworked under the hood, but in practice, you should notice no changes with how the skill works.
For my supporters, I’ve also created a new Dev Tool, which will be helpful to those who want to quickly view all the support conversations. It’s called the Arousal Button.



Simply press it, and all your allies will be prepped to view their next scene!

Speaking of, I finished writing and scripting the last of the Pets dialogue for this update! I'm currently scripting the events for the Countess in Crimson side quest, which is the larger of the two new quests.

I also want to make a quick announcement. I'll be out of the country from May 8-20 on a family trip that we've been planning together for a while. I had hoped to finish this update before then, but it doesn't seem like I'm going to get everything I want done. I plan on taking my laptop to work on a few things during that time, but I expect this update to be finished sometime in June, probably early June. I won't be posting, during that time period, so be aware there will be two weeks in May where there will be no weekly updates.

That just leaves us with the art update, and this might just be my favorite from the art I've recently posted. Here is a teaser for Lauren’s scene:



The full version is currently available for all my $5 and up patrons. Check it out if you want to help support me.
https://www.patreon.com/MKRUdesign
That's all I have to share with you this week. Until next time everyone!

Hope you’re all well this week. It’s been a busy Easter weekend for me and things have been rather tight with staffing at my day job. It is what it is. Regardless, I’ve still got stuff to share with you, so let’s get on to the news!
My focus this week was on fleshing out the support conversations for the new pets. Not just the writing, but creating the events and testing that they play right too. Though it took some sitting down and thinking, I’ve completed Vicilla and Edith’s conversations. I’d like to set the expectations for these conversations now. Not every single one is going to be about domineering, mistress worship and vampire slave things. I wrote them to be relatable and endearing, similarly to how I wrote Bianca. There’s a place for sexy scenes with them, of course, but essentially writing the same scene with a different character would be pretty exhausting, boring, and samey. These characters will share with you some of their personal feelings, desires, and fears. I feel that these sorts of conversations are the most engaging and encourage you to keep using each girl to find out more about them. I’ve certainly grown to like them more as I’ve written for them and look forward to maybe expanding on them in the future.

Onto art news, I’ve got a total of 11 new illustrations that are planned to be added to the Picture gallery. I apologize that this adds a bit of time to the release of the game, but the more illustrations the better, I say! I’ve got one new teaser to share with you all. A solo scene with Edith.
The full version is currently available for all my $5 and up patrons. Check it out if you want to help support me.
https://www.patreon.com/MKRUdesign
That's all I have to share with you this week. Until next time everyone!

Hello again everyone! I've got an exciting update for you this week!

A highly requested feature will be implemented in the vampire route! I'm happy to announce the Pets system is getting expanded! Specific pets will now be able to join Mila in battle! Let me give you a rundown on how I will implement this change in game...



As of this update, three different Pets will be able to join Mila: Vicilla, Lauren, and Edith. You may only have one ally with you at a time and you can visit their locations to swap with them when you want. Each of these allies serve a different role in battle. Vicilla is a berserker with high power, though at the cost of being uncontrollable. Lauren is nimble and can cast healing spells and buffs. Edith can distract enemies and tank hits better than other allies. Each ally's level scales to whatever Mila's level is, so even if you don't use them, they won't be left behind in power.

However, by raising their affinity, you can unlock stat increases and additional skills for them! A prompt will appear once you have reached a certain affinity threshold and that is your cue to go speak with them at their designated location to raise their level!



Affinity can be raised in multiple ways: Defeating enemies together, completing quests with them, and giving them food. Due to this specific change, all food items may only be used outside of battle. However, the best way to increase their affinity is by taking them out on a dinner date!



By taking an ally with you to the new Humilem Bistro, you will be able to order food and drinks for your date. Each girl has specific tastes, which you may infer from their support conversations. If you purchase a meal that suits them, you'll receive a larger affinity bonus at the end of the date!

Be aware, although your allies are vampires, they aren't "immortal". They can still get defeated in battle!



When you obtain your first ally, you will also unlock the "Resurrect" Skill, which will revive an ally at a hefty cost to HP and SP. Allies regen HP and SP slower than Mila and generally have lower stats. Their combat options are also much more limited. Most concerning, if Mila falls in battle, her ally will immediately join in her demise!



Mila's servants must ensure their Mistress survives no matter the cost!

This particular update to the Pets system has taken a bit of time for me to get working properly and there is still a good amount of tweaking I'll have to do to the difficulty to get it right and not feel overpowered. I still have a lot of additional writing to do for each of these support conversations, but I feel that the effort will be worth it, because the main appeal of the vampire route is going around and turning girls into vampires. It would feel pretty shallow if you were unable to explore some of the girls you turn, so I hope that the players will create a bond with their favorite girl and get to know them!

Before anyone asks, this dating sim aspect of the Pets system will only be for these three characters for now. I wanted to create three different class archetypes for the allies and with how I have currently designed this system and with all the writing I still have to do... It was just too much to include in one update. Bianca and Ophelia will get their time to shine as an ally eventually. I have specific plans for Bianca actually, that I wish I could share, but you'll all just have to stick around to find out!

*Whew* That was quite a lot to go through! I hope you all are excited for this change and are looking forward to interacting with these new allies. One last thing to share before I end it for this week. I finished the wolfy version of the Vicilla art from two weeks ago. Here's a small teaser:



The full version is currently available for all my $5 and up patrons. Check it out if you want to help support me.

https://www.patreon.com/MKRUdesign

That's all I have to share with you this week. Until next time everyone!

This week I played through the current build of the vampire route for the first time in what feels like forever. I fixed some small things that should have been addressed earlier. Previously, whenever you were in the overworld, or even after certain battles, the screen tint would change to a normal, daytime color. I've made it so that the "nighttime" filter is on whenever you are outside. On the backend, I also made the leveling process a parallel common event (something I should have done in the first place). This isn't a change players will really notice, but is more of a quality of life change for me moving forward. One change players will notice is that when you are caught by one of the hunters in town, you'll now be able to push them away, similar to the enemies in chapter 4 of the main story. You still have to worry about being dog-piled, but you at least have a better chance to escape!

I am also done doing all of the sprite work and character art as of this week. I had been postponing the sprite art because I was unsure how to go about making a mermaid character sprite. below is the result of a bit of digging through some references. I think Maryn's sprite came out decently. Here she is fawning over Captain Gloria:



I've also completed another map, the pirate's base of operations, Devil's Cay:



This offshore pocket of land houses some pirate booty and a few fights. If you're familiar with the contest entry's story, you'll know what goes on here...



I am also working on a gameplay hook that will be exclusive to the vampire route. I'm still getting everything in place, but I think that players will be pleased with it's implementation. I'll have more to share with you next week!

That's all I have to share with you this week. Until next time, everyone!