A human-spider hybrid creature is lurking somewhere in the abandoned library that you find yourself trapped inside of. Find the key and get out before she catches you.
Hi, I'm the developer of Red Hourglass; an indie horror title that takes advantage of the arachnophobia that many people have. The threat is a spider-like woman, and her young human counterpart who acts as her eyes and ears, alerting her to your presence.
This blog will track my progress in making this game a reality. A lot of labor and love is going into it, so I hope you enjoy what you see.
Trapped in an abandoned library, you must escape before what lurks there finds you.
After a year or two of abandonment, I have uploaded an update to this game. It's a polished off version of everything I was working on improving when development ended.
I just uploaded ver 0.2
You can now continue outside of the library once you use the key to escape.
I will likely add a price for the game in the next major version, so enjoy free downloads now while you can!
https://passiveskill.itch.io/red-hourglass
http://gamejolt.com/games/red-hourglass/223455
Outside area is technically fully functional now, just needs a bit of polish, particularly an ending cut-scene. Getting real close to that 0.2 update now.
Making some progress on the forest outside the library. You’ll try to outrun the spider lady in this section. Currently I have the environment set up but the spider lady’s AI is the same as it is in the building so it needs some adjusting.
It’s difficult to figure out how to fine tune the lighting settings so that everyone can have roughly the same experience. In older builds I had a low ambient lighting that allowed one to basically navigate the game without the flashlight. I removed this ambient lighting because I want the player to need the flashlight in order to see, so that turning it off would be something you only do to hide or make a blind dash past a threat. But on high quality monitors, this lack of light proves to be unrealistically dark. I put in a local like to try and simulate that little bit of light people can pick up on even in very dark places, but on older monitors it brings back full visibility of the floor and walls, even if the range in limited. So as it is right now, if you have a low quality monitor you could play the game without the flashlight as before and be completely fine.
I suppose it’ll be best if I put in a brightness setting for players to adjust the brightness as they see fit.
I fully intend to make the next version 0.2, but I could resist putting this minor patch out there to tide everyone over until then. It’s a little more refined and published, so I’ll feel better about seeing videos of it for awhile while I push for the major update.
Download at Itch.io or Game Jolt
This is my first attempt at a teaser-type trailer. I’m pretty new to video editing, so I’m certain it’s amateur quality shows through a bit. Even so, I hope this gets some people excited for the game.
Work has begun on the outside segment of the game where you’ll be running through the rain trying to get through the forest and to safety. Once I’ve finished this part it’ll mark version 0.2
My friend just started a Twitch channel, and they are doing me the honor of playing my game for their first stream. I’m not sure how this is going to go, but I for one will be tuning in at 8:00pm EST to watch! https://www.twitch.tv/crispyidiot
So, apparently there was something wrong with the setup.exe I was using for the previous version. For this version, I have gone back to packing the game in a .zip folder.
Changes:
- v0.1.3 -
* Spider lady fixed so she doesn't go through quite so many walls.
* Added music when Spider Lady is chasing you, for suspense and also so you know when the chase is on.
* Esc key now doesn't immediately exit.
* Improved lighting, it's now darker but when your flashlight is off you can see light from the windows.
* New main menu background.
* Mouse locked to screen. Play in window mode and with multiple monitors should be easier now.
* New footstep and door open/close sounds added.
* Added tips to the game over screen.
Another great play though of my game, this time done by an acquaintance of mine. Given he was able to make a 20 minute video out of this, I take that to mean that I’m going in the right direction in terms of balancing the gameplay. Of course, people can still beat it very quickly, but as long as one’s first play through takes a little while, I am reaching one of my primary goals.
First gameplay video I’ve made to showcase my game. Plenty have played it on YouTube already, but this will serve as the first official video and be featured on the game pages.
This patch fixes some of the spider lady's roaming behavior. She should be more threatening when you have the key now. There is also an installer now, so those of you who don’t like the headache of unzipping folders should be pleased!
Is anyone having input problems? As in, is your character moving a random direction without you touching the controls? This may be happening for people with certain kinds of controllers. Let me know.