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.
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.
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.
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.
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!