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.
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.
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!
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.
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!