I'm thinking about things to add to Stay out of the House to make it better. Here are some ideas I have in mind. Let me know yours as well.
Butcher AI improvements
In the current version of the game, the butcher mostly walks around the house searching for you. That works fine but I'd like to make improvements. Most specifically by giving the butcher new behaviors or a routine that he does on his own.
His main task is to keep the meat supply flowing by grabbing victims from the yard, dismembering them, and carting the meat into the basement. Since he'll be busy in the kitchen, he should be easier to avoid as long as you don't screw up and the house is in a normal state.
To offset the lack of butcher patrols, I was thinking of adding a security camera that can eventually be disabled. If you are spotted and escape, the butcher will search for you until he captures you, locking you in a new cell for the start of another day.
Each day will get harder as he installs more security: he'll fix the camera you disabled and add another one. Maybe add more locks to the door. Granny will spawn on the map, etc.
If you kill Granny he'll go into a rage, turn the gas on, and flip over all the beds looking for you relentlessly. He'll also release the mutant which can get inside the vents and hunt you.
Ideally, I'd like to do a Resident Evil style save system - possibly with save items but the main idea being, you can only save at a specific safe point on the map. However, if you're captured, the game will auto save, starting you inside your new cell - permanent punishment for failure. And if you die, your save is wiped out completely.
Other things I'd like to add:
More ammo. Not too much though.
A melee weapon to use.
An inventory space upgrade as you progress. Maybe 6 items you can carry instead of 3
Hope you're having a great summer! Stay out of the House is content complete now. 0.7.2 is the latest version.
What's been added:
A new prologue (so the title of the game is actually a plot point in the game)
A alternative ending. So there are two routes to choose. Do you escape the house, or go deeper to uncover the butcher's dark secret.
New cutscenes and story events as you progress.
A dangerous new character.
New fleshly props and human remains for a more lurid atmosphere.
Various bug fixes and improvements.
The big question now is, what still needs to be added before I can release the game?
Combining Night Shift, Stay out of the House and Nun Massacre into one executable, or splitting Nun Massacre into a separate title in your library (or free dlc?). The api is complicated and I still have trouble wrapping my head around it.
Full controller support. The difficult part with controller support is making the Ui work.
Save system or checkpoints. Another thing more difficult than it sounds because there are a lot of things in the game that need to be tracked and saved and I may need to recode a lot of things to make it work. I'm not totally sure yet. I'm optimistic I can accomplish this with minimal refactoring, but I won't know until I start.
Options and menus.
Steam integrations.
So that's where the game is right now. I hope it will be done soon, but I can't accurately estimate when it will come out on steam.
April has passed and the game isn't finished. I wish I could provide a date when it'll be ready but I have no idea. I thought I was sure about this month, but I didn't have enough time and don't want to release the game until it's 100% perfect. It's hard to estimate when that'll be.
If you've pre-ordered, I will have a new build coming next month with new content. I've been working on an entirely new section (with way more of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre feel) plus another ending, a new character and more cut-scenes - giving the game a better slasher movie vibe.
I've also contracted Blood Machine (@fleshsqueeze) to work on some grim new environmental art
I'm 100% confident that delaying it will result in a better game, than a rushed early access version would have. I don't have a new date or price in mind yet. If you can't wait to play, you can get the latest build on my website for a discount: https://puppetcombo.com/preorder/ that comes with a Steam key when the full version comes out
Stay out of the House is coming in April now. I had every intention of finishing it in March, but my monthly patreon project The Glass Staircase got in the way.
I thought I would be able to finish TGS quickly in the first week of March and work on Stay out of the House after that, but I vastly underestimated the amount time it would take to complete. It also got a lot of attention (I wasn't expecting), so I wanted to make sure I delivered a great experience. Thankfully, I'm proud how the game turned out.
If you're interested in a PS2 style survival horror / Italian zombie game you can find the game at The Glass Staircase on itch. There may be a steam version in the future, in which case, you'll get a key if you pick it up on itch
But let me explain what is happening with Stay out of the House and why the game gets delayed.
At the moment about 90% of my time is spent working on my monthly patreon project because I need to deliver a full game or significant content update each month. I often underestimate the amount of work involved. Unfortunately, this has caused Stay out of the House to be pushed back several times. There is a lot that need to be done for a Steam release and most of it is technical stuff I have trouble with like controller support, steam integrations, graphical configuration options. I'm also working on more content such as additional cut-scenes and another ending.
So now that the TGS is out, I'm going to go right into Stay out of the House mode and getting it done. The full version will be coming with Night Shift, Stay out of the House and Nun Massacre (which also needs a content update) all together. I will do all I can to make sure it was worth the wait.
Here's a very late Stay out of the House update. As you guys know, I intended to have it out before Halloween, but I ran out of time and underestimated what it would take to finish.
I take the Steam release very seriously and I want to make sure the game is 100% ready before I start selling it at full price. I think a perfect but delayed release is far better than rushed out and patched later.
All the story content will be finished this month and downloadable for anyone who has early access through a pre-order or my patreon. Meaning all the puzzles along with the endings.So the game will be fully playable.
But a fully polished release requires more than that: controller support, configuration options, full optimization, achievements, trading cards. So I'm holding it back until that stuff is done.
My best estimate for release is after the holidays when things calm down a bit. Probably January. If you're dying to play it in the meantime, the DRM free early access version is on my website at 1/3 of the full release price. So don't hesitate to pick it up there if you can overlook some of the unpolished features. And you'll get the key when the full version comes out.
