So it’s been a while. Turns out making a classic survival horror takes time even if the backgrounds are close to minimalistic. Gamedev is a prison, and I have Stockholm Syndrome.

Former laboratory

The main bulk of progress has been the laboratory area. This would be considered the second “chapter” in the game, although it’s a lot bigger than the remaining two chapters I have planned.

Remember that part in the demo where you could do 3 puzzles in any order? The laboratory is similar, except each door leads to a series of puzzles and fights centered around a new mechanic each. For instance, one of them involves a projectile type that can be blocked with your ghost body. Basically, it’s like 3 jam games experimenting with one mechanic, with occasional battles and inventory management. Also, each one has remixed versions of previous enemies and a boss fight at the end.

At the moment, both the chapter in the demo and the laboratory take almost 1 hour to complete… if you know all of the puzzle solutions and skip the cutscenes and lore documents on the floor. Even though testing has been tiring as hell, I actually enjoyed playing through the game once all of the many, many, many bugs were found and fixed. Which is a good sign, since I spent practically two weeks replaying the same sections over and over.

Is it a cake? Is it a floppy disk? It’s both!

This was already teased in the old screenshots, but the laboratory introduces the save token amalgams. Basically, they are items that can either be used to save the game or as one of the healing items. This allows Pseudo-Haunting to have that “but I might need this later” factor (the true horror in survival horror) while keeping the inventory management as simple as possible. When saving, you will be able to choose which item type you want to sacrifice in the name of keeping your progress.

Will I ever make a demo that’s the final version of its chapter

The changes are not limited to the laboratory, there’s also been several tweaks which will be present in the final game. The current demo might be deleted when the full game releases, as there’s several aspects that don’t match the full game.

• Touching an enemy with the ghost body now deals reduced physical damage instead of psychic damage.
• Added hidden collectables for getting the “true/good/slightly-less-bad ending” and a small cutscene introducing them.
• One of the puzzles in the demo area has been completely changed.
• The first boss has been fully overhauled.