A Remake of House in Hellworld

I'm very close to completing the RPGMaker Remake of House in Hellworld. 

Why remake it in RPGMaker? Well I wanted to prototype several new design ideas and it's a matter of my familiarity with the engine and it's rapid-fire testing/prototyping potential.

I'd very much like to turn this into a series, but I need to show something a little more complex then the original Gamejam Visual Novel from 2023. There are several new elements to the remake that go well and above the original:

• More show, less tell:  the daytime sequences will have a lot more interactivity  as you divide your time between a soul-crushing retail job and trying to puzzle out the secrets of the house. 
• Greater player agency:  you will be able to use your phone to try to talk to others about what you've seen and get advice on what to do.
• More NPCs: your day job will have a lot more interaction with customers (who will now be illustrated) and you'll be able to get advice from regulars who while not exactly friends aren't as aloof as the general public. Also your manager is a bigger jerk and actively watches how well you work.
• Idea Crafting: rather that rely on NPC's to tell you what's going on, or putting the story on rails, you will have the ability to formulate your own ideas about what's going on and what you can do about your situation. For people who've played the original visual novel, this means some major changes to the end sequence. You're free to ignore the mechanic and the game should play out similar to the original.
• Turn Based Conversation: talking with characters is now turn based. While the customers are generally more interested in just getting their stuff and leaving and your manager doesn't listen to you at all, other characters are capable of asking you questions on their own as opposed to just in response to a statement selection.
• Better characterization of the protagonist: you will have a little more control over the blank-slate protag and their mental state should be a bit more realistic than before.
• Night-time anxiety: a new mechanic will be trying to sleep at night. This doesn't sound too exciting but it's a natural consequence to witnessing the horrors of the house while also dealing with your impending eviction and work stress. Fail to get to sleep in time will mean that work the following day will be harder to manage.
• New Events! I  was going to call them 'paths' but even the original House in  Hellworld  didn't have traditional VN routes, and instead was event-and-choice driven. Depending on your definition on "ending" there's going to be a heck of a lot more ways to conclude your story!

I've been working on this for a couple of months now and hope to have an 'early access' version out by July, with a complete version by August.

Once again, thank-you to everyone who's played the original.

- Grumpy Old Milk/Smik