Hey everyone! I’m working on “Pulcra Vermis:Re”, a remake of "Pulcra Vermis".

Pulcra Vermis:Re is a first-person puzzle exploration game with elements of psychological horror. In the game, the main character finds himself trapped in a strange dimension with the only thing in sight being a colossal castle. After lifting a mysterious book from the ground, he starts hearing an impassive female voice. 

This will be a long journey but I really hold this game dear to my heart so this time, I want to achieve something I wasn't able to in the previous iteration, I want to tell a story, a story between two souls separated and reunited by death.

This is the progress I've made so far:

• Added volumetric fog.
• Improved the lighting and post-processing settings.

• Expanded the labyrinth and blocked out a new area.
• Reprogrammed the object interaction and pickup systems.
• Enhanced a bit the look of the hall.

• Replaced objects with high vertices counts with lower ones without affecting the overall look.
• Created an improved version of the chest, chests now have a higher purpose than just being decorations.

• Blocked out an exit from the labyrinth back to the castle.
• Fixed a bug in which the female voice would spawn endlessly when repeatedly dropping and picking the book.

• Multiple assets were replaced with improved versions.
• Added some balusters here an there.
• Different footsteps sounds for different surfaces.
• Ambient volume lowers when inside the castle or enclosed spaces.
• Better looking and optimized bookshelves in the library.
• Randomly stacked books (still looks unnatural because of the spacing between each but I will improve it).

• Turning pages ( still need to fix that shadow bias artifact).

• Added doors that open in the direction the character's facing. 
• The library has a starry ceiling now.
• Started working on a new room.

• The second tower is now open.
• Replaced the previous body with an improved one, now it looks more like a statue( this one will have animations so prepare yourself to be spooked).

• Started sculpting an improved main character and monster meshes.
• Added a new character to the game( still in early progress).

• Programmed a dialogue system with multiple choices.
• Started blocking out the upper levels of the castle.
• Officially changed the executable name from "MyHouse" to "Pulcra Vermis" ( I'm really ashamed of myself, really).
• Composed a soundtrack for the game.
• And other minor additions.

This time I learned a lot! But the most exciting part of it was working on Vermis, the female character of the game, even though she's still not finished I never went so far in developing a character as I did with her. These are the improvements I made in the last few weeks:

• Improved Vermis's room.

• Improved the dialogue and added an inspection option when interacting with Vermis.
• Improved Vermis.
• Created clothes for Vermis.

• Created a walking animation for Vermis.
• Tested cloth simulation for Vermis's dress ( utter failure but I'm getting there).
• Blocked further the well area in the labyrinth.
• Created a ripple effect when throwing objects into water.

• Almost finished the new version of the "monster".
• Improved a new area in the 6th floor.
• Almost all bookshelves in the library were replaced by the newest ones ( there's tons of them but they're instances so they shouldn't affect performance).
• Created a low poly version of the chest.
• Chests are textured and can be opened now.

• The new main character mesh is almost ready ( but clothes and shoes still need to be improved).

• Wrote one ending to the game.
• And many other things too trivial to be mentioned.

This time I focused more on improving the art with an emphasis on making the rooms feel less empty. 

The reason for that is something I've been thinking about for a long time, something which unfortunately won't come to fruition, the whole castle being explorable. As much as I want it I decided against it mainly for two reasons, the first one being that it will take an immeasurable amount of time to complete(there are ten floors after all) and the second and the most important one is that even if I succeed, the castle will feel exceedingly empty and bland, just like in the previous version. So instead, I decided to polish everything that already exists to the maximum, filling those rooms with meaningful objects and then adding some extra places here and there. On top of that, I'm remaking the game's endings and objectives so I believe this decision will contribute for the better as a whole.

These are the improvements I made this time:

• The main character clothes are almost finished.
• The new main character now works with the animations of the old one ( still not in the game, just testing).
• Added a small pause after each jump.
• Sculpted Vermis' teeth.
• Worked on some facial expressions for Vermis.
• Remade the wooden plank puzzle, still work in progress so the gif below is not the final representation.

• Improved Vermis' room further.

• Created an open book animation.
• Added a posed and improved Vermis to the game.

• Added doors to the library and Vermis' room.
• Modeled the balance.
• The monster now wanders the labyrinth in search of the main character when triggered.
• Camera shaking.
• Wrote some dialogue for Vermis.
• Finally added all the new bookshelves to the library.

• Thought of all the endings, there will be still three but they'll be all different.
• Improved the color puzzle.
• Improved the guest waiting room.

• And a lot of other minor fixes.

These few weeks were mostly focused on programming and math. As a solo game developer, I've learned how important it is to work smart and not hard so I'm always searching for ways to optimize my workflow.

These are the improvements I made this time:

• Added a better looking chandelier to the hall( still not finished, needs candles and more crystals).

• The new main character is now in the game( but not textured yet).
• Implemented the mechanic to open books( there's still no textures nor character animations).

• Composed the main menu soundtrack for the game.
• Added one item to the game relevant to the story.
• Modelled a sofa bench.

• Improved the corridor leading to the library.
• Painting frames are finished( only need to find some public domain paintings).

• Disabled movement when cutscenes play.
• Worked further on the exit from the labyrinth.
• Improved the labyrinth wall texture( now it looks more like blood flowing down).

• Improved Vermis.
• Improved Vermis' room.
• Added text to the letter lying on the office's desk.
• The new monster is finished and almost ready for animation.

• Corrected some sounds and their volume.
• Programmed a save system through checkpoints( still not complete).
• Improved some "respawn" locations.
• Added coins to chests.

• When picking coins the quantity you have appears as a number above the coin's inventory icon.
• Added god lights to the hall.
• Programmed stairs appearing gradually in the tower, they make it easier to reach the third floor but will only appear if you do as Vermis says.

• Improved the library.
• Added a blue wallpaper to the library ( and it works well).

• Blocked out the last zone.
• There are 4 bookshelves and 4 symbol colors now, making this puzzle have a total of 256 combinations possible.

• Unlike the previous version where you could guess the bookshelves combination easily now you need to wander the castle in search of clues, the gif below is just an example. 

• Besides all these, I made an attempt at the game's logo.

The following weeks I'll be focusing on making the game playable from start to end. 

These last few weeks were an attempt at making the game playable from start to finish and even though it wasn't much of a success at least most of the most important programming is done, now I can focus more on improving the art and fixing level design flaws. It's also decided that I will publish the game at the start of July.

That aside, I can't show everything I did or otherwise I will spoil the game.

But here are some of the additions I made:

• Vermis dialogue is completed, she has talking animations in sync with the text and her eyes blink.

• Rigged and animated the monster( won't show more than this to not spoil).

• Programmed the monster AI.
• Created a new puzzle, but you'll have to find how to solve it yourself.

• Fixed some footstep sounds.
• Now it's really obvious which books you need to insert here.

• Added blood puddles to the labyrinth.

• A new zone is in the works.

• Coins thrown into water turn it gold.

• Some objects soaked in golden water turn gold.
• In the previous version of the game the book was inside the character's hand, now it's fixed.

• Modelled some objects important to the story's progression.
• Added some graphics settings and a mouse sensitivity slider.

• Notes you find in the castle now have a fluid camera animation and page flipping.
• Made lots of corrections in the level design.
• Fixed lots of bugs.

Pulcra Vermis:Re is almost finished, now what's left is to polish it, that includes improving the endings which are still lacking, adding textures to objects without them, finishing some 3d models and fixing bugs and level design flaws.

It's funny how this month was the most productive one, realizing the deadline is near really changes you into a hard-working person.

These are some of the current screenshots of the game, if everything goes well they'll still be improved further:

I will publish the game on the 4th of July on both itch.io and gamejolt.com

Thanks for reading and see you in the next update!

Pulcra Vermis:Re is finally out!

https://paragonearth.itch.io/pulcra-vermisre