I thought that I had a game plan for creating this project, but unfortunately things have fallen apart, and both Gibmaker and I have dropped Ruby Quest: Undertow. Now allow me to explain what happened.

The game was a huge, ambitious effort from both of us but it proved too much. Production started a few years ago and a lot can change in that amount of time. I'm talking real life stuff, and sure enough, things changed for both of us.

In Gibmaker's case, since the beginning of this game, he was in a bad spot. In a sense, both of us were, but Gib was fighting his own demons, struggling with an obsession in progress and not feeling like he was getting much out of life. Just recently he managed to find someone that gave him a different outlook and practically changed his way of living. He does not have time much to work on the game anymore, and this is a critical blow, as he is the programmer and debugger. Not to say he had absolutely no time, but work was going slower than it ever has been, and things were beginning to fall apart.

In my case, there were a few factors in my loss of interest for this project. Firstly, while we thought RMXP was a sufficient engine for the game considering Gib and I were familiar with it, the further we went into production, the more I was realizing this engine wasn't up to snuff. At the point where we are with the game, it's basically being held together with duct tape, bursting at the seams. We've pushed RGSS to its limits here, and have encountered countless bugs and performance issues that marred my vision of the game severely. I've come up with the prospect of switching to software like Game Maker or even Unity, but decided against it, as that would mean we would have to learn an entirely new engine, code structure, and interface. It plainly wasn't going to happen. Another factor is just how ambitious I was with the graphical style. There was simply way too much for me to make, so much that I started asking Gibmaker for help with tilesets.

In retrospect, it would have been wiser to make a bigger team, but I thought the two of us could tackle it by ourselves. It was a mistake, almost an impulsive decision without much planning (I didn't even create a full script/outline for the game's plot until we released the demo). That's a personal demon I have to fight myself, my impulsive nature. I heavily regret dropping this project, as I'm sure a lot of people were looking forward to our iteration of the popular source material. We apologize very much for how the production of Undertow came to a screeching halt.

All that being said, we won't leave you guys with nothing. We have a newer build with more maps and events. It's about halfway through the game, but we won't be making anymore of it. We will release this build for you guys, but as it is incomplete in many ways, there is a high chance you will come across bugs, but hopefully nothing game-breaking. This is the least we can do for you guys who were sticking around since the start. We hope it provides some fun in the wake of this saddening blog. It also contains all of the music we have planned to use for the game. We've also included a bunch of fun pictures/plans that we've created in the production of the game. The demo will end while you talk to Tom in the hallway upon returning from the second dark world. It is not a game-breaking bug, it is simply where we stopped working.

Thanks again for taking interest in our project. I can't say for sure if we'll ever work on a game again, but you guys are free to check my and Gib's portfolio of games if you're ever curious for more completed works from us. Thanks for reading!

EDIT: Because RMN is being stupid, I've uploaded the demo to Mega. https://mega.nz/#!erJUBCJA!3v_CTxZzvr3HzLdQ8bqi1RZPDbQZCdIIBS7409x14K8

1/24/17 v.0.0.9

- Implemented Autosave function.
- Added in a couple of startling in-game hints for the first section of the game.
- Added in a checker that alerts you if you don't have the fonts necessary to play the game.
- Had the item pick-up message say "Archived" if you pick up an archive item rather than a regular item.

Unfortunately we've had to remove the font installer because it is out of date and just causes even more hassle for most people than simply installing them manually. It also causes script hanging if you run the game in Administrator mode.

1/12/17 v.0.0.8

- Font installer removed.

1/4/17 v.0.0.6

- Prevented player from being able to take an ID card from every new Geraldine that spawns.
- Added in some button reminders for Easy difficulty.
- Took out ability to get Phone Number archive.
- Fixed door event in Maintenance Hydro not doing anything.
- Caused Tom to be in "attack" mode from the start.
- Fixed Nook saying the same safe code would work even after you demonstrated it doesn't.
- Stopped Red from doing anything else but follow you.
- Added in a light vignette to Jayworld that directs you to the center light post.
- Removed bug where Tom clone appears in Security Retrieval after sending a cure that doesn't work.
- Added in a better hint for what cure to send Tom.
- Fixed being able to plug in radio multiple times.
- Fixed passable tiles in Cellar.
- Fixed monster spawn in Hydro Systems 2.
- Can't mess with buttons after releasing Tom any longer.
- Fixed pathfinder crash when Red is in the team.
- Health is now depleted even while blocking, but at a smaller amount.
- Allowed monsters to come into Storage 1.

1/1/17 v.0.0.4

- Fixed monster spawn in Maintenance Hall 1.
- Fixed graphical error in Hydro Systems 1.
- Fixed save point causing background noise to cancel out in Hydro Systems 1.
- Fixed being able to leave Storage 1 while gas is present.
- Fixed having same inventory when transitioning to Jayworld.
- Included missing BGM file.

Happy 2017!