Removed Content #2 | The First Concept of Crimson Prison (Patreon)

Three years ago, back in July 2022, I was working on an update for Two Sides of the Same Coin.An update that would introduce the second Secret Factor to the story, and probably the most important one.

Dyed in Crimson-Sakura.

As you might remember, that update gave us a glimpse into Shunnaru’s past. Her capture by the Aristocrat and her arrival at Nuevo Faredo’s prison, along with a few dialogues featuring Sora, the mysterious man.

At that time, Sora didn’t really have a defined personality. He was just a guy trying to help out.

(All the images you see are from back then, though I’ve updated Shunnaru’s model while keeping the same shaders and other elements.)

The original core gameplay of Crimson Prison was initially designed to revolve around Shunnaru.She wasn’t just going to be the protagonist, she was also meant to be the playable character.

What was the gameplay like in the first version of Crimson Prison?

To be honest, it was a bit more interactive than what it is today.After arriving at the prison, Shunnaru would awaken her Solstice separately from her Equinox, allowing her to become more aware of her surroundings and have better control over her body.With that in mind, she would have to sneak around, weaving through rows of guards and enemies to secretly gather documents that could confirm where she was.So she could eventually plan her escape, which would be the ending (around the end of Chapter 3).

She would walk silently, tiptoeing through every corner of Nuevo Faredo, trying not to raise suspicion.Her first stop after waking up would be the Margined Cells.

Originally, the idea was to implement a HUD with navigation windows to move between these areas.(You can see the very first HUD design for Crimson Prison in the image below.)The Margined Cells would connect directly to one of the most remote places in the prison.

Second Stop: The Red District

And here’s where NSFW content comes in. This is a visual novel, after all.

Since I couldn’t include Shunnaru in any NSFW scenes for reasons most of you already know, they were going to be handled a little differently.Shunnaru would have to sneak through rooms and areas of the Red District while people were engaged in NSFW situations, being especially careful not to reveal her presence with any sudden noise.

In doing so, she’d gather not only important documents but also resources (food, potions, weapons…)

Among those documents, one would detail her upcoming fight against Tanioku Jindai – “The Goliath.”A no-rules bloodbath. That was the only rule.

Using this knowledge to her advantage, she would come up with a plan to win the fight, though not without taking some damage.

But problems started to pile up.

First, I couldn’t have Shunnaru witnessing explicit scenes.And on top of that, just watching scenes without any interaction would eventually make the gameplay feel monotonous.So after a lot of thought, the project took a new direction.

Crimson Prison was reworked into a sandbox game, more interactive than Two Sides of the Same Coin, but with less gameplay complexity than the original concept, and the stealth element was removed entirely.

Sora was reimagined as a supporting character and a controllable unit, someone who provides assistance to the protagonist while also offering her freedom, since he doesn't stick to her 24/7.

This shift also allowed me to better develop the characters’ relationships, since in the original concept Shunnaru was always meant to stay hidden, which made character interactions extremely limited.