Hi, lonesome. It’s definitely not pointless to comment, I receive email notifications for itch.io posts and I do read all of them. I don’t always respond, but that’s neither here nor there.
When it comes to the 2017 Last Rites demo, I have refrained from re-releasing it of my own accord very purposefully. As you said, it in no way represents 1-900-CULT as it is now, or even as it was just a couple years after the demo’s release. I especially don’t wish to post it now as it would be an extremely confusing move, especially in light of the long expanse of quiet since the Don’t Be Afraid of Dying trailer. The game has neither ceased development, nor is the 2017 demo an actual ‘new’ demo, which I’m sure quite a few people would expect if they saw ‘Last Rites Demo’ appear in their feed.
I understand the interest in preserving whatever can be preserved from a long development cycle. There are a great many builds of 1-900-CULT that are now probably lost to time, and it is somewhat sad. Still, something I’d like to stress is that the ‘vision’ for 1-900-CULT is not different at its core from the ‘vision’ for Miami Horror. If the game had come out in 2018, would it look very different than if the game were to come out now? Yes, absolutely. It would also have been horribly unfinished, but that’s really beside the point.
Miami Horror was then and is now a heartfelt love letter from me to Dennaton Games and their series. And that has certainly not changed. The plot has stayed relatively the same and all of the characters planned in 2017 are the same characters planned now. Level layouts and concepts have changed and the game design has matured tremendously in the past seven years. That might seem like a major change, but its more that poorly designed or ludicrously difficult concepts have been steadily pared down over time. Not that anything has been cut.
Believe me when I tell you that no one is missing anything by not having the Last Rites Demo. And the change from Miami Horror to 1-900-CULT is not a Half-Life 2 beta situation. The original name just sucked! And since changing it the mood and branding of the game have just grown so much more thoroughly thought out and tied together.
All that being said, I do agree that I don’t want it to go entirely forgotten. When the new demo comes out, maybe I’ll ‘re-release’ the old demo. I don’t have the original files for it, I’m sure — but there is that ‘Miami Horror Cracked’ version floating around, and I know a couple of people have held on to the .exe. Maybe someday I’ll also release the very original Hotline 2 editor levels as well.