Academy of Arcana [to be retitled: The Five Princes of Destruction]
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https://dashingdon.com/play/timberwoolf/academy-of-arcana/mygame/
(Dashingdon is seriously great. So many other games there. I recommend exploring them.)
An opportunity to learn your magic craft is presented as a scholarship at the Academy of Arcana. Focus on your studies, play sports, interact with students, explore places or get involved in mysterious happenings. Do as you please, mostly.
In This Demo
You can’t really do much of anything at all. It’s fairly large though, albeit short. It serves mostly as a promise of what is to come while introducing you to the world. Replay ability is currently nought, but if you’re the lionhearted type, why not give it another go and see if there’s something you have missed.
Things to Expect from Updates
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Actual StatsYou have some stats now, but expect more Actual Stats! - Actual Magic
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More PeopleUp to 100 people currently exist. Yay! -
More AreasI’ve unlocked all the areas. There’s not much to do, though. - Free Exploration
- Multiple Storylines to follow or ignore as you please.
- Morality, because, yay!
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Propar Grammer.Mostly taken care of now.Nevermind. - Poetry Club (I’m 100% Serious)
- Say Something, Anything. (See concepts)
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Morale (The spirit may be willing, but sometimes the flesh just wants to take a nap.)Now it is important to consider the value of life. - Day/Night Cycle.
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Progressive Calendar. Days now flow by, so, enjoy your weekends and holidays, and also be on the lookout for your friends’ birthdays. (You don’t have one yet, though.) -
Dynamic Weather and SeasonsWeather systems are now a GO GO GO! - Functional Time-management (Really, should we leave me in charge of Time Management?)
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A Notebook for your personal use.You can now note things as you please.
Plot and Concepts
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As a new student at the Academy, you have freedom to pursue your learning as you please. You have the opportunity to interact with people, forge friendships, romances or make enemies. The world doesn’t just wait for you, though. Things are happening, and whether you involve yourself in them is completely up to you. You might want to, though, because if the Five Princes of Destruction bring their plans to fruition, and you’re not on their good side, life might be very unpleasant for you. Of course, you could always try to stop them. Do as you please, really.
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Magic is based on Gifts (Darkness, Fire, Chaos, Time, Science, etc…). Making magic is based on Schools (Numerology, Runism, Spellweaving, Channeling, etc…). Gift + School = Craft. These interact in various ways. To further complicate things, and make it all that much more unintuitive, you work with a partner of your choosing to study ways of combining your crafts and make new kinds of magic.
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Relationships are versatile. I’m a firm believer in romancin’ anyone, but I’ve tried to make things a little bit more difficult for myself here. Ultimately, everybody is bisexual and you can romance anybody. You would have to work at it though, as convincing A’El to dump her girlfriend for you is no easy feat. Getting into Exeter’s pants if you’re a boy isn’t going to be easy either (that’s such a lie ), he generally likes girls. Some people fear intimacy, others are desperate. While you’re not looking, people are forging new relationships and making new friends and going on dates and writing bad things about somebody else on the bathroom walls.
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A lot of things are happening at the Academy. There are to be a lot of happening outside the Academy too. Perhaps you’d like to help Jack and Diane return tourism to the small town of Ardenia, or help Exeter track down his long-lost best friend, or help A’El ensure the safesty of the Academy, or… (Seriously, I have a billion plans. I’ll try to document them properly in the future.)
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Say something, Anything: I’ve been thinking about the nature of relationships in choice games. As I see it, we bond with people when we interact with them during events. Though this is a fairly simple summary, I believe this to be an effective formula. But, given my natural writing style, I like to make slices of life, and the nature of The Five Princes of Destruction is free exploration. That is to say, you should be able to track down somebody you’d like to talk to, and, I guess, talk to them. So, apart from dialogue you’d expect, I’d like to include a ‘Say Something, Anything’ option that randomly mentions something you, as the PC, has experienced. Talking to A’El and want to have a casual conversation with her? Say Something, Anything, and you might mention your lunch-date with Exeter. The concept is that if you happen to mention something that a character can respond to in their own story arcs, the narrative world will change. Mentioning crows to Exeter, for example, will make Exeter collect them when he has a chance, because he really likes crows.
Other Things
- I consider myself quite the CSS expert, and I’d like to make the style somewhat unique and interesting. I have some ideas for it, but if your brain fashions a visual style you’d like to see for it, please do share your ideas too. I will probably try them out.
- What kinds of magic combinations would you be interested in? What would you like to see?
- Same-Name Game - Share a name with anybody in the game? Be prepared for unique dialogues. That’s it. Somebody will just point out, much like irl, how strange and co-incidental it is that you share a name.
I’m known to have commitment issues, but I’m super proud of how long I’ve stuck with this one. I really like working on it, and I’ll bring out regular updates. So, if you like it so far, check back regularly to see what’s new. If you don’t like it, well, that’s fine too.
The community, at large, has been an invaluable help to me, so I thought I might share some of what it’s helped to craft. If you have any comments, suggestions, grievances or death-threats, feel free to leave them here for me.
Check if there's been an update:
- A’El has stopped by the cabin and cleared up that temporal singularity. It is now a permanent plurality, which is considerably safer. We don’t recommend coming back just yet, though, as a plague of murderous crows are travelling the grounds.
- Giovanni has adopted the crows and trained them. They are mostly safe now. We don’t recommend coming back just yet, though, as your roommate is known to be a psycho-homicidal maniac.
- Sasha-Lee has been relocated to a the nearest mental facility. You don’t have to worry about her anymore. We don’t recommend coming back just yet, though, as there seems to be a problem with students getting stuck in looping dreams. Could there be psychic magic involved?
- Students are finally waking up without worry or long-term damage. We don’t recommend coming back jsut yet, though, as most of the Academy seems to be closed down.
- The Archives have been opened, but seem drastically understocked. We don’t think it’s worth a visit quite yet, though, because who want’s to spend their free time reading, of all things?
- The Arena has opened, and there’s a lot going on there. We don’t really recommend coming back just yet, because why would you? Do you want to die at the wooden-metallic hands of a Training Dummy?
- All the other students have arrived at the Academy. Go say hi!
- All the other students now have actual personalities. What a relief.
- Ardenia is now accessible by bus route. Expect more things to open soon!