# New Author Interview and Demo! Stuart Martyn, "To Reign in Hell" **URL:** \ **Category:** Announcements\ **Created:** [October 27, 2026, 5:24pm UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-author-interview-and-demo-stuart-martyn-to-reign-in-hell/179755 "2026-10-27T17:24:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/original/3X/e/f/efe1497a762edecdb6d569a1c4abee87508bf002.png) [@system](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 5:24pm UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-author-interview-and-demo-stuart-martyn-to-reign-in-hell/179755/1 "2026-10-27T17:24:01Z")
Originally published at: [https://www.choiceofgames.com/2026/10/new-author-interview-and-demo-stuart-martyn-to-reign-in-hell/](https://www.choiceofgames.com/2026/10/new-author-interview-and-demo-stuart-martyn-to-reign-in-hell/) ![](https://www.choiceofgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/web408-1.png) The empress of Hell is gone. Seize her throne, and wage war on Heaven! _[To Reign in Hell](https://www.choiceofgames.com/to-reign-in-hell/)_ is a 600,000-word interactive novel by Stuart Martyn. It releases on Thursday, October 29th, and [you can play the demo for free today!](https://www.choiceofgames.com/to-reign-in-hell/) We sat down with Stuart to discuss the game. **You’ve got a fantastically detailed vision of the underworld, with a complex society and geography that borrows from a wide range of mythology and literature in addition to having many elements that are uniquely your own. What were some particular inspirations in creating your vision of Hell? What system(s) of ethics did you build on?** I took inspiration from various places. There’s a lot of Judeo-Christian hell in there, a decent amount of Greco-Roman (especially the rivers), some smaller nods to Egyptian and Aztec netherworlds as well as a few fictional inspirations. In terms of ethics, it was important to me that the denizens of hell aren’t, as people might assume, ontologically evil. The first wave of fallen angels in _To Reign In Hell_ fought for a compassionate and utopian vision that was never realized. A few NPCs present their own answers and theories as to why, but I don’t like to give a single authorial answer for these sorts of questions, especially for a game where the player’s opinion is the most important. Still, I wanted to make it clear that evil isn’t a cosmic force like gravity; it’s a consequence of the choices we make, the behaviors we reward or accept. Players explore this through three factions that they can side with. Their leaders will, if you talk to them, explain their positions and they’ve got some good points to make! Their words and actions don’t always line up comfortably, however. Of course, you can also decide to sidestep the politics and focus entirely on breaking free of hell or seizing power entirely for yourself, though that might be a little more difficult. **Conversely, Heaven is the antagonist. How did you go about turning angels into the PC’s enemies?** The game almost immediately places heaven in an antagonistic position when they attack you seemingly unprovoked, but one of the challenges for me was keeping (most of) heaven’s representatives in a more ambiguous state so there’s no clear answer in the choice to escalate or de-escalate the conflict. Heaven’s hands are far from clean, but hell isn’t a nice place which gives them some moral high ground. Keeping heaven in that middle ground was important to me; I don’t want a peaceful or warlike route to be unambiguously cruel or kind, right or wrong. I want a PC’s subjective morality to be the key. For example, a cynical, power-hungry PC might seek peace with heaven for unaltruistic reasons. A more moral character may view heaven as jailers and believe that they deserve to be punished. **What is your favorite weird power or physical description that you gave to a demon?** In this setting, demons change over time in line with their desires, decisions, scars and sins. As the story develops, the PC and their equipment go through some small changes in line with their choices, skills and personality. Some of these changes are more inward and subtle while others are obvious. I had a lot of fun with one possible mutation that lets the PC’s skin change color to blend in with their surroundings. I also quite enjoyed writing the body horror that slowly seeps into the game if a player commits to _certain decisions…_ I appreciated getting weird with some NPCs who have warped into particularly unusual forms or are inhuman in more subtle ways. My favorite weird physical description is actually a spoiler, so I’ll settle for the character who is happily married to the parasite/symbiote that replaced his tongue. **Across your whole body of writing, you go to some pretty dark places. What is it about demons and darkness that keep drawing you back to them?** I think darker settings let you tackle difficult questions and morality without ambushing players who don’t want that. If you’re going to hell, you’re primed for tough choices and questions! I wanted to create a setting where PCs could be selfish and cruel and revel in it. Evil routes in games often lack texture of variety, so here I wanted options to play a sneak, a brute, a schemer or combinations thereof. At the same time, I also think that in darker places acts of heroism shine all the brighter. That doesn’t mean that choosing good should be easy, so in _To Reign In Hell_ acting selflessly often provides fewer clear benefits and less progress towards certain goals. It’s entirely possible to get a good ending by playing a more straightforwardly heroic character, but it’s a more challenging run. Hopefully that will make it more rewarding as well. **I’m fascinated by your experience with megagames! Tell us a little more about that. How does that work? How do you manage a very large player base? What are some of the challenges and rewards in a play-by-email game?** During lockdown, in-person games weren’t possible so I ran a lot of play-by-email games with large casts of players and even NPCs. In most of the games I’ve run, players had a weekly turn and altered the gamestate/advanced plotlines by sending in a limited number of actions to the gamemasters. I would resolve their actions by testing a trait and writing some second-person fiction. Great practice for a Choicescript game! Generally, these games are collaborative experiences with a team of gamerunners and players, which can – with the right team – lead to some truly incredible ‘Yes, and’ worldbuilding, creating a living and breathing world that is constantly changing as it responds to your actions. One of the best parts of any megagame was the postgame debrief where players could share their experiences and discover all the plot threads, cultures and storylines they never knew about. When running games for a very large number of players, it is important to make sure they always feel empowered, as it’s more difficult for any single player to be ‘the protagonist’ in the way they would be in a video game or even a shared tabletop experience. You also need to keep track of all the narratives and keep a complex gamestate in mind. This really helped when it came to keeping the various possible routes a player might take through _To Reign In Hell_ in mind while writing. ---
**Author:** ![AletheiaKnights](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/aletheiaknights/32/270141_2.png) [@AletheiaKnights](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/AletheiaKnights)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 6:06pm UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-author-interview-and-demo-stuart-martyn-to-reign-in-hell/179755/3 "2026-10-27T18:06:58Z")
I had never heard of megagames before this, and now I want to try one! Definitely excited to grab this game when it comes out on Thursday. ---
**Author:** ![Konoi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/konoi/32/149904_2.png) [@Konoi](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Konoi)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 6:36pm UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-author-interview-and-demo-stuart-martyn-to-reign-in-hell/179755/4 "2026-10-27T18:36:38Z")
Huh, it’s been so long since I’ve heard of online RP on a big scale like that. Never participated myself since I have a TTRPG circle with friends, but I know people who took part in one. Anyway, back to the point, after To the Hilt, this is the second game this month I’m insanely excited about! First one was great - I hope this one will be just as amazing or better! Congrats on the upcoming release! ---
**Author:** ![Natman1025](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/natman1025/32/243072_2.png) [@Natman1025](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Natman1025)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2026, 4:07am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-author-interview-and-demo-stuart-martyn-to-reign-in-hell/179755/5 "2026-10-28T04:07:24Z")
Tried the demo and wow that is an incredibly fun read. Customization of your demon, the descriptions of the world and the flow of it all is some damn fine writing. Great work, and with 600k words too, damn!