The Hidden Sanctum by Dariel Ivalyen (Released!)

Sounds interesting

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Is Hikaru gay,because i played as Girl interested in men and i got no Flirt Options with hikaru???Or is that a Bug?

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@Velve I just went through the demo with a female character attracted only to men and was able to flirt with Hikaru in Chapter 1. The flirts happen when you meet Minjoon and are about to do ā€œyogaā€. Do they not appear for you? There are no flirts earlier than that.

Edit: Flirts with Minjoon happen when you first meet him. To flirt with Hikaru, you also have to choose to practice with him.

No problem. Enjoy! :laughing:

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apparently I had overlooked the flirt option thank youšŸ˜…

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Think found an error

Whatever last name you choose, it always ends up as Kurosawa

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Changelog
November 30, 2021

  • Corrected some typos found by Paradox1 and Empress _Nightmare.
  • Corrected a sentence that repeated itself. There was a bug that made it impossible for nonbinary characters to see any of the sentences. Things should be okay now.
  • Fixed the ā€˜last name bugā€™ pointed out by q_riley.
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before anything else, I just want to say the moment I opened Hikaruā€™s link and saw Jonghyun I almost close the tab like damn bro you got me disturbed :sob: No hate but it makes me feelā€¦ uncomfortable/weird since heā€™s gone and all

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@boobear_o Hi there! I totally understand your reaction, especially since someone has already pointed that out. I was fully aware of JH and his story when I first came up with Hikaruā€™s character, and his story was one of the reason why I even started working on The Hidden Sanctum, butā€”and thatā€™s a big butā€”I do understand that the connection might be too close.

Iā€™m considering writing Hikaru out of the game and doing one of two things. I would either have to write a different character to replace Hikaru with or switch Hikaru with Minjoon. Iā€™d delete Hikaru, and Sky would appear in the prologue with Minjoon.

Any suggestions?

Edit: I went through the outline, and Iā€™m afraid if I remove Hikaru from the story, certain key main story elements no longer work. Minjoon has a very different power, which also makes this difficult. I need to think about this and really consider things. I think Iā€™d have to drastically change the main story to make it work without Hikaru.

@pixie124 I donā€™t think so. Iā€™m fairly certain that the paths will remain as they are.

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I would go with the switch Hikaru with Minjoon idea love your game by the way
edit will the soul paths change or no

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ANNOUNCEMENT
I took a few hours to really think about what to do with Hikaru and The Hidden Sanctum, and I even considered abandoning the project, but in the end, I made a different decision. Iā€™m going to rewrite the demo, and this rewrite will appear before Christmas. This will basically move everything by about a month. Chapter 2 will be added in January etc.

Hereā€™s a list of changes Iā€™m going to make:

  • Hikaru will be removed from the game, and Minjoon will remain exactly as he is.
  • When Sky saves you in the prologue, they will be with a new character called Odyss (from Odysseus). Odyss is a character I had some ideas for a couple of years ago, but I never really used him in anything. I believe heā€™ll be perfect for this story, and he can safely get Hikaruā€™s soul path. While his story arc does include mental health struggles, his personality, appearance, and background are totally different. The only thing H and O have in common is that Odyss used to play the piano when he was a kid. Iā€™ll add info about him to the main post in a day or two.
  • The Hidden Sanctum (architecture) will be redesigned. It will be more Egyptian, and less Greek, but there will be some Greek elements (The Oracle and the open-air theater). Iā€™ll also draw a map of the island and add it to the main post.
  • Iā€™ll also try to add some new scenes with this next update, but it wonā€™t be Chapter 2 in its entirety. Iā€™ll either add an introduction to the path system (the first few scenes of Ch2) or an extra scene to Chapter 1.

To sum things up, swapping Hikaru with Minjoon wonā€™t work, and deleting the character entirely would destroy the main story of the game, which left me with two possible options. I could either abandon the project or add a new character, and I chose the latter.

I hope that sounds fair. Iā€™ll keep you posted about everything!

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Fine by me. We didnā€™t have enough characterisation from Hikaru in the demo as it currently stands for substantial attachments to be made. If swapping him for a different character is healthier for the overall plot I am all for it.

The pyres of character death burn brighter against the cold abyss of rewrites.

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REWRITE UPDATE
Odyss has been added to the main post. He has two songs, and they are both by my favorite artist. I hope you like them.

1st Edit: Iā€™m almost done with the rewrite of the prologue. Iā€™m going to post the new demo later today, but thatā€™ll also mean that the old demo (and Chapter 1) will no longer be available. Iā€™ll add the new version of Chapter 1 in a few days.

2nd Edit: The old demo is no longer available (hopefully). I uploaded the revised version of the prologue. Chapter 1 will be added in a few days. You should now be able to meet Odyss when Sky comes to your rescue.

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If you are going to lose some of the main story if you delete him, why not just write another character to replace Hikaru. Maybe have a cameo of him though because i think heā€™s a cool character.

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@Ghoslestat Thanks for that suggestion! I actually already figured out what to do. You can check out the announcement a few posts back and read about the new character (Odyss) in the main post. His Pinterest link and songs have already been added.

Donā€™t worry about it! :laughing:

I donā€™t want to give anything away, especially since these scenes wonā€™t happen anytime soon, but yes, the gods will make an appearance. Ra will be there if you choose to follow the Sun path and heā€™ll also be involved in the main story in Books 2 and 3, and Sekhmet will get involved if Marco chooses to get close to her.

Also, thereā€™ll be a lot of Egyptian gods in one of the endings.

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Sorry. I just noticed it after i sent that message :joy:

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@Dariel I was just wondering, will Ra (or any of the other Gods) make an appearance physically?

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Changelog
December 1, 2021

  • Deleted the old demo.
  • Uploaded the rewritten version of the prologue. Chapter 1 coming in a few days!
  • Fixed some Sky pronoun issues in the prologue.

If you find any inconsistent moments that feel like theyā€™re referencing Hikaru and not Odyss, please report them asap. Thanks!

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Very excited to see how this develops. Temple of endless night was great from the first version of the demo all the way to the full release. Also started going through the alchemist last night. Thats also dope. So yea. You got a pretty great track record so far, huh?

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@Nick_Miller Thank you for saying that. I truly appreciate these words, even if they are only subjective. Iā€™m also glad to hear that you enjoyed the new demo. The old one was four times longer (60k instead of 15), but since Iā€™m doing a rewrite, I had to hide it for now. I hope to have Chapter 1 ready in a few days.

As for the track record, it could be much better. Itā€™s only great if you donā€™t mention the things that didnā€™t really work out. Cough. Chronicles of Sekherion. :upside_down_face:

ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“ ā€“

Edit: Good news! The rewritten version of Chapter 1 will be added to the demo in a day or two. The rewrite is going faster than I expected it to, and itā€™s mostly because Hikaru didnā€™t have any personal scenes in Chapter 1 (unlike Sephtis, Elena, Marco and Sky).

He was present in the Balance and Movement scene, but that scene wasnā€™t about Hikaru and it isnā€™t about Odyss. Itā€™s about what happens to the MC (with their power).

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Changelog
December 3, 2021

  • Added a rewritten version of Chapter 1 to the demo (ca 45k words, excluding code).
  • Changed some descriptions of the Sanctum (buildings).
  • Made flirting with Odyss much less in-your-face than it was with Hikaru. The MC no longer thinks of their feelings. (Too soon for that!)

Just like with the rewritten prologue, if you find any inconsistent moments that feel like theyā€™re referencing Hikaru and not Odyss, please report them asap.

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