[WIP] Down and Out in Damnation (Chapter 2 up! 1/28/15)

Well I have good news. He is romanceable! Justinia, Dahlia, Asher, Geert and the unnamed angel are all romances. I love romance, but it’s rarely quite deep enough for me in CoGs, so if you dig romance and relationships you’ll like that part of the game. Someone mentioned adding an optional asexual varient to the romances which shouldn’t be too difficult. Don’t wanna force sex on an asexual MC. And I’m thinking some of the characters wouldn’t mind staying casual if the MC brings it up. I haven’t worked out what exact sexuality every romanceable character is yet, but I do have a rough idea.

Not that romance will be the entirety of the game or necessary, but I like playing it so I’m gonna integrate it. I make games I want to play.

Justinia’s character arc will reveal why she is called “the bright” and how damnation ultimately lead to her constantly being in a dazed state of numbness that she masks with irony and bad habits. Dahlia’s will revolve around her deep infatuation with the angel of death, Azrael. Asher’s will likely involve his mother, the Hell Queen. Of course, over the course of the plot the MC will probably interact with the Hell Queens even without Asher, especially if the MC’s goal is to rule Hell. Geert’s just a cool dude doing his job… or is he?!

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@Hell_Satan

Thanks for commenting! And your English is great. No worries.

I’ll save you some time and let you know Hell Queens are not in any myths. I made them up entirely for the purposes of this game.

The reason why the main character is damed from birth hasn’t been revealed yet, but it certainly will be in a future update.

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so wait, they only way to become insane is by trying to be a good person?

Yes, but it might help if I describe the reasoning behind the insanity stat. Due to the MC’s position in Hell the “default” or path of least resistance is evil. To do good acts is to directly defy their position and Hell. The more the MC defies Hell the darker and more twisted the very landscape of Hell becomes. It’s Hell’s way of putting the MC back in line. Thus, the insanity stat increases as the intensity and insanity of Hell increases.

Granted, “good” is still a viable path. The MC can ultimately escape Hell and such, but the path is more difficult and precarious since the MC isn’t really in a place that encourages goodness and compassion.

There’s a reason Justinia is so apathetic. She resisted Hell herself and suffered for it until she gave up. She knows the insane chaos that accompanies defying Hell.

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Can we get some form of powers in hell also a weapon to master (scythe cough cough)?

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Sure. Why not? Scythes are cool.

The MC has powers that accompany their specialization. Honestly, I can’t remember atm the exact specializations in the game. I haven’t worked on it in a while, and it’s on the back burner until BfP is done.

So now that devil conscious on peoples shoulders will have a scythe sweet.

I’m liking this so far, even if it’s incomplete. I’d say that one thing I’d like to see is an explanation on those three stats below LIGHT/DARK (Manipulation, Destruction, and Knowledge) As they don’t make TOO much sense to me right now. Maybe a glossary? Thats all I have for now. Good luck!

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Man, this depiction of hell sure has some seriously nasty repercussions for what “God” is like in this universe. I mean, more than usual.

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While the irony of the game crashing on attempting to appeal to God on being told you’re being taken to Hell is an irony worthy of the best of the old IF games, I somehow suspect that is a coding bug rather than intentional…:wink:

@Maradok
I agree. That is a good idea. A glossary might not even be a bad idea either. I do have a lot of concepts that could be more elegantly explained outside of the narrative.

@Shoelip
Yes, I agree. My depictions of God and Hell certainly aren’t happy. I tend to like throwing MC’s in ‘hopeless’ situations and watching them either give in to their situation or overcome it. In DoD the “hopeless” situation happens to be the cosmos… .

@Gray
I wish I was that clever and cool and meta, but yes, it’s just a bug that needs to be squashed.

Having just done a playthrough…it looks good, coding bugs aside.

Found another one, if you say you “believed in hell but mostly ignored it”, I get an “ifelse”-related error.

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Bug upon appealing to heaven….. so does Heaven do the opposite? Turn you insane if your not completely good? I believe you mentioned an angel and how does insanity affect your perception of people? Like will Justinia suddenly attack?

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Thanks for the bug reports everyone. I’m not currently actively working on this game (trying not to get distracted from my main projects+school), but I am keeping a record on the bugs I need to go back and fix. Keep leaving feedback, and I’ll make sure to fix it later on down the line.

@Dark_Stalker
Actually, yes, it’s safe to say Heaven does have a similar effect on those not wholly “good.” The angel is an agender character who comes in later. Their body switches between male and female.

Your perception of people will change in that by becoming ‘insane’ the MC starts to lose their sense of logic or reality. It’s possible to become ‘insane’ enough that you’re unable to interact or even really recognize the presence of others. So, if an MC wants to be good they better find a way to get their asses to Heaven as quickly as possible (which isn’t easy). Either way the MC goes (Heaven or Hell), they’ll likely be in a position of servitude unless they manage to somehow change that (take over Hell, be neither wholly good nor wholly evil, etc). There are consequences for a character who goes completely insane that will come up in-story.

Naturally there are morally gray characters. Justinia is morally gray. She actually has a good heart, but she did bad things that got her in Hell, and when she tried to do good Hell put her in her place very quickly. Her ‘apathy’ is a coping mechanism.

I can take over the hell? Ahahahahahaha!!! :smirk: I will make hell more interesting.

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That reminds me of Infamous nuetrality is punished, unless there is a limbo.

So instead of kicking people out they drive them insane...

So does heaven have the same human resources oil operation?

I would imagine that hell’s machines are used to power heaven to keep all the spirits up there happy.

It’s good so far I love it

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