Nora Haynes
CREATOR
14 days ago
Project Update: Unlocked: Special Character Arcs (+ Chapter One of the Purgatory Express)
Hey everyone!
The first chapter of the Despair Dilemma crowdfunding campaign has just about finished, and now we're moving into chapter two! That means working harder on getting the layout ready for the Prototype PDF, pushing forward on the backer death game, and of course streaming the next part of playing with Chat in... one hour from now!
With that said, we've just hit our next stretch goal! So lets give it a look and see what's coming next!
The first chapter of the Despair Dilemma crowdfunding campaign has just about finished, and now we're moving into chapter two! That means working harder on getting the layout ready for the Prototype PDF, pushing forward on the backer death game, and of course streaming the next part of playing with Chat in... one hour from now!
With that said, we've just hit our next stretch goal! So lets give it a look and see what's coming next!
Unlocked: Special Character Arcs
The Character Arcs system is one of the "Modules" contained in the Despair Dilemma book. If you've checked out the Demo Kit, then you've already seen some of what these look like - but with this stretch goal unlocked, we can get working on some mechanically unique character arcs to spice up the game! With any luck we'll have some examples for you when the campaign finishes with the Prototype PDF, but that will all depend on how much time we can put towards getting it ready since we haven't made it up yet! I'm excited to show you all the ideas we've been working on behind the scenes.
Coming up Next: Death Game Sheet by Viveros
If you're a fan of Death Games and Video Essays, there's a good chance you've seen some of Viveros's work while scrolling YouTube. It may have been their fantastic dissection of Inescapable, their discussion on choice in Your Turn to Die, or more recent video on how The Pinkertons are talked about in games. But it's possible you also know them for their main work as an Overwatch streamer and Vtuber. In general they have a fantastic understanding of how game design affects communities and how people play, and I'd highly recommend giving their channel a look as a whole if that's a topic you're interested in!
If we hit this stretch goal, we'll be commissioning Viveros to make a Death Game Sheet based on their Virtual Killing Academy streams! When we let them know we were revealing the goal today, here's what they had to share!
As a big fan of killing games, I was absolutely thrilled when Double Summon Games reached out to me with the opportunity to create this death game sheet for them, and it's been really exciting to explore what goes into creating a good killing game concept! The Virtual Killing Academy has been a really cool opportunity to incorporate my own ideas for a killing game as well as show my appreciation for the games that have defined the genre for me, for better and for worse (some things are just... Inescapable). I can't wait for you all to get to play this game, and I'm so excited to see what you do with the Virtual Killing Academy once we hit that stretch goal!
The Prologue for The Purgatory Express is Complete!!
Thank you all so much for submitting questions and voting on the poll for Death Game Questions in The Purgatory Express! I can only imagine it was an incredibly tough choice (Thankfully I'm not allowed to vote), and given how neck and neck some of the options are, every vote really did count. with that said, we have our four winners!
Players using this Death Game Sheet will have the option to answer these questions and change the game in a number of ways. The actual mechanical effects of these questions may be changed depending on how things go later of course, but that'll all depend on what The Narrative ends up looking like - Speaking of:
It's Time to Make Chapter One
Later chapters in Despair Dilemma give you a couple options the players can select from to make sure everything matches the story they're telling. Chapter One doesn't have this issue since it's the very start of the game, but that doesn't mean it should be any less interesting! The first chapter is what gets the story going and pushes the characters into action.
Just like with the last few elements of the Death Game Sheet, we're going to ask you to comment below with your answers to the following questions: What Defines Chapter One of this Death Game? What Mystery will be Answered By the End of this Chapter?
There's already an example of what chapters look like in the Demo Kit, but here's a couple other examples you can work off of when making your pitch!
Just like with the last few elements of the Death Game Sheet, we're going to ask you to comment below with your answers to the following questions: What Defines Chapter One of this Death Game? What Mystery will be Answered By the End of this Chapter?
There's already an example of what chapters look like in the Demo Kit, but here's a couple other examples you can work off of when making your pitch!
- The students stir as they wake up and discover themselves in their school without a memory of how they got here. The doors are locked, it seems impossible to escape.
Chapter Mystery: What's different about the school compared to when everyone last saw it? - Signs come to bare, and both the oldest and the wisest know that the ritual has begun. There’s no escape now; it must be completed, or something far, far worse will befall the victims.
Chapter Mystery: What ancient secret about this village is uncovered by the characters?
This decision will make a massive impact on what the future of the Death Game Sheet looks like, so I'm excited to see what you all come up with!
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Thank you for your time,
Nora Jean Haynes
When we hit this stretch goal, we'll commision Viveros, the Death Game Vtuber & Video Essayist, to make a Death Game Sheet!
Goal: A$25,000 reached! — We did it! This project reached this goal!
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