Spirit of Hunger - CH.3 DEMO

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Some more finds:

You drift into the bedroom.

Eleanor is here, beached on top of a mound of pillows atop a modest four-poster bed.

The damask walls gleam as if recently brushed clean, complementing the wardrobe‘s perfectly aligned drawers and freshly-oiled hinges. At the writing desk, a blotter preserves pristine stationery beside a fresh inkwell and aligned nibs. The rug lies centered with mathematical precision, its pile combed in uniform directions. Neat.

There are a couple of empty chocolate wrappers scattered around the floor.

[[ Click on “Writing desk” gets a describtion that is more in line of what is excpected

The writing desk is buried under a landslide of disorganization. Empty wine bottles jostle for space among a collection of ink-stained pens. A haphazard pile of unopened letters spills onto the floor, their wax seals chipped away.

The only real work that has been done here recently is a half-finished letter buried under biscuit crumbs, its ink faded to a rusty brown - it must’ve sat here for a while. A paperweight shaped like a bird peeks out from the debris, one wing chipped.

[[ There is a problem or overflow. I was aiming for Ending 2

Here seems to be an overflow that turns messy into neat.

As you lift the pocket watch, the hands begin to reverse, winding backward in a slow, steady rhythm.

Morning light now filters softly through the windows. You watch as Eleanor steps in from the kitchenette, her hair loosely gathered, but already dressed in her work clothes. She carries a plate with three muffins on top of it, a bowl of steaming porridge, and a cup of tea, which she carefully arranges on the table.

Satisfied, she lowers herself into a chair, taking the time to better adjust the chain of a pocket watch against her blouse. She then stirs the porridge, taking a few measured spoonfuls.

[[ The path over “pocket watch”

I can not recreate this event. It is noticable that the background changes from “past” to “present” during the interaction and than back to “past” again for the rest of the memory.

And some questions:

  1. How many endings does the first chapter has?
  2. I do not get what to do with the bathroom mirror. Any tips?
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I’m not really sure what went wrong with that dining table interaction, but I think I fixed it? Seems to function and look as intended now. I’ve also taken care of that desk description - that was indeed an error.

Only 3 endings for this chapter! As for the bathroom mirror, there isn’t really anything to do with it, its interaction with the mirror is just there to give a hint: you have to find another reflective surface to test the hand mirror on.

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Is there something here I’m not getting? I can’t do anything. There’s nothing I can meaningfully interact with, I can pick up a few item, the Pocket watch, Clod of Plaster, and Hand mirror, but there’s nothing I can do with any of them. I got Ending 1, but genuinely have zero idea how I can could possibly get endings 2 or 3 when there’s seemingly nothing for me to do.

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It is not explained.
Maybe it would be good to program for the plaster or pocketwatch an hard path that works as an tutorial.
Here a tip:

  1. Pick up the Pocket Watch
  2. Interact with the double doors
  3. WHILE the interacting is ongoing open inventar

I hope that helps you.

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I got ending 2, but honestly I feel like there was still a lot I missed. Like I never actually found out if the handbag actually does anything.

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Thanks for the help. I was able to get much farther, able to get ending 3, though I’m still not quite sure how to get ending 2 though, or what to do with the handbag.
Still, great game, being able to watch Eleanor from an outsider’s perspective was well executed and fun to watch.

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Hey! How it is going?
On Itcho you have marked your game as released but as well as only containing chapter 1?

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Ah yeah, that’s not right at all, it must’ve defaulted to that. It should now say in active development.

As for the game itself… progress is slow, but there has been some of it! Very little compared to the scope of the chapter, but to be fair most of the work has gone into the gameplay loop, and in testing and making sure it works without issue. I know, very uncharacteristic of me. I’m slowly but surely learning from my errors (:

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I am a professional tester. I know how boring it is and how nessecary.

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I have no idea how to progress or find any of the “control” scenes. Where do I even get the Pocket Watch?

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Hey there! I’m back with an update.

Not for the full chapter release - still a lot to go through for that, as you might imagine. Still, I wanted to let you guys in on what this second part of the game will be like, so I made a short demo! You can play it on Spirit of Hunger’s page, I just updated it.

Let me know what you think of it!

CONSIDERATIONS

I think you can see it for yourself, but I’m trying to do something much more ambitious for this chapter! It shouldn’t come as a surprise - I started the first chapter with the intent of that being the demo for Spirit of Hunger. This second chapter was always going to be the bulk of the game.

I want to focus on the actual narrative, the story, and this reflects on the gameplay: if the first chapter was a proper interactive sandbox, this one is getting closer to a choose your own adventure book, or a visual novel. Though don’t worry, I will be trying to have a lot of interactivity either way, that’s not going away. Also no visuals during dialogues lmao - just a novel then, I guess.

DEEPER CONSIDERATIONS

You may think this is an excessive amount of work for a game of this nature. I kind of do, too! But I like working on it, I like experimenting with these themes, and I like to express myself in this weird, uncommon way.

Because there is no better way to live your life than to give your best onto projects the majority of people will not care for - no better way to live than to be true to oneself, no matter how odd, weird, embarrassing that self might be.

I’m being a bit too deep, maybe, but I stand by this.

TIMELINE/DATE OF RELEASE

When’s the full chapter coming out? I don’t know (:

I’m heading into some pretty busy months, so… maybe July? August? I also tend to be a bit obsessive over very small details, so we also have to factor that in. Well, no matter: it will come out eventually.

The third chapter is another story. I am planning for it, and I’ll probably develop that too, at a certain point? One step at a time, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Bugs, dead-ends, glitches: bound to be, tell me, will fix - you know the drill by now.

Ah, right, it’s not really related to this project, but I should mention that the guide for my previous game, Emily’s Midnight Snack, is now free to download!

Alright, bye.

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hellllllll yeah, looking forward to trying it out!

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This second chapter is really shaping up to be quite the venture, the amount of choices you have laid out for any readers is very impressive! I can’t wait to see and experience the finished version.

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excellent, another update. i liked the lever scene in the first chapter, so seeing the meeting in the second is quite nice. i have found a bug though, using an ability on the clay tablet will lead to a blank screen

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Nice! You’d be happy to hear that I’m planning to have many more scenes like these, then - now, not all of the chapter’s events will be (I do want to have this chapter out in a reasonable time lmao), but still a lot.

Also, I’ve identified the problem! I made an entry for the ability, but forgot to fill it in. For now, I’ve just removed the option.

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I’m glad you think so!! Yep, lots and lots of options, you can be sure of that. A little too many, even! It’s getting hard to keep track of all the available routes across the whole chapter.

Beta testers will have a field trip with this one (:

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I never figured out what the bag does in chapter one

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Hint: Read the letter on her desk after she gets up.
Hint2: She is ordered by her boss to bring some things back to work.
Hint3: There are 4 items and you have ~3-4 false tries before the quest fail.

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Eleanor WG sequence - Stage 1/5
Eleanor WG sequence - Stage 1/51920×1399 45.2 KB

Hey there!

Just wanted to drop by and to give you all an update. Despite a number of complications (not related to the game, I’m just a busy guy) I am, in fact, still working on the second chapter, and things are going pretty well! I’d say I’m about 85% of the way there, give or take, just need to:

  • Write some of the remaining endings (it should come to be around 10 in total)
  • Write some more minor events, to give plenty of options to the player
  • Rework the office a bit, to make it more of a hub area

And then, of course, I’ll also need some time to playtest and polish things a bit. If you want to help me out with that (being mindful of the fact it’s currently very buggy and incomplete!), send me a message on Discord! Username is still darkeyev2.

Otherwise, the demo is still available in case you haven’t tried it yet.

If everything goes according to plan, you should be able to get your hands on it either at the end of this month, or somewhere in the middle of August. Honestly, I’ve been having a lot of fun working on it! It’s turned into a really cool hobby (:

Ah and as you can see I’ve also made a small little drawing of Eleanor, too. I do want to eventually make drawings for all the ending screens… somewhere after the release, though. They take time!

Alright, that’s about it! By by

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Spirit of Hunger - CH. 2: DAEMON OF HUNGER

It’s out!

This time around, you are to follow Eleanor through an entire working week at the Bristol Institute of Archaeology and Antiquities.

You can choose her duties throughout each day: her work assignments; what she has for lunch; how she spends her free time. Eleanor’s growing appetite affects how her clothes fit, how people perceive her, and whether she ultimately can secure funding for her archaeological expedition to Brittany.

Her colleagues matter, too. You can influence your way into romantic routes with the likes of Mary, Richard, and Violet - each with their own dedicated storylines that unfold based on your choices throughout the week. Can Eleanor catch Richard’s attention? Can she navigate the social complexities of Mary’s world? What secrets might Violet be hiding?

Manipulate objects, witness past events, influence thoughts: Eleven different endings are available to you.

Some focus on Eleanor’s professional success, others on her personal relationships, still others on… well, let’s just say her appetite can lead places. Yours can too.

ALRIGHT SO THIS CHAPTER IS MASSIVE OOPS MY BAD

I got ambitious ok?? Get off my back!

I think I already wrote about this before, but Chapter 1 was initially meant to be a demo. The bulk of the game was always going to be Chapter 2. Now, I want to yap a little about the gameplay, as it is kind of different from the first chapter. You’ve still got a lot of that sandbox feel from my previous games, but it’s also gotten closer to a dating sim, in some places? Or, like, a choose your own adventure book? I always wanted to make a more management style game with these themes - there’s a lot of them on this forum, and I do enjoy playing them! But I also didn’t want to give up on the random interactions here and there, or the multiple choices/endings. So there you go: kind of a pain to set up in Twine, and especially using Chapbook, but I well damn did it.

If you played Chapter 1 and wanted more Eleanor, more choices, more consequences - this is it.

HOW TO GET IT

This chapter is a paid one - sorry about that. But! The demo covers the entirety of Monday (Eleanor’s first day) and you can play it free in your browser. You are free to select, from the calendar in Eleanor’s office, all of the starting events of the Midday and Leisure time slots. Hopefully those should be enough to let you decide whether this game is worth the price or not - I obviously think it is, but I don’t know man, I might be biased on this one.

The full chapter is available for purchase on the main itch.io page with the first one… but… there is… well… another option.

I’VE MADE A PATREON

And (once it’s hopefully been approved) you will be able to visit it at this link!

I felt the release of a new chapter was likely the right time to make the announcement. There’s a tier where you can get both chapters, in full, plus Emily’s Midnight Snack too - all at 5$ less than the price of the two chapters on itch.io.

And I’m planning on having some other stuff there too:

  • There’s the full game downloads, I’ve said that
  • Early access to updates and guides
  • Occasional FA art and game snippets
  • Occasional snippets or demos from upcoming chapters/games
  • Technical stuff! Mostly related to Twine and Chapbook: the custom scripts powering my dialogue systems, inventory mechanics, ASCII art ecc. I might even do some templates for people to use, I’d love to see more text-adventures in this space!
  • Random experiments, like versions of my CRO dice system, or other stuff if people look to be interested
  • Perhaps even a Discord? Would you people like that?

My games will obviously remain on itch.io, either freely available or also available for purchase there too. This is just another way to support me and maybe occasionally get behind-the-scenes access to the process!

Posts here will likely be sporadic, occasional: this is basically a way to donate if you like what I do, with some bonus content thrown in. Just the occasional “hey, look at this cool thing I made” when the mood strikes.

I know, not really marketable or customer friendly - I do not care. This is a hobby, not a job! And for anyone who decides to subscribe anyway, even if for a little bit of time, thank you (:

GUIDE?

Yeah sure (:

But not right away: I do want to give people the chance to find things on their own, that’s the fun part. I’m planning to release a comprehensive guide in… about two to three weeks? Give or take. I’m also hoping to make drawings for all the ending screens, like I did for Emily’s Midnight Snack. Again, those take a fair amount of time though, so they are coming eventually.

AI DISCLAIMER

For transparency I’ve actually written a full rant about my use of AI for this project (and the use of it in general) in the About section. Still, here’s the same exact tl;dr from it:

  • AIs are lame and, at the time of this writing, actively becoming less creative. However, they are also getting better at following detailed, technical instructions.
  • This works out: I employ them to write code, format passages in the .twee format, and plan things out. They can also make for decent brainstorming buddies and great research assistants.
  • They remain unreliable, forgetful, and uninspired. Their creative writing can - on occasion - be okay, but will always need a comprehensive rewriting. Also, I will never use AI-generated images.
CHAPTER 3 WHEN

Eagle-eyed, smart and handsome/beautiful players will notice that I’ve scattered some sneaky little hints about what comes next! Not enough to know exactly what I’m planning. Well, I think so, at the very least? …well, maybe actually. Uh.

Ok, well, I don’t expect you to, but you are free to try it out. For now, the only thing I’m giving out is that it (obviously) won’t be set in England, and that its setting will be much, much different - I’m planning for a pretty drastic turn. I’m sure you’ll like it.

Big, huge thanks to everyone who playtested this - you were the candlelight to my writing table. My moon to my sun. My Raid® Essentials Ant, Spider & Roach Killer 30 Rosemary Mint to my very kitchen. I cherish you deeply.

Bug reports are as always welcome - I’ll fix them right away. More importantly, I’d love to hear what you think about this chapter! And very much hope you’ll like it.

Have fun!

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