PENITENCE - What it's about

Hello again!

So far I've done a few posts about the technical side of the game, but I'm very aware I'm still to actually tell you what it is about. So...

"PENITENCE is set many decades in the future and you play Jacob, a disciple of The Penitent, a religious group who have trapped themselves inside a metal temple against the inhospitable outside world of a destroyed Earth. Daily life involves praying and meditating on humanity's sins as the handful of you live out your days on a dead world. All of them have been 'woken' from somewhere deep in the temple, but other than that the brothers keep their secrets well hidden. Now, Jacob has been chosen to undergo The Trial, to venture into the temple, to discover its secrets and, if he passes, to become a brother himself."

And that's the backstory to the game. The game that you play is a top-down narrative adventure, and you control Jacob to talk to the other disciples and the brothers, and interact with data tablets and mechanisms as you investigate the hidden part of the temple.

The design is about 80% done in terms of the game logic and progression, and right now I am just nailing down the 'revelations', the piece of knowledge that Jacob uncovers that will test his faith and ultimately determine the outcome.

I am also busy writing the dialogue. Most of the game involves Jacob talking to himself, musing over the things he finds, with the player choosing some responses depending on the situation, but there will be interaction with the other disciples and brothers at the start of the game, before he starts his trial. I want to give the player a sense of the day-to-day life in the temple and how the disciples feel about everything including Jacob potentially becoming a brother, before introducing the brothers themselves in a ceremony where they open the always locked doors, usher him inside, and close the doors behind him.

I'm aiming to create a game about mystery, uncovering secrets, that will test Jacob's belief in pretty much everything he knows, allowing the player to guide his decisions along the way, with multiple endings depending on what the player has found and the choices they have made.

At the same time, it's not going to be a massive game, as I am doing this all by myself. The current plan is to have a playable demo of the first few areas done by the end of the year, and release the full game in the first half of 2023. I think it's doable, but at the same time I'm not going to kill myself to hit arbitrary targets. Having said that, I am really invested in the story I have to tell, and the technical side of things has gone pretty smoothly so far, so I'm quietly confident I can manage those dates.

Anyway, follow me on here and my social media (Twitter mainly) to keep up-to-date, and I'll speak to you again soon! :)

Tony.