Introduction to Ascension

I feel kind of bad that I haven't been making much progress on Dragonfaith lately, but maybe this will go some ways in making up for it. Today I was totally inspired to begin work on a separate project. Don't worry, it won't take a significant amount of focus away from Dragonfaith (I hope). It's intended to be a much shorter game, and a simpler project overall, so hopefully working on it and (fingers crossed) at some point completing it will give me both experience and confidence I can put toward the monster project that is Dragonfaith.

Allow me to introduce you to Ascension. It's one of the story ideas I've had swimming around my head for years, like Dragonfaith - except it wasn't as clearly destined for a game format. But having spent so many years not completing a written story about it, and after trying out a doomed-to-failure HTML-based Choose Your Own Adventure version that proved to be way more effort than it was worth putting in to complete, I've kind of been looking for a more interactive way of telling the story. And RPG Maker VX Ace might be just the ticket.

In contrast to the RPG-style fantasy adventure that is Dragonfaith, Ascension is a horror-based game with an emphasis on narration and exploration. As such, it has a much different feel, and requires a much different development approach than Dragonfaith - which I think is totally refreshing and exciting. I'll be honest, I kind of have the "visual novel" feel in my mind as an inspiration (Fate/Stay Night being the preeminent example in my playing history), but integrated with a good deal of the top-down 2D perspective as is typical of RPG Maker games. Although you will encounter monsters in the game, I don't intend on there being any sort of random encounter-type combat that is typical of RPGs (which this game is decidedly not). The focus will instead be on creating a spooky atmosphere, and giving the player the opportunity to explore the maps I'll be creating.

As a little background, the plot of Ascension follows a soul's journey after death through the 13 Stages of Hell, based loosely on various mythical and religious interpretations of the infernal version of the afterlife. I have a nice little teaser on my website, if you're curious to learn more. As of now, I have the first stage completed (barring bug fixes and future modifications). It's a short stage, but it's just a start, and I'm really excited to show it off nonetheless. So download and enjoy!

14/06/03 Ascension - Stage 1 (1.89 MB) [edit: new release available, check sidebar for info]

(As usual, you'll need the RTP to play this game - but if you've already downloaded it for the Dragonfaith demos, you're good to go).