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This is my submission for the Summer Games competition.

Esoterica: The Dreamlike is a murder mystery RPG with an emphasis on cinematic storytelling. It is the first part of a planned trilogy, although each part will be completely standalone (the only connection between them will be the theme). This particular entry was inspired by an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Story Outline
The game is centered around a group of government operatives as they attempt to track down a rampant serial murderer, Eddie Mahoney, who is also a former member of their team. Three of the main protagonists have personal connections to Eddie, making the mission all the more difficult to endure. It is throughout the course of the investigation of Eddie that one of the members starts to notice some very peculiar happenings, and that there is much more to their former ally than they had ever realized.

Characters
Daniel- Eddie's former partner during his time working for the agency. Dannny is the first one to notice the strange occurrences surrounding the investigation.
Richard- Danny's current partner at the agency, also his most trusted friend.
Veronica- Eddie's ex-wife, engaged to be married to Danny.
Allan- Head of the agency and father to Veronica.
Eddie- After barely escaping from a mission 3 year earlier, Eddie has since quit the agency and has not been heard from since. It has been speculated that he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Gameplay
Battles will utilize a shooting system where players need to get in position to see enemies while avoiding the enemy's target icon. Players may also opt to skip missions and just watch it like a movie. Two endings are achievable, but with slight differences that will both emphasize the shocking revelation of the dreamlike.

Latest Blog

Surreality development begins! Page coming soon.

While not a direct sequel, it is a sort of spiritual successor to Esoterica. It will not have an action shooting system in place, nor will any of the characters carry over. I can't even say that they share a universe, for sure, due to the fact that esoterica is much less grounded in reality. The surrealist theme will be much more prevalent, however, and it will play more like an oldschool adventure game. I can also say that players who experienced esoterica will definitely notice the parallels in plot.

One thing that is very similar is that it will be a complete mindfuck until the very end. Much less of an esoteric ending though, as there are no multiple meanings this time. There were diverting views on my ending commentary last time, so this will make sure there is no need for explanations. Don't worry though, it'll still be surprising, and everything will come together in a tight little package.

Timewise, it will be about as short as esoterica. In terms of development time, it is going to take longer than a month this time. The reason behind this is because I can't begin eventing until I finish all of the mapping.

Expect the new game page soon!
  • Completed
  • sbester
  • RPG Tsukuru 2003
  • Action Visual Novel
  • 08/02/2011 12:31 AM
  • 05/07/2019 06:45 PM
  • 08/25/2011
  • 68977
  • 14
  • 933

Posts

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No I'll fix those parts, it's just the sideways movement part that I need to keep since fixing it could screw some other things up. Little hard to explain, I just made some mistakes with the eventing in that case and it'd take me forever to fix it now. I'll definitely be fixing the tile passage errors.
chana
(Socrates would certainly not contadict me!)
1584
Oh, I see, well good luck for the end part! Great game though, story, fun and quick!
Thanks, and I really appreciate the encouragement and the bug report!
Thx! Hope there were no overbearing glitches, I'm always worried about those.
There were quite a few glitches, but nothing that came in the way. Lots of passability problems. I'll comment more on each game on a wrap-up article after I finish playing them all.
There were quite a few glitches, but nothing that came in the way. Lots of passability problems. I'll comment more on each game on a wrap-up article after I finish playing them all.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I'm not a big fan of all the profanity, and having my facing locked threw me off the first couple of times, but I had a bit of fun with this.
I'm not such a big fan of it in games either, but I did want to create a world that seemed realistic at the beginning, so it just seemed like there wasn't any way around it. You won't be seeing any F bombs in the eden legacy series or fragile hearts, promise!

I think the facing lock threw most people off at first. It's not a particularly well done battle system, but I had to come up with something quick and relatively easy to make given the time constraints. Anyways, glad you got something out of it anyhow, and thanks for giving it a play!
i got an error when i try to play the game:
DirectDraw Error
(DDERR_UNSUPPORTED)
is there a way to fix this?

EDIT: forcing the game to start in windowed mode fix it.
Oh, thank you! I hadn't come across that one yet, glad you found a fix :)
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