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Zehn: Hollow Past (engl: Ten) is a legitimised sequel to Tasuva's short game Neun (engl: Nine) whose strength was random horror, changing locations and ambience, and limited new experiences in every new game. This sequel picks this mechanic up and will go much further with a brand new gameplay.

:Introduction:

You are playing a young guiltless woman named Sabrina, who escaped the Woodbridge Hospital, the ghostly claws of her former self Romina and the nine victims of her past. The days flown away and so she thought everything will be turn back to normal. Until some weird events happened that forced her back to the hospital, were the nine victims, the nine unsatisfied ghosts are still haunting it. She doesn't know what they still want from her, but something seems different from before, the presence of a tenth ghost.

:Gameplay:

The gameplay is about solving logical puzzles with a variety of items and the environment, exploring the hospital in a non-linear way while you are avoiding the various ghosts and/or experience some paranormal activities. Every phenomenon is "controlled random" so you never know when something will happen, even if you finished the game multiple times. Even so, there are variations in the order of solving puzzles and finding places of items, each time you start a new game.

:Mechanic:

(1) Ghosts

The paranormal activities have a wide variety because the ghosts are very different from another. Some are more aggressive, some are more calm, some are more materialised and there is even one friendly ghost. But nearly all events have an effect on Sabrina, so "the horror" isn't just for the player - it's part of the gameplay. You must deal with the effects, like healing wounds and mental condition, paying attention to nearly invisible ghosts.
The game picks three of the nine ghosts that will haunt you. There is no direct indicator which it is, until you read the correct patient file - which isn't necessarily the file for one of the active ghosts, but you could memorize it for another playtrough. These files are one type of hints for the background story. There are much more.

(2) A tiny bit of realism

When I play horror-games sometimes I notice a lot of puzzles and riddles that are completely out of place. Or the protagonist doesn't follow common sense, doesn't use items that would help him, because the game says so. I use the opportunity to do it differently (the wonders of an own game).

Every "puzzle" will be integrated in the fitting surrounding and can be solved with common logic and matching clues, so the player can imagine a logical solution for this specific problem. A few important small items can be used in a multiple way to open lockers, broken doors or to break glass.
Furthermore, some parts of the surroundings are directly portable (like a chair) to reach higher places or block a door. You can even carry it in another room. Anyway, Sabrina can also climb over smaller obstacles (this feature will be added much later).

:General notes:

  • For this game it's not necessary to know the prequel, because everything will be explained

  • "Zehn" will be published in German, then in English. I will try to present you a proper english version, if there will be any early download

  • None of these screenshots are final, because this game is in an early state of development
    (for example: Sabrina's Charset is too colourful yet)

  • Possible spelling errors and grammatical faults, in this game profile, will be fixed over time.


My little Developer Corner °3°

:"Finished" Technical Features:

  • Carry chairs for higher good! Even in other rooms

  • The positions of all chairs (and other moveable objects) are saved

  • Flashlight. Highlights items of interest and hidden items which you can only find with the flashlight (which are optional)

  • Finite inventory and dynamic pick up of items. Items you can't carry are put back

Smaller stuff: Custom Messagebox, Custom Menu, freeze facing by holding shift, ...

:To-Do-List:

Dear Santa Dear Diary, I think I need to do the following stuff:

  • Finish every single map. Then notice, that you need more maps.

  • Draw animations, you lazy bastard.

  • The character-overlay doesn't fit with darker places. Find a way to change her brightness smoothly, without the usage of pictures.

  • Release the game. Should be a good idea. Yes, it is.

  • Wasn't a good idea. German release, then translate the game (with help of course) and release the english version. Jepp, jepp. This should be the proper way.


:In The Last Episode of "What I've done": (only bigger updates)

12/16/2014: Drawn a new floorplan for the hospital. This means every room must be mapped again.
10/13/2014: Deleated (and created new from scratch) the "item obtain"-script, because it didn't worked (for "no" reasons). Now it's fantastic and automated and totally awesome.
08/04/2014: flashlight that highlights hidden items of interest
11/30/2013: Created the graphics of 650 different keys.
11/25/2013: Each common item has a limit of 5. New found items above this limit remain in the finding place. For example: You have 4 bandages and find 3 in one place. So you will pick up 1 and the remaining 2 bandages can be picked up later.

Latest Blog

Ten steps backwards

I've made an important decision which will help to progress the game a lot: I reduce the game to the main core of its gameplay. And from this finished framework I will build on. This means all graphics will be reduced to simple conceptual boxes and every script will be made much simpler (reduced to its main purpose), like a kindergarten-version of the final game.



There are a lot of reasons for that:

I need to examine my own concepts. Will they work in the great entire frame with every other idea?

I don't know for sure if the concept of ZEHN will work. This project needs a lot of effort and often I create complex content for nearly nothing (because I change ideas). This deconstructive and demotivating method has to stop.

Also with this simple framework, I can change ideas, maps and other designs every time I want to. It's like a draft for a drawing where I can erase wrong lines. Also this method doesn't take a lot of time; because it's that simple.

When this "skeleton" is finished, I can design with the usual effort - but in the right direction.
Blame Extra Credits for this decision °3°

(Of course this version will not be playable for any person. Ever.)

Posts

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I want to see some video or a demo :(

No realise date ?
Hey. This is the creator of the prequel "Neun/Nine".
(Maybe I should do an english translation of the game, before
"Ten" will be released. However...)

author=Nemica
The room you're talking about is a 1:1 remake of the same room in Neun, though. Not sure if Tasuva was inspired by TAUT.

I can't remember a room in Taut, that looks exactly like the one in "Neun".
(And hell yeah, I played Taut many times, I would remember...)
Just like Nemica said, both games use the same chipset graphics called
"Theodore style", but there are no copies. If one game looks similar to
the other, it's just random. ;-)

-Tasu
Do you have an approximate date ?

The atmosphere seems great.
The base for the map graphics is the Theodore style, yes. It's kind of a staple for RM horror games (at least in Germany), but I really like the way it's used here, with all the custom graphics and parallax mapping.

The room you're talking about is a 1:1 remake of the same room in Neun, though. Not sure if Tasuva was inspired by TAUT.
One question, the game is very similar to another called ``TAUT´´. Especially the sixth picture is the same room.

Do you use the same graphics that this game ?

iddalai
RPG Maker 2k/2k3 for life, baby!!
1194
This looks really good!
author=goji
So... can we get some gameplay footage? :)

Unfortunately, there is no gameplay yet. Work in progress.
As soon as there is enough content I will create a short video/trailer.
So... can we get some gameplay footage? :)
author=Ashes of Emerald
This looks great, I'm really excited to play this! When will there be a demo?

Thank you (all three of you).

I don't think a demo (in conventional way) will fit with the production-style: To balance the core of gameplay it's necessary to create every single map. So even if there would be a demo, it would already includes the whole game.
Anyway, in the end this game will need a lot of horror-balancing and fine-tuning. If you want to call this a "demo", then this will it be. Don't know when.
This looks great, I'm really excited to play this! When will there be a demo?
Agreed, the style looks really nice. Keepin my eye on this one.
LOOKS SO GOOD. Love the style! Stoked!
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