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When world views collide, a friendly visit to a childhood friend quickly escalates. Soon, four unlikely adventurers find themselves on an unexpected search for ancient sacred scriptures - and, even more importantly, truth.

The Book of True Will is a dialogue- and character-heavy puzzle RPG about a delicate subject: Religion. The game's main focus is to provide quality storytelling together with challenging yet entertaining gameplay.

This game does not feature any combat. Rather, the storyline is progressed by overcoming various obstacles in the form of different puzzles and minigames that will test your reflexes, memory and logical thinking skills. While the first few puzzles are relatively easy, the level of challenge increases as you progress.



Some notes on the game:

- Despite the controversial nature of some of the dialogue, The Book of True Will is absolutely not intended to be any sort of propaganda, neither pro- nor anti-religious. Just see for yourself.
- This game takes place in the fantasy world of Terrein. But don't worry, you will never be buried under tons of lore specifications or introductions to world history. Everything the player learns about the setting is conveyed exclusively through character dialogue or other meaningful interaction.
- While the game does contain some custom assets and 100% non-RTP music, The Book of True Will is still essentially an RTP game. This has two reasons, one being that graphical art is not one of my talents and I decided graphics are not my highest priority. The other is that I also saw it as a challenge to prove it is very well possible to create a decent game using mainly RTP resources. Of course, whether or not I succeeded is not for me to decide.
- The only script used for this game is Dubealex' Advanced Message Script, which is pretty much indispensable. Everything else is created purely through eventing.
- You do not need the RTP to play this game. Simply download and extract the zip folder, run the .exe file and start playing. Enjoy yourselves and don't be shy with comments or criticism.


http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Latest Blog

Featured! Hooray! And what a Dilemma.

So. It came out of nowhere. But it happened. The Book of True Will is RMN's Featured Game for November. When I uploaded the first download for this project now almost a year ago, I never expected it to get more than a small amount of attention. I was, and still am, happy to see the generally positive feedback and constructive criticism it received. But I never thought that this game, this short epiphany of mine expressed in game form, would ever get Featured.

At an earlier point, I already openly expressed my opinion that I myself do not believe The Book of True Will to be a good enough game to warrant a Feature. Yet for some reason, people wanted to see it on the front page anyway. Which is amazing, and makes me feel both very proud and very humble. But seeing the title screen of my own game right there every time I go to RMN for a month is going to feel incredibly surreal.

But in addition to that, this situation becomes even more confusing for me due to its timing. Just mere days ago, the winners of the IGMC 2015 have been announced. We can see all these fantastic-looking games that managed to convince a large audience of players and a group of experienced and critical judges, and have been rewarded with substantial prizes. And right at this time, with so many great options to choose from, RMN decides to Feature this little RTP-based puzzle game about a controversial subject. The irony is almost tangible here.

That's not to say I'm being ungrateful or don't appreciate the positive attention. On the contrary, I feel enormously honoured and encouraged by the fact that people apparently enjoyed this game so much despite its limitations. Since the release of The Book of True Will, I have learned much about its strengths and flaws thanks to all the feedback you have given me. And even though there are a number of things about this game I would do differently now, I still am very happy with how the final product turned out. It was important for me to express my thoughts on the game's subject in a way that would make the recipient feel involved and encouraged to think critically but openly about them. And if this Featured Game spotlight means that some more players might give this game a chance, then that's already more than I could ask for.


Of course, if all of this was just a big conspiracy, trying to trick me into getting motivated to make more games... well, you achieved your goal. For the first time in months, during which I played, tested and/or made puzzles for other people's games, today I have been working on a project of my own again. There are many more stories I want to tell, and many more games that, one day, I want to be playable not only in my head. Either way, with this Feature, you've ensured that I will not lose interest in game making for a long time to come. In other words, you brought this upon yourselves.


One last thing I cannot say often and loudly enough:

Thank you so much, all of you, for your support!

Posts

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Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
This really does look interesting!

*slaps that sub button*
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Here it is! :D *Subscribed! *
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Thanks so much, you both! I feel honoured.
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Thank you! I've made quite a bit of progress during the last few days. Who knows, I might even make it in time for the target completion date...?
How long is this rascal please?
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Thanks for your interest, Roy! Sorry if I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "rascal"...

But to answer your question, the game will be relatively short. Depending on how quickly you read and how good your puzzle solving skills are, it should roughly take between two and three hours.
Thanks! Rascal is just a term, slang....means nothing important really.
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Yayyyyy subbed! Yay for puzzles! Yay for NeverSilent!
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Aww, thanks! You're making me feel all humble. I hope the game can live up to your expectations.
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
I missed this, how did I miss this? Subby-sub so no more misses.
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Oh dear, I'm being observed by the elite now. I don't expect you'll be very impressed by my game though, considering how many you've played already...
Regardless, thanks a lot for subscribing, Lieutenant Reviewer!
Got to watch the heavy hitter reviewers and observers.
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
NS, I've always been impressed by your comments and observations, I see no reason why a game written by you would be any different. Oh, and you can call me LT :)

Just finished it!
(in a little less than 2 hours)

I don't know whether I played the original or the revised version but I managed to complete the first puzzle just before it exceeded my threshold for frustration. Removing one level or putting a count of remaining levels somewhere would be welcome; I had no idea how far along I was, and it can be pretty discouraging for a very first event 30 seconds into the game.

Apart from that, the puzzles were generally well balanced. (I have a limited love for puzzle games but I thought I'd like to see where you were going with this). The least original was perhaps the one with the painted tiles near the beginning, most others were qute inventive. For some reason I got intensely stuck on the very first puzzle with the light balls (like for 20 minutes, trying totally overcomplicated things), then breezed through the next ones, but I enjoyed the idea. I'm not a huge fan of both puzzles involving fire, for different reasons, but you did a good job in offering a diversity of things to do.

Concerning the story, I really liked the alternation of gameplay and flashbacks which made for a nice in media res while providing context fast enough to keep me interesting.

I appreciate your courage in tackling a non-trivial topic. On one hand I would have gone for a little more subtlety at times, on the other hand people tend to be especially unsubtle about this, so, well. You do get the message across, which is what really counts I guess ;)
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Thank you, Hasvers! That really means a lot to me.

I'm glad you enjoyed most of it even if you're generally not too much of a puzzle fan. I honestly expected people to be quite challenged by the last two Reflection puzzles (the ones with the light balls), funny to hear that was not true in your case at all. (I hope your difficulties with the first iteration weren't due to any unclearness in the instructions?)

The structure of the game actually underwent some large changes as I developed it further, and story and gameplay ideas began to influence each other rather than one aspect spawning only from the other. Maybe I'll talk about that some more in a future blog post.
The topic is something that has been occupying my mind for a long time now, so I really wanted to express this in a creative project. I know I can be a quite straightforward person and am still working on my subtlety skills. But then, as you said: considering the way the topic of religion is often discussed, if you think I managed to tackle it in an understandable and somewhat tasteful way, that already makes me very happy.

Thanks a lot for your feedback!


P.S.: I am seriously considering just cutting down the number of iterations for the first puzzle down to two instead of three. I still like the idea of the puzzle, but frustrating a player is the opposite of what I want to accomplish. If anyone who has tried the updated version still has major troubles with it (or any other points of criticism, for that matter), please don't hesitate to let me know and I'll see what I can do.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Okay, I'm officially an idiot. I was totally expecting a fairly typical RPG, and not a puzzle-based game. That's what I get for not reading the game-page, and picking up this game for RMN PLAYS after seeing the blog that this was complete.

Saying that, I'm still not a fan of having to do a puzzle multiple times. Well, maybe twice in a row is okay. Anymore than that, and the thoughts of "Geeze, didn't I already do this? COME ON, ALREADY!" start kicking in. I dunno. I'm pretty terrible at puzzles to begin with, so, you're totally allowed to take this comment with a grain of salt!

*Edit: For full disclosure, I got up to the third puzzle of the game. The pick-locking one. Which the game specifically tells me I had to do nine times. I am fully aware that the game explains why nine is such an important number. Not that such a thing stops my "didn't I just do this" train-of-thought. Though, this also sorta does make me pause to consider a few things that I have done elsewhere. Mostly the puzzle I set forth in the Dome of Order (Wyrm Warriors), but, my thoughts are also on my own lock-picking mini-game that's in Konae's Investigations.
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
Congrats on your release! I just happened to notice the upload and the author, so I thought I would give it a shot!

I got about an hour in for my one sitting so far - I am stuck on the glyph puzzle. I aced the cryptogram part because I am a wizard at Wheel of Fortune, but the floor tiles are something else. I tried (what I thought was correct) to spell out the phrase touching only the letters that make it up and nothing else, but it didn't work. I also tried only touching the stained tiles, and then only the ones that drew a "9" or a "P" on the floor. Right track?

Echoing that some of the repetition is overkill - maybe the very first puzzle would be better suited to have the rings spinning the same direction at slightly different speeds for the first iteration, and then in alternating directions for the second, just to mess with the player? Or maybe a separate instance with a different picture on the opposite side? At first I thought I had messed it up when it started spinning again immediately, so that could give a sense of progression. The thing with the keys was a lot of fun, though. I think the music helped. (Speaking of which - is the main floor theme from the Inception soundtrack, or is it just eerily close?)

I like the in media res, almost slice of life scope of the story, though I wish it was more shown than told (though I realize that's not really possible in a compressed game). There are some interesting worldbuilding tidbits as well - again, they would be served well in a full-sized game where things like the architecture could be a deliberate design choice that the player could pick up on.

Keep up the good work! I'll try to finish it tonight!
author=NeverSilent
I'm glad you enjoyed most of it even if you're generally not too much of a puzzle fan. I honestly expected people to be quite challenged by the last two Reflection puzzles
Actually I would have been challenged if I hadn't spent an incredible amount of time on the very first reflection puzzle, figuring out all the possible tricks
like using the character who is pushing the lever as one of the reflectors, or having a trajectory that goes through the same character twice. For some reason in the first one I was completely unable to think that the character reflecting the balls that will hit the two aligned crystals should be to their left rather than to their right!


I have to agree with Marrend that the "nine times" was a bit frightening at first, although in the end most of the nine were rather quickly solved. The only problem with the flashback alternation thing is that it can seem daunting to do N variants of a puzzle mechanics all at once before progressing, but I for one didn't mind so much. The only thing that felt too long apart from the first puzzle was the one with the fireballs, but then my reflexes suck.

if you think I managed to tackle it in an understandable and somewhat tasteful way, that already makes me very happy.
You sure did ;) I guess it's also a topic to which I have given a lot of thought so there are few arguments that I haven't gone through before, but it would be nice if other people could genuinely learn something from it.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
badass name. downloaded.
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