Soul

After too many years it is finally complete.
Although Goethe took over 30 years to write Faust, so I think spending the better portion of 13 years making a video game by yourself is pretty good.

In a way it represents not only my contribution to existentialism, but also a journey. When I started this project I didn't know what I was trying to say, how I wanted to say it, and I wasn't good at what I was doing. All I had was a few ideas and some disjointed sources of inspiration. Only a few years ago did the true crux of the plot really start to take shape.

Over the years I'd look back on the project and notice what didn't work, what needed rebuilding or editing, and eventually I began to develop real skills for this kind of thing. I rewrote the script for the first half of the game several times, I remade the combat system from the ground up, and I narrowed down the themes I wanted to present as I read more philosophers.

For the moment it remains unavailable to the public. There are a few more things I need to edit and refine, and there are some supplemental materials I want to prepare for the download file. I also want to do a final test of my game's difficulty using a single character. I knew during the initial design phase my system was exploitable by default, and I want to see exactly how deeply my system can be broken.

What I want to include is a full player's guide with a detailed bestiary of all 201 monsters in the game, as well as an essay compilation of all the conversations with the antagonists. If you're the type who has little interest in games, or if you like to reflect on dialogue and ideas, this will be a better way to reach more people with this project.

I'm also keeping it unavailable for now because I want to rest. This has been an exhausting project.
Over the last year I feel like my obsession with finishing it has contributed to neglecting other very important parts of my life.
What's most important now is letting it stay in a rough final form so I can reflect on where this has taken me.

I will make more games in the future.
However, none of them will be as grandiloquent as a story criticizing nihilism through a group of immortals who want to die, and the unassuming travelers they bait into killing them. :)

I am overjoyed to have finished this at last, and now it is time to let that settle.

-Kris Koenig
Designer/Programmer/Writer for Über Games
2006-2019