RIFTWALKER: Realms of SAINT & SIN

With only 3 days to take down the leaders of the Monastery, can you prevent your fate?

This game is in it's experimental stage of development. This is the stage where underlying mechanics are tested and programmed and core concepts and characters fleshed out.

This game will be featuring something new for me, "open development" in which very little is intentionally hidden and I share all progress related to the game freely (at my own discretion).

RIFTWALKER: Realms of SAINT & SIN (will) centrally focus on:

• Gamely surrounding SHIFTING between the titular realms of SAINT and SIN

• A single interconnected map that changes over the course of your 3 days

• SPELLS that provide for metroidvania like progression, and various ways to solve puzzles in the overworld

• Questlines to get closer to, and eventually form special pacts with five unique companion characters

• Replayability

It will also feature:

• ATB? turn based RPG combat

• A strong focus on skills that cost HP (being your only "resource")

• Probably some fun and simple sidequests

• Surprisingly few, and simple cutscenes

Let's talk (very) briefly about the 5 main pillars of the game.

THE TWO REALMS

The REALM OF SAINT is an orderly (wannabe) paradise, ruled over by a religious order that worships the CELESTIAL GODS.

Within the REALM OF SIN however, chaos and passion reign supreme, and ones most base nature is oft revealed.

Separation is an illusion, the only rift between the two REALMS is a matter of perspective.

You can SHIFT between realms at (theoretically) any time. However, your identity as the RIFT WALKER is unknown to the Acharya, leaders of the Monastery. They intend to sacrifice the RIFTWALKER(you) so you better be discreet!

Actions you perform in one realm will affect the other, as many objects (and people) have a TETHERED COUNTERPART.

While the layout of the map is all but identical in each REALM, some obstacles (and especially enemies) shall differ from one to the other. Most especially however, the SAINT REALM has rules you must abide by.

THREE DAYS

And three HOURS to each day. During the MORNING and NOON you can explore different sections of the Monastery and interact with potential allies.

During the night, the only thing you can do is sleep... unless you manage to sneak out of your room. During the night, while everything may be locked up, at least no one will spot you breaking any rules!

There is no actual timer, or clock.

Instead, you can only complete so many objectives within a single HOUR, before you will be forced to progress to the next one. Objectives and actions (like resting) will inform you if they will cost an ACTION and bring you closer to the end of the current HOUR.

OVERWORLD SPELLS

Several of the very same SPELLS you use in combat can be used in the overworld as well!

Burn vines to open a passage, turn into water to travel through pipes, cast reanimate on a tomb to speak with the dead. Set an enemy on fire to deal damage over time, become a brielfy invulnerable (albeit useless) puddle of water, or raise an enemy or ally back from the dead to keep fight (for you, ofc)!

It's all the same!

THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP

There are 5 other APRENTICES whom you can progress a questline for. Once you befriend one, their SIN will fight with you in the SIN REALM.

Completing someone's questline (besides being very rewarding from a narrative point of view) will allow you to form a very special pact with them, making them too, a RIFTWALKER and bring them fully into the fold as a trust ally, who will traverse both REALMS alongside you.

NEW GAME+

You won't be able to complete every questline, or test every solution in a single 3 day cycle, but why only play through one?

The game is planned to have a strong focus on NEWGAME+, allowing you to carry over certain progress to the start of a new game. (yes, you can eventually be friends with everyone on a single save file)

There may also be a hidden ending that you will likely only find by exploring the secrets in-between NEWGAMES... 👁️

I'm gonna be real, this game is super experimental and early dev. I made this page so I had somewhere to put stuff related to it. But however far along the journey we end up going with this one, I hope you'll be there for it.

While I won't be sharing and streaming literally everything I do, I'd like to share a lot more than usual, without being too concerned whether or not I'm sharing too much.

Of course, if you wanna play this someday blind, then just avoid most of what I post about it lol (I wish I had a better solution for you but that's all I got)

Even if you know A solution to a puzzle, there's still lots more you can do tho, and my plan is to make a game that's fun to play more than once, and in more than one way, with less of a focus on things like story cutscenes.

Yadda yadda yadda ok thats it for now lol. Time for tags.

#RPG #RPGMaker #retro #Metroidvania