#braindeathif

“Welcome back, Oracle.”

Upcoming content will include but is not limited to: - Descriptions of extreme violence, gore & death - Substance Abuse (mainly consisting of alcohol)  - Child abuse/neglect - Bullying/Ableism - Suicidal/Homicidal thoughts & tendencies  - Complete loss of self  - Brain Death This IF is rated 18+ and not suited for the faint of heart. The above content isn't condoned/glorified in any sense. Proceed at your own discretion.

~In continuing, I hereby acknowledge any exposure to that which I cannot handle is to the fault of none other than my own.~

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Synopsis

It is the year 2099.

Encapsulating the very definition of Utopia, the city of New Dulcet is revered as a shining example of North Amerikas. And in 2 hours, it'll be destroyed—alongside every soul living within its walls. For anyone else, this would've been the ending to a pretty meaningless story.

Unfortunately for you, it's only the beginning.

The universe must hold a heavy grudge, as it's decided to trap you in a never-ending loop. Reduced to an unwilling observer, all you can do is watch helplessly as everything you care about is destroyed over, and over, and over. No matter what you do. In spite of what you say.

~Regardless of what I think...~

Forever.

You are Oracle: a cursed soul doomed to live, perish and repeat your miserable existence in an eternal limbo. Alone, forgotten, disregarded. You've witnessed the carnage countless times, explored as many avenues as humanly possible... The outcome never changes.

~It'll only get worse from here...~

Your end is fast approaching, and it doesn't look pleasant. Time is no longer on your side. Being trapped in this vacuum for as long as you have, you've started experiencing some horrifying side-effects. How many years of memories can the brain truly store?

That question may be answered soon.

S̴u̸c̵h̸ ̴a̷ ̴s̶h̴a̷m̷e̴ ̵t̶h̸a̵t̵ ̴n̷o̸b̷o̵d̵y̶ ̷w̵i̴l̴l̷ ̶b̷e̷ ̷a̷r̶o̶u̶n̷d̶ ̴t̵o̶ ̷h̷e̸a̷r̴ ̴i̷t̵.̷

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Features

Create and customize your Oracle, developing their personality through dozens of choices!

Be AFAB or AMAB—decide your gender, appearance and pronouns!

Spend your 2 hours wisely by exploring the city of Paradise, meeting new people and utilizing your knowledge of past lives.

Eat a burger! (or multiple, who cares?)

Attend a cool festival and win mediocre prizes!

Uncover lost memories, and discover their relation to the present.

Solve the mystery keeping you trapped in this loop, or try to enjoy what little time is left.

Succumb to Brain Death.

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Demo Release: Soon.

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Author's Note

Hello!

My name is Ricey! I'm the one writing this thing.

This is a passion project that I started out of discontent. In my personal opinion, there are a lot of interactive fictions out there that share similar problems.

Whether it be deciding for you how your character feels, what they say and do, or punishing players for not having the correct stats... It all feels so hollow and sometimes even immersion breaking.

(Don't get me wrong, sometimes there are plenty of upsides to a story to justify these "flaws". But the execution can be lacking, and unsatisfying. No hate!)

The goal of this IF is to give you, my dear reader, full creative control on how your character reacts, what they do with the information provided, and MOST IMPORTANTLY! To not tell you how they're feeling. That should be up to you to decide.

Of course, there will be exceptions to this rule. Some choices will trigger what I'm calling "Emotional States". And for narration purposes there may also be times that your Oracle feels frustration over something. But I will do my best to limit that.

The laws governing this universe forbid the notion of eternity.

Finally made a placeholder for the Prologue card.

I've been at odds with myself for stupid amount of time. The decision regarding where to begin the story has been a thorn in my side for more than a year, but after all this time I might have something solid.

Many things have needed to be rewritten due to plot holes, inconsistencies, or the whole thing feeling dumb. I've spent hundreds upon thousands of hours mentally piecing together timeline variants, decisions, outcomes, and finding a place for the walls between them.

Here's how I see it: - Each choice we make leads us to a new reality - Only one reality can exist at a time; an Oracle must be present - Realities with major similarities can be linked under an Array

The reality we reside in is constantly switching, because no matter the action/inaction, things will change and evolve independently of one's input. There are too many external factors to remain static.

Millions of choices made every second.

As of now, the Prologue will be the first section of the game, and will lead in to the Main Menu. I aim to establish a few key variables to your character here. Name, gender, maybe physical appearance.

I don't want CC to be a huge chunk of menus, but on the flip-side it feels like I'm dragging my feet if a single passage is dedicated to something as mundane as eye colour. That passage could be used for so much more, yeah? Maybe it doesn't matter.

Either way, I wish to hear your perspective.

Congestion keeps coming back to bite me. The phlegm in my system needs to get the hell out and stay gone. In any case, I'll continue writing. The search for meaning is starting to bear fruit.

I can do this.

"What is sanity, if not a flimsy excuse to cling to reason?"

~The pain constricts the heart...~

It's Saturday. I'm writing this post in advance because I don't believe I'll have any new material to share on the day that you're reading this. Take that with a grain of salt; what I say often contrasts with the outcome. Either way, I won't be verifying the end result, although odds favour the probability of me switching words around on the same damn page I've been stuck on for weeks or months. Or maybe I'm back to changing something I decided was finished ages ago. Time will tell. I need to approach my goals at a different angle. My priorities are wrong—all of them! Even if things change drastically between demo versions, putting anything out there will benefit me greatly. Feedback is so valuable, yet I've been hiding from it for so long...

(Focus, damn it... What are the right things to say? What can be improved?)

~Ignore the clock. Write, write, write.~

I'm being irrational; I know I am. How can I be certain any of my work is good if I continue to rewrite and shuffle things without showing anybody? I'm afraid. The thought of it all amounting to nothing is terrifying, and it's only getting worse. But I'm in this too deep now.

Despair is not the answer. I just need to step back and refocus again, as I've already done a million times. There's something else I have the power to do, too. More than a month has passed since the last poll.

Let's change that.

(This is selfish of me. I'm sorry for being weak, but battling this alone has been a difficult time. I hope you don't mind.) I wish I had a more positive post to share, but I can't lie to you all. Things have been really rough on me for a while. I don't believe I'm burnt out, as I've continued to think of new ideas and kept working on the story, but I've been neglecting to write it down proper. Even when I try my hardest to avoid succumbing to perfectionism, there's always something new that catches my eye, forcing me to find better words until that itch goes away. And by then, hours have passed and there's always more to be done. It's exhausting.

I've started and given up on a lot of things in my life. I refuse to let Brain Death be taken away from me. Until my last breath, I will struggle to create a story that I can be proud of myself for.

Otherwise, I have no purpose. That idea is more scary than anything.

A lurking route? REALLY? You have a lurking route in your game? Oh wowie holy hecking smokes that's amazing that you have a LURKING route!

Before you ask, I don't think I'm crazy just yet. Bit tired, but still chugging along.

I found some time to map out a linear convo with the exclusion of MC's input. Imagining how my characters interact with one another—under the assumption that MC isn't around—is a challenging but thought-provoking endeavour.

Whoa, THE Huntress is typing! You'll be seeing more of her in the future. She's a close friend of you and your sibling, Erin. (Oh yeah and I guess endme is there too...)

I'm still not entirely certain how I want these characters to behave, but it's a learning experience for sure. At the moment, the hardest part is deciding how they all type. Every person's different, after all.

Once I'm satisfied with the outcome of this linear path, in addition to deciding how each of these people feel and what's happened in their day, I'll move on to a new route.

As I've said in the past, I wish to write dynamic conversations in this game. Characters should keep track of what you do and don't say and react intelligently. I want them keeping track of everything and individually deciding whether or not to do anything with that information.

That's it for now. Back to work!

Currently sitting at my desk writing the new(est) Prologue.

As of now its scene has surpassed 2k words alone—more than what the entirety of my first early demo had a year ago. I'm happy with the quality of my writing and feel confident that I've improved a lot.

Today marks the second in a row with no air conditioning—you can't deny your well-being has suffered for it.

I'd like to follow up on my original goal with this project. You will be able to customize your Oracle's personality and temperament, but as a solo dev, that'll be impossible to fully accomplish on day 1.

To make this goal attainable, your Oracle will begin in a neutral/default phase, like a blank slate from the canon life they lived before you stepped into their shoes. Major choices will be decided by you, but as a whole, it is necessary to have a template to work from.

As I continue to write the game, I'll introduce more choices that shift Oracle's alignment accordingly. Those choices will have more weight in future Acts and Quarters, as they'll branch out and have far more depth than if I were to try and include everything early on.

I wish I'd have said all of this months ago, but in all honesty I've spent this time working and reworking the central current of the game's progression, and saving the customization stuff for later.

There are too many possibilities that clash with my ability to focus on the core concept simultaneously. These choices need to be meaningful: not for the sake of difference, but for purpose.

Sorry again, for taking so long. I hope to have this version out before Christmas.

It's been a long day.

For the past 4 hours, I've done nothing but optimize my code for the in-game phone. It'll be a core mechanic, so I want to make sure it looks nice. Look! I even added an itty bitty camera.

Do you like it? 🥰

(This is getting pretty close to how the final product will look, I believe...)

I know I should be writing dialogue and story instead, but you remember my last post right? Aesthetic is everything. Even if the content is lacking at first, I wanna put in an effort to please your eyes.

Learning CSS and HTML has been interesting, but also pretty confusing. There's still a lot that I struggle to wrap my head around, but I'm learning bits and pieces. Things are starting to make sense.

Beyond the phone, I put in a few placeholders for the time being.

Story structure is on its way to being finalized. Once I've decided where to limit content for this version, I'll have a more accurate scope for the First Quarter. What to add? What to withhold?

After all this time, I'm still left with so many questions. It's okay, though. I'll find my answers before long.

Of this, I'm certain.

I've never been more relieved to be working with a text-based engine. I can work with poor optimization, since it's the first build and all. I tried making my CSS phone a bit prettier, and it's still got a ways to go, but as of now I'm writing a linear path of dialogue for this section with the intent to branch out more later.

(Tuesday, I spent ~7 hours struggling to make the phone look like this. I plan to make it a bit thinner and also touch up the UI some more before release. July 4th is not happening, but you can be certain that I'm determined to deliver... when it's ready.)

There will be many variables missing in the first build, such as Oracle's height, weight, the manner in which you text/speak, as well as most, if not all options for a specific physical appearance. I've yet to finalize designs for any of the main cast, cuz I want to leave them up to you guys. I think that would be really fun.

Early builds will be quite vanilla as far as character and environment descriptions go, as I'll listen for feedback and focus on story flow.

I should have said this a long time ago, and I'm sorry for any strong expectations I may have built. At this stage, if you're keeping up with this blog because you're waiting for a release date to drop, you'll only grow more disappointed with posts to come.

I cannot be more emphatic when I say that the quality in my story-telling is the singular most important thing to me. I wish to avoid, or at the very least put a spin on old cliches. I want my characters to breathe and interact with you in a realistic manner. I want them to remember everything about you, to consider past interactions.

I want you to be capable of growing in this world, as well. I want to write it in such a way that even my stubborn mind can't find any problems that need fixing. I want you to cry with sadness, with happiness, with love and hope. I want you to laugh at the nonsense my characters thrive in. I want you to love them as much as I do.

There I go again, sounding like a broken record. It's been a long year since I first put out anything about this project, but I'm no less passionate about it. A little tired, sure. But my passion is true. And so, I will continue to write and learn to program on the go. I'll do the best I possibly can, for the future of Brain Death.

I've spent more time coding than anything today, but I've finally created a Content Warning system. I've also managed to reduce some crappy code significantly, and all with the same desired effect.

It's the home stretch, now. Not too long ago I predicted that the final demo would be around 30k words. Could be closer to 40k, or even 50k once I'm done. There's so much content I want to pack in this!