#wilderlingdev

A Single Choice Jam entry.

Entry - IFDB - More by wilderlingdev - @wilderlingdev CW: some memory loss and mind invasion Note: this is a companion piece to forever, an echo (my NTJ review).

An unwinnable fight, but you won't give up. This entry is a companion piece to "forever, an echo", a short game submitted to the Neo Twiny Jam, a sort of opposite point-of-view to the original piece. It is an endless fight, an unwinnable fight, one your enemy will always come out victorious. But, you never despair. No matter the version of yourself, no matter your weakened state, you will continue to fight. You will always come back, ready to fight. Unlike the doomed perspective of the other game, this one screams resistance, and hope. You may not win now, but one day you might. You will never surrender yourself, your soul, your everything to your enemy. A good opposite to the other piece.

THE BONESINGER

can you feel it? the smell of things growing and dark earth, of the deep and the hidden? it’s overwhelming, pungent; it clings to you like a second skin now that you know it is here

briar.

that's the name written in blood by the murder victim.

your name.

the body of the famous wilderling bard dandelion lies broken and ravaged in the depths of the spire's gardens, and now everyone thinks you are to blame for it. but you aren't (are you?). someone - dandelion themselves? - wants you hanged for it, and now you must find out why.

but the truth isn't so easy to grasp. the wilder magic in your veins hungers, the woods call and from under the buried bones of the spire something answers.

something that knows your name and has been waiting for you for a long time.

GAMEPLAY

why did the wilderlings break free from the trees seven years ago? no one can say, least of all the wilderlings themselves - they have no memory of their lives or names before their awakening, no knowledge of the cursed magic lurking beneath their skin, no explanation for their strange appearance. but there must be a reason why. someone, somewhere, knows something. (from the writings of sage stoneclaw).

the bonesinger is a visual novel with point & click elements. you play as briar (nonbinary, he/him), a wilderling herbalist who lives with other wilderlings in the spire, a monstrous building so ancient no one remembers who built it. investigate a murder, clear your name (or don't) and interact with an interesting cast of characters, each with their own secrets and goals.

important: the game won't have romance, but you will be able to build friendships with the main cast. there are no plans for explicit content, but some light body horror, gore and blood will be present, so the blog and game are 18+. a demo is being developed for spooktober vn jam.

they brought other bones up, do you see? that right there is a half-buried ribcage, and those are human fingers poking through the soil.

The Neo Twiny Jam (@neo-twiny-jam) is an interactive fiction game unranked jam where participants could not write more than 500 words per entry.

You can find every submitted piece on the jam's Itch Page.

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forever, an echo by wilderlingdev

Entry - More by wilderlingdev - @wilderlingdev

Unending cycles, doomed to repeat it. Creation and destruction. Opposite forces fighting to prove the other wrong. Creating civilisations in hopes that one sticks around, but doomed are they all, never surviving under your hand. Yet the other continues this Sisyphean tasks, unbothered, uncaring. A civilisation will be born anew, and so will continue the cycle. Unchanged...