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[Dark Gaia]

Hello to everyone on TIG. I'm Dark Gaia (obviously) and I'm here to showcase my own creation: a free, indie survival horror game to this wonderful community.



Introduction

The Beyond is a freeware survival horror/adventure game coded with RPG Maker VX, the same engine which brought you Aveyond and Eternal Eden.
The Beyond is not a normal RPG Maker game. In The Beyond, you find yourself trapped in a "haunted" mansion known as The Beyond, and are soon under attack by a strange, and evil power. Using your brain and your reflexes, you must think and fight your way to safety, solving puzzles and defeating horrifying enemies to make your escape.
In order to escape the terror, you'll first need to understand the cause of the nightmare. Make sure you collect all the clues so that you can understand the fate that has befallen the mansion. But, be careful. You are always in danger, and it is easy to let the fear overwhelm you. Don't give in to the evil.

Story Outline

Mairstone Manor

Also known as The Beyond, this mansion was built in the early 1950's by renowned ex military general and historian Thomas Mairstone.
It is situated in the rural coal mining town of Black Valley in the isolated midwest. The entire town is isolated, being situated in a remote valley, and sorrounded by acres of dense forest. The locals fear The Beyond, and blame it for several disapearances of townspeople, including the mansion's owners, and bizarre phenomena that has been recently occuring in town.

Black Valley

An isolated midwestern mining town founded in the mid 1800's. The town's mining industry has been inactive since the 1920's due to the  mines being closed for an undisclosed reason. Black Valley has a population of only 300, only a small fraction of the 1200 people it housed during the mining era.
Reportedly, Black Valley is a center for paranormal activity, with many bizarre incidents being reported each month.

Characters

Two playable characters are featured in The Beyond, each one playing in a different way and having their own unique reasons for being drawn into the mansion. Each character also has their own unique endings. To see all of the game's endings, you'll need to play through as both characters!

John Faraday

An ex police officer turned private detective. John has been hired to investigate the mysterious disapearance of a group of journalists conducting research on the mansion. John has decided to search for clues in the last place the group were known to have visited, and so heads for The Beyond itself.

Sara Wickson

A horror fiction writer seeking inspiration. It's been a while since Sara wrote a big top seller, so in order to gather material to write  her next novel, Sara has decided to spend a night in the infamous mansion known as The Beyond.

Game Features

> True fear will take over as you explore the mansion, uncovering the many secrets it holds. Atmospheric graphics and sounds, combined with some genuine psychological engineering will make you feel the ultimate terror.

> A fantastic challenge awaits you, with fiendish puzzles to solve, horrifying enemies to defeat, and two different characters and four endings to experience.

> Streamlined systems such as a health indicator and custom item usage system help you keep track of notes, clues and items.

> Rivetting, tense combat, using the completely customized Decision Proximity Semi Active Battle system (DPSAB) which allows enemies to deal damage based on the direction they strike from, and allows actions performed outside of battle to affect your battle performance.

Screenshots















Download

Latest Version: 3.1 Full (Approx 58MB, 1 - 3 hours of gameplay)

The download includes the complete game and all the files required to run the game, plus a game strategy guide including game instructions, tips and puzzle answers.

The game can be downloaded from here: http://www.mediafire.com/?bexc9zi2tog

Or here: http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/puzzle/the-beyond/184/
At the time of writing, the above mirror is still serving an old version of the game, however as of 10/6/2009, it should have an updated file.

(Other mirrors coming soon)

System Requirements

Reccomended System Setting

Windows XP/Vista (Windows 7 untested)

1GB of RAM or higher reccomended

1.5GhZ CPU or faster reccomended

100MB free hard drive space required

DirectDraw compatible graphics card required

MP3 compatible sound card required

Minimum System Setting

Windows 2000/XP/Vista

512MB of RAM or higher

1.2GhZ CPU or faster

100MB free hard drive space required

DirectDraw compatible graphics card required

MP3 compatible sound card required

Final Words

I would like to thank all the fans of my games who have spurred me to create this, as well as all the people who helped me create it in various games, the game would not be the same without you.

If you enjoyed The Beyond or have a question or comment, please post back with some feedback! I love to see feedback, good or bad, so don't feel afraid to share your thoughts on my game. Enjoy!

[Bood_war]

Oooh. I'm liking the art and premise of it.Am downloading, vill be baack

[ChevyRay]

Hello Dark Gaia welcome to the best place on the internet. We're a fairly eccentric, yet eclectic community, and we love it when people share their stuff with us.

But, to ensure us that you're here to share (meaning give and get given) with us, and not just pimp your game, we usually like you to go here:

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=45.0

And introduce yourself first! Tell us a bit about yourself and your history, maybe your favorite games or games you've made in the past.

Welcome to TIGSource! It's good to see the horror genre being explored more and more in the indie scene.

[xenogia]

This game looks great, I am going to download it and check it out.  I look forward to the whole experience thats for sure.

[Dark Gaia]

Thanks to everyone for the show of interest. I do intend to post in the intro forum and be an active part of the forum, I was just rather rushed when posting this up and didn't have a chance to. I'll go do it now.

Also, I'm informing you all that The Beyond is actually the sequel to another game of mine called One Night. If you have finished the game and want more indie horror goodness, you can play the original game here: http://www.rpgmaker.net/games/926/

[Asystole]

I've played this for about 20 minutes so far and already I can highly recommend it. Gorgeous graphics, gorgeous music, great puzzles, great story. And hot damn is it creepy. I'll finish this and play your other game too

[Mir@k]

I hope you don't mind, i linked them here as well, if you do mind i can remove the links though.

[Dark Gaia]

New Update (V3.2)

I've just released the updated Version 3.2, which fixes a few small gameplay glitches that were present and fixes the problem in the previous version which prevented the ending selection working how it should be.

Download it now! The download links in the initial post have been updated!

[DjangoDurango]

I thought that title looked familiar! I lurk the RMRK forums.

Downloading now. I'm going home soon, but I will try your game this evening when I come back to work.

[Dark Gaia]

Thanks for noticing it. One Night was very popular and I'm hoping this game will replicate that popularity. I'll be looking forward to your comments!

[Dark Gaia]

Update with a Review!

Octuple Threat, member of RPG Revolution's official review team, has reviewed this game and given it a well deserved 8/10. Read his review and find out why you too should experience The Beyond here:

http://www.rpgrevolution.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32002

[Mipe]

Well deserved? Vain, aren't we? 

Well, congratulations in any case

[Dark Gaia]

Thanks very much for noticing. I was having a little joke there, but of course I am rather fond of my game. By the way, I welcome reviews from anyone so if anyone feels the need to write one, go ahead.

[Chris Z]

There's nothing wrong with having pride in your work.  Besides, calling a review "well deserved" is pretty low key compared to some of the horn-tooting that goes on around here.

Dark Gaia, I'm getting a hang when I try to Begin a game, fades to black and does nothing indefinitely.  I'm on Windows 7 so any known problems with Vista might apply.

[Dark Gaia]

Hmm... The game was untested for Windows 7 so I'm not sure what problems may happen. I created it to work with Vista, so Vista is the best platform for it, try running it in compatability mode for Vista or else try running it as an Administrator.

Failing that, sometimes it takes a while to load, so just wait and see what happens.

Sorry if I can't help more.

[Dark Gaia]

Here is a small "press release" I've done in the RM community about One Night 3, the sequel to One Night and The Beyond.

Press Release Oct '09

Work is currently underway on perhaps the most eagerly awaited RPG Maker VX horror game of all time, One Night 3: Shadows Of Stillwater, which I'm pleased to announce, has just hit it's first pre alpha stage clocking in at just under 40% completion!

Gameplay wise, players can expect the same style of time tested puzzle/exploratory combat found in the previous One Night games, with a longer adventure to be expected this time, intended to be around 3 to 5 hours long. One Night 3 runs off the exact same engine and scripts that powered One Night 2 except several improvements have been made to this engine such as the character needing to adjust to changing light levels throughout the game (from a dark room to a light one, for example, players will need to wait a fraction for their eyes to adjust) and audible footsteps which can alert monsters. A huge change is that the sparkles which marked items in One Night 2 have been removed, prompting players to search One Night 3's environs far more closely, similar to the first game in the series, and water pools in the save rooms now have limited uses.

In terms of combat, the game is radically different to both One Night and One Night 2. Much like the original game, random enemies can be found wandering the areas of the game, rather than One Night 2's set encounters, and now these enemies can be combatted at will, using the DPSAB event based battle system pioneered in One Night 2. This system remains the same as usual, except that the "Hard Strike" option has been removed, replaced with an option to attack with the currently equipped weapon (yes, there are many weapons to find), with each weapon being of a different power and having a different Strength requirement. Combat in game is designed to be a last resort however, and avoiding fights is encouraged.

In this new installment to the One Night series, events pick up seven years after the events of One Night and twenty three years after the events of One Night 2 as players control Tom Hawkin, a lonely drifter who is searching for his sister, a journalist who disapeared in an incident which claimed the lives of the entire town of Stillwater three years earlier. Ignoring the rumors that Stillwater is a haunted town now, Tom journies there to search for his beloved Alyssa.
Along the way, players will discover what fate befell Stillwater, where Alyssa is, who Tom REALLY is, and how all the events of the entire series fit in together, eventually providing a thrilling climax to resolve the entire series.

Finally, here are some work in progress screens of the game so far to whet your appetites for the coming horror. Enjoy!


The title screen.


The visuals this time around are much darker, but there are many lit areas to contrast this too.


The upgraded battle system, featuring weapon use.


The game presents much more atmosphere than past installments.