I'm not sure why this game isn't getting more love. It looks to be shaping up really nicely and the language element is innovative and fascinating. I look forward to seeing how it develops.

I live almost within cannon range of the Victory and can guarantee that the curvature of the decks, on that ship at least, is so slight as to be invisible to the layman (ie. me). I wouldn't think anyone would notice if your decks are flat. If you're concerned about offending nautical purists, your real headaches will start with the rigging.

I love your ideas for the audio - the creaking of old timbers must be one of the most atmospheric sounds there is.

Thanks! By the way, I love the look and idea of Script Kiddies. I'll be sure to check out the demo later.

The prayers occasionally turn up a nice surprise, as in this convoluted curse:



How many other god games allow you to upgrade your environment with lace tablecloths? I can't think of a single one.

Ha! No shame in admitting that - I remember it well!

Mmm, this looks almost inhumanly beautiful...

Looks fun. I love that '3D' decapitation effect!

Thought I should cautiously mention that I'm still working on this. My focus has been on other things for a long time but every now and then I spend a bit of time on After the Comet and it's starting to gain some momentum again.

I've rebuilt it from scratch and it's more ambitious than it was originally. Writing The Winter Child (which is still my main thing at the moment) has made me realise that some things which I originally thought would be too difficult to do are actually within even my limited powers. So I've scrapped the Groundhog Day mechanic and the game is now a sort of sandbox with randomly generated cases for you to investigate. It's going to be much more text-heavy than it was before, with the analysis of conversation and written clues being the key to progress.

I'm also experimenting with a 'Thomas Crown Affair' style which involves various sliding windows and split screen effects. The picture below shows the screen at its busiest, with the play window (usually this will take up pretty much the whole screen), a view of where your partner is (you can always check on this through a telepathic link with him), the inventory (the business card), the 'clock' and a scripted flashback window (when people tell you their accounts of a crime you get a sort of stylised visual impression of their memories).

It's just a REALLY rough prototype at the moment but I think the concept is nice so I'm going to keep playing around with it.

Expect another update in a year or so...

I've had a number of people (one is a number, right?) ask me why I goofed and let the mouse cursor roam around that last gif, so I thought I should mention that the cursor itself is quite important to the gameplay.

You'll see that the cursor gets separated from the hand when a crow snatches the hand away. This is basically the 'death mechanic' - you have to enter the game by clicking on and possessing the hand but you'll lose agency (and valuable time) when the hand gets hurt and will have to quickly re-possess it.

Congratulations! I've been following this for a long time now, can't wait to see it complete.

The world's worst Christmas tree.

(Not to be included in the game - just messing about testing out crow behaviour...)

I was pleased to put my maths hat on today and find that I had a few billion possible prayers and curses already, so I thought I'd write a quick post to explain how they'll work.

There are dictionaries set up for a heap of different variables - names, jobs, household objects, animals, complimentary and pejorative adjectives etc - and each prayer is generated by slotting a mix of these into one of about 60 different templates. In addition, each curse consists of two templates bolted together - one describing the 'crime' the victim has committed and one requesting a punishment.

Crimes and punishments are tagged with scores reflecting their severity and the relationship between these scores will affect how the player is perceived when granting or denying curses. Power is gained through granting requests but players can also choose to be merciful or ruthless and their decisions will affect how they are seen by the villagers and how the village itself develops.

It won't all be black and white, however. It may be that granting seemingly worthy requests will have negative effects and vice versa. For example, allowing a murderer to be struck down with a wasting disease might lead to the accidental infection of more villagers, something which will be reflected in their future prayers.

There is a system behind the scenes to keep track of all these things but I won't make the scores themselves explicit - I want it to feel as natural as possible.

I've introduced some lighting to make the shrine seem a little cosier. If anyone knows a way to give it a flickering candle effect which isn't as annoying as a busted strip-light and has no chance of inducing an epileptic fit, I'd love to hear it... I guess shadows would help but I don't want to crowd the environment.

Really interesting concept. I look forward to seeing how this comes together.

Suggestions for a creature name:

Dopple (as in doppleganger)

Phiz (as in physiognomy)

Xerox

Echo

Ditto

Every update makes this look better and better. I cannot wait to play it.

The sprites are still very rough but I've now got the village expanding and shrinking according to your decisions.

There is no justice in the world if this doesn't get greenlit.

I love the way it ends up in space like Jason X.

Some prayers are more urgent than others.

I love the idea of this. Could lead to some very interesting, thoughtful gameplay.

This looks amazing and I loved Realistic Kissing Simulator. I'll be watching eagerly.