A survival, psychology/strategy game in a similar vein to goodbye where you play as an ethereal Spirit of Worldly Passage and starting the game puts you in the shoes of a random stranger. But this time you're not fading away, you're dying. You have one day left to live, and on starting the game you're given some information about the person you're inhabiting: their skills - the things they're best at; their fears - what could hold them back from doing certain things; their allergies, diseases, or conditions; and a list of the things they want to do before they die, which they have entrusted to you along with their body. This can range from something as simple as trying on a new coat from the tailor, or as extravagant as going hang gliding for the first time in their life, and it may overlap with the other categories - someone may want to have a strawberry milkshake but they're lactose intolerant, so you will need to find a way around that.
The goal of the game is to fulfill as many dying wishes as you can before their time is up. As a Spirit of Worldly Passage, it is also your job to guide the departed to the afterlife, and a restless soul drains multitudes more of your energy than a soul at peace to guide, meaning you will not be able to help as many people if you don't complete enough of their lists. With every wish you fulfill, your spirit grows a tiny bit stronger, meaning your third playthrough will be longer and more complex than your first - like leveling up, but without levels, just invisible experience. Once your energy is up, you return to the Place Beyond the World to be replaced by another Spirit, leaving you with the options to stop or start again.
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"I'm left alone with all the monsters in my head
They say to me, "you won't choose life, over death..."
-Peratus, "Wrought"
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::Warning: sensitive content follows. Please read at your discretion.::
Psychological "survival" atmosphere game where you're walking down a dark, endless road in a surreal and shifting dream-like world, alone. In this world, colour is greyscale, loneliness is safety, and hurt is comfort. Depending on your level of injury, you will be incapacitated and movement hindered, from limping to stumbling to crawling to dead. Unlike normal life, it works in reverse here. The more wounded you are, the more "comfortable" you become, and the more relaxed and free your movements; the more unwounded you are, the harder movement is as you are wracked with psychic pains, with unmarred being agony to the point of being unable to move. The other side of this world is that your injuries regenerate quickly; even deep wounds fade in a matter of minutes, leaving clean skin behind. The only way to progress is to continually find ways to wound yourself, being careful not to go too far and end up deceased by your own hand.
Along the sides of the road are bodies - the remains of wanderers who came before you and were eventually taken by this world. There are also objects and landmarks, all in a constant state of slow decay. They are typically hazardous in nature, and can be used to inflict damage on yourself and give you the energy to keep going. A metal gatepost sticking out of the ground. Razorwire. Paper bags and other litter, as well as discarded possessions - stuffed toys and handwritten letters. Blank signposts. Strewn clothes with nobody in them. Some of these will be pointless and some not so, depending on what uses you might think of when looking at them, but they all break down by themselves and deteriorate to uselessness within a minute or two. This does not mean much, since there would be little point in staying in one place for very long anyway.
Walking away from the road will slowly shorten your vision, until eventually you cannot see it anymore and become lost in a thick black fog that will only go away if you can find it again. On rare occasions, you may see another wanderer walking down the path towards you, and they might try to make contact. Their presence causes your wounds to heal faster than normal depending on how close they are. You must avoid them at all costs, for if they touch you, you fall apart and die. They will never leave the road, and might call out to you or maybe even try to follow you, but you must not listen. Keep going, and never waver. Soon their voice will be echoed away by the familiar sounds of your own footsteps, and your regeneration will slow again, letting you move easier once more.
You can not continue forever. Eventually you will run out of ways to inflict yourself and your path will leave you joining the fallen, as clean as the day you were born, on the side of the road. There is no top score, but your last and most distances traveled will be recorded as memoirs, as well as an epitaph of your own writing once your journey ends. From there it is up to you if you want to start again, and see how far you can go.
There are no enemies in this game. It does not matter which way you walk, only that you walk. You are the only target, but also the only hostage. The road's endlessness is your antagonist. There is no motivation for going forward other than the player's own choice for what they hope to see.
Where is it you wish to go?
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Photograph "the endless road" by Joesph West https://www.flickr.com/photos/77249984@N00/4597808082
Personal note: I do not endorse or condone fictional or especially real-world instances of self harm, and understand it is a very serious subject. If you know anyone who may self-harm or are doing so yourself, please seek help from any available source in your area.
In a world of technology where progress trumps morals, you worked with a small team of scientists focus-testing the latest in mind-controlling and interrogation software: a virtual reality prison for the mind, where the architecture of the subject's brain is negotiable to the operator's every whim. You studied the mental effects of having a prisoner repeatedly attempt to escape this reality, working diligently. Until, that is, the team ran out of willing test subjects once the very last had lost themselves to the Mindchamber. You must understand, it was nothing personal. Progress is progress, and you were the youngest member of the team, after all.
So they turned to you, and you of course very willingly submitted yourself to being the next test subject. That's how it will be told, anyway. What do details matter?
You are <insert name>, a former scientist-turned test subject. After being forcibly imprisoned in the Mindchamber, your memory was wiped and you find yourself not knowing where you are. All you know is that it's not where you want to be, and you must find a way out.
You start in a bare room, and beyond its doorway lies a maze of tricks, hazards, and treachery. You may move left and right as well as jump, crawl, and climb, but do not expect to get out easily when your own brain works to thwart you. Each time you fail, you are placed back in the bare room with only your memories of the traps outside to guide you. But the chamber will remember you, too. As you get closer to the exit, you may find your brittle reality re-knitting itself under some sinister will...
Oh, and, a word of warning, <insert name>. There are still some, shall we say, side effects to repeatedly resetting a subject's mind. As your long-term memory becomes damaged, you will be unable to recall small shreds of the level, and these scraps will forever be gone from your mind's eye. But the testing must go on, even until your mind is completely erased. Should that happen…
Character and boxes: Paradise Lost: First Contact by Asthree Works http://asthreeworks.com/?attachment_id=570
Background: "The IT Crowd Based Sprite Game" corridors.psd by Patrick Forringer http://patrick.forringer.com/2012/09/the-it-crowd-...
Static: "TV Noise, Static, Snow" by n4pgamer on DeviantART http://n4pgamer.deviantart.com/art/TV-Noise-Static...
