Life Is Like

"It's one thing to know. It's another to remember."

Design Document

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_F9GFl5VQ7rYFdhE86l3Png6GsxSytHNVuP4727XJLw/edit?usp=sharing

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Introduction

An intense and fast-paced fantasy adventure with unique rogue-like base mechanics that you will gain random abilities related to your death each time you die which can evolve after certain amounts of use, and a well-designed progression system that differentiates the game from other rogue-like games because it won't invert the difficulty curve by only saving ability use stacks, interaction, and conversation history.

Story

A journey of self discovery, where discovery is the end of it all…

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Long ago, when the world was bright, and vibrance and prosperity marked the lands, the eternal radiant empire reigned unopposed and unconcerned. It was then, that the hidden threat of the Gloom struck, and plunged the world into a war of chaos. The arrogance of the radiant finally bore fruit, and before long, the world was consumed wholly by the ichor of the Gloom, plunging the lands into an eternal darkness.

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But there was one who wouldn’t submit. Who wouldn’t succumb to the weight of obscurity. A hero born of the muck, dripping ichor and contempt, claws their way back. With no memories of what happened to cause this, or why they exist to begin with, the ignorant champion sets out on a journey of self discovery laden with dangers of the dark and the hope of the land.

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The hero, unbeknowst to the player, or themselves, is actually the concentrated will of fallen warriors. The embodied spirit of the willing ess to fight back. They look like nothing more than a dripping, ichor clad humanoid figure. When powers are unlocked, pieces of the hero are revealed to showcase what powers have been unlocked. A warrior arm with a big sword could be a wide sweeping area melee attack. A thick robe over the torso could speak to magic powers, either offensive or defensive at our leisure. The truth behind this mechanic, is that these are simple trapped memories and fragments of those that died fighting. 

Every step made towards defeating the darkness (which I renamed the gloom so it wasnt so one dimensional) is actually a step towards the heroes demise, as the will to fight can only exist while there is a foe to oppose. The story should slowly make this known, through story beats as we push forward as players, and the culmination of the game, the mystery of self discovery would be that war, violence, etc just end in nothing
The glooms first emergence could be the seeds of discontent, or the long standing hatred of the oppressed, or simple villainy. Theres a lot of themes we could explore with this idea, but I always like to showcase that ideas like comfort and happiness are often built on the backs of those that arent...