"This thing again?!"A while ago I put Hell Diary on hiatus while I worked out the design of the game and what direction I wanted to go with it. Is it a sim, an adventure, what do I want to
do with this thing?
I think it's still my most popular game despite not being in active development… until recently. A lot of people really, really liked Nightmare Castle, or at least some of the things it did with aesthetics. Hell Diary is set in that era (well… roughly). So I've started over again almost from square one and worked out some design elements I can stick to and make the game really fun for me to work on and feel like I'm making progress, and not confusing the hell out of players.
I've done away with the in-universe calendars and lingo and stuff, I'll just say the game is set in 1979 and has all of the characters you knew from before. But I'm splitting the story up into three "episodes" and at least trying to start out less open-ended. Gameplay's the same, but the aesthetic is different and there should be less stuff to wade through to get to the story.
NOW, the game's being done with Nightmare Castle's PC-8801/9801 aesthetic with 8-colour 640x400 graphics, and a soundtrack done with emulated YM2203 and Music Macro Language instead of Nightmare Castle's SB16 soundfont. I've already got the "engine" set up (it reuses Nightmare Castle's scripts and visual effects). I'll have some more about it up when I can take some screens; this post is long enough already!
Also, if you want, you can support me working on free resources and games on Patreon.
You will get to download the game or any free music even if you don't donate, though:
https://www.patreon.com/NoyemiK 