Submission to Acerola Jam 0

The goals of this project were 2 fold:

1. learn Ren'Py as a way of experiencing a different take on Python

2. work on a deadline to finish a project entirely in support the above goal

With those goals in mind. This project was a success.

The idea for this game came from a joke idea for a TTRPG about defining aspects of your backstory as you played the character and how, until it was established at the table, nothing was canonical. As a result, as you talked about your backstory you opened yourself up for more ways for your backstory to be used against you, but also since your character had a finite age, you could also only define so much backstory. This then evolved into suggesting all TTRPG characters are Lovecraftian monsters until "they are just a squid". Thus, the idea for this game was born.

When working on it (streaming on twitch.tv/kblaney) I started with just a set of yes/no questions and quickly found it was like playing a game of Guess Who against the computer. Just that little bit working and being interesting was enough to justify continuing on to add the other mechanics like having to kill the investigators and solve the puzzle behind learning runes of the "Great Old One"s name so you could beat the game. (Spoiler: killing all 4 investigators without the secret name is actually impossible.)

Since this game was for a Jam that required it to be open sourced, I needed to find a way to obfuscate the code that checks the true name. Enter the hash functions. By checking the hash of the sorted and deduped string against a pre calculated value, I'm able to still hide some secrets. That said, you could use the code to figure out the name with a little Python knowledge. Honestly, that fits the meta narrative about investigating the occult so I won't be upset if you decide to "cheat" like that. This method also allowed me to fit in some personal Easter Eggs surrounding my past game, Sharktillary, and a game I started making involving Killer Clowns.