Upon A Darkening Flood
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
A horror tale of the Revolution on culture, heritage,
and the anxieties elicited by a strange library.
They say that after the Revolution, some great aristocrats went awry,
and took part in depraved, occult rituals.
They don't understand why Lord D was among them.
Wasn't he an ardent defender of the Revolution?
There's talk of terrible events occurring in his personal library.
They say he didn't like it, never went anywhere near it.
They say he couldn't master it.
This is a Lovecraftian horror tale set around a fictional revolutionary time.
The story is around 12 000 words long.
It's partly a visual novel, partly Twine-like interactive fiction. Though there are visuals and sounds, there are no sprites, and the emphasis is on the text.
This is probably not a very pleasant, well-written or constructed piece of fiction.
The original idea dates from quite a while back, and it's been weird to commit to it after all this time. Hope it can still be enjoyed in some way!
NaNoRenO notice: this is an IntRenAiMo entry
This story was submitted for NaNoRenO 2017, but it isn't a regular entry: it hasn't been fully made within March 2017. I have reused an old unfinished short story which was already ~6000 words long.
Since participants were encouraged to submit works merely “finished” during March under the IntRenAiMo tag, I thought it'd finally be the occasion to try to turn this half-finished story into interactive fiction.
Release History
May 4th, 2017: in the Post-NaNoRenO build, fixed typos, fixed the text position bugs during typographic effects, added a few words and precisions in the ending notes and credits menu. This is the final and definitive version (v1.3)
April 13th, 2017: Made a few minor tweaks in the Post-NaNoRenO build (v1.2)
April 12th, 2017: Uploaded an improved Post-NaNoRenO build (v1.1), with proper credits, ending notes, better editing, GUI, and the last scene rewritten!
April 4th, 2017: Created the page, uploaded a rough NaNoRenO build (v0.99)
Credits
I'm no artist or musician, so creating this story wouldn't have been possible without the work of talented composers, photographers and sound enthusiasts who made their work freely available under Creative Commons licenses.
Please refer to the Credits menu inside the game for detailed attribution resource by resource, with links and additional commentary!
In the meantime, please let me shortly thank…
…For the background pictures:
Marie D. Martel, shop boy, Miles Wolstenholme, Jack French, Barry Marsh, Nicolas Vigier, the Library of Congress, Steve Collis, Eden, Janine and Jim, Michael Costa, Thomas Quine, fritz, Thomas Bembridge, Paul Friel, Karen Roe, Dun.can, the UTC library, Henry Hemming, jeanmarie, Jennifer Boyer, Tony Webster, Barta IV, Mihai Bojin, Andrew, isamiga76, Daniel Jolivet, Allie Caulfield, Janet Farthing, Andreas Øverland, Arek Olek and Justin Henry.
…For the music:
Alexandr Zhelanov, Adragante, Ove Melaa and Eliot Corley (from ChaosHarmony).
…For the sound effects:
loopbasedmusic, pakasit21, Koops, Fairhaven Collection, 13FPanska_Marval_Lukas, dobroide, 7by7, LaCezio, adejabor, Andune, foxen10, Max_Headroom, swiftoid, ripper351, soundmary, AntumDeluge, silencyo, and xtrgamr.
…For the font:
Pablo Ugerman for the Rosarivo font.
This visual novel is open source
All my releases are open source, and this one is no exception.
The script files used by Ren'Py (the visual novel engine) are available in clear inside the game folder; they're not hidden at all.
This is deliberate: you're free to, and encouraged to poke around the script to see how this game was designed!
Other visual novels I've written
If you're in the mood for an even shorter story (~10-15min max), with a mysterious atmosphere and evocative prose, playable directly in your browser:
If you'd rather read a much longer story (~4 to 5 hours), with more mystery, an epistolary format, and a 19th-century-inspired setting:
Download
Install instructions
Download the improved Post-NaNoRenO build for your platform, and launch the executable. That's it!
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Full and detailed review of the vn!
+ summary and analysis
SPOILERS BELOW THIS LINE
VN Score: 135/150
Applies to version 1.3 [2017/05/04].
Score Breakdown:
『Visuals』 - 15/20
Images, videos, backgrounds, characters, drawings, animations, etc.
『GUI』 - 20/20
Graphic user interface of the vn.
『Sound』 - 20/20
Music and sound effects; quality and sound design.
『Story』 - 15/20
Spelling, grammar and syntax’s correctness, also, narrative flow and consistency.
『Setting』 - 20/20
Originality, ideas and worldbuilding in vn.
『Gameplay』 - 20/20
About interactivity, e.g: kinetic, with choices, or higher.
『Programming』 - 15/20
Builds released, correct vn execution, bugs, crashes, etc.
『Promotion』 - 20/20
About the thumbnail, game page, metadata, tags, description, screenshots, etc.
『Personal Opinion』 - 10/10
Is fun/cute/interesting/scary/etc? Did I like it? (subjective)
I’m biased here, I like books, libraries, old centuries, and horror. I obviously liked this story.
Alternative French Revolution in which large-scale demonic possession occurs among aristocrats. They were performing demonic acts and rituals for no reason, at least not one that science nor logic could find.
Serious crimes against humanity were committed, accelerating the revolution, which ended with the death sentences of many aristocrats.
A journalist saw one of these trials closely and decided to reveal the classified story of “Lord.D.”
Lord.D’s trial was on par with the trial of king of France himself, because Lord.D was the origin of all this madness, to be more specific, the origin was in a mysterious and popular library that he inherited.
VN goes to the past: (kid) Lord.D and his mother were peasants, but one day, a (real) Aristrocat of that had a mansion and library adopted Lord.D and his mother, just to have inheritors for all his assets.
Lord.D began the education to be an aristocrat, but one particular rainy night, when his parents were absent, he found that a book he was reading was covered in a sticky purple liquid. This was because all the books in the library were fake and their paper were actually entities!
The library does not like Lord.D’s presence, and the purple liquid turns into a total flood that drives him out of the place. The next morning he wakes up in his room, as if nothing had happened.
Time passes, Lord.D goes to a prestigious monastery where he suffers from impostor syndrome due to the lack of royal blood in his veins. Here he meets Henri and becomes best friends with him.
Now is Winter break, and Lord.D takes Henri to home with him. But disaster strikes Lord.D and Henri’s friendship: Henri becomes obsessed with the majestic library, perhaps VERY obsessed, even proving himself to be a worthy heir of the library.
Day passes, and the situation never improves.
Now it’s Henri’s last day in this house, and another rainy night and absent parents take over.
This time, Lord.D discovers that there is a big celebration at the library! However, as soon as he enters the library, all traces of celebration fade away and the place is immediately flooded in purple liquid again.
Next morning… as if nothing had happened again. But something actually happened, Lord.D feels jealous and betrayed, and he can’t recover from that night. He loses Henri’s friendship.
Years pass, the French Revolution takes control, Lord.D becomes depressed and escapes reality in a forest, writing and researching fairy tales. Three months later, Elliot (the mansion’s servant) summons him urgently… his parents had been executed.
Elliot reveals that the library is literally possessed to the brim, each book is an entity. Lord.D’s father was the master and kept everything under control at all times. However, with the death of the master and Lord.D’s incompetence in this matter, large-scale demonic possession takes over France.
Lord.D Trial Sentence: Died in the guillotine.
Note: Rastagong included his own explanation of his vn and it’s unlocked after reading the vn. I highly recommend reading the Rastagong’s own explanation.
For the prior, I will use this section to answer some of the developer’s questions and concerns.
>> “I doubt it was much pleasant to read”
But it was. :)
>> “style and narrative of this story aren’t really suited to the visual novel format. (…) I hope that the absence of sprites wasn’t too unsettling!”
It’s what most people expect nowadays, that’s why you lost points in my review. However, it is only a minor problem. You still have 5 stars!
In my personal opinion, this is not a problem; after all, I am an avid reader.
And you should know that the first visual novels were like that. (see Otigirisu, 1992)
Your vn only has a strong text focus and that is quite valid.
>> “I’m not sure if that I succeed in making the flood appear as an horror”
Is not (for me)… at least not the flood itself, I was afraid of the nature of the library and the type of entities that were hiding beneath it. Being a “Lovecraftian” story, I was hoping for more descriptions about these entities, perhaps even a cosmic monstrous God.
If you want the flood to be terrifying, you have to describe it more, tell us how the character suffers and feels in the middle of this flood. Unfortunately, in this vn the story is cut abruptly when the flood occurs. If you do it this way, you will leave the reader only with questions and confusion.
>> “I’m slightly uncomfortable with the development of the third part of the story.”
Yeah is noticeable that the story is faster and least descriptive here, the Journalist and Henri arc is more extended in comparison. You already told us that this part was written in hurry.
>> “I hope that I succeed in conveying this unease in the story”
Lord.D self-hatred? That’s pretty clear to me, he is very afflicted for being a peasant, his relation with the revolution, and that his Father liked Henri more.
But is it really lovecraftian?
I have read Lovecraft myself. I can identify common elements, like a main character isolated from the world and educated in a library, and also the presence of extraordinary and unexplainable events. However, Lovecraft never wrote anything about France or explored a relationship between two friends, this isn’t bad however, this is what makes the story original.
What about the style? It would be irresponsible of me to confirm or deny this, unfortunately I had only read translations of H.P Lovecraft.
N/A
Hope this helps! ❤️
Thank you so so much for taking the time to read this VN (and for reading my two other released VNs on top!! I’ll be replying to your other comments next!).
It always warms my heart to hear of people who read & enjoyed it so long after this release (well, 2017 is not that far from 2024 but it seems like an eternity in Internet years ahah).
It was really interesting to read through all of your thoughts (and criticisms), thank you so much!
It’s especially weird (in a good way) to read someone’s impressions & understanding of the entire story through a summary. I won’t confirm, comment or correct on anything too specific, but it really is fun to hear how you perceived the story in full on your end!
(I guess I’ll just say that on top of the theme of social class, race is the other underlying background of Lord D. that explains his unease. But the references are obtuse.)
You’re entirely right about this!! At the time of writing this VN, I used to feel like no one would really be interested in NVL-style novels, that take after sound novel presentation & history as you mention (Otogirisou, Kamaitachi no Yoru, etc and their more modern successors with varying degrees of faithfulness like Higurashi, Umineko, OG Tsukihime, 428 Shibuya Scramble, Tsukihime Remake).
But I definitely feel more confident about it nowadays (and I feel like more people are interesting in reading or writing VNs in this style ; like Misericorde, or some Domino Club VNs). I’m glad it was also effective for you too!
Yes, you’re right! I struggle to think of a story by Lovecraft that isn’t initially set in the Northeastern United States. Even in stories which explore ancestral European heritage, the protagonist is always American, and returns to Europe on a journey (eg The Rats in the Walls).
But yeah, as you said, otherwise, Lovecraft suited what I wanted to do here.
Thank you again so much for taking the time to read & comment!
Honestly, I couldn’t see that. I don’t even remember if Lord.D’s appearance is ever described hehe! Probably my mistake, perhaps I should read it again.
Please do. If anything, the VN genre is a bit stuck and a lot of things are the same but recycled. The genre could use the help of novel works like yours to keep things interesting and fresh.
Same, I appreciate your effort to respond.
Thank you for making this!
I loved the typewriter sound effect at the start, it was really fun to click through the lines with it playing. The main character was so complex and messy and relatable, and there were points in the story I was scared to look at the screen when the character was about to enter the library. I played this at night with the light out and only a lit candle beside my computer, so it made for a really atmospheric evening.
It was also so cool to read your thoughts and inspiration in the bonus section, so many times you read fiction without commentary and are just left puzzled or groping in the dark when you sit down and try to think of a deeper analysis of its themes.
Ahh, thank you so much for taking the time to write this comment!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the horror and audio atmosphere of this story, and that it was effective! Reading through it with only a candle lit in the room sounds so perfect, I should try that myself…
I’m so glad you enjoyed the post-game commentary too! I picked the habit from Ryukishi07’s Higurashi When They Cry (though they appear only after the later chapters I think), but also from ebi-hime, who’s been including author’s notes in I think all of her many releases (which you can find on itch.io), if you’re ever looking for more stories with that!
Really, really enjoyed this. Great job!
Aaaaah, thanks a bunch, it means a lot!