The Secrets We Burn — Act 1
- You were a hero once, but could you be again?
NOTE: You can play a deployed version of The Secrets We Burn online by clicking here.
The deployed version is optimized for mobile, but is responsive for all devices and can be installed as a Progressive Web App if you wish. Do note that monetization features will not work if it is installed as a Progressive Web App.
About
The Secrets We Burn — Act 1 is a visual, non-linear fantasy novel about adventurers, monsters and the secrets they left in the ashes. It was created in 3 weeks for the Web Monetization Game Jam and the Github Game Off Jam.
Act I
An unexpected quest reaches the sleepy town of Hwen. The risk is great, but the reward may be even greater.
Content Warnings
- Moderate descriptions of violence (and death).
- (Avoidable) death of an animal.
Features
⚔ A deep and fulfilling skill system: Choose between 9 different skills and customize your hero to suit your ideal play style. Each skill comes with unique dialogue, and its own set of pros and cons.
🎭 Customizable personality system: Your hero can be a friendly and kind presence to those around them, a playful and joking wisecracker, or an assertive and focused hero who's focused on their goals. Or, they could be a mix of all of these at once! The choice is yours.
😄 Choose your hero's pronouns: he/him, she/her, and they/them.
👑 The Valour system: Instead of traditional levelling, TSWB has a system called Valour. You gain Valour by making choices that best align with your hero's strengths and personality. In battle against formidable enemies, your Valour will give you an extra edge.
❄ Beautiful effects that take the power of the web to the next level: TSWB harnesses the power of several amazing animation libraries such as Particle.js to bring a truly fantastic experience—All in the palm of your hand!
💲 Web Monetization: If you have a Coil membership and the respective web extension, you'll have access to exclusive premium scenes! This includes extra scenes with the characters, quests to find items that will help you in battles during your adventure, and more chances to gain Valour.
| No Monetization | With Monetization |
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This is an example of a monetization perk in TSWB—You can choose to have an extra scene with Maya at the guild. You will also receive additional quests where you can fight and explore hidden depths in the world , items and consumables, and chances to gain extra Valour for any fights ahead.
Team
We're a three-woman team that worked exceptionally hard on bringing this title to life, including plenty of all-nighters to make sure it's as polished as possible.
Rhea Manuel - Direction, Design & Programming
Rhea Manuel is a computer science student who enjoys making clean, efficient, and reusable code. When she's not coding, she's thinking about it.
Anita Mensah (Elm) - Writing & Scenario
Elm is a multi-disciplinary artist, turned writer. Visualisation artist by day. Writer of questionable adventures, slow burns and fierce women by night.
Esther Lee - Character Art
Esther is a smart artist with the enthusiasm of art and games. She's addicted to designing different types of characters, and her favorite games are the Final Fantasy series.
Shortcuts
- [esc]: Settings
- [spacebar], left mouse click: Advance dialogue
Credits
A huge thanks to the following for additional resources!
- Zapspalt: Sound effects
- Rest! (Ricardo Cuello): Music
- かんなにらせ, : Background Images
- Creative Freaks: Background Images
Development log
- Devlog 2: Tools, Frameworks, & the Tech StackNov 24, 2020
- Devlog 1: Concepts, Brainstorming, and how ideas are made.Nov 16, 2020
Comments
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So far, I'm having fun playing the demo, so I was wondering if you're still working on the game?
I'm gonna have to pass on this one. basically certain choices are behind a paywall and if all the payment choices are like the ones shown and in the game atm ,basically 2 choices are the same "don't do the thing" and the third paid one is "do the thing". really does feel like i'm playing those annoying phone games, admittedly with nicer art.
i don't mind actually paying outright for the game, especially since the art is nice and the story is somewhat interesting but the way it's set up currently, yea ima have to pass.
best of luck to you guys! 'w'b
I was loving it... until I learned that it's basically those choices App, no pay no nice choices, etc. Sad, but well. Can't always have nice things. I hope the final version can be like, sold on steam with full content, etc. I'd love to actually play the game. It looks amazing. <3
When I tried to play in browser the dialouge wouldn't continue no matter what button I pressed so I installed it and it still had the same problem. I thought it was just the device but when I changed it the problem persisted.
WOW !!! THIS IS VERY PRETTY !!!
Woah! I love the art, especially for the BGs! I really like the art of the town! <3
What's the name of the song?
Nice production quality! and interesting implementation of the monetisation brief. Had some trouble saving but realised it was just my adblocker. Looking forward to the next act!
The game looks really cool but I usually wait for the game being fully release for not being frustrated. So for now only the ACT I is release ? How many acts are planned for the full game ?
We created ACT 1 for the game jams.
The story has a three act structure and the next two should be uploaded at the end of the year. It's written already and we have assets prepped, but there are some things we'd like to polish and iron out for a better experience. :)
The first act will probably see small updates too, with minor polish after the game jam voting period.
Hopefully that's not too long of a wait!
Not at all, I was expecting more actually, usually it takes several year to fully complete a act by act release ^^ I am super impatient to play it <3
There seems to be some kind of problem with your payment pointer or the way it is setup. The Coil plugin doesn't recognise the site/game as Web Monetized.
EDIT: It appears there is an issue with my payment pointer—It was working currently up until today. I've submitted a support ticket with the company, and have now replaced it with the Defold payment pointer until the issue is resolved. I apologize for the issue.
I checked the iframe version directly as well as your deployed version and the Coil extension isn't paying to the pointer on either of them. That is strange, can you check on Uphold to make sure the pointer is correct?
Thank you so much for catching this! Turns out there is an issue with my payment pointer—It was working up until today. I've submitted a support ticket with the company, and have now replaced it with the Defold payment pointer until the issue is resolved. I apologize for the issue, and appreciate you figuring this out!.
Glad to see your submission! I hope you continue with this project further after the jam!
Thank you!
We had an idea for something bigger and it's shaped up to be something we're proud of. Hopefully we can put out a more complete/polished version after the jam. :) Lots of things didn't make it off the 'would be nice to have' list.