A humble hum brushes across the snowy plains
7/6/2025
Back in 2021, I started working on a small horror rpg called "The Oddlands." A liminal space exploration rpg. This project eventually mitosis'd into "Oddlands" a lost media arg that's still a work in progress, and "TORCHLITE," a roguelite rpg.
It's been four years since I started writing, and after restarting the coding 5 times, I now have many of the games systems implimented!
exploration
In TORCHLITE, you explore seemingly infinite repeating landscapes. Strange encounters litter the landscape. A player may notice an item on the floor, the light on in an old apartment, a lamp which unlike its siblings, is flickering. Digging deep into these strange oddities reveals truths about the characters and the world they live in. But also come with the risk of getting into a FIGHT.
torchlites
Death is not the end, though it is costly. During their run, the player will come upon Torchlites, save points. When they first activate the save, the torch will light. Upon loading the save, whether by death, or through the menu, the flame goes out, rendering the save consumed. When the player runs out of Torchlites to load from, their run is over. Levels are randomized, so every run will have the player encountering new horrors. Tread carefully, o dear traveler.
combat
Combat is unforgiving. It will almost always be impossible to avoid taking damage, a resouce that is not easy to replenish. Armed with a humble flashlight which does 1 damage, the player must utilize the other tools which can give them an advantage agaisnt the worlds monsters. Skills are one time use abilities that are collected by means of exploration. They come in two types: MAGIC, and RAGE skills.
MAGIC:
You must check the enemy before using magic. Magic skills apply status conditions, and well as provide other temporary effects. The most useful of whith being "FORESIGHT." With FORESIGHT, they player can see what the enemy is going to do on their next turn. This knowledge is crucial for avoiding as much damage as possible.
RAGE:
This skills require certain conditions be met in order to successfully work. "RETALIATE" requires that the enemy attack you first. If they do, they will receive massive damage. If the enemy does not attack you however, you will take twice as much damage on your next turn. Each RAGE move have a condition, a success effect, and a fail effect. After using a successful RAGE skill, the player is given an additional RAGE POINt until the end of combat, a perminant buff for any damaging skill.
level generation
As stated before, every level will be unique. Derived from an handful of presets, the levels textures, music, as well as the creatures that inhabit it will be random based on the players STRESS. Higher stress means weirder looking levels, and more fights. Levels are generated with tiles based on the pixel colors of image files. Digging deep enough into the game allow players to find levels that seem to be corrupted.
story
This is the part I intend to keep the most HUSH HUSH. The game will release in two parts. Two games, much like the pokemon series. It won't matter which game is played first, though which game you play first will certainly affect how you experience the story.
Torchlite: ROAR follows Paul Fagan, as he descends deep into psychedelic dreams. His mind and body are slowly morphing into a monster.
Torchlite: HUSH follows Ellie. She returns to her old church. The town is abandoned, she seems to be the only person alive. But shes not really alone.
I'm excited to share more with yall in the future!!! Until then, I will share more about the games systems, as they're a lot more in depth than what I've explained so far. This was moreso meant to serve as an overview. An accounting of things, if you will. Thank you for reading ^^