Press Start
I can't remember what it was that originally sparked this idea, I think it may have started from just the idea of a haunted spaceship with a runaway pilot suffering through what they have lived through and the supernatural occurences of the star but what really stuck with me was this piece of writing I did explaining why the star watches.
Why do you look at birds as they fly past your window? Gaze upon the ocean as waves lap across the shore? For the beauty of it? To ease boredom? To cure loneliness? Perhaps you can't help yourself to gaze upon something that breaks up the monotony of daily life.
You are sitting in a void only glittering lights as company, you are you. You do not know what they are. Sometimes you wonder if you shine like they do. You are alone. Have been since the beginning but the beginning might as well have been the end because you are sitting in a void only glittering lights as company.
Then there was this little thing made of other little things you have never seen before. It stops closer than anything else has ever been to you and now you are not alone.
The little thing made of other smaller things starts to speak or what you think is speech if you knew what that was. It's noisy and not in the way the surface of yourself is. That is loud and deafening. This is a whisper in comparison but it is the first thing you have heard besides yourself. You wonder if you can make a noise like that. At that moment you form a mouth you try to repeat what the strange little thing said but can only get a handle on one word. Help.
And from this AETHERS END got it's name! I think for about two or three years I just rotated this idea in my brain with the idea of maybe one day making a game of it. Something that's mostly story based but maybe a puzzle or two.
I dreamt of wandering lone halls and a ghost that plays poker but their innards are leaking onto the floor, I dreamt of ghostly hands urging the main character forward towards something that it comepletly uncertain and possibly volatile. I dreamt of a star, a lonely star that you talk to and read to.
After sitting inside my notebooks and sketchbooks for those 2-3 years I joined a game jam, that being The Locus Jam. I have never finished a twine game, nor a game in general really but I joined anyway with the theme being one room I went through about 6 different ideas before deciding to re-work Aethers End into fitting into the jam's parameters.
The result? I have a game! A short 10 - 15 minute game that I made with my own two hands! Which is so weird and strange to me and honestly fills me with so much hope for the future!
The Story
Go play the game first!!! I'm not really strictly going off the stuff I put in the game, this is way more in depth and the game is very vague but I really suggest you give it a go and tell me what ending you got!
Since this is a game you can decide on the name of our beloved protaganist but as it is in my notes I will be reffering to them as Apollo.
Apollo stole a ship called The Chariot after his planet that was orbiting too close to the systems star went critical. They were supposed to escape with their friend and the only person they trusted but after being forcibly split apart Apollo waits for a week by the hanger and when they dont show up they leave with The Chariot.
They were the last ship to ever leave that planet as it started to crumble away soon after. During that time the ship gets hit with debris and Apollo wakes to find himself orbiting a star. Their ship is is barely holding together and there is no way out. They call out a distress signal. They don't recognise any of the stars around them.
Apollo get's a response but it's their own voice speaking to them but not in the same order Apollo spoke them.
For the next coming weeks Apollo deals with claustrophobic conditions and talking to Astraues before the ship finally gives up where you are given the choice either to accept death or try live 10 minutes longer outside your ship.
If you stay inside and let The Chariot hit critical, the ship explodes and your torn to shreds :D but if you choose to leave Astraues reaches out to you and tries to save you.
Missing Scenes and Information
Well the whole reason Apollo left is kind of up in the air in the game so it really goes in here as well! I was planning on adding more information for their friend as well but only added that extra profile and those last choices revolving around them.
I planned for a lot of big things but again a short game jam that I couldn't decide on I ended up making hte game within two days due to so many re-works.
There was going to be a choice of either keeping your own audio logs playing to expand Astraues vocabulary while you slept or putting on an audio documentary and if you left your own logs playing it would go as far back to hear the person you left behind.
Then Astraues would start speaking in the voice of your dead friend you left behind which ouch.
Game Gallery
