Inner Demons Visual Novel

Inspired by Conversations with my Inner Critic

Premise

You've been invited to be a beta tester for a new immersive VR game that uses a state-of-the art neural interface and an adaptive AI to tailor the experience however you wish. You're excited to try out this new game, but after playing it for a little while, a glitch makes you clip into an unfinished part of the game, preventing you from leaving and forcing the AI to generate new content as you go. Unbeknownst to you, the AI is generating encounters based on your memories, forcing you to confront different parts of your psyche, eventually culminating in a boss battle against your worst enemy: you.

Free associating

Starting point: You are struggling with yourself-esteem and use video games to escape. Afriend who works for a cutting edge gamingcompany offers to get you in to a closed betatest of a new immersive VR game that uses aneural implant. You accept and go to thetesting center.Problem: A glitch causes you toclip into an unfinished portionof the game, preventing you fromleaving. You encounter the monster forthe first time.You encounter the monster forthe second time.You encounter the monster forthe third time.Primary ending: You "defeat" themonster with acceptance andcompassion, and escape the gamewith a sense of wholeness.Secondary ending: You defeat themonster through brute force andescape the game, but you feelmore empty than you did before.Tertiary ending: You fail toovercome the final challenge,one way or another, and remaintrapped in the game, but there'sa glimmer of hope that you won'tbe trapped there forever.Choose your experience.Action AdventureCozy life-simPuzzlerThese options only affectthe first portion of thescenes; after the glitch,the scenes will be a weirdmash-up of the three.The first scene of the actionadventure experience.The first scene of the cozylife-sim experience.The first scene of the puzzlerexperience.You realize that the monster is amanifestation of your negativethoughts.You discover that your core self isimprisoned inside the monster.