Inner Empire
A downloadable game
Overview:
«Inner Empire» is a text-based narrative role-playing game in a fantastic setting inspired by ancient civilizations.
Let's give the word to the protagonist:
«I'm not a chosen one, not a special, not a savior. Just an ordinary girl of flesh and blood. The world around me is changing. The time of bronze is passing. The time of iron is coming. Only the blood they shed remains the same. Red. Something new is rising to shake off the old into a void. But who gives a shit? All I care about is the difficult situation I find myself in...»
Game features.
1. No repetitive stuff. All scenes, situations, and dialogues are unique and not repeated. All of them.
2. Developed dialogue system. You choose every line of the protagonist, and the NPCs react specifically to them.
3. Your choices matter. Mostly.
4. Simple, but fairly versatile role-playing system that doesn't encourage metagaming or save-load scamming.
5. You play as a sexy chick. What? I think that's an important feature.
6. Explicit sex scenes. Always optional or avoidable. For realism and immersion purposes only, of course. The story doesn't revolve around them, but they are here. Waiting for you. In the dark.
7. Emphasis on social interactions and dialogues. No combat system. The violence by itself is more than present.
8. Written in my beautiful broken English. Ah ah ah. Don't complain. Just don't.
9. Viewer discretion advised. The game isn’t shy about bringing up sensitive topics. Yeah, those savages...
Download
Install instructions
Extract and run.
Development log
- Update 1.7 (polished)Jul 15, 2024
- Update 1.7Jul 05, 2024
- Update 1.6 (public)Nov 03, 2023
- Update 1.5 (public)Jun 29, 2023
- Update 1.3 (public)Mar 22, 2023
- Update 1.2Jan 27, 2023
- Update 2022-10-31Oct 31, 2022
Comments
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Hey Defiant Explorer! There's a part of the game that has been on my mind since i played thru that part and i was wondering if you could shed some light on it if its not a spoiler. During the time on the island with Meralion, at one point my charachter throws up after eating some fish i caught. Is this just a throw away thing or does it mean something. As always, I tend to overanalyze things and this may be one of them. 🤣
Also, thank you for making such an enjoyable game that must take so much work to release a chapter. Can't wait for the next release.
Oh, a yes/no answer to this question would definitely be a spoiler. What I can say is that the signs of pregnancy are unlikely to show themselves at such an early stage (we're basically talking 2-3 weeks of pregnancy at this point of the story, tops). And yet, even though it's unrealistic, in a couple of places the game does “hint” to the player that Selene is pregnant. This is where it's still worth considering whether Selene has taken some, well... measures. Or not. Because if she did, there might not be any consequences, you know... eventually. Hidden random checks will decide this.
Hello Defiant Explorer. I find your game really fantastic and magnificent. Thank you for your good work. I'd like to ask you a question: as I preferred to keep meralion alive, I would like to know if after his harsh amputation other romances will be possible or not with him in the future updates?
I'm sorry, but I've set myself a big no-no on revealing any future events. The only thing I can recommend is to follow your roleplay and your understanding of your character. Choose what you enjoy more and don't worry about the consequences. You will deal with them when they come.
just completed the new content. really good, well done.
one question: will a old save (in my case from this update 1.7) still be working with a new update?
Yes. I purposely work the code so that even in the case of changes, the old saves will work.
Hello, I'm one of those waiting for the next update. Will it be around any time soon? Thank you.
On my Patreon, I posted the main part of the latest update not so long ago (1.69, already public version), but it won't be posted here until I finish it as intended (full 1.7 version). And when I'll finish it - it's hard to say. Circumstances beyond my control intervened.
Would you link to your Patreon here? I don't currently have the game downloaded, and would rather not need to just to navigate to updates.
https://www.patreon.com/Defiant_Explorer
Well, I'd meant that you should include a link in the page description, but I guess this works.
Nah. I don't even know if it's allowed here by the rules. Even in the game itself, the link to my Patreon is only on the game launch and at the end of the current update, as well as in the hints section in settings. I hate these permanent banners in games whose whole point is "gimme money", gimme, gimme, gimme!
People who can afford it, and want the game to not turn into another untold story in the internet dump, can handle finding my my fundraising page just fine.
Hmm... I guess, the link to my Patreon shouldn't be in the settings as well. I'll delete it right now, so it won't be there by the next update, thanks! By the way, this next update will be in several days.
I’d like to ask, will there be any indication whether my MC is pregnant or not? Like, immediately after sex, how do I check?
It's a hidden variable. That's the way it's intended. This is the world of the Bronze Age. You'll know if Selene is pregnant when she finds out herself. And she won't know until the first visible and felt signs show up.
Are the character stats chosen at the beginning improvable?
Yup. You need Insight points. Then open the character sheet in the game itself. Put in Insight points to get +5 exp points to the desired Ability. Alternatively, exp points are gained automatically for passing checks. If their amount is sufficient, the Ability will automatically level up.
Actually, it's all described on the two "tutorial" pages (Abilities and Insight). A hint is in the settings if you missed them during character generation.
I knew about (and have used) the temporary method, but want to know more about the permanent method.
I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean by "temporary" and "permanent" methods. Abilities gain experience and grow either automatically (by passing checks) or by manually pouring Insight into them on the character screen (1 point of Insight = +5 experience points to chosen Ability). In the latter case, you need at least 1 (or more) Insight points in the "Inspire" column for the clickable button to appear. Otherwise, the button there will be gray with the inscription "No Insight".
The game is soooooo GOOOODDD ✨✨✨. I've heard that you will updated soon so in the meantime I already played it again for a different route. But can I know if you will making side route with Lasander or not?. But anyway thanks for the game, will waiting for the update soon.
Not so soon, actually. There are two options, a shorter update and will come out this month or a bigger one but in March because it's more work. There's a vote going on right now for that on my Patreon. And the second option is leading by a large margin. So it's quite likely that the next update won't be until March. But it will be a pretty solid one.
Oh I really hope the vote most likely pick the bigger version, I won't complain to wait for a few months for the big update actually.
10/10 game!!! :D ☆ ☆ ☆
Love the characters and story♡♡
I just played that on different website and it Was actually really really good I played the game the last 3 days until where the update Notification was
I like how I doesn't one have smexy time but also story .. what unfortunately not every 18+ game has
Can't wait for the update and thanks for this great game :)
Three days for one playthrough? Huh, that's not bad... Although there are almost half a million words in the game right now. Guess that's probably about how long it takes. Which is funny, I've always wondered how long the average playthrough takes now. I'm mostly busy testing and fixing things while playing the game, and that's surely not the same.
By the way, it's impossible to see all events and scenes in one playthrough. Some things are tied to Origins, some to Abilities, and some to choices made. Just a mention :)
Just finished playing 1.6 and I hit the end of content and i was on the edge of my seat. The writing is amazing in spite of broken english (which if anything seemed to fit the setting). I'm really excited to see what happens to Selene and Meralion,,, especially Meralion <3
Wow, that is three comments lately. More than the whole last year. What's going on? I'm used to Itch being a sleepy place. While on other sites the game was receiving dozens of comments and somewhere even dozens of pages of comments, nothing was changing here. I just used to come here, leave an update, and leave until next time.
If you keep this up, I'll have to visit this place more often to read your posts xD
Just found this and I'm already obsessed lol
You're doing a amazing work. I'm going to keep an eye on this from now on!
I am obsessed with this game! I stumbled upon it today and went thru the entire thing in several hours. I can't wait for the next update. Keep up the good work!!
hi dev.
just played the newest update and want to say, how much i love this game, esspecially the story.
i hope the lack of comments here on itch.io wont discourage you in completing the game.
one question: how much of the game is finished?
thank you again for this game.
Thanks! The lack of comments here doesn't discourage me at all. There are plenty of comments in all the other places where the game is posted. You could say it's a quiet harbor here.
It's a big game. Right now it's still in the early stages, despite the fact that, at the time of writing these lines, it already has 469k words.
A fun and beautifully done game, can't wait to see where it goes!
Most image links are broken on systems where filesystem cares about the lower and uppercase(nearly all systems that are not windows based) example img/logo/logo.png is in html code and img/logo/Logo.PNG is in the actual file structure.
I don't quite get it. Are some of the images not opening for you? Well, that's a first then. This isn't the first place I've posted the game and so far no one has complained about images not opening. Overall, the game is made on Twine and should work on any browser. Perhaps some kind of engine limitation? Hmm, not quite sure what I can do about it if so. Anyway, I'll keep an eye out if anyone else is having similar problems.
I fixed it for myself by renaming some image files, swapped the .PNG files into .png and the logo file into logo.png. The reason why no one has complained before is probably because people used windows or they fixed it or they just played it without most images like the map images.
The reason why it breaks on non windows systems is that browser one uses tries to open file called logo.png on the img/logo/ subfolder but there is only Logo.PNG there. Windows just ignores upper and lowercase and the browser finds the file. But on non windows system query for file called logo.png fails for that can be entirely different file.
On Linux etc you can have files like Logo.PNG, loGo.PnG and logo.png on same folder but windows just says that file with the name already exists.
Sorry for the long rant :P
No, no, thank you, your comments were very helpful.
Although not immediately, I think I understand what you mean now. The program I use to make maps converts the image with the ending to .PNG. Whereas the program I use to create portraits, on the other hand, .png. Since I have Windows and no possibility to test the game on other systems - I didn't even know that.
Looks like I'll have to change the code in all the map widgets, adding .PNG there instead of .png. If I understand correctly, this should fix the problem on Linux.
If you can, please download the version with the fix for Linux and tell me if the maps and logos are displayed now?
Mega link:
https://mega.nz/fm/Q7hyRCrZ
If it's ok, I'll replace all versions with it tomorrow.
With quick test the map files seem to work in the main game but behind the link in beginning the src="img/maps/Valatean Republic.png" is still lowercase, will test some more.
Damn. I completely forgot about the global maps! Okay, the main thing is that the problem is identified and I know how to solve it. Tomorrow I will update all versions.
Thank you, if it were not for your comments, this error would have remained unnoticed.
Did some checking on the code side vs folder structure
in code img/Background/Background.png vs background.png
in code img/maps/Civilized Realms.png vs
Civilized Realms.PNG
Not sure if the list is complete for there are so many file links in code and it is getting late where I live.
btw I got the Linux fix version from the main mega link in the game download section for the mega link you provided did not work.
I don't mean to pry, but will you be adding HTML5 online/download zip to the game road map in the future?
Well, actually, I tried. Made a ZIP version and uploaded it, but... the site couldn't find the index file. Which is weird (it's literally the only one). I tried it a few times and then waved it off and just pasted the download links.
As for the online version - to do that I need to upload all the images from the game to some reliable file-sharing site, and in the game itself change all the direct links to images with links to this file-sharing site. If the game had a large size - it would make sense. But the game now weighs so little, I'd rather focus on working on chapter 2 than this. Maybe someday.
The online version will most likely also fall victim to the lower and uppercase issue unless the server is windows based or the web server does the file finding ignoring the case.
Ok, Thank you.