Hello all! I’m Henry/Antemaion, and this is my second (now successful) attempt at submitting the same game to IFComp. Last year, I worked myself to exhaustion and didn’t finish on time; this year, I was still bug testing until a few minutes before the deadline, but the game is in!
the wretched product itself: Saltwrack, which I describe as a post-post-apocalyptic hypertext horror novel. The land is shrouded in toxic saline glaciers; humanity persists only in a few scattered enclaves. You play as a scientist journeying north to find the source of a world-ruining cataclysm. You can choose two companions to accompany you, from a small array of doubtful characters. One saltwalker, a voyager experienced with travel in the wrack, and one oracle, a psychic navigator who relies on their extrasensory powers to guide you.
I’ll be doing some more bug testing soon, as I have no doubt I missed some potent ones, and I’ll probably submit a less buggy version early in the judging period. But it is complete, after around five or six years of work. I’m excited to have it meet people.
Postscript: I received notice by email that the game will not be available to readers in the UK, due to its content. A little surprising to me; while it is a horror game, and contains some dark endings, it’s not exactly pornographic. It’s mostly about the mundane suffering of trudging through endless fields of ice. O Well…