The world went to shit long before you were born- what happened, nobody’s sure. Whatever it was, it left a mess. The horrors of the blasted wasteland, the things that roam outside of city walls, the static that buzzes in your ear like an old TV… not to mention the violent fuckers out there who’d rather they have what you’ve got. But a job with a caravan travelling across the wastes means you can finally start a new life in the neon-lit utopia of Signal Hill. That is, until you’re ambushed outside the city, your cargo stolen and your guards dead. The bright lights and the ever-present hum of the radio are starting to feel like more of a nightmare than a dream…
Signal Hill is a rather expansive (120k+ words!) work in progress Twine game I’ve been working on for almost a year now. Its core concept came out of the question “What would an RPG look like if it was based on the kind of TTRPG my friends and I like to play?” It’s somewhere in between a choice-based IF and a text based RPG, a love letter to the Powered by the Apocalypse family of games, and massively inspired by my favourite games new and old, Fallout: New Vegas and Disco Elysium.
You play as a newcomer to the off-kilter post-apocalyptic city of Signal Hill, exploring its streets, meeting its residents, and getting involved in its night life… or maybe its politics. As you explore you can play through authored quests that range from going on raids with mercenaries to romancing the strip club security guard to meeting the local cult leader under less-than-favourable circumstances. The game is still relatively early in development but is good for a few hours of queer hedonistic fun, if that’s what you’re into!