Deathbed Lullabye V0.01-DEMO

A game by EBroxas72 and Laeurra Flamehawk. 

Memento Mori 

"As they say, death is inevitable. Thus, how one faces one's all of possible " endings" you can create is just as important as how one faced and created one's Life." To that end, we present Deathbed Lullabye, a Yume Nikki, Majora's Mask, and Gnosis Inspired psychological horror Adventure game, with supernatural and mythic elements. The game presents challenges that reference guilt, regret, redemption, death, and getting past the things that haunt from the conflicting past.

Deathbed Lullabye is a game that was originally developed as part of "YNFG Game Jam 5."

The central question asked is "Does one stop playing the endless human-authored petty blame game or enter The True Ending which really is The Beginning of The Eternal Adventures?" 

 In the year  2004, this is the challenge before terminally ill  Teicuh Maria Yayauhqui Cali, a 37-year-old widow, big sister turned second mother, award-winning singer, songwriter, composer, and performing musician from Mexico City. With no hope of survival, Teicuh is plunged deep within The Border of  The Mexicana Mythscape where  Santa Muerte acts guardian to those crossing over... Known as The Not So Grim Reaper", The Mother Of Beautiful Death Santa Muerte enlists The player's aid in guiding musical superstar to resolve her issues as Teicuh approaches her final destination during the dreams of her last week bound to the Mortal Coil.

With no hope of survival, Teicuh knows that crossing over is her fate.  knows it, The doctors know it. Santa Muerte certainly knows it. You, The Player know that she has exactly 7 days and nights left on earth, and 7 dau to resolve her issues.

Many tasks are here before you to help Teicuh play out the final week of her earthly lifetime. be it speaking to her little sister "Carlita "Karbi" Calli," and consulting Santa Muerte who is there comforting her in her final hours, exploring her Dream Worlds at night with a Yume Nikki style dream word or engaging during the daytime in  Fire Emblem style support conversations, The Player become a valuable guide in her passage. 

Your goal is to aid Teicuh with resolution, lest she end up with too much "unfinished business"  that could cause her to become a ghost. The Player's help is needed. in various ways to ensure that Teicuh sheds the skin of her guilt and regrets.  Should she remain oo burdened with lingering guilts and regrets the heaviness of her heart could land her in Purgatory instead of Heaven.

 The Player, Santa Muerte, and an ensemble cast of both human and supernatural characters must collaborate with Teicuh to create an empowering swan song that sings her inner obstacles to sleep as her soul awakens to The Truths Song of her complicated life experiences.

Together, The player and Teicuh create the many verses of The Deathbed Lullabye. The Song can be sung in several  Ways freeing her soul from its earthly guilt prison leading to different forms of the ending. The Player, Santa Muerte, and The Ensemble collaborate to ascend the terminally ill Teicuh into an enduring form of stardom that guarantees that her music and its inspiration continue.

As Teicuh dreams her final 7 nights, she and The Player continue exploring her ever-expanding Dreamworlds filled with interesting NPCs as you collect both "Effects" to aid your abilities to explore the world, and "Hearts" which are physical manifestations of her guilt and regrets about the life she lived. unresolved hearts tie her dying mind to The Land Of The Living hampering her progress. 

Together, The Player slowly begins to unravel the story of the past of this very troubled woman.

While you explore her expansive dream world, the Dream World changes every single night, across all 7 nights. The deeper into The Border of The Mythscape you travel with her,  the Dream Worlds become more disturbing. The events, the locations, the  NPCs, and The Mythscape Itself transform as she does, presenting events and characters that can only be accessed during certain nights. 

"No one can escape the sword of Damocles" Teicuh has exactly 7 days and nights left and nothing can be done to change that.

Only 7 nights the player can enter the dream world, and Only 7 opportunities to save the game before you are forced to trigger an ending on night 7. However, if you use her remaining dream time wisely under Santa Muerte's guidance the game can start over on night 1 in a Majora's Mask style time-loop/new gameplay+ system

Dreams are funny that way, like nesting dolls. Ever had that nightmare that faked you out? Teicuh has those too.  I'm sure you have had those kinds of dreams,  the ones that force you to ask  the  nagging question that the dreaming mind is forced to  "Am I really awake this time?" 

But be assured that because we have those screwed-up dreams too, we don't want to be jerks to our Players. So, non-story important collectibles will carry over between loops, But all progress in regards to freeing her from the guilt will be erased when the game resets as if you hit "new game."

Your goal is to free her from as much guilt as you can in the 7 days and nights of dreams. The player and Santa Muerte are what make the difference. You're the factor that can ensure she can make it to Heaven, not purgatory, or end up wandering the earth as a ghost with unfinished business...

"Can The Mari-posa emerge from her guilt cocoon with wings strong enough to fly all way up to Heaven?" But, of course, she could. The Player is an important verse in The Deathbed Lullabye.

Together you and she can sing the many possible verses of The Lullabye. bringing her to her True End.  Any True Heart Song can be sung in several  Ways freeing her soul from its earthly guilt.

Along The Border, deep. within The Mythscape Of Dreams, Death is seen and experienced a mere transition. What comes next is an Eternal Adventure. Much preparation and the proper perspective are needed if Teicuh is to become an unburdened soul who can return each year to Dance The Macabre during Dia De Los Festival each year. The Living and The Departed can not ever be truly parted. They Dance The Macabre in endless variations. 

Once The Departing realize that the Love in their  Hearts is literally the only thing they can carry into The Next Worlds, they gain wings and the ability to cross The Border.  When The Veil Between is thinned each year,  the dead can once again Walk. within The Land Of The Living. Laying down one's burdens makes Death the emergence from Life's cocoon and The Beginning of The Eternal Adventure.

*Due to this being a game jam demo game, at this point in time a lot of content is currently unfinished and unimplemented in this first demo release. Rest assured that we intend to continue work on this game for the foreseeable future.

At this moment there are only  5 out of the 8 intended effects in play, 3 out of the 7 hearts accessible, and only 1 ending accessible. The full game will have at minimum 3 endings. Which are based on which guilts she has left and the choices you make, both while awake or asleep. Hence this is why the game is labeled "0.01-DEMO."More updates are in development and will come your way.  Neither our dreams nor the love in our hearts ever truly ends, this is only the beginning of an eternal adventure that will not push you over the cliff and leave you hanging.

Controls

Direction keys to move, 

Interact Enter/Z

Menu ESC/X

Effect button Shift

Fullscreen Alt + Enter 

The game has controller support but the controller has to be plugged into your PC when you open the game. A future update will make the game detect if a new controller is pugged in mid-game.

And currently, you are able to copy save files between updates.