Hello to everyone on GMC. I'm Dark Gaia (obviously) and I'm here to showcase my own creation: a free, indie survival horror game to this wonderful community. BTW, sorry if my topic seems a bit pretentious and overwhelming at first. I have a habit of talking a lot about my games in depth.

Introduction

The Beyond is a freeware survival horror/adventure game coded with a carefully designed survival horror engine of my own, the same engine that brought the world One Night, the popular freeware survival horror game featured in PC Gamer magazine.
The Beyond is not a normal adventure game. In The Beyond, you find yourself trapped in a "haunted" mansion known as The Beyond, and are soon under attack by a strange, and evil power. Using your brain and your reflexes, you must think and fight your way to safety, solving puzzles and defeating horrifying enemies to make your escape.
In order to escape the terror, you'll first need to understand the cause of the nightmare. Make sure you collect all the clues so that you can understand the fate that has befallen the mansion. But, be careful. You are always in danger, and it is easy to let the fear overwhelm you. Don't give in to the evil.

Story Outline

Mairstone Manor

Also known as The Beyond, this mansion was built in the early 1950's by renowned ex military general and historian Thomas Mairstone.
It is situated in the rural coal mining town of Black Valley in the isolated midwest. The entire town is isolated, being situated in a remote valley, and sorrounded by acres of dense forest. The locals fear The Beyond, and blame it for several disapearances of townspeople, including the mansion's owners, and bizarre phenomena that has been recently occuring in town.

Black Valley

An isolated midwestern mining town founded in the mid 1800's. The town's mining industry has been inactive since the 1920's due to the mines being closed for an undisclosed reason. Black Valley has a population of only 300, only a small fraction of the 1200 people it housed during the mining era.
Reportedly, Black Valley is a center for paranormal activity, with many bizarre incidents being reported each month.

Characters

Two playable characters are featured in The Beyond, each one playing in a different way and having their own unique reasons for being drawn into the mansion. Each character also has their own unique endings. To see all of the game's endings, you'll need to play through as both characters!

John Faraday

An ex police officer turned private detective. John has been hired to investigate the mysterious disapearance of a group of journalists conducting research on the mansion. John has decided to search for clues in the last place the group were known to have visited, and so heads for The Beyond itself.

Sara Wickson

A horror fiction writer seeking inspiration. It's been a while since Sara wrote a big top seller, so in order to gather material to write her next novel, Sara has decided to spend a night in the infamous mansion known as The Beyond.

Game Features

> True fear will take over as you explore the mansion, uncovering the many secrets it holds. Atmospheric graphics and sounds, combined with some genuine psychological engineering will make you feel the ultimate terror.

> A fantastic challenge awaits you, with fiendish puzzles to solve, horrifying enemies to defeat, and two different characters and four endings to experience.

> Streamlined systems such as a health indicator and custom item usage system help you keep track of notes, clues and items.

> Rivetting, tense combat, using the completely customized Decision Proximity Semi Active Battle system (DPSAB) which allows enemies to deal damage based on the direction they strike from, and allows actions performed outside of battle to affect your battle performance.

Screenshots

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Download

Latest Version: 3.1 Full (Approx 58MB, 1 - 3 hours of gameplay)

The download includes the complete game and all the files required to run the game, plus a game strategy guide including game instructions, tips and puzzle answers.

The game can be downloaded from here: <link removed>

(Other mirrors coming soon)

System Requirements[/u]

Reccomended System Setting

Windows XP/Vista (Windows 7 untested)

1GB of RAM or higher reccomended

1.5GhZ CPU or faster reccomended

100MB free hard drive space required

DirectDraw compatible graphics card required

MP3 compatible sound card required

Minimum System Setting

Windows 2000/XP/Vista

512MB of RAM or higher

1.2GhZ CPU or faster

100MB free hard drive space required

DirectDraw compatible graphics card required

MP3 compatible sound card required

Final Words

I would like to thank all the fans of my games who have spurred me to create this, as well as all the people who helped me create it by providing inspirations in various games, the game would not be the same without you.

If you enjoyed The Beyond or have a question or comment, please post back with some feedback! I love to see feedback, good or bad, so don't feel afraid to share your thoughts on my game. Enjoy!

I must apologise but 58mb is 'BEYOND' one to three hours of game play, by a considerable level.
My in progress already has almost 4 hours gameplay to me, and i play through ti like lightning because im racing to areas to test new systems, its at 8mb, I realy recomend some major file size slicing or I fear you wont have a great many downloads.

Hm, I think I've seen those graphics from somewhere before, did you/someone of your team make them?

The graphics are "borrowed" from RPG Maker XP. The file size is so big because I needed to implement a lot of addons and a special file structure to the game in order to make it able to process all of the location and puzzle info as well as the fighting and the lighting effects. The game also uses very high quality sound which ate up a lot of the size. It hasn't adversely affected downloads though. This game has been out for a month or two already and has already seen 1000 downloads, and been featured in PC PowerPlay Australia.

Is it possible to release a version with low quality, that way it may encourage people to play.

Well here in the GMC, users will download games that are either very small but good games or games that are large and provide entertainment for at least 6 hours (well at least for me).

Guys, this is a horror game. Having high-quality sound is crucial to get the proper atmosphere for feeling dread. The fact that you only get about five hours of gameplay from this (one to three hours to complete it, then subsequent plays for different endings) shouldn't matter. What should matter is that this is a pretty good and fairly scary horror game which achieves excactly what it tries to.

It's a pretty good game, and the riddles were fairly good. There were two puzzles I found myself stuck at for a while. The first was the "up and down" one, but I got past it. (It was a really clever puzzle) The second one was the business card.

...

I suck at math. I just solved it again and apparently I had the Y wrong.


Anyways, the scary moments were more Resident Evil-style "BOO, I'M A MONSTER" than Silent Hill-style general feeling of dread and solitude, but s'alright. I also didn't like the combat-system, as it felt arbitrary. The only viable tactic I found in the later battles was to attack a monster and then carefully choose the moment to skip the dialogue so I could attack the same monster again, and I think that's pretty bullcrud. I'm sure you had your restrictions since it was made in RPG Maker, though.

Oh, and the game flickered all the time when I played in fullscreen, but not in windowed. I think it has to do with the lighting effects. Is this unique to me?

Don't be silly. If that were the case it would be ineligible as a release on the GMC.

if i download this 10 times thats my monthly internet quota.
make
it
small
er
please

It was made with RPG Maker.

Engine used should be irrelevant though. It hasn't stopped the game being featured in magazines, and besides, people often release GM games on RPG Maker forums which people love. I thought I'd release it here as it isn't a "typical" RPG Maker game, I had to do a lot of scripting to make this kind of game on the engine.

Yes, it wasn't made in RPG Maker XP, rather VX.

err, if it was made in RPG Maker then it is NOT allowed here, the rules pretty much forbid it.... i dont know about the RPG Maker Forums but here is where we showcase our games made in Game Maker NOT RPG Maker...

Most RPG Maker forums have a Game Maker section. But this is strictly Game Maker related.

Meh, I'm downloading, at least. Looks good, and I got both time and internet to spare. ADSL 'n' stuff, y'know.
I'm not one to judge when it comes to games, but too bad this was made in RPG Maker... since it can't be posted here and all.

I download it and played and it quite enjoyed it, unfortunately this is strictly a Game Maker Creations forum. We don't allow games made with other programs to be showcased here. I'm sorry. I am glad to see you are having success with it at the RPG Maker forums though.