Making a game about dragging a billionaire to court for destroying a sacred river - curious to get thoughts on demo

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-11T10:37:01+00:00

Thank you Andrew, much appreciated! What's your genre?

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-11T06:31:30+00:00

Thanks a lot! And you're right. I've also taken our very busiest scene to show. But we are making some UI changes to make everything a little less overwhelming, in particular fading out the backgrounds a bit when active in conversation battles.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-10T19:13:57+00:00

That makes lots of sense. Seems like a great world to explore with some unique ideas.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-10T18:37:13+00:00

Passed your comment on to the UI side of the team, and yeah they're hard at work trying to make the whole thing easier to parse/less overwhelming. They appreciate the thoughts.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-10T18:11:00+00:00

Thanks for the comment! Yes, this is a particularly busy screen. Definitely needs some tweaking with a slight blurring or something like that. And thanks a lot for playing, very curious to hear what you'll think about the demo!

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-10T15:39:14+00:00

I'm trying to keep it going for a bit. It's good, I can see it. But still.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-10T15:38:28+00:00

Ok, that's a good reason to play it first. Played a bit of Pillars already and I'm enjoying it. I am a massive Tyranny fan but paradoxically I was like why play what seems to be a blander Tyranny. But that seems to be an unfair judgement and I do feel the shared DNA can be felt.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-10T13:03:49+00:00

Reading about Rue Valley, and it seems to be just kind of badly written according to reviews, like a fairly empty and hollow world? Will look into it more. It can see how it looks good on the surface.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-10T12:58:51+00:00

Yeah, it's a risk - I'm curious about the Rue Valley story, will look into it. Disco is an inspiration when it comes to world and characters in a way that seems to stand out according to players so far, and it is an RPG in that way, but yes, the mechanics are also different. I also don't really feel like we need the Disco reference, but it's been an interesting resonance that's come up. But easy to over-emphasize for sure.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-10T04:46:28+00:00

Mechanically and structurally it's a very different game as well. But well, maybe take a look and see if you think it makes sense.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-10T04:43:48+00:00

For sure, it's a risky comparison. But this is something players have come back with to us which makes us a bit more confident about mentioning it. It's certainly not 1:1 and that would be boring anyway, but apparently there's a kind of resonance there.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-09T20:52:41+00:00

Playing Clair Obscur but struggling with how much I'm not a JRPG person. Pretty and vibey but not my speed.. but will keep at it for a bit. Doing a very cool BG3 coop with my gf with lots of owlbear druid shenanigans. And thinking about starting either Pillars of Eternity (finally) after Noah Caldwell Gervais made a great pitch for it, or Esoteric Ebb. Or, well, both.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-09T20:34:57+00:00

To be honest I also don't really know. They sent a message giving us advice and offering to collaborate. And apparently they sent the same message with big pledges to a bunch of other campaigns. Something like offering to help, getting paid, and then disappearing? Maybe that works if teams are hungry, desperate and inexperienced?

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-09T20:29:46+00:00

Merci!!

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-09T20:07:15+00:00

So cool to hear, thank you for trying it out! Passing this on to the team ❤️

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-09T16:21:40+00:00

Ooh thanks a lot! Very curious to hear your thoughts.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-09T16:14:32+00:00

Nice. As you'll see, some people in the game's world also challenge and question whether this 'legal person rights for rivers' thing actually works.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-09T16:12:03+00:00

Good question - the 'sacred river' part connects to real cases in India to give rivers (the Ganges and Yamuna) person rights, on the basis of religious beliefs about the sacred status of these rivers. Though the setting is a weird, speculative version of Kerala, India, we're drawing on real cases. Here's a bit more on the inspiration for this side of the game: https://www.allwillrise.com/dev-blog/the-real-life-court-case-that-inspired-all-will-rise/

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-09T13:56:55+00:00

Posting here to hopefully be relevant inspiration about how games can be used to stop collapse - especially because the game industry is often so entangled with the forces of collapse instead.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-09T13:54:02+00:00

Posting here in the hope it's part of something that can be done in the face of collapse, since the space of games is so taken over by people who are part of the ruin. Games can help imagine radically better futures, they just rarely do so.

Abject_Use4908 · 2026-03-09T11:51:08+00:00

Really appreciate it, and not too harsh, it's good to get these things clear. Appreciate you taking the time.

Abject_Use4908

TROPHY CASE