Monstrous Investigations: Walkerman Demo

I like my monsters to follow weird rules and have irrational fears, quasi-human urges which seem familiar in concept but are so odd it makes them all the more strange and tragic. You know the sort of thing: vampires must sleep upon their native soil; werewolves only attack people with gaudy jewellery; ghosts are compelled to come out of hiding if you offer a high-five; skeletons get grossed out if you wave a bone at them and will pause to explain how that's well out.

Walkerman [official site] is an upcoming adventuring visual novel about monster hunters who learn and exploit those rules, and you can see a little in a free demo.

I read this explanation from devs Scalemail then got quite excited and downloaded the demo:

"Every enemy obeys a unique set of rules, for example: not being able to step over salt, or having to stay ten paces away from silver. The chief objective of a walkerman is to trap these creatures by manipulating their rules, thereby winning an easy opportunity to score a deathblow. Early in the game, the creatures Jorgen encounters will be quite simple, with easily distinguishable rules. As the game progresses however, the enemies get more complex. Jorgen can spend up to two in-game weeks investigating a single enemy. Most rules revolve around the usage of items, which Jorgen collects over the course of his investigations."

Sounds great that, doesn't it? Each act of the game will revolve around one single monster, which you'll hopefully learn how to stop and then put the sword to it. It'll also have friendships, romances, familial bonds, and all that.

The demo doesn't have the investigation or non-linear bits, but it does have the intro and one eerie encounter to introduce the world and the work of a walkerman. Nab it for Windows or Mac.

Scalemail plan to release it in late 2015 to early 2016, but are considering turning to crowdfunding to speed things along. If not, they'll still finish it, as they've been working on it for three years.