God is in the Radio
A downloadable ritual for Windows, macOS, and Linux
CONTENT WARNINGS INCLUDE: death, cults, nonsexual nudity, abuse, and descriptions of body horror and gore.
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WE ALL DESIRE THE LIFE, ETERNAL! THE WARMTH, ETERNAL! THE HAPPINESS, ETERNAL!
you are death, one of 22 members of the major arcana, a cult dedicated to some far-off god. the night is halloween, and you watch in scorn as the unknowing dance among devils and dress to indulge in sin. the high priestess receives a message from the all-mighty himself: the arcana must gather in an abandoned house and find his song on an old radio receiver. by finding his gift, he will grant you the life, eternal, and the world will finally be able to hear his light.
are you scared of what's to come? do you doubt the cult and its god? or do you embrace it with open arms?
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this is an entry for the "le grand guignol" category of ECTOCOMP 2022.
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based in the art without blood universe. you do not need to play any of the other games in this world to play this one.
loosely based on the song of the same name by queens of the stone age. there are inspirations also from worst girls games's we know the devil, if only for introducing me to this song.
contains:
- 3 endings
- 7.5k words
- 22 character sprites
- a cameo from a certain demon
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hi there! Small question— how long does this roughly take to play through? I’m curious about streaming this- but if it’s <2 hours (I’m very bad at imagining words to time, especially with my slower reading speed) I was thinking of pairing it with another Art Without Blood title for a full length stream!
hey! thanks for being interested in streaming! ive been told a playthrough takes about 30 - 45 min. if you do all the endings, it may be a little over an hour!
oooh awesome, thank you! I appreciate the feedback, I’ll definitely be slotting this in sometime >:)
Love the stippling, or dithering not sure which is which. A charming cult full of friendly faces. Nothing goes wrong at all!
Will you put on steam?
Hi! There are no plans to put this or Fatal Focus (because you commented on both) on Steam. The initial $100 cost and the effort that must be put in to upload to Steam is not worth it to me unless it's a commercial project.
I didn't think to add gamepad support to a visual novel.
We Know the Devil is a game that is immensely dear to me, and for entirely different reasons this game has found a place in my heart as well. I've said as much before, but you are excellent at conveying the unsettling in a way that feels inviting and warm. Which might be an odd way to word it, but I think the shoe fits. There's a personable violence that the atmosphere you create thrives in, and I am dearly fond of it.
Again, I'd like to compliment the sprite work and the personality you were able to communicate for such a wide cast in such a short frame. As a small detail, the one eyed masks were a favourite design choice of mine!
In summary, lovely, as always and thank you for sharing.
Man, that was intense, I seriously love how you write these stories because there was just that madness in every word especially with how they chanted and spoke. It was incredibly immersive and while I genuinely like to think I'd never join a cult, the way this cult was established is incredibely interesting, especially our MC Death, I wonder how they even managed to stay here since two out of three endings show how they doubt more than they believe. But then again cults are like that, they pretty much target the vulnerable and sick, the Major Arcana themselves are seriously cool and it's amazing how you were able to pack snippets of their stories in just a few minutes. I also love how we can see MC in the thumbnail with another eye looking down on them, either to represent their own doubts, the "God", or even the Major Arcana. Poor MC won't escape this unscathed at all...
And also for Ending 3~~
Istg when I saw the outline of Genesis I swore that the God they were referring to must have been him, especially with the intense focus of Music. But then I read through the dialogue and wondered if this really was Genesis then why did he have a daughter? But then the uncles came up and I checked Aeron and Erebus' pronouns just in case. Now I'm wondering if Genesis actually appeared at the ending and therefore Death ironically was the pre-determined one to meet Him which was why they couldn't even hear the radio because Genesis, incarnation of Music himself, was already at the world. Or if you just had to reuse a character sprite which I understand if you entered it through a competition and had limited time.
But I like to think that out of all of the devout followers, only Death who harbored the most doubt and reality, was able to meet Genesis with his free-spirited personality, I don't even know if Genesis would have wanted a mindless cult since he seems like the type to like them spicy, playful, and challenging. I'm not completely sure, I'm just speculating from what I can guess but either way I like Ending 3 way more because 1) literally the only ending where MC lives, and 2) one of the ending that lets us theorize even more.
THIS IS SO SWEET! it is genesis at the end! i may not have mentioned his human daughter in the demo, but she's a big part of his route. the eye can represent whatever you want :3
genesis is aware of the cult barely. it's the result of a string of concerts he did in the 70s. but you can interpret it as death herself finding genesis, her god, even if she's out of it.
your words are always so sweet and i love this comment dearly!
Ohh that's interesting and woah, lore about Genesis! And also no problem about the comment, I enjoyed myself with the experience I went through ahahah!
im currently binging thru catsket's games right now. i really enjoy this one a lot and got all 3 endings in a good amount of time! please give this a go. the writing style is exquisite, and the character art + the major arcana is just as pretty as the writing style!
something about this resonated quite deeply.
i'm not sure exactly what or how, even but:
thanks.
I will neither confirm nor deny that I'm a stan for Catsket.
As always, the writing and artwork are absolutely beautiful in this game. Compared to the intrigue brought about from Art Without Blood, and the poetic melancholy of Laying With The Dead, God Is In The Radio draws you in and captivates you with a chilling sense of dread all throughout the story.It's a fine addition to the Art Without Blood universe, but it also stands alone as a fantastic visual novel for fans of either Lovecraft of Stephen King.
absolutely fantastic. the atmosphere is impeccable and the ambiance is perfect. the way the player is inside of the cult instead of an outsider adds to it all i feel, and it only makes it more immersive.
ending 3 is my favorite of course but all are expertly done? i do really like that the final outcome only changes contextually twice and literally once. thats.. fucking epic as the kids say these days.
catsket makes a cool game what a surprise!
jk buahaha i love this, got ending 3 at 12:09 am and plan on getting the other two tomorrow. the sprites were beautiful, the music was amazing, the writing was haunting. looking forward to your next work as always :) (my favorite was the hanged man)
eee thank you! i'm glad you felt this way about the game!
Seeing the character art for this game dragged me in and I am so glad that it did. The writing is absolutely spectacular, both in terms of creative vocabulary, immersion, and oozing atmosphere. Even with a huge cast, the characters are memorable and have tons of personality thanks to some really unique worldbuilding. For a short and sweet game this was such a fun and interesting experience!
this comment is really sweet, thank you so much for playing! i'm glad u liked it :D