Blades and Hunger

This game started as a text based game that was originally only terminal, which I gave clean UIs to. It has a large and detailed combat model and a whole bunch of story. 

THE COMBAT

Turn-based melee built on historical European martial arts, the idea is that instead of having traditional rpg feats and spells where you spam power attack and shield wall, we have a system of counter-play built around my interpretation of German Longsword theory.
The dice are not consistent (stats help but the randomness is large and weaker opponents can easily punish stronger ones), I attempt to thoroughly simulate counter-play, tempo and commitment.
The combat narrative itself is represented through equipment and stats trying to tell a story of privilege and the distinction between classes.

THE WORLD SO FAR 

The player starts with the weakest of the npcs, as a nobody, a cast-off in a pit. The tutorial gauntlet involves fighting their way through (and in fromsoftware fashion, one needs to make use of most of the game's mechanics just to beat the tutorial) just to reach... The Gutter. A social and geographical slum where the character continues their struggle.

LENGTH OF THE DEMO
About an hour in theory. (But you might be banging your head against the game mechanics, trying to figure them out or grind for an advantage for longer)
Currently the demo has 4 major questlines.

INTENDED LENGTH OF THE FULL GAME:  
10+ hours in theory. Elden Ring in scale but everything is text. And I can't run out of budget for content if there is no budget for content - very big brained.

I THINK YOU WOULD ENJOY THIS GAME IF YOU LIKE:  
The Heads Will Roll Series, Legionnaires Life, Adventure Quest/Battleon, Usurper Reborn, warsim: realm of Aslona, lovecraftian mythology.
Postscript: I was totally playing too much Obenseuer when I wrote the tutorial area. Shout out to them too.

-- Added a few weeks later: --

What I think I'm building:


An epic turn-based rpg with a comprehensive fencing system. So epic with so much sandbox and content it will be the best possible thing ever to be delivered with a budget of zero.

What I actually built:


It's... a storytelling system with combat system strapped on top. Still epic, with every story arc carefully drawn up and interconnected. Plenty of lessons learnt from building it.