Backstage

Backstage is a "classic" rm2k3 psychological horror adventure game made in one month, in the early spring of 2005, for the first ever Release Something. It is probably my best received game of all time, and I am very proud of it, especially because it was completed in such a short time!

Instruction Booklet Excerpt Follows!

“Hell isn’t a place, but a state of mind. Hell lives within us all.”

Tom Keller is lost. He has gone astray, and become trapped in a nightmare world that is a twisted mirror image of our own, tormented by horrific abberations, haunted by shattered memories. He is alone behind the world, and to escape, he must come to terms with all of his sins.

GETTING STARTED: THE CONTROLS

(If you’ve ever played an RPG Maker game before, most of the following is redundant.) Use the Arrow Keys to move Tom throughout the game world. Tom can move Up, Down, Left, and Right. The Space Bar or Enter key is the action button. Use it to examine objects, open doors and cointainers, interact with the environment, and talk to people. Press the Escape Button to open the Menu.

THE MENU

From the menu screen, you can choose to View Stats and Equipment, View/Examine Inventory, Save Game, or Exit Game. Viewing stats and equipment will show you what your current Health is (rated simply from 10, being in perfect health, to 1, being at death’s door) and what Defensive Items and Weapons you have equipped. Viewing your inventory will let you look at and examine the Keys, Items, and Weapons you’re carrying. Occasionally, the descriptions of items given by Examining them can give you important clues about how the items can be used, so it’s worth Examining your Inventory if you ever find yourself stuck. Save Game allows you to save your progress at any point. Be sure to save early and often (death is cheap and easy in the nightmarish world of Backstage) and make multiple saves so as not to get caught in a bad position, with little health and few defensive items. There may be a handful of points in Backstage where it may be possible to open the menu and save when you are already dead- try and avoid this known bug. Exit Game allows you to leave the game and stop playing at any point. KNOWN BUG AND ISSUE - WHILE THE MENU IS OPEN, EVENTS IN THE GAME PROCEED IN REAL TIME- MONSTERS WILL CONTINUE TO PURSUE YOU, SO BE CAREFUL ABOUT USING THE MENU IN DANGEROUS AREAS. KNOWN BUG AND ISSUE - THE MENU IS AVAILABLE THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE GAME, INCLUDING DURING CUTSCENES AND OTHER AREAS WHERE IT SHOULD NOT OPEN. BE CAREFUL NOT TO ACCESS THE MENU IN THESE AREAS, DOING WILL MESS UP THE GAME IN SOME PLACES, AND ESPECIALLY RUINS CUTSCENES.

COMBAT IN BACKSTAGE Tom is not particularly fast or strong, so, normally the best strategy for dealing with the horrific monsters in Backstage is just trying to get away from them. Sometimes in Backstage, it is impossible to avoid monsters- sometimes, monsters attack too quickly, or simply move faster than you. When you make contact with a monster, combat will happen automatically, and be over in a few seconds. If you are armed with a Defensive Item, the monster will be destroyed, and you will take no damage, but you will lose the Defensive Item. If you are armed with a Weapon, the monster will be destroyed, and you will take no damage, but you will have one less shot in the defensive item. If you are unarmed, you will be damaged by the monster- if the damage doesn’t kill you, you will then have a chance to destroy the monster with your bare hands. However, stronger monsters are hard to kill this way. If you take enough damage, you will die. Just a few unarmed combats with even the weakest monsters can kill you. It is crucial to seek out and equip yourself with as many Defensive Items and Weapons as possible, or you’ll be killed quickly. *If you are equipped with both a Weapon and a Defensive Item, the Weapon will be used first if you are caught by a monster. Weapons in general are more effective against monsters than Defensive items.

DAMAGE, HEALING, AND DEATH

In addition to monsters, there are traps, environmental hazards, and other nasty surprises in Backstage that can cause you damage or even kill you instantly. The world itself is out to hurt you. In Backstage, you may find a few scattered first aid kits located throughout the game. These first aid kits have plenty of healing supplies, but are too large to be portable- you have to use them where you find them. Once you use them, they’ll be out of supplies, and you won’t be able to use them again. If your Health is ever reduced to 0 or lower in Backstage, you die, and will have to restart your game.

CHARACTERS

Tom Keller is an average enough guy, although one badly down on his luck. On the evening this nightmare begins, he’s coming home from a fancy dinner with his wife, at a nice restaurant- where she took him to tell him she was leaving him, and where he still picked up the check. She’s kicked him out of the house and had the locks changed, and he’s had quite a bit to drink after dinner, and wants nothing more than to call her and give her the piece of his mind. He’s already checked into a seedy hotel down town, where he plans to sleep it off after making a phone call. However, he is about to step through to the other side of a mirror that will warp and destroy everything he thought he knew about his life.

Alice Sirafas is an enigmatic and intriguing dark haired woman, the polar opposite in appearance and attitude of Tom’s soon-to-be-ex wife Lucy. She seems to know Tom, although he can’t remember from where, and she seems to have both a troubled past and a loose grip on reality. However, by the time Tom meets her, she may be his only ally against the shadows that lurk and wait Backstage.

Detective Aaron Wilks is a dedicated and honorable law man, one of the only clean cops in a department rife with corruption. When his partner is killed by a serial killer, and the case file is purposely misfiled, vaulted, and buried by the chief of police, Wilks sets out to find the truth, and get revenge, even though his superiors have specifically ordered him off the case. Putting his career and his life on the line, Detective Wilks tracks the killer to a hotel downtown.

Mask is a mysterious figure who Tom soon meets once he falls through the cracks of this world into the bloody shadows of the next. Although Mask appears to be human, he seems to have some kind of control over the horrifc creatures that stalk the darkness backstage. He explains that he is trying to help Tom, and educate him, but his methods of ‘education’ seem more like torture as he stalks Tom through the twisted mirror world he can’t seem to escape from.

HINTS AND TIPS

Backstage is best played in near total darkness, with good quality speakers, or even better, headphones, with the volume turned up high. Not only will this enhance the atmosphere of the gameplay experience, and give the game a fair chance to scare the hell out of you, a dark background will make several of the game's darker areas easier to see, and quality speakers or headphones will let you hear some of the subtler directional cues to the game's audio puzzles.

ENDINGS AND RANK

Backstage has 3 Endings that can be earned depending on your actions throughout the game, and a Rank System that will rank you on your play time, monster kills, and the ending you earned when you finish the game. In some day I may actually make a website where people can post their best ranks and scores, but until that day, it's just for bragging rights. (Note: this system may or may not be broken!)