Hello Community, Today I would like to tell you why I wrote Behind the Horizon!
I have played many games myself, especially role-playing games, and there were also some "pearls" that I like to remember, but on the whole everything repeats itself.
It is always about the hero who saves the world and the destruction of one or more enemies. Online games are about competing with others and being better, having better equipment, making some kind of achievement, etc.! Moreover, most games are endless. Monsters get up again, quests have to be done over and over again and the "grinding" has reached unbelievable dimensions.
In short, as a player I feel more and more in the role of operating the game, instead of diving into another world and experiencing a good, exciting story there. In terms of a book, it would be in something like this that after each page of the novel I would have to count all the pages of the book before I could read on ;-) !
Furthermore, the focus of many of the games I know is on violence and destruction. Even a lot of construction games don't make a difference. I have always longed for peaceful, beautiful and also romantic moments in games. Unfortunately, these moments rarely or never existed. I think games should inspire people and what, please, is inspiring about a soldier armed to the teeth who blows up an enemy tank? Are there not enough conflicts and violence in the world?
In Behind the Horizon I have tried to avoid all this and let the player immerse into a living world that is constantly changing. Of course there are monsters to fight in my game, but fighting is not the focus nor is it completely pointless, because something is really changing. The player always has an influence on the world.
The story is about the player himself and delves deeply into mystical and spiritual themes, which have the potential to make you think in our real world. Behind the horizon is a "friendly" game with lovable, lively people who populate the world. Getting to know these people and telling their stories in a cheerful, nice way was also one of my goals. It should feel like home to stroll through Woodhome, visit Emma's general shop or go to Chloé's restaurant.
The story centres around the player like a red thread through everything you experience there and the tension intensifies in the last two chapters before it ends with one of the two possible endings.
Since I have created this game alone in years of work and I am mainly a game designer and programmer, I had to make some concessions in terms of graphics. It doesn't feel all of a piece, but if you play Behind the Horizon for a while, you hardly notice it. There may be players for whom bombastic, accurate graphics are indispensable and for whom my game is certainly unsuitable.
For all others, who are also longing for a game in which you can feel comfortable I highly recommend to give Behind the Horizon a chance!
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My link to my page on itch.io with all articles, sceenshots and devlogs and currently the only place to test and buy the game:
https://jadawin1.itch.io/behind-the-horizon Since I have now submitted my game to GOG for publishing there is a wishlist where you can vote for Behind the Horizon. That would be a great help for me :-) !
Link to the Wishlist:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/behind_the_horizon 
