Inn for the Dearly Departed
*Images and videos are using placeholder art or are references from other games. Visuals are meant to be a reference of what we are aiming for.
Premise
You are an Inn Manager, tending to the spirits of the deceased, those that are still stuck in purgatory with lingering regrets. Your duty as Inn Manager is to build a room- with various furniture and items, for each spirit to live out their regrets, that they may let them go as pass onto the afterlife.
Inn for the Dearly Departed is an environmental puzzle and Room Decoration game.Each spirit starts off in their own room, with each room presenting subtle hints about the spirit’s desires. It could be a dining table, with empty seats that hints at a spirit’s desire to have one last meal with family. As the player places furniture into the room, the spirit will react in certain ways that hint at the objective, for example, setting their room up for a fancy dinner might disappoint the spirit, but setting up a homely environment might cheer them up.
If the room has been set up as the spirit wants, the spirit is purified and stays in the inn as a proper guest. You then get to talk to them, learn more about their lives, and fulfill more of their regrets so they may pass on.Game Pillars
Furniture Decoration
Furniture and other decorative items can be used to decorate the rooms to give the player creative expression, similar to games like animal crossing. However it will also be integral to solving the puzzle, which is creating a room that fulfils a need of the ghost.
As the player progresses in the game, they can unlock more aesthetic options to customize and decorate inn to express themselves however they’d like.
Ghosts’ Stories
Each ghost guest will have their own room that needs to be decorated to fulfil their regrets. That room decoration serves as multiple puzzle levels. Completing the puzzles will reveal the ghost's storyline.Environmental hints will be used to guide the player to what sort of room the ghost wants to live in, such as having some initial furniture placed in the level, or watching the ghost wandering around the room react to different types of furniture placed in the room.Inn Management
As part of running the inn, the Player has to assign staff to clean the guest’s room. This earns the player some currency that they can use to buy furniture needed to decorate the rooms. Cleaning the rooms means that the rooms are also occupied and won’t be available for the player to decorate and build.Inspirations and References
Spiritfarer
Sky: Children of Light