Words with Fiends

One of you is a desperate SUMMONER who summoned a demon. Just a little one. Now it's loose in the books you’ve collected from other times and places. Each of your books contains a bit of you — your past or hopes for the future. And if you have any chance of that future, you must get back that demon.

The other of you is the DEMON. Up until now, insignificant. A pawn. You just traded masters, and gave your new one the slip. Now it’s up to you to keep one step ahead of them, grow in power, learn what you can about them, and win your freedom.

As the summoner chases the demon through the stacks, the demon will learn more and more about the summoner's past and hopes for the future — letting them more easily intimidate, seduce, or tempt the summoner. They can also fight or trick the summoner in order to gain powerful words from them, or steal words from the books, turning them into possessions and offering them to the summoner in exchange for freedom.

The summoner, who knows these books, will be able to more easily pull words of magic from the pages with which they can try to interact with the demon — luring, capturing, fighting, reasoning, seeking, and more, in order to get the glory they've always dreamed of.

Who will achieve their ends first?

This game uses a completely new and unique mechanic — taking words from nearby or digital books, poetry, or other publications and using them for your own ends. The texts you choose will flavor the narrative of the game, but choose carefully! A text with lots of names or too many words of the demon's domain gives them the upper hand. 

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This game was designed in one day for the Game Dunk 2022 game jam, using the prompt "The Devil You Know".

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This game was designed in the Tamien Nation lands, also known as San Jose, on the unceded territory of the Tamien Nation Oholone peoples. Despite state-sanctioned murder, land-theft, and marginalization, the people of this nation and land still live here, practicing their traditional culture and religion. You can support them through donation, learning about them and their culture, and being mindful of how you represent indigenous communities and colonial forces in the stories you tell.