Alcarys Complex

Corvallis Unruh is a young pacifist from a small coastal town. He spends his days working for the local pharmaceutical distributor and taking his daily pain medication, even though he’s not sure he’s actually in pain.

One night, his world is upended when a huge creature tears his family’s house apart, sending him on an adventure that he’s pretty sure he doesn’t want to be on with a companion who he’s pretty sure doesn’t want him there. Along the way, his companion, Angela, brings other people into the fold – a mercenary, a professional adventurer, a nobleman, and a sorcerer – but Corvallis is always alone. And he knows it.

People who want to curry favor with Corvallis tell him that he’s some sort of Chosen One, but they fail, every time, to tell him that he’s been chosen to be a cog in a political machine with a thirst for profit. And where there is no money, there is only bloodletting.

See also: Release Trailer | Preview Trailer
More media…
  • Enjoy a main narrative about the nature of power and violence. This narrative strongly relies on characterization to govern the main characters’ interactions with each other. More details on the story here.
  • View the perspectives of six well-defined characters with strengths and flaws that reflect their upbringing and experience. Meet the characters!
  • The story doesn’t stop when the cutscene ends! Real-time banter and informed, ever changing non-player characters (NPCs) add to Elcaea’s atmosphere and ensure that you’ll never go uninformed.
  • Use the Sociability system to gain strength by interacting with those around you and progressing through the main narrative. You’ll be rewarded for knowledge about the personalities of your party members!
Q: I use Windows XP. Why won’t the demo work?
A: The 1.02r4 demo (and presumably, the full version of the game) has a known bug that crashes the game at startup, but only on Windows XP. We’re working to get it fixed!

Q: When is Alcarys Complex going to be released? On which platforms can I play it?
A: Alcarys Complex is currently released on PC and OS X, with a Linux version on the way.

Q: How much does the full version of Alcarys Complex cost?
A: $10.

Q: The soundtrack is awesome! Can I have it?
A: The Alcarys Complex Original Soundtrack is available on Bandcamp, iTunes, and Amazon.

Q: Is there a demo I could try out to see whether or not I like the game?
A: Right here. It’s a pretty good chunk of the game! We want you to make sure the game’s worth your money before you buy it. If you run into any problems, just e-mail help at modestarcade dot com.

Q: Does Alcarys Complex use a Digital Rights Management (DRM) solution?
A: Nope. Not even a serial. You get what you buy and that’s it.

Q: Can my kids play it?
A: I mean, they can. They probably shouldn’t, though. Really know your kid.

Q: Couldn’t you have just written a book?
A: We thought about it, but we decided not to. One of our goals with Alcarys Complex is to subvert RPG genre convention and it’s kind of hard to do that from another medium. That being said, there’s a terrible early draft of Alcarys Complex in book form that’ll never see the light of day unless you give us a million billion dollars. True story.

Q: What is the game made in?
A: Alcarys Complex was made using Game Maker 8.1 Standard and later ported to Game Maker Studio Professional to take advantage of performance and compatibility increases.

Q: How long has the game been in development?
A: The first alpha build of Alcarys Complex was made in September 2006, and the final release was November 2012, so six years.

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