An ordinary woman is thrust onto a tour of the nine circles of Hell. Her tour guide through this out-of-body journey is sarcastic Siamese cat Pudding. Pudding manages to turn Hell into a hilarious ride while having all of the aloofness of a typical cat. Life (and Death) will never be the same.
An adaptation of Olivia Rivard’s short story “Danielle’s Inferno,” the game by the same name runs 90-120 minutes in length. Adapted by Blair Leggett and Will Hiles. Original art by Michelle Magee.
$6.66 CAD (approx $5.10 USD).
Testimonials
Life and death is wrapped in an exploratory quest thick with comedy and sneaking heartache. You, as Danielle, find yourself on a Full Tour of The Circles of Hell with a sweetly sarcastic cat named Pudding as a guide. With all the tenderness of a shove, Pudding shifts Danielle through her journey intent that she find her own way and learn through both environmental and self discovery before moving on. Each circle has something unique to offer her.
The gameplay features find-an-object quests, physical puzzles, puzzles that involve coaxing NPC personalities to action, word play, and a particularly fabulous feathery logic puzzle. The sound work is exquisite with a suitably funky (sometimes wonderfully vile) soundtrack, trigger effects, and, late in the game, voice over work. The experience is immersive and rewarding in that as Danielle progresses and learns, so too does the player. The culmination of the quest finds one hard-pressed to not see their own reality in the story; the resolution, as a quiet whispering beast, lives in us all. We are all, in varying degrees, for better or worse, Danielle by journey’s end.
The story is both light and dark, offering the gamer the hard truths of the world with a nudge and a smile. The comedy is thicker than the sorrow, yet the lingering messages remain. The realm of The Circles of Hell are universal in their approach to faith and humanity. It is a game with a message of goodness and hope, shrouded in the anxiety of human destruction and woe. The game begs you to see the best of us, while pushing you through the worst of us. It is a joy to encounter, a great deal of fun to play, and a deeply planted seed of hope to complete.
E.M. Knowles, author