Welcome to the Official Cheesy Demo Version of Afterlife, the game which will someday be known as “The Final Word in Sim Games...Literally.” Sadly, all you can play right now is this teeny lil’ demo, with its crippled buttons, sparse sound effects, unpolished AI, and devastatingly evil bugs, but what do you expect for free?
CHAPTER TWO: THE GOAL
The goal of Afterlife is simple: Punish the Damned, Reward the Blessed, Reincarnate everyone who wants to go back, and try to turn a profit.
How do you do that? I’m glad you asked...
CHAPTER THREE: THE BIG PICTURE
If you look closely at your screen, you’ll notice two planes floating in space. The one with all the blue rivers is Heaven; the one with all the red rivers is Hell. In between the two planes is a tiny little planet. On that planet is a population of humanoid aliens, a population that has begun to believe in the Afterlife.
When these aliens (we call them “Ethically Mature Biological Organisms”, or “EMBOs”) die, their essences, their “Stuff Of Unending Life” (or “SOULs”), drift towards the nearest available Afterlife, seeking their Eternal Rewards. Luckily for you, your little slices of Heaven and Hell are remarkably close to the planet. If you can meet the various expectations of these SOULs, the Powers That Be (your enigmatic bosses) will pay you many Pennies From Heaven for your efforts.
CHAPTER FOUR: GATES
The first thing you’ll want to do as Demiurge of this planet’s Afterlife is build a gate.
When a SOUL first arrives in Heaven or Hell, it must “check-in” at a gate before traveling on to its expected Reward and/or Punishment. Once the SOUL’s sins/virtues have been tallied by one of the gate’s demonic/angelic caseworkers, the gate opens, the SOUL walks through, and the Powers That Be give you a couple of Pennies From Heaven for “processing” the SOUL.
To build a gate, click on the gate Button on your Remote Control (It’s on the third row down, on the left. A further aside: If you option-click on just about any of the buttons, a little window will pop up, telling you what the button’s function is.). A window will pop up, showing you a variety of gates you can choose from. Highlight the gate you’d like to build, and click your mouse. The window will close, and the display at the top of your Remote Control will reflect that you are now “ZONING: GATES.” If you move your mouse around, you’ll notice that your cursor looks like a gate, and that a 3x3 shadow is following your cursor all over the place.
Zoom in a couple of magnification levels (the Zoom In/Out Buttons are the “magnifying glasses” buttons in the center of your Remote Control), and scroll to a relatively empty part of Heaven or Hell (it doesn’t matter which realm you start in). Move your mouse until you’ve found an empty spot for your gate, click your mouse button, and let go. If you’ve done everything right, you should see your brand new gate, ready to receive fresh SOULs.
CHAPTER FIVE: ROADS
Now that you’ve built a gate, it’s time to lay down some roads.
In order to get from place to place in the Afterlife, SOULs must walk. In order to walk, they need roads.
Let’s build a road leading outward from your gate. Click on the road Button on your Remote Control (it’s just to the right of the gate Button), and let go. The display on top of the Remote will now reflect that you’re “ZONING: ROADS.” Now, scroll up to where you built your gate. Find an empty piece of astral territory right next to the gate, and click your mouse, but don’t let go. With the mouse-button still down, drag your cursor around; a road-shaped shadow will follow your cursor. When you’ve gotten a road shape you can live with, let go of the mouse button. Now you’ve got a road!
CHAPTER SIX: REWARDING AND PUNISHING
Now that you’ve built a gate and some road, it’s time to get about that actual business of Rewarding and Punishing.
When a SOUL enters the Afterlife, it expects to be Rewarded or Punished, based on its individual beliefs about the nature of the Afterlife. The Rewarding and Punishing takes place in what are called “Fate Structures,” ‘cause that’s where SOULs meet their eternal “Fate.” To build a Fate Structure, you must first decide what sort of Fate Structure you want, then designate (or “zone”) an empty patch of your Afterlife for that types of Fate Structure.
In Hell, there are eight types of Fate Structures:
Envy Punishments
Avarice Punishments
Gluttony Punishments
Sloth Punishments
Lust Punishments
Wrath Punishments
Pride Punishments,
and Generic Punishments
In Heaven, there are eight types of Fate Structures:
Contentment Rewards
Charity Rewards
Temperance Rewards
Diligence Rewards
Chastity Rewards
Peacefulness Rewards
Humility Rewards,
and Generic Rewards
Let’s do some zoning. Click on the Generic Zoning Button on your Remote Control (it’s on the second row down, on the right, and it’s rainbow-colored), and let go. The display on your Remote will now reflect the fact that you’re “ZONING: GENERIC.” Scroll to where you’ve put down your gate and road, and find a nice empty piece of astral real estate next to your road. Click where you want to start zoning, but don’t let go of the mouse button. Drag your cursor around; a grey rectangle should follow your cursor wherever it goes. Move your cursor around until you got a 3x3 rectangle next your road (it doesn’t have to be 3x3, but that’s a pleasant size), and let go of your mouse button. You should now see a bunch of rainbow-colored tiles next to your road. Congratulations, you’ve just successfully Zoned for Generic Rewards (or Punishments, as the case may be).
If you’ve been following the Tutorial diligently, you’ve got a gate, some road leading out from that gate, and some Generic Zones...and nothing’s happening. That’s because we’ve started the game with the clock turned off for your convenience. Click on the “Global” menu at the top of your screen, and select the “Tempo” option. A sub-menu will pop up, with the “Divine Intervention” option checked off. Select the “Demonic Speed” option, and wait a few seconds. Soon, various structures will begin to burble into existence. (For future reference, you can pause/unpause the game by hitting your <space> bar.)
CHAPTER SEVEN: LOST SOULS
After a while, you may begin to notice colored “spikes” emanating from your road. These are Lost SOUL Spikes, and they’re a bad thing. They signify that one or more SOULs haven’t found what they’re looking for in your Afterlife, and have moved on to other Afterlives that can meet their needs. Each time you lose a SOUL, the Powers That Be take back the Pennies they gave you when that SOUL entered your gate, and also tack on a substantial “Penny Penalty” for early withdrawal. If you lose too many SOULs, you could lose all your Pennies, so it’s extremely important to eliminate Lost SOUL Spikes whenever you see them.
How do you eliminate them? Actually, it’s pretty easy. Take a look at one of your Lost SOUL Spikes. There’s probably a colored ball on top of it. The color of the ball tells you which type of Fate Structure the SOULs couldn’t find when they became Lost SOULs (each type of Fate Structure is color-coded: Envy and Contentment Structures are green, Avarice and Charity are yellow, etc.). The quickest way to accommodate the needs of those Lost SOULs is to click on the similarly-colored Fate Structure Button near the top of your Remote Control, and “zone” for that type of structure near where the SOULs are being lost. In other words, zone orange for an orange spike, purple for a purple spike, and so on.
If, after a few years, you’re still getting more Lost SOUL Spikes than you think you deserve, you might want to check to make sure that all of your roads are completely connected to each other. Remember, roads are the only things SOULs can walk on.
CHAPTER EIGHT: REINCARNATION BASICS
Once you’re happy with your zoning, you might want to try your hand at managing reincarnation.
(This’ll take a few pages to explain, so you may want to hit your <space> bar now...)
Many SOULs believe in reincarnation, so it’s your responsibility to make sure that they properly reincarnate back to the planet. Reincarnation is accomplished by transporting SOULs into Karma Portals, which hover in a “Karma Plane” halfway between Heaven and Hell.
If you Zoom Out a couple of levels and look at your Afterlife, you’ll notice several large, pale rocks with pinkish nimbuses floating around them. These are Karma Portals, floating between Heaven and Hell, waiting for SOULs to pass through their transdimensional membrane for reincarnation. Zoom In on one of the Karma Portals, then scroll straight up to Heaven. Soon, you’ll see what looks like a couple of trees holding up a nexus of swirling blue energy. This is a Karma Portal Anchor, and it’s holding the Karma Portal in place. Now scroll straight down, past the Karma Portal, until you’re in Hell, and you see a big claw-like thingamabob with swirling red energies in it. This is Hell’s version of a Karma Portal Anchor, and it’s also holding that Karma Portal in place.
You may be wondering: “How do I get my SOULs all the way from Heaven/Hell down/up to these Karma Portals?” Good question; here’s the answer. Click on the Karma Station Button (it’s just to the right of the road Button). A window will pop up, offering you several Karma Stations to choose from. Pick one. Scroll to an empty spot next to your road (most structures need to be near a road, so that SOULs can walk to them). Click on that empty spot, and let go. A darkened, 3x3 building should appear next to your road. This is a Karma Station Anchor. Now, scroll straight up (or down if you’re in Heaven) until you see a building that looks like the one you selected when you clicked the Karma Station Button. This is your Karma Station. SOULs who wish to reincarnate will walk into your Karma Station Anchor, and be levitated upward (or downward, if the Anchor is in Heaven) to your Karma Station.
Now, we’ve successfully gotten your SOULs to a Karma Station, but how do we get them from the Karma Station to a Karma Portal, so that they can reincarnate? Well, obviously, we need some Karma Track, to connect the Karma Station to the Karma Portal. Click on the Karma Track Button (it’s just to the right of the Karma Station Button). Now, scroll over to your Karma Station Anchor, and find an empty spot right next to the anchor. Click on that spot, hold down the mouse button, and drag the mouse around as if you were building roads. If you can see a Karma Portal Anchor, try to drag the shadow all the way up to the side of the Karma Portal Anchor, then let go of the button. With luck, a blue shimmering path will lead all the way from the side of your Karma Station Anchor to a Karma Portal Anchor; if not, you may have to run several pieces of Karma Track in a row to join the Karma Station Anchor to the Karma Portal Anchor. You’ll know when you’ve connected your Portal and Station Anchors, because your Karma Station Anchor will suddenly light up.
If you scroll up (or down) to your Karma Station, and hit the <space> bar to turn on the clock, you’ll begin to notice little Karma Vehicles emerging from your Karma Stations, whizzing down your Karma Track, and disappearing in your Karma Portals. Congratulations, you’ve begun taking care of Hell’s (or Heaven’s) reincarnation needs!
CHAPTER NINE: OTHER STUFF
With the first three rows of buttons on the Remote Control, you can master the basic tasks of Afterlife: Rewarding, Punishing, and Reincarnating. Of course, there are a lot of other things you can try, including:
The Microview Button (‘m’): Turns your cursor into a magnifying glass. Click the magnifying glass on a building, and all kinds of interesting information about that building will pop up.
The Nuke Button (‘x’): Sometimes the only way to correct a mistake is to blow it up.
The GraphView Button (‘d’): Brings up a window with all sorts of useful graphs that tell you things like, for instance, how full your Fate Structures are.
The MapView Button : Brings up a tiny, overhead map of either Heaven or Hell, with various functions.
The Topia Button (‘c’): Your “workforce” is comprised of Demons and Angels. Like all employees, they must be paid. Like all employees, they demand higher salaries when they have to commute. Build ‘em a Topia, so they have someplace to live.
The Training Center Button: Better yet, train your own Angels and Demons from SOULs who happen to be wandering by. Place a Training Center in the middle of your Afterlife, and watch your labor costs drop through the floor!
The SoulView Button (‘i’): Go into SoulView mode, and click on a Fate Structure. Gape at the face of an individual SOUL, plucked from the Great Beyond for your amusement!”
The Bad Things Menu: Unleash one of four calamities on your unsuspecting Afterlife!
CHAPTER TEN: THINGS YOU CAN’T DO
Here are a whole host of cool things that you won’t be able to do/get/see in this Cheesy Demo, but will be made totally available in the Spiffy Release Version of Afterlife:
MORE COOL DISASTERS: Like the Hell In a Handbasket, the Paradise Pair of Dice, and the nerve-jangling Disco Inferno!
REAL, IN-PROGRAM HELP: Aria Goodhalo and Jasper Wormsworth, your angelic and demonic majordomos, will talk you through the basics of the game, and lend you a hand every now and then. Just imagine, no more cheesy text tutorials!
THE PLANETVIEW: Wield your influence on the planet! Make SOULs more evil!
RADICAL REWARD STRUCTURES: Receive strange and wondrous buildings for each major population milestone!
LIMBO BARS: Stave off those Lost SOUL Spikes with a well-placed bar!
AD INFINITUM SIPHONS: Learn the secrets of Infinitum, and use them to evolve your Fate Structures to greater heights!
PENNY BANKS: Take out a few loans to keep your Afterlife running!
PORTS: Ferry SOULs to and fro across the unswimmable rivers of Heaven and Hell!
OMNIBOLGES and LOVE DOMES: When you reach 1 Billion SOULs, you’ll get to start building some very big, very cool, Fate Structures!
