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Poll 14 Results (Posted 01/22/12 by Chris)


<<insert feigned surprise here>>
 
Sigh (Posted 01/07/12 by Chris)
It's never easy, is it? My desktop PC is shutting itself off at random and the power supply is making suspicious noises, so I'm waiting for a new one to arrive and in the meantime, not turning the bastard on. So the hiatus continues, hopefully not more than a week. Frowny face.
 
Poll 14 Open (+ Poll 13 Results) (Posted 01/03/12 by Chris)


Stonewall won the previous poll. Poll 14 will decide Clady's last spell. Vote on the front page by Friday!

Chapter 5 (the grand finale) will start soon...
 
Poll 13 Is Available (Posted 12/17/11 by Chris)
Visit the front page to vote for a new spell for Alain or Clady.

A few bug fixes to report:
* The slime characters in Battle 4-C can be revived without causing a freeze.
* Clicking outside the buttons when shown the friendly-fire warning dialogue will no longer interfere with the attack.
 
4-B Bug and Hiatus (Posted 11/19/11 by Chris)
I have some bad news and some less bad but still bad news. There was a bug in Battle 4-B which made an important mid-battle event not trigger after choosing "Start Battle Over" from the menu. Unfortunately five players completed the level this way before I found and fixed the bug, and their scores can't be validated. I feel pretty dumb.

Due to the upcoming holiday and a gauntlet of travel, Chapter 4 will be on hiatus until early December.
 
Poll 12 Results (Posted 11/18/11 by Chris)


Okay, okay, I get it
 
Know Who's Awesome? (Posted 10/19/11 by Chris)
Spookysage is awesome. For making this.



Holy crap. We skipped right over fanart and went straight to fancrochet. This kicks so much ass.
 
Poll 11 Results (Posted 10/07/11 by Chris)


Wind resistance. How prescient of you all.
 

Looking for The Last Days of FOXHOUND?
Watch the first story scene
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Latest Update (01/23/12):
Battle 5-A: Grounded


Three easy ways to get updates:







Chapter 0: Recruiting Chapter 1: Intramurals Chapter 2: Field Trip Chapter 3: Midterms Chapter 4: Spring Break Chapter 5: Finals  
Scene 0-1: Fencing Meet

Scene 0-2: The Whatsit

Scene 0-3: Horrible Night For A Curse

Battle 0-A: Tutorial

Scene 0-4: Expotition

Battle 0-B: Frosted Freaks
 
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Scene 0-5: Mesmerus

Scene 0-6: Quarry

Battle 0-C: Wolf Blitz
 
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Scene 0-7: Miner Diminished

Scene 0-8: The Curriculum

Scene 1-1: Planted Among Us

Battle 1-A: The Ivy League
 
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Scene 1-2: Pod People

Battle 1-B: Frenemies
 
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Scene 1-3: Root Awakening

Battle 1-C: Thermopylae
 
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Scene 1-4: Iced

Battle 1-D: Snowman, That's A Demon
 
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Scene 1-5: Herbicidal Maniacs

Battle 1-E: Alpha Bulb
 
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Scene 1-6: Harvest


Due to managerial incompetence early players of battle 1-E did not have Val's Flamethrower spell.
The names of those who successfully completed the level with this handicap are enshrined here:
Redemption, micuu, Krimson, brinco, vonkorff, Manyorcas, Illsaide, ModestGenius, pstargalac, enkidu
Scene 2-1: The Island

Scene 2-2: Car Talk

Battle 2-A: Roadside Resistance
 
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Scene 2-3: Cops & Graverobbers

Battle 2-B: Skullduggery
 
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Scene 2-4: Unwelcome Wagon

Scene 2-5: Stalagmight

Battle 2-C: Them Bones
 
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Scene 2-6: Near The Knuckle

Battle 2-D: Mob Boss
 
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Scene 2-7: Trip Report

Scene 3-1: Stupefaction

Scene 3-2: Lost In Transmogrification

Battle 3-A: Twisted Pixel
 
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Scene 3-3: Liability

Battle 3-B: Weak Spot
 
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Scene 3-4: A Normal Day

Battle 3-C: Guerrilla Ice
 
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Scene 3-5: Cornered

Battle 3-D: The Real Monsters
 
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Scene 3-6: Equalizer

Battle 3-E: Windwolf
 
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Scene 3-7: No Rest From The Wicked

Scene 4-1: Quarry

Battle 4-A: Rocky Road
 
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Scene 4-2: 'Goyles Gone? Wild!

Scene 4-3: Bons Temps Rouler

Battle 4-B: Greatest Hits
 
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Scene 4-4: Phlegmatic

Battle 4-C: Sense of Humour
 
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Scene 4-5: Dérangé

Battle 4-D: The Exile
 
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Scene 4-6: The Great Race

Battle 5-A: Grounded
 
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About The Game Attributions Tech Notes About Chris  
Demon Thesis is a browser game, a webcomic, a tech demo, a floor wax and a dessert topping; the bastard child of Final Fantasy Tactics and MS Paint Adventures.

Following the formula of tactical role-playing games, the game consists of a series of battles tied together by a storyline. Since the content is naturally divided into discrete chunks, this genre is a logical fit for the serialized format of webcomics, updating in small increments on a frequent basis. I'll post new game levels and story scenes on a weekly basis (at least).

Though inspired by RPGs, Demon Thesis isn't really an RPG. Rather than tying party advancement to experience points gained by repeated play, new equipment and abilities will be unlocked at particular points in the story - but the player community will determine which upgrade comes next by popular vote.

It's an experiment. It might turn out to be a horrible idea no one should do ever again! But we'll have fun seeing what happens.

The game is an experiment in another sense as well: it's built on Javascript and HTML5, using Flash only for loading of audio files in browsers that have problematic implementations of HTML5 audio. Initially my decision to abandon Flash was in order to make the game code compatible with iOS platforms (especially the iPad, which is a perfect way to play a grid-based tactics game like this).

Unfortunately, while HTML5's graphics capabilities through the canvas element are pretty extensive, audio support for games is absolutely abysmal. Games rely on short, multilayered sound effects, while the HTML5 audio element is designed with music players in mind and nothing else. Mobile Safari is the worst offender of all, requiring the user to manually press play on every audio file. So while I hope to eventually wrap the complete game as a standalone app for iPad, the web game will sadly not be available on iOS.

This is a project I'm conducting in my spare time as a way of teaching myself programming and game design, as well as flexing the writing muscles that have been dormant since my old webcomic ended. It will be always be free to play, and the code will be made available once I've done a better job of commenting it.
Demon Thesis was written/programmed/designed/"drawn" by Chris Doucette.

The sound of Demon Thesis is entirely thanks to artists who have made their work available under a Creative Commons license or otherwise freely available.

MUSIC ATTRIBUTIONS

  • "O Canada" by the U.S. Navy Band, remixed by Raja Chahal
  • Silly Cat, It's A Ragtime by sorohanro
  • Breaking in a New Pair of Shoes by Minoff
  • 5ive Style by porksoda
  • Stay Away From Those Zombies! by Raggedy Anarchist
  • Severed a Jazziluper by margarine
  • Pseudonym by ObsidianSnow
  • Going Somewhere v2 by shadow6nothing9
  • Zamolxe no. 1 by sorohanro
  • Lost In Thought by tamadrum
  • Don't Know Why by WuSchell
  • An Order Of Evil (no mayo) by Brian Holmes
  • Without a Ticket by Marty256
  • Take It Down A Notch by SantaBro
  • Descent Into Madness by shadow6nothing9
  • Lollapalooza by Tareq Abuissa
  • Minor Swing by joeymofo
IMAGE ATTRIBUTIONS

  • American bond brick texture by Pbroks13
  • Cabo de la Vela by Wicho 2
  • Town And Country by David Monniaux
  • Cocktail by M. Weinert
  • Caerleon in Snow by JennyUWN
  • Munitions Explosion by Dept. of Defense
SOUND EFFECT ATTRIBUTIONS
  • http://www.soundbible.com (all by Mike Koenig except where specified)
    • Jab
    • Stab
    • Large Fireball
    • Light Bulb Breaking
    • Wind by Stilgar
    • Large Thump Or Bump
    • Magic Wand Noise
    • Bounce
    • Cuckoo Clock
    • Slime
    • Comet (public domain)
    • Baby Sneeze (public domain)
    • Ta Da

  • http://www.freesound.org
    • Snowshoe walking by laurent
    • Popping knuckles by SunnySideSound
    • Swoop Thick 01 by willc2_45220
    • Slashkut by Abyssmal
    • 31 Arrow Shot by gezortenplotz
    • Alien windbells down by jobro
    • Step by CGEffex
    • Gentle Sea On Flat Beach by digifishmusic
    • Water bottle snare 15 (bonk) by Churd-Tzu
    • Shovel wet snow digging by Robinhood76
    • Metal Atmosphere 003 by DJChronos
    • Roda 2 by melack
    • Wind by Black Boe
    • 00822 monster 2 voice by Robinhood76
    • Spit in spitoon (comedy) by Timbre
    • Tire_Squeek by rutgermuller
    • Spooky Whistle G#5 by Jovica

  • http://www.therecordist.com/free-sfx - Snowball, Impact, Heavy #6 (SE)

  • Now defunct: http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com and http://www.ilovewavs.com
Demon Thesis has been tested in Chrome, Opera, Safari and Firefox on Windows and Mac OS X. Internet Explorer 9 has not been tested, and earlier versions of IE are not compatible with the HTML5 elements this site uses.

Smaller monitors and laptops may be just slightly too small to show the entire game screen due to the space taken up by the browser menu and navigation bars; in this case activating your browser's full screen function should allow the whole game to be viewed without scrolling.

When first viewing a new piece of content it may take a few seconds for the multimedia elements to finish loading. An error message should appear if there is a problem with loading, but some browsers - especially Safari - will occasionally fail to load sounds. If the loading screen lingers for a long time without progressing, just refresh the page.

This is a hobby project made during my free time. While I want to make it accessible to as many people as possible, I can't offer individual tech support. If a serious bug occurs, contact me and I will try to address it.
I'm a programmer at Loot Drop. I have 95% of a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, and the remaining 5% is a few months away.

Email me at
 
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