Prey at the Altar
A downloadable game for Windows
You are the chosen lamb of the Church of the Hound, a sacrifice to summon an ancient god to cleanse this earth of its sins. It's an honor!
You want this. You want this very badly. Everyone wants this for you. The Church, its people, its god. So the choice is obvious.
You are the lamb. Prepare yourself for slaughter.
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A game including:
- Preparing yourself for your sacrifice.
- Or not. Or messing it up on purpose.
- 3 Endings, with 2 'True' Variants
- 20 - 40 minutes of gameplay
- In-depth discussions on the practicality of sleeping on pews.
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scenario and writing
scenario, programming, and art
Special Thanks To Playtesters
- ministarfruit
- _heidev
- snudbeen
- kosonah
- supermemobee
- kirvia
Plugin Credits:
- galv
- yanfly
TW: Scenes of abstractly described ritualistic sacrifice, swearing.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Guide to all endingsMay 13, 2024
Comments
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Really wonderful game. The character designs are spectacular, and I enjoy the commentary on cults as someone who had family who was apart of one! Will be thinking about this for a while!
this was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Super atmospheric game! Good job. :)
Oh this is a rewire your brain kinda game huh. 10/10
i lovvve this artstyle its so cute.. i enjoyed every second of this game and all the endings!!
I loved the artstyle and the atmosphere, and the Black Sheep ending was very touching to me! Thank you for this lovely game.
very cute game
really good game, i love all the art and writing so much. thanks for making it!
HHRHRRRGRHG I JUST FINISHED PLAYING!!! I NEED TO WRITE ABOUT IT!!! IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!
ao3,,,, save me ao3,,, ao3 save me,,,,,
A really nice and lovely game.
This was quite an interesting game with a very unique concept! I really enjoyed it and decided to play it on my channel! Great work!
this was a short game, but i absolutely loved it! i loved the cult commentary, i loved the atmosphere, i loved the music. the entire aesthetic was adorable, but the messing with the ui wit hthe god was horrifying! i love it :)
wonderful narrative writing :)
This was a lovely game to play. The art is cute, music serene. I really enjoy how the eldritch god IS benevolent and I would love to see more of your work.
Привет, вы сделали очень интересную игру, мне понравилось )
Lovely game!! Was not expecting how the deity would behave!
You have an interesting atmosphere and the face that you left the monster/hound as a sort of a deity makes it all the most interesting. Also liked how you made the names change to the inner thoughts (?), not bad.
Here's my channel for other games I have played. https://www.youtube.com/@Levont
Idk pews look like pretty comfortable sleeping spots.
I saw this linked on your Neocities website, and the title and cover art immediately intrigued me. As promised in my email, as soon as I was done with webring applications for the day, I hopped over here! I ended up absolutely loving it!! The art is amazing, and I really loved the story of the game.
I liked that Agneau liked the people, more than the cult itself. That's a huge reason why a lot of people stay in cults and abusive religious situations; the community, less so than the beliefs. They love the people there, but they feel that the people don't love them back. That they love their title.
At first, I thought the mention of The Starful Hound "eating their gender" was going to be a silly throwaway jokey line, but it came back in the end, confirming it as a serious plotpoint. I love this idea for a nonbinary character, and that it seems to be quite literal, so to speak. This was before Agneau even knew of the cult. They just knew that one day, they encountered something grand, and woke up, no gender to be felt at all, where there once was. It was mentioned that they joined the cult because they were "kicked out of home". Was their sudden lack of gender why, I wonder? Trying to express this new feeling to others in their family making them face a transphobic disowning? Or perhaps I'm just thinking too hard about it, haha. But it feels like this is the order of events. The Starful Hound loved them and them alone, so she took their gender away. Transgenderism as a sign of being loved by the gods... What a wonderful thought.
Agneau wasn't sure that they were loved by their current family. It's not known if the cult was malicious towards its people in any way, or just ignorant, but the cult sure wasn't directing Agneau with instructions on how to survive the ordeal safely. But even if the churchgoers don't love them, the Starful Hound loves them. Their species doesn't matter to her; she loves them. This idea of unconditional love from a God, even (and especially) when they rebel against the church's ideas of what the "proper" way to worship is, also feels very LGBT. But I dedicate a way-too-large amount of my brainspace to media analysis for LGBT themes, so, again, I'm probably biased!
Anywhosies! These were my thoughts when I was playing this game. Needless to say, I found the game extremely fascinating, and quite resonant with my own experiences.
I have just one question, if I may ask. We know that "Agneau" is a title, given to many before it was bestowed onto the main character. Does the main character have a "real" name? I'm curious!
Thank you for putting this game together!
Oh wow that's a full book report of a review! Thank you very much, I am deeply flattered :]
As a rule I try not to weight in in analysis of my works (because I think it's lame when writers are like "THIS is the ONLY correct interpretation of my art ever, NOT ALLOWED to do anything else!!" so I vowed to never be that person) but I do want you to know you picked up on quite a handful of things I'd sprinkled here on purpose, and I'm very happy about it >:3c
As for Agneau's name, the idea I had in mind while writing was that being given the title of "Agneau" basically overwrote any identity you had prior- aka, whatever name the protag had before no longer matters. They're Agneau now. That's their name! That's who they are. That being said, it's never explicitly stated in the game, so feel free to imagine otherwise. It's free real estate!
Can we get a part two pls?🥺
It's not planned at the moment, but who knows! I can only speak for myself, but I wouldn't mind writing Agneau again :]
I can only hope
idk why but i feel much more pure and happy with my life after playing this game. this shit is goated fr 😭🙏
This game is so good! I kinda wish it was longer though :')
I really like the endings! Keep up the great work!
I love this game. I love this love this love this love this LOVE THIS!! HOUND AND AGNEAUS RELATIONSHIP!! GHRJLKAHLJH!!! THE SACRIFICES, THE- EVERYTHING!! ITS THE BEST!!! GRAHHHH!!!
This is an amazing little game. I am a sucker for the trope of someone being chosen to be sacrificed for a god so this hit all the right spots for me. The artwork is amazing, the colours are harmonizing perfectly with the story. And the story! The story is amazing, all endings! Please give this visual novel a try, you won't regret your decision.
i love agneau they r so awesome
thank you!! I’m biased but I think so too :] Just a little baabaa
how do i get other endings? I got the black sheep one and the one where i do everything correctly. And the bad one
the bad end can be achieved by not doing anything before you start the ritual
tyy
Simply cute and adorable short game! I love the pixel arts in this game. Characters are cute and charming, especially Agneau and Starful Hound, who are the more colorful and pretty good for the game's length as well. Overall, this is pretty good!
LET’S GOOOOOOOO PREY AT THE ALTAR. PREY’S AT THE ALTAR. PRAYS AT THE ALTAR. PRAISE AT THE ALTAR. PRAISE THE ALTAR. BE THE ALTAR. absolutely love the art style and the writing on this one, a wonderful pair from a wonderful team! you never miss!
baller game!! art style is super cute and the writing for the ritual is so vivid... loved seeing the tiny snippet into this cult's beliefs
just downaloaded, cant wait to play :DD
OKAY i just got the two true endings im assuming ? no spoilers but the artstyle is astonishing and the words used to describe the ritual are INSANE
YAAAAAAAAAAAAA