No-One Has to Die

No-One Has to Die (stylized as no-one has to die.) is an HTML5 puzzle visual novel developed by Sammy Madafiglio. It was released on Clay.io, and then later on Newgrounds.
== Plot ==
In this game, you are a nameless protagonist, referred to in-game as the "Visitor". While making a delivery to the Fenix Corporation, you find the security guards dead and a fire breaking out, endangering the lives of four people: employees Steve, Christina, and Troy, as well as CEO Lionel. You assume control of the security system to try to save them, but due to the limitations of the system, you must decide who lives and who dies as the fire spreads. Communications between the Visitor and the four main characters is done through text chat, which gradually reveals more and more of the story, as well as the Fenix Corporation's true purpose.
==Gameplay==
Each chapter of the game begins with some dialogue between the Visitor and the other characters, which is then followed by a prompt to decide who lives and who dies by interacting with a map representing a simulation of the floor the employees are currently on. The game is turn-based, and allows you to perform whichever actions you want (locking doors, moving people, flipping switches, etc.) before starting the next turn. There's also a reset button that lets you reset the map if you aren't happy with the outcome of your choices - the map will also automatically reset itself if more than one person dies. In each map, you have to go one turn without the fire or water spreading in order to advance to the next chapter of the game.
There are three maps in total; after completing them all, you get one of five different endings depending on who lived and who died. Once you finish the game, you're taken to a level select screen where you can revisit different branches of the story so you can unlock all the endings. After all five endings have been discovered, you then unlock alternate timeline where you can discover the true ending.
==Game Elements==
*Fire: Spreads once every turn, but can't pass through locked doors.
*Water: Puts out fires, but can also drown people. Comes flowing out of faucets when they're turned on.
*Door: Can be locked to prevent the fire from getting in, but you can only lock one in each level.
*Switch: Can be flipped on or off to activate and deactivate faucets in the building when there's a person standing next to them.
==Characters==
*The Visitor
*Christina
*Steve
*Troy
*Lionel
==Endings==
*Steve Ending: Steve is the only one left alive. He comes across some top-secret files and discovers that the Fenix Corporation was involved in buying cockateils in bulk and using them to run an experiment in which the cockateils were to be taught to say a specific phrase. According to company logs, one of the cockateils already knew the phrase beforehand and was able to teach it to all the others. The cockateils were then run through some kind of machine which killed every cockateil except for the one that already knew the phrase. The phrase in question is "Christina lives", leading Steve to believe that Christina is still alive somehow, so he runs off to try and find her.
*Christina Ending: Christina is the only one left alive. She confesses that she was the one who lit the fire and killed the security guards so they couldn't do anything about it. The Visitor is skeptical since Troy had claimed to have started the fire earlier, but Christina explains that she did it all because she wanted to get revenge on Lionel after her mother, who also worked at the Fenix Corporation, died in one of the company's experiments. She laments that Steve was never supposed to be involved, and expresses her remorse that he died because of her. Christina then comes across a metal door marked "TEMPEST Entrance" and enters it, but then her signal drops, leaving a panicked Visitor scrambling to try and find her.
*Bad Ending: Christina and Lionel both make it to the floor above the ground floor, but neither are able to avoid death, therefore nobody survives. (Note: This ending can be achieved in two different ways.)
*Lionel Ending: Lionel is the only one left alive. Grateful for having his life spared, Lionel agrees to tell the Visitor what the Fenix Corporation really does, and he reveals that the company is working on time travel. They have a fully functional time machine, but instead of sending people back in time, it instead sends people's consciousness back in time - it even works on animals, too. Lionel also explains that they can send consciousness into the future as well, but the company still needs to work on a way to preserve the subject's body so it doesn't decompose before its consciousness can return. He tells the visitor that his ultimate goal is to use this technology to help people preserve their youth by sending their consciousness into younger bodies once they start to age. The Visitor wants to know more, but Lionel says he wants to meet up at the TEMPEST Entrance to discuss it in person, so the Visitor decides to go to him.
*Troy Ending: Troy is the only one left alive. No longer able to dodge the Visitor's questions, Troy confesses that he wasn't the one who started the fire. He explains that the only reason he knew so many things about the incident, such as the security code that the Visitor needed to input the security commands, was because he had already witnessed the events unfold several times over, by entering an area known as the TEMPEST Entrance to go back in time to when the fire first started. He admits that the reason he claimed to be the arsonist was because he just wanted to die after having had to watch the other three employees die so many times despite his best efforts to try and save them. Since his plan failed again, Troy tells the Visitor that he must go back in time once more so the time loop doesn't end until someone other than him survives. He then enters the TEMPEST Entrance, and the timeline resets.
*True Ending: Everyone survives. The four employees meet up at the TEMPEST Entrance, excited to see each other in person, but then Christina reveals a dark secret to the Visitor: she's been there before. Christina knew all along that her mother hadn't truly died, she'd just lost her consciousness because it got lost in space-time after being sent back in time by Lionel's machine, so Christina had been using the machine to send herself back in time to try and find her mother. Against the Visitor's protests, Christina enters the machine again, explaining that she's been searching for too long to give up on her mother now, and goes back in time.
==Trivia==
*This game was the winner of Clay.io's Got Game? competition.
Category:Games
Category:Puzzle Games
Category:Visual Novels
Category:Turn-Based