SH-Demo

**SH-Demo** is the main installment in Sightless Highland - series of psychological survival games, comic and more. The game queued for development by a non-profit community of people known as *SH-Team*.

Essentially, it is a lighter (casual) version of Jameson's Door in that it omits many of the story elements and focuses on gameplay over plot twists. This is a kind of testing ground for debugging aspects that will later be used in the full version of the game.

In a manner, **SH-Demo** can safely be called "*Jameson's Door The Arcade*", which is not an erroneous (though not official) definition.

There are so many differences between the projects that it can be described as a juxtaposition of interactive drama, where the gameplay is used only as a way to advance the player through the story (**Jameson's Door**), and pure action-adventure with a minimum number of story events (**SH-Demo**).

## Plot

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Calm Glade - the location where the main action of the game takes place - was a small town somewhere in Europe that was infamous for the low level of education of the local population, in fact, not much higher than in the poor sections of Africa. But be that as it may, for Jameson Saunders - a loser in life, this was a great place, because he could easily earn a living as an English literature teacher at a local school.

But one fine day, just before the start of the next school year, our teacher wakes up in his apartment and notices that everything around him seems to have been abandoned many, many years ago - there is dust, mold, and no electricity everywhere. He goes outside and starts exploring the town, which, to his surprise, not only had a completely different layout, but also all the inhabitants had disappeared somewhere. In order not to get lost, Jameson decides to check the posters that advertised certain establishments, and having spotted an advertisement for a travel agency, he goes there.

Wandering through the corridors of the travel agency, the hero enters the inner courtyard, when suddenly the sky suddenly turns pitch black, and in the next wing of the Jameson building he meets a certain young man who held the defense against a huge creature. Jameson helps him destroy the creature, and the man, who introduced himself as Edwin Deforest, leaves somewhere on business, and the protagonist has no choice but to leave the building after him.

From what he experienced, his head hurts, and, having gone out into the fresh air, he simply sits on the steps and clasps his head in his hands, but then a long-haired blond in a dark green cloak approaches him, who enters into a conversation with the protagonist. Jameson is perplexed why this man speaks like some kind of crazy fanatic, but from loneliness there is nothing left for him but to follow the advice of W. S. Hargroove (that was the name of the long-haired man) and go to the highway.

Reaching the highway, which was on the other side of the town, and without thinking twice decides to walk away from this place. He comes to the bus stop, however, near he discovers the corpse of a cyclist, and after that a bunch of hellish creatures appear nearby. The protagonist runs ahead and soon finds a lonely standing house and goes there. It turns out to be the residence of a certain Price The Notionalist, whom Jameson vaguely remembers from elementary school, but Jameson can't get into it.

He keeps walking until he enters what looks like a nearby town. Trying to orient himself in a new place, he notices W. S. Hargroove, who is standing near a building that looks a lot like his own house. Jameson calls to W. S. Hargroove, but he smirks and enters the entrance of the building. Jameson runs after him and goes up to the fifth floor, on the flight of stairs of which one door is open, through which the hero enters. It turns out to be his own apartment. Jameson tries to overcome the feeling of deja vu, but in the end, after wandering around the rooms, he decides to leave the building. Has his adventure gone into an endless loop or is it...

## Gameplay

Unlike Jameson's Door, "SH-Demo" does not try to deviate much from the traditions laid down by classic survival horrors like Silent Hill, Resident Evil and more - game invites the player to go through the whole city together with the main character in search of a way out of the current situation, occasionally meeting Non Playable Characters along the way, which can say a few plot things.

As usual, your hero is not immortal - he can be killed by stray creatures. Therefore, the player is given the opportunity to go to the inventory screen, where you can both check how much health the hero has, and check the list of items.

The protagonist cannot carry the map of locations, but this is not a problem in most cases, as the maps is displayed on billboards at the streets as the game progresses. But in locations that take place indoors, this can become a problem, which can be offset by the ability to save at any time during the gameplay.

There are only four weapons in the game, two each for melee and firearms. The first includes a kitchen knife and a harpoon, the second category of weapons includes a pistol and shotgun.

The player can restore their health by killing opponents - a dead creature restores half of the player's current health.

There is no way to predict the appearance of monsters in the game or to illuminate the environment - in other words, the game lacks such stereotypical survival horror details as a radio and a flashlight. The latter follows mainly due to the fact that there are practically no dark places in the game, most of the game takes place outdoors and during the daytime, and indoors, as a rule, the level of lighting is at an acceptable level. There is no stamina counter in the game, i.e. the player, if desired, can run all the time, and the character will not get tired of it.

## Main differences between SH-Demo and Jameson's Door

* *[This concerns the planned ideas for the main game]* Starting in Jameson's apartment is completely absent, game begins right on the street at the porch.
* *[This concerns the planned ideas for the main game]* Cut out all the moments with Virdie, little girl, who is inextricably linked with the history of the Grassfield and Erdoytes families - in fact, that girl and all her relatives do not exist in the world of **SH-Demo**.
* *[This concerns the planned ideas for the main game]* Roughly speaking, everything related to womens and childrens is absent at **SH-Demo**.
* In general, there are only 3 characters in **SH-Demo** - Jameson Saunders (protagonist), Edwin Deforest and W. S. Hargroove (two non-playable characters).
* *[This concerns the planned ideas for the main game]* Omitted many moments containing the hero's monologues and his communication with other characters, which is why the game feels more plotless, and the protagonist is indifferent and almost non prone to self-reflection.
* *[This concerns the planned ideas for the main game]* It follows from the previous fact that side meetings with Edwin and W. S. Hargroove are completely absent.
* *[This concerns the planned ideas for the main game]* House of Price The Notionalist exists in the **SH-Demo**, but the player cannot enter it, so it plays the role of decoration, and its owner and accompanying story are completely missing.
* In this regard, **SH-Demo** completely cut out the moment when the protagonist passes out after visiting Price The Notionalist's house and ends up in the inhabited Calm Glade. Instead, the player walks down the highway to the house where Jameson's apartment is located.
* *[This concerns the planned ideas for the main game]* Based on the previous fact, Phill Childs character and accompanying opponent are completely absent from **SH-Demo**.
* *[This concerns the planned ideas for the main game]* Kylde Shempton's estate is missing in **SH-Demo**.
* Accordingly, W.S. Hargroove appears near the Jameson apartments (this is his second and last appearance in **SH-Demo**) when in the original he destroyed Phill Childs' house and moved the protagonist to estate of Edwin's father.
* **SH-Demo** ends in an apartment, when in **Jameson's Door** it was one of the episodes preceding the finale.
* The game essentially has no end - events end the same way they begin, one might say, the plot is looped in a circle.
* Those dialogues that are present in the game are shown only with subtitles - characters' lines are not accompanied by any voice acting.
* In the gameplay plan, the emphasis is on killing opponents, and not on exploring locations and solving puzzles. In general, the game feels more arcade-like, given the fact that due to the noticeable shortening of the storyline, **SH-Demo** is two or even three times shorter than **Jameson's Door**.
* Player can heal by receiving the energy from died enemies (something like vampirism) when **Jameson's Door** was completely free from the health drain issue (except for one moment caused by the story).
* Combat system has been slightly reworked in the sense that the player saves (and accordingly accumulates) weapons as the game progresses, when in Jameson's Door weapons tended to disappear from the inventory at the end of certain locations.

## Trivia

* For a long time, **Jameson's Door** and **SH-Demo** were interchangeable names for the same game project - the roots of this stem from the fact that the name **Jameson's Door** was suggested by an external man (from *IndiEngine* forum) and was not perceived as something paramount by the main authors (before this name became more famous on the Internet thanks to PR by project's artist).
* The name stands for "Sightless Highland Demo".