Guide lost souls through the birth of a new world in The Interim Domain, a mystery visual novel currently in development by ILSProductions.

The Interim Domain is a visual novel currently being developed by Kinderfeld and their studio, ILSProductions. The story takes place briefly after the end of the world. In this universe, all creation eventually expires, whereupon its energy is then gathered by metaphysical beings and used to create a new world. This time, though, the process seems to have gone awry. The world ended prematurely due to a white flash of unknown origin, with the energy not yet being ready to recreate all of existence.

Throughout all this, the player takes the role of a young salaryman trying to stay out of everyone’s way. After going to sleep right before the world ended, he wakes up in the Interim Domain. Most of its inhabitants are mere shadows — silhouettes of people waiting for the next world to be born. The young man is different, though, as he's one of the few chosen to become archons: beings tasked with collecting the energy of those passing through the domain, so that they may use it to help shape the world that is to come. Initially, much of this is too difficult for the protagonist to understand. Thankfully, Mira, one of the beings taking care of this natural process, arrives to guide the protagonist.

The domain is composed of memories and ideas of different places, as people have remembered them. As such, it is a small world that constantly feels wrong, with everything being just slightly different from how it was before the end. While most people are only here temporarily, a few harbor regrets that anchor them to the domain. The archon’s job is to enter their lives and help them find peace. If the archon succeeds, the wandering soul gets to pass onto the next world and their energy becomes part of the archon. If they fail, lost souls eventually become unable to move on, fated to roam the endless void between worlds once the transition finishes.

In the recently-released first demo of The Interim Domain, players get to meet the key characters and learn about the basis of the domain itself. The story's progression is linear so far, but it's been confirmed that time management will play a role in future builds. The upcoming chapter will feature side segments between main beats of the story, during which the player gets to decide which characters they would prefer to aid during their spare time. There's no adult content in the game at the moment, save for Mira’s own notably erotic design. Future builds of the visual novel will feature depictions of both sex and violence.

The Interim Domain is being developed by Kinderfeld, who introduces themselves as a professional graphic designer and a self-published author. Creating visual novels was their first foray into programming, which began with their still-ongoing project, Now & Then, and continues today with The Interim Domain. Their current goal is to create story-driven visual novels where choices impact both conversations and the outcome of their games.

You can now download The Interim Domain from Itch.io for PC, Mac and Android. The visual novel is also available on ILSProductions’ Patreon, where you can stay updated on the games’ development and support its creators. Patrons of the project gain up to 5 days of early access to future builds of the game and sneak peaks of upcoming content.

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