The Pilgrim's Progress: The Video Game

The Pilgrim's Progress: The Video Game is a game made by Scott Cawthon in 2011.

Gameplay
The Pilgrims Progress: The Video Game

Based on the novel by John Bunyan Game art and programming by Scott Cawthon

"The Pilgrim's Progress" is based on the novel by John Bunyan. It was first published in February 1678. It is considered one of the greatest works in English literature and has been translated into more than 200 languages and has never been out of print. John Bunyan began writing this novel during his twelve year imprisonment for holding religious services outside of the established church at the time, the Church of England.

"The Pilgrim's Progress" is an allegory of a Christian life, starting from the time a person learns of Jesus to the time when they die and reach The Celestial City (Heaven). In the game you take control of Christian as he journeys from his doomed hometown, The City of Destruction, and toward the Celestial City.

The novel is in the public domain and is available free on the internet! It is well worth the time to read as no movie or game will likely ever do it justice.

System Requirements:

Minimum: 1 Ghz 1 Gig of RAM

Recommended: 2 Ghz 2 Gigs of RAM

How to Play:

You will control Christian as he travels from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Along the way you will encounter enemies, complete quests, and meet many interesting characters. By defeating enemies and completing quests will earn you experience points which will raise your spiritual maturity level and give you stat points to power-up your character as you see fit.

Quests range from finding Bibles and giving them to people to venturing into dangerous locations to warn people of the danger they're in!

When you meet up with significant characters from the storyline you will be taken to a cut scene for their conversation to unfold.

Saving your Game:

Game progress is saved automatically upon exiting the game as well as during routine intervals of game play. Do not delete the file named pprogress.txt, that is your save file! The file will be created the first time the game saves your data. It will save to whatever directory your game is located.

Controls:

Arrow keys- Move Christian and select battle commands Z- Jump, and confirm battle commands TAB- Logbook Up arrow- Interact with objects and people Down arrow- Pray. You can press and hold "down" at any time outside of combat to refill your spirit meter.

The Logbook:

While adventuring through the world you can press TAB at any time to view your logbook. Press left and right while in your logbook to flip through the pages. Each page has valuable information about your quest and your character.

Page 1- Stats

After each level up you are awarded 4 stat points to place wherever you like. There are 6 categories of stats, each with a specific purpose. Choose wisely, as stats cannot be redistributed later. If your unused stat points reach 12 (what you would have after 3 level-ups), then your points will be distributed automatically with 2 points going to each stat.

Page 2- Quests

As you journey through the world you will reach pedestals with books on them. Stand over these and press UP to receive new quests for that area. After you have received new quests you can view them on the second page of your logbook. A quest entry with no check mark means that the quest is incomplete. A flashing check mark means you have completed the quest and need to redeem your completed quest for exp. A solid check mark (not flashing) means you have completed the quest and already redeemed it for exp.

Page 3- Focus points

For every 5 levels you gain you will gain 1 focus point to be placed in one of four categories. Focus points can be distributed, reset, and distributed again as needed.

The categories are: Holiness (caused your Holiness blessing to do an extra 5 points of damage per second) Blessings (causes all of your blessing to require 1 fewer turn to become available again) Preparedness (lets you start each battle with 10 points in each of your four bonus stats) Thankfulness (each point in Thankfulness will give extra exp at the end of each battle, depending on difficulty)

These points can be re-allocated as needed. For example, when fighting easier monsters it might be more valuable to have all of your focus points in Thankfulness to receive maximum exp from those enemies. While fighting bosses however you may wants to place those points in something that would play a more active role in battle, such as Holiness or Blessings. To clear through a group of enemies quickly, Preparedness might be the thing to invest in!

The Stats:

There are six stat categories to place your stat points in. After each level up you will gain 1 point in each category plus 4 points that you can place however you wish.

Faith- This is your spiritual strength. This will cause your attacks to do a higher amount of damage to enemies. It is recommended that beginners place extra points in Faith.

Guard- This is your spiritual defense. Increasing this will reduce the amount of damage that your enemies inflict on you. This is also a good thing for beginners to invest in.

Zeal: This is your speed. For every 10 points you have in zeal, your charge speed will increase by 10%, giving you more turns in battle, especially against slower enemies.

Wisdom: Having points in Wisdom will give you an increased chance of evading status attacks such as "Claim" (which slows your characters charge speed by half). Increased Wisdom will give you a greater chance of dodging those attacks. Every two points in Wisdom roughly equals an additional 1% chance to dodge any status effecting attacks.

Prayer: Increasing your Prayer will increase the increment by which your stats are raised when you pray for them. For instance, if you have 10 points placed in Prayer, then when you pray for strength your Strength stat will increase by an additional 10 points. If you build your Prayer stat to 50, then each time you pray for strength your Strength stat will increase by an additional 50 points. Increasing Prayer will also heal your Spirit meter much faster when kneeling to pray out of combat.

Spirit: Building your Spirit will increase the maximum capacity if your Spirit meter. Each point placed in Spirit will give you an additional 25 points of energy.

Quests:

During your journey you will collect a large number of quests in your logbook. Many of these quests can be completed without going out of your way at all. Look for sparkling pedestals with books on them scattered throughout the world. Press "up" while standing over these to get new quests for the area, as well as to "cash-in" the quests that you've already completed to get exp for them. After completing and redeeming a quest you can redo that quest as many times as you like!

Here are some of the initial quests and how to complete them:

Warn Citizens of Destruction- Once you have received this quest simple stand over a person in the City of Destruction and press UP to warn them. Do this 10 times to complete the quest!

Defeat Groundskeepers- Complete this quest simply by defeating 10 Groundskeepers, which are the first enemies you will encounter in the game. There are only 5 of these in the city, so you'll need to leave the city and come back in to defeat the other 5.

Give Bibles- This is a very straightforward quest. As you journey through the game you will find Bibles in your path. Simply touch these to collect them. Then when you see a child asking for a Bible, stand over him/her and press UP to give a Bible to them! Do this 10 times to complete the quest.

Feed the Hungry- Another item you will find during your travels is money! You will find coins scattered everywhere! Collect these then find a food vendor. Stand over the food vendor and press UP to purchase one piece of food for 25 coins. After you have some food with you, find a child asking you to feed him and press UP to give the food to him. Do this 10 times to complete the quest.

Other quests are not so easy. Such as-

Lead a soul to Christ- For this quest you will need to pray in a "Place of Rest" (a glowing cross) and receive the Holy Spirit. Carry this aura until you reach a kneeling pilgrim and press UP on him/her to complete the quest. Without the Holy Spirit it will simply contribute to another quest "Help Pilgrim's Begin Their Journey".

Rescue the Tormented- Once you have received this quest, there is a chance that each enemy encounter will be a special battle in which the enemy will have a captive. These enemies have double the normal amount of life for that enemy type and their names are in red. Defeat this enemy to free the captive and complete the quest.

God's Warrior- This is the most difficult quest of the game. Once you have received this quest you will have to find and defeat 3 demons somewhere in the game world. These will be extremely difficult to find and defeat.

Note: Completing all of the quests in the game (aside from defeating the final boss) will grant you a special reward!

Things to Find:

Throughout the game world you will come across certain items that you can find and collect-

Coins: These will appear at random. Collect them to buy food from food vendors.

Food: Purchase food from food vendors so you can feed any hungry people that you encounter.

Bibles: These will appear at random. Collect these to give to people who ask for them.

Place of Rest: These places appear at random and look like glowing yellow crosses in your path. Stand over these and pray to receive exp and also to receive the Holy Spirit. When you have been charged with the Holy Spirit you will have a yellow glow over you. Encountering an enemy while you have this glow will give you a great advantage at the start of the battle. This is also needed to complete the quest "Lead a Soul to Christ", because you need to be charged with the Holy Spirit to do so.

Battle:

During your journey you will encounter many enemies. Touching an enemy will initiate a combat sequence where you and your enemy will have a charge meter that fills up. When your charge meter fills, you get a turn. When the enemies charge meter fills, they get a turn. When it is your turn, you can choose from several battle options divided into categories. Press UP and DOWN to select an initial category, then press RIGHT to open a sub-menu and pick a command. Press LEFT to close the sub-menu and pick a different category.

Here are the battle commands:

RESIST WITH- These are your attacks. Pick something to resist your enemy with in the sub-menu. You can resist with Faith, Truth, Promise, and Grace. Each enemy in the game will be weak to one of these four things. Find and use the enemies weakness to inflict double damage!

The 5th thing you can resist with is "Power". No enemy will be weak against this but it serves a special purpose. Resist with Power to remove any benefits the enemy may have placed on itself. For instance, if the enemy has increased it's own strength and speed, you may want to use this to remove those and return the enemy to it's original state.

PRAY FOR- Use "Pray for" if you want to temporarily build your stats until the end of the battle. You can pray for Spirit (which will heal your Spirit meter), you can also pray for additional Strength, Protection, Regeneration (refills your life between turns), and Wisdom. These prayers can stack, meaning you can keep praying for the same thing and continue to increase a certain stat. These stats bonuses are capped at 99, however.

HEALING- During combat, you will often be afflicted with "debuffs", things that weaken you in a specific way. You can choose a healing command to ask for healing of a specific type and remove that ailment. Types of Debuffs will be explained later.

BLESSINGS- There are 5 blessings that you can choose from that will give you a certain advantage for a certain amount of time. The types of blessings will be covered later. Each blessing has a cool-down, meaning it can't be used over and over again. You must wait a certain number of turns before the blessing becomes available to you again. Adding Focus points to "Blessings" can reduce this cool-down.

RUN- During most non-boss encounters you can choose to run from battle. Highlighting the "run" option will display your chances for running successfully. Depending on the difficulty mode and enemy strength this chance may be greater or lower, but is usually around 50%. If your attempt to run fails, it amounts to a lost turn.

Blessings:

In battle there are 5 blessings that you can choose from when it's your turn. These blessings can all be active at the same time. However, after using one there is a cool-down period (usually about 8-turns) where that blessing cannot be used again. The number of cool-down turns can be reduced with Focus points.

Holiness- Using Holiness will creating a radiating aura around you that burns evil. Without being powered up it inflicts 10 damage per second between turns. Each Focus points placed in Holiness will increase damage output by 5 points per second.

Authority- While this blessing is active, your attacks will do double damage.

Peace- While this blessing is active, you will have double defense.

Assurance- While this blessing is active, you will be immune to ALL status ailments.

Zeal- While this blessing is active your charge speed will be increased by 50%.

Debuffs:

During combat you will encounter many enemies who can inflict a status impairing effect on you. These are the status effects that can be inflicted.

Doubt- Decreases Faith (strength) by 50%. Chains- Decreases your charge speed by 50% Fear- Reduces your Guard to 0. You are defenseless. Shame- Prevents you from using Blessings. Frustrated- Your Spirit will drain between turns. Confusion- Reduces your Wisdom to 0, meaning all enemy attacks will be successful.

Crosses:

During your adventures you can collect special crosses. The crosses themselves have no magical powers, but rather they remind you of a special blessing you've been given by doing a good deed for someone else.

Silver Cross- Increases the max stat cap to 299 instead of 99. Get this cross by completing all quests on normal mode.

Gold Cross- Increases the max stat cap to 499 instead of 99. Get this cross by completing all quests on difficult mode.

Blue Cross- Increases the duration of all Blessings by 1 turn.

Rose Cross- Fully restores your spirit when it drops below 50%. This will work once per battle.

Green Cross- Gives you exp each time you collect a coin.

Purple Cross- Increases the Focus points you can have in one category from 10 to 15.

Ruby Cross- Starts every battle with your charge meter full, and the enemies charge meter empty.

Amber Cross- Starts every battle with Assurance activated.

White Cross- You will always have an aura of Holiness, damaging enemies your presence. This stacks with the Holiness blessing you can use in battle.

Olive Cross- Increases your default regen amount.

Miracle Cross- 1% of instantly defeating an enemy.

Copyright © 2011 Scott Cawthon