Hotel Eleusis 2021.8.13

IMPORTANT NOTE: This game is not really free. If you play it and like it, please make a donation at my Ko-Fi. Thanks. You're the sweetest.

https://ko-fi.com/deepesttrilby

Why do it this way? See the PAYMENTS SAGA at the bottom.

You're not sure how you got to the Hotel Eleusis. You're not sure how to get out of the Hotel Eleusis. The Hotel Eleusis is a very strange place.

There are a lot of other people in this hotel and most of them don't seem to think it's as strange as you do. Or, at least they're not willing to admit it. They might say more if they were friendlier. They might get friendlier if you ... well, it certainly does seem like sex is the main activity of the hotel, and maybe you should just go with the flow ... or maybe not. Some of these people seem like their intentions aren't good. Maybe having sex with them is a bad idea ...

Hotel Eleusis is an explicit game for adults only. It's an interactive novel for the kind of people who would thumb through Choose Your Own Adventure books trying to find all the bad endings, and who secretly wished those bad endings were maybe just a little kinkier. This game has a lot of endings, and some of them are very bad indeed. Along the way you'll have many, many body changes, including into non-human forms; you'll get your mind controlled or altered so often that you'll probably forget what normal is; you'll end up in some situations you never thought would be sexy but are a pleasant surprise, and others you really could have done without. You'll meet a lot of interesting people, including several who really could use a punch in the face. And you'll have sex. A lot of sex.

REASONS YOU SHOULD PLAY THIS GAME:

- As many words as a full-length novel, probably competently written

- The mystery of the hotel, what it is, why it's there, and how to get out of it (for when you get tired of the sex)

- Over a thousand images

- Four playable characters, each of whom will play out slightly differently in many ways

- Thirty-five different endings

- Sex scenes galore

- A lot of weirdness, none of which can be shown in the screenshots here because it'd spoil the surprises

- Sometimes funny because sex is really pretty hilarious, especially when you've been turned into a giant balloon animal by two maniacal clowns (oops! OK, you can have one surprise for free)

- Amusing achievements

- Runs on a potato

- Cheap (see below)

REASONS YOU MAY NOT WANT TO PLAY THIS GAME (hey, fair's fair):

- No music

- No sound of any kind, in fact

- No animated content

- No combat

- This game really is text; the images are still images like illustrations in a book, and this is an experience that is mostly about reading

- One person's "wow, I've never seen that kink in a game before, how cool" is another person's "eww oh god I have to run away screaming now," and this game has, shall we say, something for everybody

- Obviously not for the smut-averse, though they stopped reading two paragraphs ago anyway

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BUG-FREE? PROBABLY NOT

The development team for this game was one (1) person. Me. (Hi.) I wrote the words, did the RenPy scripting, made the images, and everything else. But it's always a bad idea to proofread your own work; you miss things. I had one friend who went above and beyond the call of duty as a beta-tester. Though she did an excellent job, really I should have had a lot more people test this game. I couldn't. No one else had the time.

So, while this game is as bug-free as I can make it, please do bear in mind that only two people have played/tested it extensively before release. If you find something, please let me know! It's entirely possible I may be able to fix it relatively quickly and put out a new version!

(The Mac version has been tested far less than the Windows version, so if you're on a Mac, godspeed. But any gameplay bugs we've found have been platform-agnostic, so your odds are good.)

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THE PAYMENTS SAGA

(or, How Adult Content Gets Screwed, And I Don't Mean In The Fun Way):

I was not originally going to list this game on itch.io. I was originally going to list it on Steam. However, Steam has been sitting on the completed game, locking it in their approval process, for six months as I write this, and I think they are deliberately not letting it out.

I would rather have put it on itch.io in the first place, but if I put it on itch.io, I can't charge for it ... and this game, love it or hate it, was a year's work.

"What do you mean, you can't charge for it here?" you ask.

Itch.io accepts two payment processors: PayPal and Stripe. itch.io doesn't give a damn about content unless you're doing something illegal, but they do say that you're subject to the whims of the processors. OK, let's have a look, then:

PayPal: "You may not use the PayPal service for" [...] "(g) items that are considered obscene" [...] "(i) certain sexually oriented materials or services."

Notice the weasel wording. People have been arguing for long years about what "obscene" means, and the "certain" in the second block is shifty too. This gives them the ability to tolerate certain adult content while banhammering others, with zero accountability, not even a need to give a reason, which is certainly the PayPal way.

Stripe lists under their "Restricted Businesses" (which are actually "Forbidden Businesses"): "Pornography and other obscene materials (including literature, imagery and other media) depicting nudity or explicitly sexual acts."

At least they don't weasel!

Payment processors are cowards, and lazy as well. There are definitely bad apples in the adult-goods industry, but rather than pick those out individually and ban them, the payment people just use a blunt hammer and ban all of it so they don't have to think about it. The major credit-card processors are not much better.

So, I cannot charge for this game directly on itch.io. Instead, I am asking you for a personal donation--a gesture of support that is not in any way linked to any adult content. You may, of course, donate any amount you like, or you may cheapskate out and pay nothing, but the suggested donation is eight bucks, which is what I was going to charge for the game on Steam. Since Steam isn't taking a thirty percent haircut off the top, I am giving part of any donations to Ko-Fi to help them stay in business.

That number again is:

https://ko-fi.com/deepesttrilby

Thank you for understanding.