Project

Under Inkwell

A short dating sim for adults, spun off from Second Floor: seven days in a 1962 fallout shelter with Nova the tattoo artist, an air filter that wheezes and four endings. In development.

Client: Own project
Year: 2026
Role: Game design & development

Game development Ren'Py

The idea

Saturday night, 11:40 p.m. You're Nova's last walk-in at Inkwell Tattoo on Ferry Street. Then a chemical train derails on the River Bridge, the city orders everyone to shelter in place, and the old bank building Inkwell rents turns out to have a 1962 fallout shelter in the basement. Seven days below the shop with a stranger, an air filter that wheezes, a radio that barely talks and one water heater.

Nova is one of the four neighbours in Second Floor; this is her story.

What it is

Scavenge the storeroom for parts, the money of this game, and spend them fixing the air filter, the radio and the water heater, one repair a day
Nova's route: seven story beats, each gated by a repair, the day and how close you are, plus a repeatable afternoon hangout. Stay friends and she has a flash sheet to show you on day 6
Keep the place together: let the air filter slip and the fire brigade digs you out early, and on day 4 the big water drum springs a leak
Side scenes that don't use up the day: cranking the filter with Nova, a 1962 shelter log behind the cracker crates, one bar of phone signal on the stairs. What you choose in them comes back when you walk out
Four endings: Fresh Air, Seven Days, One Tattoo, All Clear and the one where the filter gives out
For adults: every character is 25 or older. Intimate scenes fade to black by default, with a toned-down option and an opt-in explicit level

Built with

Ren'Py 8.5.3, on the engine shared with Second Floor, Pinewater and the other Ren'Py games
The story is written as data in a JavaScript browser prototype and exported to Ren'Py, and a validator plays thousands of simulated runs to check that every scene and ending can be reached
Nova's painted sprites and the tattoo studio come from Second Floor; the shelter rooms are painted locally with Stable Diffusion through SwarmUI, over the game's own drawn rooms
Written and built with Claude Code

Status

In development, at version 0.1. The whole week plays through to all four endings. Not released yet.

The idea

Nova is one of the four neighbours in Second Floor; this is her story.

What it is

Scavenge the storeroom for parts, the money of this game, and spend them fixing the air filter, the radio and the water heater, one repair a day

Nova's route: seven story beats, each gated by a repair, the day and how close you are, plus a repeatable afternoon hangout. Stay friends and she has a flash sheet to show you on day 6

Keep the place together: let the air filter slip and the fire brigade digs you out early, and on day 4 the big water drum springs a leak

Side scenes that don't use up the day: cranking the filter with Nova, a 1962 shelter log behind the cracker crates, one bar of phone signal on the stairs. What you choose in them comes back when you walk out

Four endings: Fresh Air, Seven Days, One Tattoo, All Clear and the one where the filter gives out

For adults: every character is 25 or older. Intimate scenes fade to black by default, with a toned-down option and an opt-in explicit level

Built with

Ren'Py 8.5.3, on the engine shared with Second Floor, Pinewater and the other Ren'Py games

The story is written as data in a JavaScript browser prototype and exported to Ren'Py, and a validator plays thousands of simulated runs to check that every scene and ending can be reached

Nova's painted sprites and the tattoo studio come from Second Floor; the shelter rooms are painted locally with Stable Diffusion through SwarmUI, over the game's own drawn rooms

Written and built with Claude Code