Belladonna is a gothic adventure game, twisted and dark. Take the role of a corpse girl rising from the dead in an abandoned laboratory, and unravel the mysteries concerning your own death and reanimation. After the death of their young child, doctor Wolfram von Trauerschloss and his wife Belladonna are left to deal with the tragedy however they are able. The doctor launches into a dark obsession, devoting his life to the quest of conquering death. The madness spreads and Belladonna is soon dragged into the despair, but the tale takes surprising turns as the dead are brought back to life and the living are not to be trusted.
I made a quick and messy of the doctor, and husband of Belladonna, who discovers a way to re-animate corpses. The concept is intentionally kept messy, because it will also serve as a painting on a wall inside the game, so it has to look even more painted than the rest of the environment.
The doctor, possibly named Frans, is the villain of the story. It is worth noting, however, that he is no megalomaniac set on world domination. In fact, he is hardly evil at all. His sin is that he tends to overreact when he feels he’s being treated unjustly. When his baby son dies, he dedicates himself to the task of bringing the dead back to life. When his wife is unfaithful his mind immediately jumps to murder.
A lot of the narrative is from the perspective of this character, and my ambition is to constantly redeem him, and give motivations for all his villainous acts. Belladonna herself is no saint either, and her husband definitely feels justified in his actions.