Greetings. I am Eiennoyume2000, a solo indie developer creating a VN-RPG titled Aletheion: Juvenile Experiments (A:JE). I do software development professionally, draw novice art as a hobby, and write stories as a wannabe. I do all three for this project and I'm learning as I go.

Presently, the itch game page is still under development and not yet ready for public release.

For now, I'm going to use the forums for my devlogs to share my thoughts and progress leading up to that first playable demo, and eventually, the full game. I aim to update this devlog periodically when I have significant progress to share, preferably once a month.

General Synopsis

A:JE is a psychological horror RPG with Visual Novel elements. The player takes on the role of an unseen Observer overseeing an experiment involving Juvenile Subjects in a virtually simulated school environment. The subjects themselves are not aware of the simulation layer.

Most of the game will have the player Observer "play" as one of the Juvenile Subjects inside the simulation. Player observes as the subjects live and interact with each other in this controlled environment, form bonds and romances, or betray and end one another.

Occasionally, the player Observer may influence a Subject's actions through dialogue choices, leading to potential branching routes. The player Observer's job is to break down the Juvenile Subjects mentally in order to mold them into useful assets for the powers that be.

You cannot save them.
Do not try to save them.
You will fail.

Planned Features

• Shift between Observer POV looking outside the Simulation and Student POV navigating school life.
• The primary focus of A:JE is narrative storytelling with branching storylines. Observer POV will have access to Flowcharts, a staple of Visual Novels.
• RPG mechanics involve exploring the campus, choosing which student to bond with, and navigating death traps to keep your Student POVs alive.
• Student POVs can acquire various collectibles scattered around the campus, later accessible through the Observer POV. Collectibles like data logs and news clippings further explain Aletheion lore.
• No RPG combat is planned. Conflicts are resolved narratively through choices.

Technical Details

• I am using RPG Maker MZ as my engine, plus various plugins notably VisuStella and Galv. I also write my own custom code whenever necessary.
• Art assets in game are a mix of original creations and modified assets purchased from vendors.
• Sound and music are sourced from commercially usable free assets and purchased assets.

Screenshots

The game is in development for almost a year now, which includes several months of skilling up. This involves learning RPG Maker to write custom code, improving my art skills for pixel sprites and CG illustrations, and doing other miscellaneous tasks like sound design and content creation for marketing.

Sharing my old build for archiving purposes.

November 2025 ~ second month of Aletheion game development.

I mostly fixed a few introductory lines and added a temporary MacGuffin item for the demo.

The video's goal is to showcase the school environment developed.

The assets used were based on VisuStella Worlds: Cursed School, purchased then modified to fit my game's aesthetic vision. I also mixed in some original works into the tilesets, notably the smart panel objects scattered throughout the environment.

The character sprites at the time use in-engine character generator, serving as placeholders.

Presently, the environment is in a grayboxed state, as in my game is playable and navigable, but would still need significant art polish.

Right now, the background parallaxes are default RPG Maker MZ assets. I plan to experiment with some special effects where the main passable areas (school hallways and rooms) are made in RPG Maker's tile layers while the impassable areas outside the windows will be parallax layered, which may change based on certain conditions (day and night cycles for example).

Here are some more screenshots from the showcase as well as some thoughts.

Most of the other areas shown in the video still lack proper assets. Science Lab, Culinary Class, Music and Art Rooms. But the Library looks mostly okay for what I already have.

All actors and event sprites are still placeholders, but some are presently used to test out several game mechanics that I will eventually use for my death traps. Video Showcase features Proximity contact checks, movement condition checks, and behavior change on trigger. Plugins make some of the coding a little easier, though I can create my own code if there are no core code or plugin solutions existing for my use cases.

August 2026 ~ Almost a full year of Aletheion game development

• Roughly half of Campus Grounds areas are now accessible.
• Created an original windowskin with cybertech theme and hexgrid patterns.
• Official character sprites were created for the main male and female leads, as well as two supporting characters and a mannequin used as a template for all of them.
• Added royalty-free music from Storyteller Pack by Joel Steudler. I also added sound effects acquired from Pixabay for basic UI sounds (Confirm, Cancel, Select).
• Custom-coded Menu that resembles a smartphone. Wallpaper still uses default RPG Maker assets.

With that said, the video showcase did not show everything I've done in the past year for the game:

• Studying pixel art, from concepts to software (GIMP and Aseprite) to implementation (RPG Maker spritesheets plus Galv's Animations and Frames), that enabled me to create my character assets as showcased.
• *Several months focused on studying art: improving my novice-level pen and paper drawing skills, and learning digital art from scratch with related software (Clip Studio Paint).
• Studying and prototyping RPG Maker MZ, learning intricacies of the engine as well as the plugins enabling me to write my own code. Some Observer POV menu UI has been created but isn't shown in the video.
• Learning basic audio manipulation (via Audacity) so I can fine-tune some sound effects that I would use in the game.
• Miscellaneous activities outside the game: Itch.io profile setup, video content creation (via Kdenlive), and some light marketing research.

Design Decisions

Here are some design decisions I have made throughout game development.

Character sprites have almost twice the height compared to the average RPG Maker size. Regular RPG Maker MZ tile size is 48x48. The default character sizes follow the same grid size with a head to height ratio of 1:2. For A:JE I settled on using 96x96 sprites with 1:5 head ratio. This ratio is not too "chibi" deformed, but not too realistically proportioned either. 

Actual character heights are approximately 78~80px tall when standing upright; with a 1:5 head ratio this leaves me with a 16x16 head size and roughly 8x8px for the face. At this scale, face sizes relative to player view may be too small for conveying emotions. As such, I plan to eventually add picture busts when they deliver their dialogues. Busts cover a character's head and upper chest, which is a larger coverage than RPG Maker's default face-only portraits.

Full body character cut-ins and CG illustrations are also planned but will be used sparingly, relative to how much I can realistically do.

I plan to implement my own Menu UI, building on the infrastructure established by the core RPG Maker MZ and plugins like VisuStella MZ. 

When properly wired, new custom scenes and windows can inherit behaviors defined in VisuStella plugins. For instance, the Item and Equipment Core plugin introduces an easier Item Category navigation using left and right keys.

Note: Most character images used here are still RPG Maker default assets or from in-engine character generator, all serving as placeholders.

Closing Statement

Originally, I scoped my game as a 1 year project, then immediately corrected to 2 years during my initial planning phase, then later on adjusted my estimates to probably 3 years when I was already working on the game. Looking back on my 1 year mark, a significant amount of time was spent on studying and improving my own skills that I can apply to my game, most notably my art.

In the upcoming months, I plan to focus on creating more art assets for the game. I plan to do character sprites for the rest of my cast in game, then make several iterations on character portraits and illustrations up to a state that is satisfactory to my own standards.

My current goal is a playable 30-minute demo sometime in the first half of 2027, featuring all of the Student cast, some death trap mechanics, and very light exploration. Observer POV with the flowcharts and Simulation layer will be showcased at a later date.

Thank you for your time reading my devlog.

September 2026

Hello again.

It has been a month since my last devlog. I have made a few updates for my upcoming game:

• Created sprite and bust image for a new character: Sensei.
• Created bust images for two supporting characters.
• Replaced placeholder art for my phone wallpaper from standard RPG Maker asset to original art created by me.

Currently, the bust images are still crudely placed using RPG Maker's Show Picture tool in the Events. I may look into acquiring VisuStella plugins or implementing some UI elements so they don't just awkwardly float on screen.

There were also a lot of work done that are not visible as game content. I have made steady efforts to improve my own art skills this past month. I have drawn numerous art pieces both by hand and digital, steadily refining my skills through lots of trial and error. Lessons learned range from lineart techniques, to coloring, shading and composition. 

I'm still nowhere near capable of creating what you would consider eye-catching illustrations by 2026 anime standards, but I think I have reached a baseline level that's usable for my game as you can see in the images presented above. I hope you like them.

This update is fairly lightweight. For the next few months, I will continue to develop assets for more of my characters. From here on, I want to include bust images alongside my sprites.

That would be all for my game updates. Thank you for reading my devlog.

In closing, here is an NG piece of my character I have made this month, drawn in an angle I am not yet used to. On the left is the hand-drawn art from my notebook, with the photo taken using my stellar photography skills. And on the right is a digitized rendering of it.

October 2026

Hello again

It has been more than a month since my last update. I have since developed the following:

The playable segment of my prologue with proper polish of the environment.

• New enemies with unique spritesheets and basic behavior.
• HUD elements, notably a Diamond button with contextual functions based on game state.
• I have created a YouTube demo showcasing these elements:

Some elements showcased are still placeholders: some character sprites I have yet to draw and most story-related dialogue.

The demo is purely gameplay for now as story elements are still in development.

Design Details

For the environment, I have created new assets for walls, floors, and props to fully align with my art direction. Some purchased assets are still used sparingly with heavy modifications.

Sound effects are royalty-free assets downloaded from Pixabay and Mixkit.

HUD elements have been drawn then coded into the game by me.

• The Upper Left HUD is still empty, but it's intended to contain Date and Time indicators similar to the Persona series.
• The Bottom Right Diamond updates its context based on game state (more on this later).

Enemy behaviors are basic

• The circular robots have basic patrol patterns with an attached proximity event check. Getting too close results in offscreen death.
• Some rooms have cameras with mounted guns which check for fast movement. The player gets one warning about "NO RUNNING!" Violating it a second time results in offscreen death.
• Since my game will feature no combat, gameplay will primarily be environmental puzzles and dodging enemies on the map. Failure will often result in Game Over, but I eventually plan on placing convenient checkpoints so players do not lose a lot of progress.

VisuStella plugins handle some key functionalities

• Camera work, lighting, and sound effects that help improve gameplay immersion.
• Visual Novel staples like Auto-play, Skip, Hide, and Logs. Their functions have been wired to my Diamond button.
• Event processing for pushing and pulling objects, as well as behaviors like proximity checks.
• Text pop-ups as well as Tutorial pop-ups.

Diamond Button

The Diamond button primarily has two modes: Free Move and Message.

• During Free Move: Top button opens standard Menu, Right button opens system Menu, Left button primarily toggles walking and running, and Bottom button hides my HUD.
• During Message: Top button does fast Skip, Right button opens Logs, Left button toggles Auto-play, and Bottom button hides the message box and my HUD.

Touch, Keyboard, and Controller Support

As RPG Maker MZ already handles multiple ways to play the game, I also made sure my custom functionalities work properly regardless if players prefer to play on a touch screen (which also includes mouse clicks), keyboard, or controller.

At the moment, I do not have plans to accommodate full control rebinding, but I may consider limited options in the future.

Next Plans

I plan to implement a supplementary module that will help me write strings more conveniently. VisuStella already has a functionality for storing strings in TSV files and just calling those strings through keys. This infrastructure sounds promising as my game will feature a large amount of dialogue. The base RPG Maker engine is rather clunky when it comes to modifying messages in Show Text, so having an efficient way to update strings is a worthwhile investment.

Afterwards, I will continue polishing the next playable segments of my game, notably the school grounds section featured in my previous demos. I may not be able to create new spritesheets for a while, but my characters do have placeholders I can use for the time being.

That is all for this update.

Thank you for your time reading my devlog.