I’m a complete newcomer to game development.
This month I kicked off a one-person project: a psychological horror game made in RPG Maker that leans toward a visual novel. Whatever it turns into—good or bad—I want to see it through and document the journey.

From July I began planning, but since I have a full-time job, I can’t sprint through development. July–August was mostly the “blueprint phase”: scenario work, character design, deciding on the number of maps and cutscenes, and general structure.

1) Art Work

Because this is an RPG Maker project, I believe the visuals matter a lot—so I’m sharing art first.
I sketched a piece of key visual art along with a near-final working title.

Synopsis

Han Suho is a young man living as a hikikomori (a shut-in). Cut off from the outside world, he spends his days lost in his own head—carving sculptures, sketching, and building a private universe. He’s become fixated on “Rina,” an ideal woman of his own making, talking to her and even treating her like a real lover—a Pygmalion-like delusion.

One day, Suho is literally pulled into the world of his creations and trapped there. Inside, he encounters Rina—alive and moving. He soon realizes that she’s far more twisted, and far less under his control, than he ever imagined—and resolves to escape this world.

I also drafted some cutscene layouts to get a feel for pacing and composition. I’ll need more work to lock in a consistent art style and UI.

2) Design & Planning

Since this genre lives or dies by its story, I started by writing the scenario and character sheets. The game is planned as three chapters. The goal is to ship Chapter 1 in Early Access in Q3 2026.

• I wrote a detailed flow just for Chapter 1.

• For the full game, I outlined the big skeleton (including ending branches) without over-specifying the later chapters yet.

• There’s also a separate, more granular event list for Chapter 1.

For now, I’ve provisionally set 19 maps and 37 cutscenes for Chapter 1. These numbers may change once development gets fully underway.

After locking the map count, I documented each map’s role/use, mood, and visual references in a separate doc. I’ll be honest: I’m not very confident I can realize every space exactly as I imagine it (lol). Still, I plan to redraw all maps in 2D from scratch.

What’s Next (September)

• Standing portraits (in-game character “standing” illustrations)

• Cutscene illustrations

• For maps/UI, I’ll focus on sketches and reference gathering rather than final polish.

Tools & Mindset

I’ll be using RPG Maker VX Ace. Hitting the visual quality I’m picturing won’t be easy, so I’m bracing for a lot of trial and error.

Thanks for reading—see you in the September devlog!