Planned Release Date: Dec 29, 2026

About This Game

Aika Was Supposed to Die is a psychological drama visual novel about reputation, violence, guilt, and the consequences of trying to save someone without truly knowing them.

It begins with a fight in the courtyard of the prestigious Hoshinawa School. Within minutes, phones are recording, rumors are spreading, and one act of violence changes the lives of everyone involved.

At the center of the story is Aika—a girl who learned to smile when everyone expected her to fall apart. As conflicting versions of the truth emerge, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate care from control, love from obsession, and truth from convenience.

Experience a cinematic narrative driven by flawed characters, complicated relationships, and the secrets each person would rather keep hidden.

Chapter One features:

• A psychological drama told as a visual novel

• Multiple animated cinematic sequences

• Exploration and interactive moments

• Characters with conflicting motivations

• An original soundtrack

• Full English voice acting

• Interface and subtitles in multiple languages

• A carefully directed linear narrative

This is the first chapter of a larger story. Some subjects disclosed in the content description may only be explored in later chapters.

Content warning: This story addresses sensitive subjects including suicide, violence, emotional abuse, substance abuse, trauma, and mental health. Intended for mature audiences.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Hi everyone. I want to be open about how this game was made and why generative AI was used.

Aika Was Supposed to Die began as a story that I wrote and developed over more than two years. The world, characters, dialogue, themes, and narrative direction were all written by me. I cared deeply about this story, and eventually I felt that a visual novel would be the best way to bring it to life.

As an independent developer working with a limited budget, hiring a full team of artists is not financially possible for me right now. I greatly value human-made art and the work of professional artists. I am also a 3D artist who works with Unreal Engine, so this is something I genuinely care about.

Rather than leave the story untold, I chose to use generative AI as part of the visual production process. The game’s images and video assets were created with the assistance of generative AI tools. However, I did not want that to become an excuse for delivering something careless or low-quality. In fact, having access to these tools encouraged me to be as ambitious as possible with the project.

I created and refined a large number of images and animated sequences to give the game a richer and more cinematic presentation. Every asset was carefully directed, selected, edited, revised, and manually integrated into the story, with the goal of providing players with a cohesive, polished, and emotionally engaging experience.

The writing, narrative design, scene direction, timing, editing, and final creative decisions were all handled by humans. Generative AI was used as a production tool, not as a replacement for authorship, creative direction, or care. No AI content is generated during gameplay.

If the game becomes successful enough to support a larger production, I would love to work with professional artists on future chapters. Until then, this approach has allowed me to share a story that means a great deal to me while doing everything within my reach to make the final experience cohesive, personal, and emotionally meaningful.

Thank you for giving this story a chance.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

WARNING: PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE PLAYING.

This game contains or may contain across its current and future chapters:

Suicide
Violence
Domestic abuse
Child abuse
Blood
Murder
Drug and alcohol references
Psychological trauma
Strong language