Hello everyone! Duhop here, glad to be back with another monthly devlog :D

This month, I want to talk about something that I have always thought is special, unique, and important about Alex's Journey to the Grave; censorship, or the purposeful lack thereof.

From the very beginning, I have set out to create a dark, emotional, and visceral experience. I've deliberately shown and exemplified the darkest of the main characters' darkest moments, in unusually graphic detail.

I want it to feel like the story is realitythat the pain and discomfort is inescapablein the very same way it feels for the characters. I don't want it to feel like there is some mysterious author, or social/corporate politics, or any other third party curating/watering down their reality. I don't want the darkest, most critically intense moments to be simply alluded to, then copped out of with a timely fade to black. I don't want the absolute most critical thoughts and experiences of the characters to be censored in any conceivable way.

Why? Because I think it's important. Important that someone shows them.

I think it's important for people to see and experience these things that so many are so scared to portray, address, or talk about directly. I think it's important for those who can relate to feel wholly seen for once; to understand that they truly aren't alone in their reality, and to realize that it really is possible to overcome the darkest depths imaginable.

I also think it's important for those who can't relate to see exactly what has been so consistently hidden from them; to learn exactly what it's like to have these experiences that society has swept under the rug so deliberately, and to gain empathy for struggles they might not have the perspective to understand otherwise.

I want parents to understand the struggles of their children, teachers the struggles of their students, and professionals the perspective of their patients. I want sons, daughters, and pupils to feel comfortable opening up about their issues, knowing that they will be taken seriously; that they won't be at risk of having their freedom stripped away from them, or being forced to endure inhumane "treatment" at the hands of someone who doesn't even have a clue what they're going through.

Unfortunately for me and my wants, there are people in this world that are sensitive to such graphic depictions. People that preferand are indeed better offavoiding them. Since the game does have a content warning, I never really planned to do much more than that to address the issue, but it's weighed on my mind for just as long as my resolution to avoid censorship in the first place.

After my perspective on the game changed more recently (see last months devlog), that weight grew even heavier. To the point it was almost suffocating.

However, much to my surprise, a certain feline appears to have taken things into her own paws recently... and honestly, I'm pretty satisfied with her new solution to directly ask the player to make a choice about censorship. It's a new direction that I believe will help the game become a lot more inclusive, without necessarily sacrificing one of the main things that makes it so unique and important to me.

And so, that's where we enter our development update for the month. Basically, we've been working on accommodating a meddling cat's unexpected early appearance.

Here's an early visual mockup I made of what she's been getting up to, to help with testing all the new dialogue:

[img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdvwtkg8pSGE9L31KasnuaT6fc1YPlu96YCcwwCmLSbFx50fVs1lC7MKg_tne1Ub3bbofJ3bAw9Tm54TiNbDGOzaao10pP6mCc92qwSQV0WhhslvE_pCrvh4MEy65lDFpotpIXsvQ?key=hew8BZKWYR5t3C6E5cS-KA"][/img]

I've been hesitant to share early mockup/reference assets like this before, but I suppose a devlog is the perfect place to do so. Especially after we've proven so many times just how polished our final art will get >:D

Something I struggled with myself was visualizing how to make a cat sufficiently expressive, but thankfully, our character artist Paintedtrash is more than knowledgeable and skilled enough to solve that for the both of us. She didn't even bat an eye at my dilemma.

Here's some of her early progress sketching out some different facial features for us to construct expressions with:

[img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfxC5wvIuR8VAMGvCxGvUsyTY3bQfASzoMhXxlAj5p52hpiQq6GS0lhd2cFDw1WABBcRsW6VDb2lM3JtCVE-qPbia32A-UYZ3uwENSSW9pzm5yD3wwKxSYCCP-ZwhhxSbwDOkft?key=hew8BZKWYR5t3C6E5cS-KA"][/img]

I've been very pleasantly surprised at how awesome these sketches have been looking so far. I suppose the unique physiology is why feline expressions were so hard for me to imagine originally, but it's also their strong-suit. They can be even more expressive than humans, with all the extra options you have with their ears, pupils, and tails. I'm really excited to finally bring her to life, in her fully polished glory. Hopefully by next month's devlog, I'll have an expressive meddling cat to show you all! And again, thank you so much for taking the time to check in with us and read through this month's update :D

-Duhop

[ 2025-07-01 22:31:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone. Duhop here, lead developer for Alex's Journey to the Grave. I have to apologize for our recent lack of updates and communication. Im sorry to say that was because development of the game has essentially been on hold for the past couple of months, following the news that one of our team members had passed away. I wont get into the specifics of that right nowplans are in the works for us to preserve their memory as best we can, and I want to make sure we can take our time to do that properly. The real purpose of this devlog is to break the silence, and usher in a new era in the development of Alexs Journey to the Grave. Im doubtful that its still possible for our small team to finish the game by Q4 of 2025 now, as we had originally projected, but were still gonna try our damn hardest. After recovering from the initial heartbreak, I personally dont think Ive ever been more motivated to finish AJG than I am right now. Its hard to put into words, but my perspective on the game has shifted dramatically after what happened. There are some new directions Ive set my mind on; some scenes I only vaguely considered before that I now see as absolutely necessary, and some big alterations to the philosophy for how I want the game to interact with its players. Anyway, the direction I want to take things feels as though it has solidified with some serious emotional motivation behind it, and that has lit a whole new fire inside of me. I think I will be much more open about discussing writing, story planning, and directing like that in future devlogs, but Ill still make sure to mark and tag those parts for anyone who wants to avoid spoilers. That reminds mewe'll be posting devlogs every single month from now on (as long as nothing else cataclysmic ends up going down), as well as weekly social media posts. The social media posts have been happening for a while now, actually. (Check our Instagram!) And finally, although we did slow down and take some long breaks over the past two months, we werent at a complete standstill. Here is a taste of some art weve finished/been working on since the last update:

Recognize this place? Maybe if you played our first game ;D

What do you think is out there?
Thank you so much for taking the time to check in with us. I look forward to bringing you more updates soon! -Duhop

[ 2025-05-12 20:50:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're proud to present the extra-polished demo for Alex's Journey to the Grave in this year's Steam Visual Novel Fest!

Hello everyone, Duhop from Violet Horizons here. We've been hard at work for ages, and I'm super, super excited to be able to participate in the Steam VNFest! A new update for the demo has just been released, fixing every one of the small number of issues we've found since it first released. You can read up on the changes here, if you're interested! I was already incredibly proud of how well the demo came together, and now it's only gotten better. I hope the love and attention we've given it will ensure a fantastic experience for players during the fest! If you do happen to find anything that doesn't seem quite right in your playthrough, please do let us know. Whether that's on the Steam forums, social media, or on our discord, we will be grateful for the intel! Thank you so much for reading, and I sincerely hope you enjoy the demo if you give it a go! As a parting gift, here's a cute chibi Flora with cat:

[ 2025-03-04 01:47:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! In preparation for the Steam Visual Novel Fest, we've pushed an update to the demo to make sure it's extra polished up and ready to be scrutinized. Special thanks goes to all the streamers who played the demo in the past few days after our Keymailer campaign! Tuning into their streams is what ended up helping us find some of the last few hidden little typos and bugs that we're fixing in this patch. You can find and watch their VODs here, so go check out their reactions to the demo and give them some love! Now for the informational part:

AJG Demo 2.1 Changelog

Programming:

- Updated to a newer version of Ren'Py. - Fixed several incompatability issues that came up. (Shoutout to renpytom for fixing one of these on the engine side!!) - Fixed the line "And I'm... being hugged." getting skipped past automatically after 2 seconds.

Writing:

- Fixed typos: "actuall" to "actually", "from all side" to "from all sides", "lifegaurds" to "lifeguards". - Added em dashes to the font and switched from hyphens to em dashes where appropriate.

Art:

- Fixed calendar length in Tombstone's room. - Updated Flora's room with better details and lighting. - Made cute chibi art of Flora and cat.

Thank you so much for reading!

[ 2025-03-04 00:34:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alex's Journey to the Grave is finally going to hit the public eye this Monday, November 4th, in the form of a free demo covering Act 1 of the 6 that will be in the final game! Here's the store page for the demo! Act 1 is 15,000 words or around 1.5 hours long for the average reader. It tells the story of how our two main characters met and had their fates intertwined. A dark room, an online chat, a new perspective, a bright smile, a warm embrace... and a growing, inescapable fear. I'm extremely proud of how polished the demo has turned out, and I believe it will definitely catch the attention of anyone within the target audience. If you have any interest in Alex's Journey to the Grave at all, please give it a play through! I've opened up some threads for feedback here on the Steam forums, or more directly you can join our Discord community and discuss the game there: https://discord.gg/9XQVquY4U8 See you on Monday!!!

[ 2024-11-02 21:35:40 CET ] [ Original post ]