Hello! Sylvan here (also known as Syllphana)! Guess who thought that they're not gonna release any game this year, only to release rotten angel lol

Welcome to my behind-the-scenes dev log! For those new around here, I usually do this long rambling about what goes on behind the production of my works where I just yap about whatever I want. Mostly about how I feel before, during, and after production. Or about the characters and settings. Or about the process of how I make these VNs (in this case, how WE made this VN, because I worked on rotten angel with my lovely friends!)

This is my part of the process. The other members are still typing their pieces and I'll be posting them separately since they seem to have a lot to say! Stay tuned to hear their side of the story too!!

Now without further ado...

The Beginning

For those who have followed me for a while and read For Amerta's bts post, you might already be familiar with Enjel and Evan. Their first designs popped up like once or twice in my instagram story, but I've never really made up a story for them. Like I have an idea, but I kept on changing it over and over again until I gave up on them. Or at least I set them aside until I found the perfect story for them.

Funny story, the first idea I came up for them was that Enjel was the main love interest that got cheated on by Evan. So their roles are reversed in the final product LOL. My idea was to have Enjel shy but caring and loyal, and Evan confident and charming but an ass. The ending for that was Enjel bursting into the bedroom where Evan and the MC was about to do the freaky. When Enjel saw that, he got so pissed so he killed them both LMAOOO

Hence why I sketched them like this. This was their design before my friend, Yonnechi, changed it slightly.

Haha also that edit is a hoax lmao what tf does the past me mean you won't see them. I was indecisive but I also STILL AM indecisive, some things just never change I guess...

While I'm at it, here are some alternative designs for them and previous doodles I drew

They were a lot more goth... That's for sure...

Here are also another idea where I morphed Evan and Enjel into one. There's also Azazel too!

I forgot what the idea for this was. I think it was just a normal yandere VN where Azazel was haunted by the smily guy? Maybe. If I don't remember, then the idea most likely sucked ass so LMAOO

Lastly, here is a (semi-old) doodle of kid Evan and Enjel, also a newer doodle of the twins being... creepy.

What's the inspiration behind rotten angel you might ask? What else if not CHARON's VNs? If you're unaware, my very first VN (Sweetest Valentine) was also very heavily inspired by their work.

Back then, I thought the idea wasn't good enough though, and then I was struck with another VN idea that I wanted to do more (cough where the two flowers meet cough), so I went and made wttfm instead. 

Around 2023 last year, I learned about Spooktober VN Jam for the first time and thought that it was so cool that I wanted to join. But it was too late for me by that time, so I wanted to join this year. I'm glad we're able to join this year!!

The Production and My Team

I wanted to solo this at first. I've made up my mind to solo it, in fact.  Despite the jam having the time limit of 1 month, I was still determined. That was until my friends and I were talking about game dev and I asked them to join me out of whim. Surprisingly they said yes??? 

Listen, the reason why I was so surprised was that they're from the same country as me, where stories like rotten angel are just frowned upon in general and deemed as a taboo (but... now that I'm here, I might be a bit too worried over nothing haha). I was so ready for at least one of them to be disgusted and wanted out of the project, but they responded so positively that I was touched?? So we made up our mind to make rotten angel together, with me as the writer and overall the director, Trrisuf (Tri) as our brand and UI designer, and Yonnechi as our illustrator!

WE WORKED SO WELL??? LISTEN, I was so touched and so happy that they wanted to work with me, I was even more astonished when I saw what they came up with! Yonnechi's illustrations are so tidy, nice, and amazing! While Tri's graphic design skills are so out of this world! They're genuinely so good at what they do, rotten angel is genuinely the best looking VN that we've ever produced like for real I'm not joking. (<- When a sad loner like me found out the joys of collaboration)

I still remember our meeting where we showed each of our progress. I was GOBSMACKED when I first saw the logo for rotten angel and the visuals and the UI, like it's so clean?? Soft but also haunting in a way?? There's also a lot of deeper meaning in the logo too. Tri will be talking about it more in his own dev log, so look forward to that if you're curious! And then I was also FLOORED when I saw Yonnechi's wonderful art! She really made me fall in love even more for my own sons Evan and Enjel... I swear, I will not stop gushing about how wonderful their works are! Please check them out and their works if you like what they've done for rotten angel!

As for my own work, I pretty much finished the script during the second week. And then I got to code and implement everything nearing the final week (we absolutely did not crunch... what do you mean...)

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I had so much fun doing a little coding in rotten angel. Ren'py used to frustrate me, and sometimes it did, but I feel like I've learned a lot of scripting and such during the making of rotten angel. Making a full fledged custom UI with animations is still far outside my capabilities of course, but I'm better than I was two or three years ago. I'm better than the old me who kept whining “waah coding this waaahh coding that”, you know? That's good enough for me LOL

About Evan and Enjel

I feel like I should start with them since I feel like some are curious about them. Oh well!

Let me start by dropping a doodle I did of them fairly recently to remind y'all of their true dynamic, as a refresher.

Here's their backstory: The Clement twins were raised by a dead beat of a dad and a mom who was so disconnected with everything going on that she couldn't take care of her sons. After they were taken away from their parents, they lived with their grandparents and lived a much better life there. Here's the thing though, as you already knew, Enjel was still a problem. 

Originally, when they were kids, Evan was the gentler one, the more emotional one, while Enjel was just... indifferent, unfeeling. The abuse numbed Enjel's feelings- it became a method for him to shield himself from terrible emotions, but Enjel was never really able to regain it back.

Well, the only times he was able to feel any semblance of emotion was when he saw Evan hurt. Enjel began to feel safe, so he started to slip into this "weak, meek, and gentle" persona that he upheld for the rest of his life to take advantage of Evan's care for him. However, Evan was- of course, NOT a saint. Not only that he's still a kid, but he's also tired of everyone giving him so much shit. The dad was also partially to blame because his dad would say things like "Blame your brother for annoying me! If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have hit you!", ultimately pitting the twins against each other.

Evan would often snap at Enjel, lamenting how Enjel was so useless, so weak. During Evan's bad days, he'd openly mock and scorn his own younger brother for being unable to do much. Enjel hated that he was getting attacked for wanting to feel safe, but he was also grateful for Evan who kept protecting him despite everything. Thus these planted the seeds of twisted love and hate within Enjel. 

Their relationship had never gotten any better since. Evan still cared for Enjel, but a part of him still resented the guy. While Enjel's feelings became even more twisted over time.

Surprisingly (or not), Enjel found out that he was good at acting and began to take up theater during high school. He was indeed good, and Evan didn't expect this, but for once he felt proud and happy for his brother. This actually smoothed out their relationship and it became better than it ever was... before things started going downhill again when Evan had his first lover.

Enjel didn't really meddle much in Evan's first romantic relationship. In fact he actually gained some conscience and stayed away, as far as he could. When Evan was eventually dumped, Enjel saw how miserable Evan became thanks to it-- which made Enjel's heart skip a beat, since Evan never showed himself being that vulnerable since forever.

And you know what happened afterwards.

Future Plans

For those who didn't know, this project is kind of a side quest. I have a main project that I've been working on since early 2024, and that is a VN titled "Coalesce". 

It's uhh kind of a sequel for my other VN "Where the Two Flowers Meet", but you can jump into it without knowing what wttfm even is.

Here are some screenshots:

Here’s the summary for it:

"And yet you held on. The little seed is much mightier than I thought. It seems that I've underestimated you this whole time."

Asa Argyris woke up finding herself in a snow white room with nothing but a bed. All she remembered was her name and how a man died when he tried dragging her out of her confinement.

There were scientists looking over her, watchful eyes constantly observing her every movement. She also found out that she couldn’t exactly die. That there was something planted inside of As, and whatever it was, it could prevent her from death. How exactly did she get herself into this predicament, Asa wondered.

Nobody around her was trustworthy. The only thing she could safely rely on was herself and her lost memories.

Its themes are heavy on control, having power, and whether ignorance truly is a bliss or not. The story is definitely a mystery genre, with the MC slowly piecing things together with the knowledge she gained both from the past and the present. There might be a lil GL and a very tiny amount of BL sprinkled in. If that sounds like your type of story, please check it out when it comes out!

The game will be released into two parts, one for the beginning-middle arc and the second one for the middle-ending arc. It’s… kind of a big project? Maybe slightly bigger than wttfm? Only because of the amount of characters in it tbh. But please look forward to it! 

Closing

I ended up ranting a lot more than expected. My god, thanks for reading this far! I really appreciate it! I do hope you enjoyed your time reading through!

Until next time we meet again, have a great life!