REC/REW

Your best friend died.

Everybody calls it an accident. 

The police say so. Your friends say so.
Evidence says so.

You remember everything.

The blood.

Guts spread like grotesque festoons.

The reek of half-digested food, the metallic scent of his entrails.

"Have I gone mad?"

The psychiatrist... she's got a weird grin. One that shows teeth.
She says, "Go on. Live your life as if you were right, and see what happens."

It's just therapy... right?

The project

REC/REW is a solo project almost entirely driven by passion - and the insane desire to leave a tribute of sorts to Philip K. Dick.
There are many excellent visual novels dealing with time loops, and how character can break free of them.

REC/REW asks: what if breaking free is not the answer? What if breaking free has a price you're not willing to pay?

It is not a story about breaking free. It's a story about choosing which prison is worth living in. You cannot save everybody - maybe you don't even want to.

Can you live with that?

REC/REW is an "old-school" visual novel in the tradition of late 90s - early 2000s "golden age" of the medium, with a strong focus on the novel part of the genre.

• A long, story-driven narrative
• Time-loop mystery
• Multiple story arcs with merging, conflicting timelines
• Strong focus on characterization and dialogue
• Minimal gameplay mechanics
• No combat, grinding, or stat management

My ultimate goal is to deliver a complex, thought-provoking story about how experience shapes ourselves, and whether an imperfect reality can be better than a perfect illusion.

I focus primarily on putting my ideas into proper writing.

Art is either tweaked/filtered photos (backgrounds) or Koikatsu-made (characters' sprites, CG). Nothing cutting edge, just serviceable.

Dev status

Introductory arc: released as part of the main downloadable game and a web version playable in your browser.

First arc - Overthinker: currently being released.

Second arc - Burdens: currently being written.

Third arc - Down the Hatch: currently being planned / written.

The above arcs represent the core of the REC/REW project and are being released in an episodical format. In addition the following "ontological arcs" are planned, which will provide a different interpretation of the events of the story, its themes and mysteries.

Fourth arc - Mirrors: currently being planned / written.

Fifth arc - Voluspà: currently being planned / written

A word of warning

REC/REW contains (or is planned to contain):

• mature language,
• blood and gore (not a key feature, but people die here - often not pleasantly),
• nudity (REC/REW is not and will never be an erotic game—scenes will depict intimacy and emotional connection, not pornography),
• themes of trauma and memory,
• implied (non-graphic) violence,
• mental health struggles (dissociation, obsession, grief)

A final disclaimer

No story text has been generated by Large Language Models.
I occasionally use LLMs for debugging, and brainstorming.

All writing, narrative decisions, and final creative choices are my own.