
Artifice
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android

Welcome!
I'm Duve, creator of Artifice – a visual novel that'll show you why theater is magic.
(And yes, I'm a total theater nerd :P)
Tagline
Do you love theater? Ever dreamed of standing in the spotlight?
Let me offer you the starring role in my little production...
I promise — it’ll be a performance you’ll never forget.
Artifice is the debut spectacle of our theater, exploring a world filled with intrigue, secrets, and fake smiles.
It showcases the beauty of theatrical productions and why theater is so amazing.
The main story revolves around a protagonist who is obsessed with findings his brother — the only person who truly understands and accepts him.
And for that, he agreed to join a mysterious organization that promised to aid his search… for a price.
Now, he must flawlessly carry out every mission assigned to him.
Whether that means charming diplomats, outwitting rivals, or navigating the affections of those drawn to his rising star.
And you, dear audience, will witness his most daring task yet:
A grand competition held by the world’s leaders to celebrate the unveiling of the Last Wonder of the World!
But beware — every spotlight casts shadows.
Will the price of his mission cost him more than he’s willing to give?
Or will he play his role to perfection?
Only time will tell~
Enjoy the show and remember:
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”

Languages

Currently, the game supports 4 languages:
English, Russian and Indonesian — all are included in the main game file and can be switched in the settings
Chinese — added as a separate version for now (but will be merged into the main version later)
If you’d like to help translate the game into other languages, I’d really appreciate it. Feel free to reach out!
I’m also all ears for feedback or ideas to make my game better.
I’m still learning and growing every day.
That’s all for now! Thanks for watching.
Curtain call~

Fellow Dews
Download
Development log
- ARTIFICE - PROLOGUE - NEW LANGUAGE!2 days ago
- ARTIFICE - IS- BACK!3 days ago
- ARTIFICE - PROLOGUE - NEW LANGUAGES!50 days ago
- ARTIFICE - PROLOGUE - OUT!64 days ago
Comments
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this game is weird, and good :D
Esta en Español
yes im interested
awesome fucking game :)
What did you post to get your page blocked? And is this game story completed?
Did you sleep under a rock? every adult VN got blocked from Itch.io due to some radical idiots making a complaint to Credit cards companies about a AVN so itch.io + steam took down every AVN.
not only adult visual novels btw, also fear and hunger and other games
A promising start to a very intriguing story!
Great game.
Solid foundation to start the story. Likable, interesting characters and one of the most good looking renders out there! Definitely worth trying it out.
Must try
It’s back! Such a great game. Definitely one to keep an eye on.
Just finished the prologue and for all the theatric flairs the game shows, it did not disappoint. A bit sad that itch decided to block this off though
Really do love this game it plays into my fascination with theatre and the characters have unique personalities. I would highly recommend it to others to give it a try!
Personal note: I too love theatre, Seen my fair share and loved most of them! the only issue i find lately. is that a lot of theater productions are just; Flat? They have no personality or they're just based on political events with no substance.
Hey, glad you liked it!
Though I hate to admit it, most modern theater productions are painfully dull... so I stick to the classics
你的作品怎么被删了,我感到难过
I just started playing the game and got to the part where Abel helps Alice with the ID stuff and is the set piece freaking Raccoon City Police Department?
yeah
Nice lol I recently played through the remake again and when I got to this point I thought I was tripping out
Planned tags?
A masterpiece in the making without a doubt. Like the game asks of you, just trust it, even if the start seems confusing and like name-dropping too many things and events without explanation, you understand things well enough once you reach the point the game wants you to understand them at.
Keep up the work with the same confidence, dev! Excited to see what comes next!
Thank you, really pleased you liked it
how do i hide the dialogue on android when i wanna screenshot renders only?
Hi, I'm not sure if this version of the game on Android has that feature... But you can write to me on Discord, and I'll send you the render you want
技巧,和诡计是一个游戏吗?
非常感谢您的支持,这让我非常开心。不过我不太确定您的意思——如果是指游戏名称的话,中文里并没有完全对应的翻译,但大致意思是接近的
建模非常不错,继续加油,希望成为神作
Hi! I would like to translate your game into Turkish. I never translated Ren'py games before so I wanted to mention that in advance.
Hi, there is nothing to be concerned about if you have never done this before. Just reach out to me on Discord, and we’ll go over all the details together
I wrote you on Discord. Thanks.
whats with the MC names? we picked a cover name but would have been nice to pick the name he actually goes by, Abel seems just...odd. then again im not religious.
Hi, I understand the issue - people often prefer to name the protagonist themselves to feel immersed. However, if I allowed that, I wouldn't be able to tell the story exactly as intended. Names in this game carry deep significance, especially the names of the two brothers. I hope you'll continue enjoying the game despite this small nuance
I just finished the prologue, and I'm a little unclear about the protagonist's past and worldview. This is my first time playing a visual novel that doesn't start from scratch. Will the story be introduced from the beginning?
Hi! Mc's past and all the questions you had about the plot and the world during the prologue will be answered in subsequent updates
Pretty good, i am looking forward to see what's going in later
Will there be impreg?
Optional, yes. Someday...
Harem I am so in bro.
Rude not to return the favor and show some love to a certain kitty but otherwise I quite enjoyed the prologue. Even that isn't a real complaint.
Honestly I have no criticism and I am looking forward to seeing what's to come. As a layman that just enjoys things; I enjoyed it.
Thank you :3
We need Chinese!
游戏中文在制作中,你可以加入discord 来交流和查看进度
Laborious
It's definitely plot and worldbuilding heavy for a prologue, with some inferences and implications towards characters/events we aren't privvy to, but just like the great plays, I can tell once we're past act 1/2, replaying this prologue will be far more easy to follow and we'll pick up on all that stuff in retrospect.
Excellent character design, enough mystery and intrigue regarding Abel, though wished to get a little more detail about his condition.
Compared to the top of the genre, Ripples, Eternum, etc, you introduced the entire cast instead of only some of them, and jumped right off the deep end, so it'll be harder to give focus to some early on, but either way I'm intrigued by the cast and really like the dynamic so far. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for your feedback, I will try to live up to your expectations)
Hey man really good of a prologue. Great quality designs and renders. Story looks interesting and good taste of music. Looking forward to next chapters !!
Thank you
Ngl this game looks exciting can't wait to try and hope for future updates in terms of the game progressing and thanks dev haven't tried it yet but sure it well make some nice memories
well, this is a great game the story is compelling and attractive enough that i never skipped a dialogue(but one of the reasons i really didnt skip is cuz theres hella lot of alias,codename and i will loose track of who is who if i blink! :D). and becuase of that, i noticed a few phrases that disappears fast i have to press back a few times just to read, a minor issue tho. speaking of names, holy fuck! its just a prologue but you already introduced what? like 20+ characters already? that is insane(in a good way) i admit it was confusing the first minutes but gets comfy throughout. too much question to ask right now actually, tho that is not a problem cuz this isnt even the first chapter yet, being a prologue did its job real good. nice character designs! out of all vn i read, ash and the current mc(too many names he hold so i'll just call him mc) are particularly unique. i also hope you can add more volume to the music, probably just me but i want to hear the music louder on my phone but it is still pretty soft even on max volume. speaking of music, the one in the red room(the one with ayako and kitty) slaps hard!.
also, are the cast of commedia dell'arte gonna be a part of the story? or are they gonna be like the narrator? anyways looking forward to how you gonna create la signora and isabelle :D
more power to you and your team!
Oho-ho... I see a connoisseur here! :D Thank you so much for the review. And regarding your question — yes, the Commedia dell'arte troupe will be part of the game's story
ooh, nice! more things to look forward to!
also, i am probably not at connoisseur level but with my family being opera performers i sure know a lot of stuff. that is why i am also happy knowing you are a huge nerd of theatre didn't expect a kindred spirit here, so yeah preach them the beauty of theater! let them know art!
cheers brother!!
祝贺发布,期待中文版:D
非常感谢,中文版本已在制作中!请耐心等待官方翻译,我们的翻译人员正在全力投入这项工作。
Definitely interesting, though at least so far the framing seems excessive - the story is interesting enough on it's own and adding another layer on top with all the stage play stuff seems unnecessary (though I do quite like theater) - I am fully ready to eat my words if later on this results in some fun twists.
One big thought going through my mind after the prologue, is that bit where Dice seems to imply that Calm isn't actually calmness but some other personality fragment. Then the question is, what actually IS Calm?And really... Who?
Just finished playing, the graphics are great, the background music is great, it's pretty good for a prologue, but there are too many things I don't understand about the plot, many things are not explained (probably because I'm form CN, although I can read English, but you know), anyway, well done
Thanks. Don’t worry, next chapters will be a little slower in terms of pace
just needs history, quicksave and maybe library or relationships tree explaining certain words, connections and locations since a lot of information was introduced without explanation
Very interesting so far. The fact that MC his about 5 names and isn't called the name you give him until the last half hour is a bit confusing, though. Sometimes the same people call him by 2 names in the same dialogue. I get that there's a bunch of codename stuff happening, but it doesn't make it easy to follow.
看图片的建模让我感觉又一个永恒世界出现了加油看好你!
非常感谢,我一定尽力不辜负大家的期望
A promising start for a promising story
Absolutely stunning!
We were waiting centuries for the game release and it was worth every single second. Brilliant storywriting by a brilliant dev. This is the theather every person needs to see.
Excitement pure. The game literally makes you to finishing it, because it is so interesting and thought through.
Also I have to say the design of every character, the design of the surroundings and the clothes are magnificent. I love it.
This is no recommendation, this is a need!
You can obviously see that there were a lot of effort and work put inside the renders.
Convince yourself about it. So nevertheless I have to admit that I miss a little bit of explaining the important things like Stonehearts, Red room, organizations? A bit of those.
Overall just the obvious things.
It is still a great game. I thought a lot about what else to complain about, but I find nothing for now.
For a first release and even just a "prologue" it is very succeeded. Congratulations. I am definetely willing to support this game and excited to see where it developes to.
Hi, thanks for your feedback. I’m really glad the game met your expectations and I’ll keep working to make it even better
Just really good game. The game looks great along with the girls. Animations great. Story very interesting. I am hopeful that we do get some lesbian interaction as an option, I like to see girls in harem being able to do stuff together, at least during group sex.
I guess my one issue right now, which is something very minor and nit-picky, but the name. Yes we can select a name, but it still feels like we are playing some guy named Abel. Just a little sad, cause I love self-inserting and it just doesn't feel the same, like this, just feels like I am impersonating myself as Abel. Just something that is a minor let down for me personally.
But overall, solid, exctied to see more.
Hi, thank you for your feedback. I understand the issue - people often prefer to name the protagonist themselves to feel immersed. However, if I allowed that, I wouldn't be able to tell the story exactly as intended. Names in this game carry deep significance, especially the names of the two brothers. I hope you'll continue enjoying the game despite this small nuance
OK. I'm intrigued. The best AVNs have three things. 1. Amazing visuals. Making the scenes convey the story in a way that the pieces all fit together. Check. 2. Dialogue that is understandable, and relatable to the characters. Proper grammar and slang matter to the audience so as to understand the characters better and how the story comes across. Check. 3. The story. It's important to have a premise that is interesting, and then follow through with the telling so that the audience continues to hang on til the end. Check, conditionally.
I am interested in this story so far. It appears at first glance that this has the makings of a masterpiece. Time will tell. I admit that I normally don't spend money until there is quite a bit of story available to make it worth waiting for. I also admit I didn't spend that much in this. But I was very curious by the description, and didn't want to stiff you completely just so I could try the prologue. If the first act is as good as the prologue, I will spend more upon the updates release. Can't afford the Patreon prices at the moment. But I might go ahead and buy into a month's worth at release time. Thanks for daring to write such a piece for us.
Thank you so much for your feedback and support. I'm truly delighted by such high praise