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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.”

Current Content

Words: 92,000+
Renders: 2,850+
Music & SFX: 210+

Languages

Currently, the game supports 6 languages:
English, Chinese, French, Spanish and Indonesian — included in the main game file and can be switched in the settings

Russian was added separately (check link)

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


Updated 3 days ago
StatusIn development
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux, Android
Rating
Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
(348 total ratings)
AuthorDuve
GenreVisual Novel
Tags3D, Adult, Erotic, harem, Hentai, Male protagonist, NSFW, Porn, Ren'Py, Romance
Average sessionA few hours
LanguagesEnglish, Spanish; Latin America, French, Indonesian, Russian, Chinese
ContentNo generative AI was used

Download

Download
Artifice - 0.1 GoFile
External
Download
Artifice - 0.1 MEGA
External
Download
Artifice - 0.1 MediaFire
External
Download
Artifice - 0.1 [PC] - Russian translation
External

Development log

Comments

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Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 91 · Next page · Last page
(1 edit)

Just started and must say it is quite hard to follow. I think the prologue can be greatly improved by introducing things in a way that makes more sense.

I still have no idea what is up with that competition, what is up with sectors and various organizations, supposed team MC is a part of, who are the large number of almost random characters… Everything is introduced so quickly and many conversations start about one thing, and then abruptly transition to other things multiple times in a row, which does not help with comprehension either.

The writing and transitions are much better than “Industry Baby”, but gives a similar vibe of the author assuming the reader knows the things they clearly can’t know.

I wish there was some introduction about the world the story is set in, some basic mandatory background information. Something that would make the following content make more sense rather than seeming like it started in the middle and I’m a fool for not knowing the prerequisites.

The part after prologue is better, but still left me confused about things. Like I had no idea Akane was part of the team, I either missed it completely or was it not explained or did she just happen to be in the room, but not actually part of the team? 😕

It is a really nice game overall though, thanks!

(+2)

Wow, never did I picture being more invested in the writing of an NFSW than the actual NFSW aspects. From the very start of the way you introduced the story and the compelling scene set I understood this was more than just a porn game, but an author trying to tell a story through a unique form of media.

The author of this game is incredibly well spoken, it is easy to tell that they have some type of literacy background, whether they picked it up from their interest in theatre, is involved in literature, or like me, just enjoys picking up a good book from time to time, it really adds to the storytelling, or rather sets the stage.

This is also not me trying to insult other developers or say that they have poor writing, my honest opinion is that I enjoy most of them, they are capable of producing a good premise that makes you want to follow the story. IMO that is enough to garner attention and a decent player base, as it makes players want to reach the finale of the game and gets them invested. What I believe the author of this game is particularly good at is storytelling, by which I mean is, I don't just want to know how the game ends or to reach the conclusion, I want to read the story itself and witness everything develop. It's not just an interesting premise where I want to see everything resolved, I want to understand how and why. I have nothing but respect for pretty much all developers as it takes a lot of effort, skill and sacrifice to be able to produce any form of media.

Okay now that I have gotten my praise outta the way, SPOILERS from this point onwards. Because the author made a story where my brain had to participate, an unfortunate consequence that has occurred is that I actually have some nitpicks with regards to the writing as I was invested.

PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING I AM ABOUT TO SHARE IS SPECULATION AND MY OWN TAKEAWAY AND VIEWS OF THE STORY, I MIGHT BE WAY OFF MARK.

The scene with Lily and the MC, or rather the conversation right before, personally the dialogue didn't feel right to me. I think I understand with what you are trying to go for with the character of Abel (or rather Calm in this matter), I speak under correction, but it feels like what you (the author) are trying to portray is that Calm *believes* that he is incapable of loving Lily or any other character because that seems to be part of the aspects that was taken away from Abel, through Empathy. Perhaps my analysis of Calm might be completely wrong (very likely as the game is still new), but it does feel to me that he is capable of loving and just believes or chooses to think he can't because that is not the human consciousness, he is supposed to portray. He is supposed to be "Calm", and that is all he believes he is supposed to be, which is why he justifies certain actions by calling it rational or the best decision, when in the grand scheme of things he doesn't need to go as far as he does, or even in some cases I feel like the decisions he makes ain't even rational at all, he just thinks it is. He justifies so much by saying there is this benefit and this is for his goal, when in reality it's painstakingly obvious he cares about those around him. He spends all his time running away from affection, because why????? he is scared of hurting them!!! not because it's illogical or irrational. 

But anyway, back to my point, I sidetracked a bit, but if this is how Calm is, and character analysis isn't wrong, I feel like the dialogue could have been executed a lot better. If my character analysis is wrong, then this whole point is null and avoid, and lowkey that would also be extremely embarrassing given how much I have written, but let's move on. So before we make the decision to "cross the line", the dialogue is essentially Lily and Calm going back and forth about how much she cares for him, and him trying to give her reasons as to why she shouldn't, a scene that emotions were very well portrayed, but my issue is when Calm says he feels something for them but he doesn't know what it is. I hated that, that singular addition to the conversation made me feel so confused and annoyed. Because he says something along the lines of, "I don't know what this feeling is, but I do know I see you than more than a friend" then follows that up with "I can't call it love because that would be lying", something along those lines, it was 4am so I am a bit iffy on what I recall. Flat out denying that it could be love was not the right call, because listen Calm might not be in love with her, but following her confession, every truly heterosexual individual would be, I know I am, she easily jumped to my favourite character after that. But my issue isn't that the story isn't depicting the way I feel about Lily, but rather how Calm basically fully denies it could be love. And just claims that he feels something, like duh as the readers we can tell that do you feel something. Like I know I'm overreacting, and that it is a small issue, but ruined the moment for me, because he basically rejects her and then tells her it's her choice to still love him. Like it feels like such a scumbag move especially if you choose to "cross the line" with Lily, given how he treats her and the dialogue is during the scene. It all starts to feel like a lie and I honestly couldn't enjoy the scene. 

Honestly in the end I just ended up hurting myself with my character analysis, but given how the game is presented, I don't feel like I am the MC, but rather that I am viewing the world from his perspective, which as a book reader, I do not mind, but obviously in turn I am not going to agree with all his decisions or view of things. If the author/developer (called them author throughout this text, totally forgot I am reviewing a game and not a book) sees this, please do share your thoughts, and if like my view of everything was correct, minor request then, in that dialogue line where the MC says he can't call it love, instead of saying can't, better wording would be "can't confirm" that it is love.

 But anyways, it's your story/game, you don't have to change anything if you don't want to, especially because like I am just a student who can't afford to pay for your patreon to support you financially, nonetheless good luck with the rest of the project, I sincerely look forward to watching the rest of story unfold. And for those of you who read my rant and me going off on a tangent, apologies for making it so long, I never felt the need to share my thoughts on a NSFW game before this one and just kept yapping. (Also check out Wildcats if you liked the writing of this, it's peak)

(-1)

with it being a 0.1, is it a fairly new game with minimal content?

(+5)(-2)

*ahem*

(-1)

is that alot?

(+2)(-2)

Are u slow?

(+1)

You don't have to be an ass if you can't answer the question.

i saw another AVN with 40k+ renders, but it was also still at a new version.

(1 edit) (+1)

Not really.

But for a new game, it's a decent amount. 

thx

(+1)

This game  is amazing one of the best games i ever played 

Developer can i please have the soundtracks of the game

Hey, glad u like it. Dm me in discord which track you want, and I'll send it to you.

(+4)

These Female characters are well-designed and I can memory most of them after skipppping and glancing... Therefore I can say this game is intriguing based on such first impression. I think in the future there will be more interesting plots... 

Additionally I think the function of annotation is VERY useful. Since I'm a Chinese, I cannot know the comprehensive background information or some mentioned movies,myths,stories, etc. 

While, with this function I can easily become more familiar with the whole game and the meaning of their conversation... 

Perfect design. I'll waiting for following versions. 

The plot is very interesting.🥳

(1 edit)

Quite enjoyed the new update. While I kind of suck at writing reviews, I will try to put one together.

I do have one question, kind of spoiler ish so I will try to hide it...






This isn't a big problem but when at the portal with Emily and Sora, do we lose affection with Emily no matter what we did or did I somehow make a wrong choice? 

(+1)

Yeah, no matter what you do, she will change her affection

Thanks, I assumed that's how it was but wanted to make sure.  Looking forward to getting it back lol 

Is there a Chinese language option?

(+1)

There is 

(+2)

It's here! I've been very excited waiting for this release.

(+2)(-1)

Really enjoyed this game, and just to confirm the 0.1 public will be released next week?

(+2)(-1)

Yeah

Hi Duve! I’m a native Arabic speaker and I’d love to help add Arabic to Artifice to make it accessible to the Arab gaming community. Since I love the concept, I’m happy to help. Can you share the text files with me so I can take a look?

Hi, text me in dm in discord

(+1)(-1)

Is there any chance of you posting this on itch directly instead of download sites (I am using the itch app on steam deck which is incompatible with 3rd party downloads) This game looks amazing and I would love to check it out!

(+1)

Hi. Due to some platform features, I won't be doing this. Otherwise, my game will be excluded from the general search again...

(-2)

Wow, this prologue was nothing short of incredible. There seemed to be tidbits of worry from the creator regarding pacing, but frankly, it was fantastic and I was constantly engaged without a single break in immersion or a single jolt from jarring transitions or whiplashing emotions/topics.

The MC felt truly unique and interesting, yet perfectly imperfect with obvious flaws that stem from what is so far a really compelling backstory. It shows clear goals for him and the stories development while also providing just enough to make the MC and the story mysterious and keep everything surrounding the narrative captivating.

The other characters all felt individualistic with their own quirks and personalities, the models, set pieces, posing, camera angles and interactions were effective, well done and natural. Then, the story so far was *chef's kiss* it was wonderfully bread crumbed and built up with a nice little cliffhanger that left me ready for more.

I've never engaged with theater so I'm sure this story will likely have many nuances that go over my head or happenings that I won't quite understand, such as the narrator filling in some empty scenes such as the changing room section or the woman running away in the rain section, which is probably my only gripe so far as it feels like more of an interruption than adding additional thematic flavor, but other than that I honestly can't find much to complain about. It would be nice if there was actual music to drive the emotion to the next level, but I understand this AVN is in its infancy.

Overall, the prologue was exceptional. I'm waiting in anticipation for future updates. Wonderful job!



P.S. 

If it's alright to ask, to what degree did NoGlory, KloppStyle, W.M. and D-San contribute in the creation of Artifice?

(+1)

Hey there! Glad you like it

(-1)

Bro, the game is amazing! I can't wait for the first act. It's only a prologue, but it's incredibly addictive. The grandfather is great at the beginning, but I'm tired of reading his monologue.

Брат! Братан! Братишка! Жду не дождусь следующей обновы! Когда он там примерно будет?

Greetings !
I love what you have made with this game so far and can't wait to see where this weird shaped story may go.
My only pet peeve with it would be what I would refer as, in this case, scenic indication.
Basically little additional information you put between *those*.
My opinion on their use is that they take me out of the writing.
Why? Because I'm a fan of medium which show stuff rather than tell me about it.
By that I mean that those scenic information are on stage, played rather than told about.
I believe that your writing and imagery skills are far more than enough to depict an action, emotion, or whatever needs to be said instead of falling back to some pesky, bland looking, and feeling indication.
Which I do believe are already superfluous in plenty of the scenes you have written and shown as is.

Oh!
During the first meeting with sporty girl and the actress who dressed as a nun in her first appearance, there is a sentence where I am quite sure you have forgotten to add a word.
I can fetch up more precise information on that if you please.

Thank you again for sharing with us such a promising premise!
I wish you a wonderful day.

(+1)

Hi, I'm glad you liked it! What word did I forget to write?

El idioma Español?

(+1)

japanese type please

(+4)(-11)

we dont need no other languages until 2.0 we only need english and spanish thats it
;p

Do you plan to add Spanish?

(1 edit) (+17)(-1)

I recently found this game through another games recommended games, just like you list Astreon, Dawnfall and Dogma.

I think the story premise of the game is very interesting!
That said, I think your presentation is pretty bad!


1)  fast forwarding text without me pressing a button or having auto turned on:

This is immersion destroying and prevents me from being able to read the very text you are presenting unless I roll back over and over and over! :-E

It is extremely annoying every time I run into this!

You can't control the mechanical speed of the game!

Each person reads at a different rate and therefor full control of text progression needs to be solely in the hands of the player!


2)  Monologuing:

You start off the game with a long ass monologue and then the old guy says ok no more monologues....  then as soon as the MC is done their intro, you have a girl who IMMEDIATLY starts monologuing again!

The first rule of presentation in a video game is show, don't tell!

You would be vastly better served introducing all the stuff she said while doing a transitional slideshow showing where they are going when they travel and having each person she or he mentions, then showing up on screen when they are mentioned.

At least this way, the player gets a sense of what they are talking about and what the people look like, unlike right now where the intro is just a bunch of nonsensical rambling, which makes no sense until much later when we actually meet the other characters!


3)  Your pacing is often bad:

When the characters go from a scene where everyone is sitting or standing around and just talking, it's vastly better to have the next scene have movement or actions that are significant.

But for instance, you have the pool scene where you introduce the two girls being scheming bitches and then immediatly after goto the resteraunt scene where everyone is still just sitting around.

I know you changed the camera angles to try to add some sense of motion, but it'd be even better if scenes of non movement were followed by movement or change, as well as scenes of action being followed by scenes of rest... that sorta thing.


If you were to fix these above things, I believe your game would be vastly more enjoyable and I'd likely be able to keep my suspension of disbelief going!

I probably won't be back, since I've got a lot of other games to read, but if you make the above changes, I hope your game does gain popularity.... since it seems a story worth experiencing.

o/

(+2)(-1)

This just saved me from wasting my time. 
Thank you, poor openings have killed so many promising games for me, I can't get past them.

(1 edit) (-2)

How the hell do I know with one I need to download for Android if they all in the same file?

(+1)

Apk file - android version. They are not the same

6 mths and still counting for ch1

(+1)

This is a work of art i can't wait for the next update

So i played prologue and ended it and the game got me so hard. Can't wait till next update, dev just tell me i wont wait too much for that. :D

Work in progress ;)

(-1)

Plss help me how to unzip this afternoon i download btw I'm using Android

(+2)

You should use apk file for android version

I don't speak indonesian but nice that it is included.

Also do you plan to release on GOG or steam(although they continue to be censoring)

(+1)

Unfortunately, due to the software I use, this is not possible

(1 edit) (-1)

Este juego visualmente es muy buena la calidad gráfica es increible pero sabes que podría hacerla mejor.... Poner el idioma español ya que no entiendo nada hermano por favor agregalo

what if any kinks apere in this game

(1 edit) (+1)

Hey Dev, your game looks super awesome. I've high hopes form this game.... It'll be one of my favourites. But I wanna ask you something.... Do you plan to add name changing for the mc?... I'm talking about real name changing, there's one name changing option that is cover name.... This is the only thing that's bugging me, so I thought, why not ask you.....

(+4)

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

(+3)

No no Dev, it's totally fine. I understand. It's not that big of a deal. It'll still be one of my favourite. 

in which sandbox you can make this game art?

Expect updates期待更新

(+1)

awesome game,i need more

(+2)

How do I unpack it? There are three files there?

(+1)

Of which say:(APK)-Android, (MAC)-Mac, (PC)-Windows. Download corresponding to your preferred platform.

(+1)

this game is weird, and good :D

Esta en Español

(+1)(-1)

yes im interested

(+4)

awesome fucking game :)

(1 edit) (+1)(-4)

What did you post to get your page blocked? And is this game story completed?

(+5)(-5)

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

(+2)

Bible thumping puritan religious nuts have a ridiculous amount of influence in the US unfortunately, so we have to deal with 1950s levels of censorship and meddling that seems absolutely insane in 2025. Same type of clowns who tried to ban D&D or Harry Potter for being "satanic" in previous decades. Absolutely disgusting.

(+1)

As an Aussie, I am ashamed to say Collective Shout, the org that had this happen... is Australian.... they shouldnt be, but alas, they are. We all hate them though. 

(+4)

A promising start to a very intriguing story!

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