Hello Observers,

First of all, if you missed the previous four Mirall Mansion, you can find them below:

Mirall Mansion 001 [ The Making of '' Observer'']

Mirall's Mansion 002 [A History of canceled Happiness games]

Mirall's Mansion 003 [The real people who inspired the Happiness character] (Who are they?) (No spoilers)

Mirall's Mansion 004 [My personal thoughts about the series and life]+ (Some Free songs of the series)

Unlike the game series, they're not connected, so you can check them out in any order you want.

The Past of my games

When I think of the past, I think of Intruder, a game that's part of the Happiness series, specifically, the 28th entry.

The full title is Intruder: Kill the Past, and (without spoiling anything), the game’s story revolves around exactly that: the past, and the human urge to bury it and move on. Every inspirational quote and every therapist will tell you to leave the past behind, not to let it define your present or dictate your future. Easier said than done, of course. Intruder tackles that concept directly. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I never had the chance to fully explore the theme. Maybe one day, I’ll remake the game and give it the depth it deserves.

But anyway, when I think about the past of the games themselves, I think of the web novels that came before them, written between 2013 and 2019. Back then, I desperately wanted to make games but lacked the skills to do so. In hindsight, maybe that was a good thing. Some of the stories I wrote then were honestly horrendous. But it was through those web novels that the game series was born. Characters like Carmine, Hassan, Naz, Jack, Mirall, and even Nessrine and Anya were first introduced in those stories. By the time I made my first game, I already knew them so well that the development process felt natural and smooth.

Beyond the web novels, when I think of the past, I think of the real people and real events that inspired the series. Without them, I doubt I could have written a consistent story across more than 30 games.

Even though I've lost touch with most of those people, and even though those events now feel like distant memories, they still come flooding back whenever I listen to an old game's soundtrack. Recently, for example, I started playing the remastered Phoenix Wright trilogy. The moment the intro screen came up, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia, memories of playing the games for the first time on a crappy computer using an emulator. I remembered how I’d cover the screen with my hand at the start of each case to avoid the spoiler that revealed the killer. I’d spam the "speed up" button because the text moved too slowly. I remembered the day the heater broke in my college dorm, and I played the fan-translated Ace Attorney Investigations spin-off to distract myself from the cold. The heat from the laptop was so comforting that I didn’t even care I was basically living in an igloo.

For a long time and to some extent even now, video games were seen as just entertainment, something to pass the time. But to many of us, they’re much more than that. They’re a medium for emotion, memory, and creativity. The perfect medium between a movie and a book.

So no, when I think of the past, I don’t feel the urge to bury it. And despite what my own game Intruder: Kill the Past suggests, I don't want to kill it. When I look back, I feel nothing but fondness, nostalgia, and joy. Even the bad memories somehow glow a little warmer.

This section of Mirall’s Mansion is about the past, so I’ll sum up how I feel with one memory.

A few years ago, I was hanging out with the real Hassan, the person who inspired the character. We were talking about something trivial, and I remember telling him, “In the future, we’ll look back on this completely ordinary moment and think, ''Damn, those were the good days''

The truth is, when I said that to him, I didn’t really believe it. I just thought it sounded cool. Honestly, I kind of scoffed at the idea that I’d ever look back on that day as anything more than an annoying conversation with a slightly obnoxious friend.

But now, as I sit here writing this, listening to the Ace Attorney intro music, I can’t help but remember that moment and the only words that come to mind are: “Damn, those were the good days.”

The future of my games

Now, let's talk about the future. Pretty scary thing, huh?

There’s a canceled game of mine that was going to be titled "Intruder 3: Fuck the Future." Now, unlike the title of Intruder 1, this one I can totally and completely stand behind. The future is a terrifying thing it’s unknown and unpredictable, and the fear of the unknown is hard-coded into every human being’s DNA. So, fuck the future. If I can’t control it, if I can’t see it, then I’d rather not think about it. I’d rather pretend it’s not there and just focus on the present.

But you’re not here to hear me yap about my own personal future. You’re here for the future of the games, particularly the Happiness series.

The Happiness series currently has 30 games in total, and I have no plans to increase that number. To be fair, the story is pretty much over, it’s been over since the game ''Farewell, My Despair''. The games that came after are more like an extended epilogue, created to tie up loose plot threads and explore a few concepts, both in gameplay and narrative.

Does that mean there will be no more games?

Not really.

I’m currently working on multiple games. Some are remakes of beloved older titles, others are brand-new stories that push the boundaries of what it means to be a Happiness game.

Indeed, there are many projects in the pipeline right now. But like I said, the future is unknown and unpredictable, so I can’t give a solid ETA for any release. What I can tell you is that these upcoming titles will shift away from the usual formula and dig deeper into what it means to be human.

Another shift is in setting: future games will feature real-world locations and nationalities. Gone are the days of Sandy High School, a place no one could ever pinpoint on a map.

When I created the Happiness series 6 years ago, I intentionally kept locations, nationalities, and even races vague. I believed that to tell a story dealing with profound human themes, I needed to strip away superficial labels. And even though I still believe that nationalities, religions, and the concentration of melanin in someone’s skin are incredibly stupid ways to categorize people, the truth is that’s the world we live in.

Even in a hypothetical future where everyone uploads their brain into android bodies, I’m sure we’d still find a way to divide ourselves: “My android body is newer than yours,” or “Mine’s made by a better company than yours.”

This reality is, sadly, unavoidable. So instead of ignoring it, I’ve decided to tackle it head-on in future games without sugarcoating, without preaching, and without pushing one ideology or another.

I’ve already started doing this in my current project, and the result is a story with more impact, more visceral emotional reactions in key scenes. So far, I’m very pleased with this direction.

And finally, speaking of this upcoming game , here’s a first look at it: