Hello Observers,

While working on my current game project, I found myself revisiting a few earlier Happiness titles—partly for lore reference, partly out of nostalgia. So I figured, why not write up my thoughts and share them with you?
(No worries, this post is spoiler-free.)

Consider this something like a retrospective or postmortem—or as the main menu of some Happiness games would call it, a “Mirall’s Mansion.”

So buckle up as we travel back in time to October 2023 and talk about the Happiness game titled Observer.

The Origin of Observer

I remember clearly: it was October 2023. I had just finished replaying Null 1, and I caught myself thinking:

"I miss Null. I really want to make a new death game... but I'm so tired of making death games."

At that time, I was working on Pattern Screamers (a death game loaded with NSFW scenes), and Null Remastered (NSFW version) had just been released. Safe to say, I was feeling a bit burnt out on the genre.

So I told myself, “Let’s do something different this time.”

Naturally, the next thing I did was start working on another death game,  ''Observer''—a death game set in a spaceship, starring Jack as the main character.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Characters & Setting

Aside from Jack, I was determined to include Mirall, my favorite character in the series. I’ll add her to any game I can. Her kind, earnest nature makes for a nice contrast in the cold, merciless world of death games.

Once I had the main duo, I began filling in the rest of the cast.

• Anya came next—already a character in Null 1, her blunt, rude personality was tailor-made for this type of story.

• Hassan followed—the sigma of all sigmas. Honestly, he came in easily, though in Observer, I definitely cranked his character up to 11. If you’ve played the game, you know what I mean.

• Carmine and Isaac were added later. Isaac is always fun to write—he’s a piece of shit, sure, but he cuts through the noise and gets to the point. That helps me as a writer.

• CC: because CC.

• Then there’s Zero—this time not the host, but a pop idol participant. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking.

• And finally, Ressato, the emotionless android host. She’s not the typical sadistic game master—she treats the death game as a grim necessity. Plus, she gives off Lilith vibes and is surprisingly adorable.

The setting—a spaceship—was something I’d wanted to do for a long time. I’m a huge space and astronomy fan, so I put a lot of care into naming planets and solar systems. I wanted to show that humanity had already achieved interstellar colonization, but I deliberately avoided aliens or over-the-top sci-fi elements.

Keeping the story grounded was important. Besides… Hassan flirting with an alien girl? Yeah, no thanks.

(Edit: Shit, I forgot Kei exists in the game.)

🎵 Music & Atmosphere

If you’ve played any of my games, you know how much I care about music. I think of it as the core narrative tool, not just background noise.

As always, I wrote every scene while listening to the music that would play in it, making sure they meshed together emotionally and tonally.

Because Observer takes place in deep space, the soundtrack leans into eerie and lonely tones, expressing the characters’ isolation.

Standout Tracks :

• Main Menu Theme – This one got a lot of love. I received hundreds of comments, DMs, and reviews asking how to download it.
  Answer: It’s available in the game’s download section.

• “Bring Back Mirall” – The ending theme from the full version. This one is personal. I adore it because it is about Mirall.

 Inspirations & Impact

The clearest influences are:

• Raging Loop

• Zero Escape series
  Two of the best visual novels out there. If you haven’t played them, do yourself a favor.

I also drew from space films like Interstellar and Gravity. The nanomachine concept came from 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and Metal Gear Solid.

In many ways, Observer is a turning point in the Happiness series and recently, I’ve been considering expanding the game into a full 20+ hour game. I think it has the cast and world to support a long visual novel.

Final Words

Observer means a lot to me. It came out at a very specific moment in my life, and even though my attempts at DLCs didn’t pan out, the dream of expanding it into a large-scale visual novel is still alive.

I want to bring it to the level of a mainstream VN, and I hope I manage to do so in the near future.

Anyway, thank you for reading so far, and I hope to see you in ''Mirall's Mansion 002'' where we talk about a different game in the series.

See you there.