Alex’s Hope and Alex’s Solitude (Or AH&AS for short) is a short kinetic novel containing two heavy, dark, and emotional coming-of-age stories. Development is finished, and the game was released on February 23rd, 2024 on both Steam and itch.io. It tells the separate stories of two young adults that will eventually meet in our next visual novel, Alex’s Journey to the Grave, which is currently under development.

AH&AS is built to be as emotional as possible, and features an intense emphasis on this with its combination of immersive storytelling and soundtrack. It’s inspired by other games with similar themes such as OMORI or the Milk series by Nikita Kryukov, but keeps itself more grounded in reality with inspiration from games like Katawa Shoujo.

Like some of its inspirations, AH&AS includes themes that may be distressing to many individuals. These include depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, self harm, substance abuse, and drug overdose.

Alex’s Hope:
Alex is a hardworking teenage boy experiencing intense emotional and financial abuse at the hands of his parents. When his last glimmer of hope finally dries up, it’ll take nothing short of a miracle for him to find the power to keep moving forward.

Alex’s Solitude:
Alex is a stubbornly good-hearted teenage girl who finds herself cast out by the only group of friends she’s ever known. She tries to change herself in order to fit in, but sooner or later she’ll have to come to terms with her true identity.