Development Timeline

## Early Era

### **May 2008** | Original fanfiction

*Death Rule* begins as *Killer Queen* fanfiction for an English class assignment. Tina Blatchford and Devon Worth are created, though this version of "Devon" is actually the early Abraham Archer. Tina is much more timid and feminine here than in the ultimate *Lost Code*.

### **2009** | Expansion

The story is rewritten to expand upon the universe. The Tina in early Death Rule is actually an android with memories transplanted from the real Tina, who had died in a previous Game. This earlier Game becomes the focus for what would be *Lost Code*.

### **2010** | Visual novel

Early development starts for *Death Rule* as a potential visual novel series, leading to the creation of the Committee and the main antagonist of the Death Rule series. A primitive Hector Bennett arises, along with a scrapped character called Rebecca Talafox Jr. or Rebecca Isley who later became Morgan Ester and Abigail Mallen.

### **May 2011** | *Death Rule: The First Rule Demo*

The Lemma Soft WIP thread is launched. Demo 0.001a is released on May 17th, 0.001b on May 24th, and 0.002a on May 31st, all by Red SKY Studios, whose slogan "gore reimagined" belies the lack of original art assets and CGs.

This first iteration of the story features only five characters: Tina, Rebecca, Hector, Gabe -- who is killed off early on and unnamed accept in the bonus material -- and Kazue Takayama, a Japanese woman who, eager to escape the confines of her monastery, gleefully heads off on the pretense of fulfilling her Objective (then called "Clear Condition") to kill all other players. Because their Clear Conditions do not put them in immediate conflict, Tina, Rebecca, and eventually Hector decide to work together for the time being. The only traces of the Committee are the Game Master Mary, who operates the Game's control room, her unnamed employer, and the android-like Hunters she dispatches to eliminate those still alive.

The player is given the choice to have either Rebecca or Tina check on Hector when he momentarily disappears from their camp, though in the demo only the former path has been written. Rebecca and Hector develop a fondness for one an other while Tina is left to her own devices and ultimately killed by a Hunter. A status screen reveals only one Player is still standing by the end of Day 2, though their identity is not revealed as the demo ends. Also included with this demo are a music room and some bonus information, such as background information for all accept Kazue and Tina.

According to the author, the lack of conflict in this plotline prompted the rewrite which resulted in thirteen Players.

## STAGE 01 and 02 Era

### **November 2011** | *The Commodore's Guide*

The blog for AdminSy is launched on Wordpress.com under the name CrimsonAdmin. Later that month, the team releases a supplementary Death Rule guide with character bios and world information called *The Commodore's Guide,* featuring sprites by h3llomiko. With The Commodore's Guide comes the release of two new non-player characters, Eugene Felix and Trevor Collins. Due to the substantial changes of character bio details to come in later "Lost Code" development, the information provided by The Commodore's Guide is eventually retconned.

### **January 2012** | Katon

*Death Rule: lost code* gets a second and more relevant WIP thread on Lemma Soft. *The Commodore's Guide* is updated for clarity. Death Rule head artist Katon joins the team, and the writers hit the 10k milestone.The group runs a fan poll for which Player is most likely to survive. Tina receives the majority of votes, with Gabe coming in last place. The poll is currently still open.

### **February 2012** | Team development

Not long after, Riley and Malcom are introduced as possible cross-series characters in the MESI Games universe (called Matris), though only the former would appear in Lost Code demos to follow. Writing continues for the overhaul of Death Rule: The First Rule, and Mesi Games begins garnering a small fanbase.

### **March 2012** | GUI overhaul

Hijiri begins updating the *Death Rule* GUI. The game by this point is planned to have two episodes, Episode One, "Exoneration" (or "The First Rule"), and Episode Two, "False Execution." A Good End and True End are planned for Episode One, though only one ending for Episode Two.

### **April 2012** | *Love Rule: Please love me too!*

An otome Death Rule side story is teased under the name *Love Rule,* thus beginning an April Fools tradition of bogus teasers for romantic Death Rule spin-offs, as Hijiri was notorious on the Lemma Soft community for his opposition to otome. *Love Rule* boasted three GxB paths and one GxG, 20 CGs, and "actual bishounen," and was the foundation for what later became *Amity*.

By the second week of April 2012, sprite work is finished for all Death Rule Players except Gabe Rotwell and Hector Bennett. Hijiri updates the GUI again and the game resolution changes to 1024x600. A new demo is expected by the end of the month.

### **May 2012** | *Death Rule: The First Rule -- STAGE 01 Demo*

The final characters are finished towards the end of the month. A third ending called Alternative End is written for "The First Rule," though by the time "Lost Code" is finally finished, only two of the stories endings survive. Released in 2012 under the team name AdminSy, the STAGE 01 demo comprises the first day of the main story as well as the full side episode called "False Execution", written by armornick, that was later removed. All the Players receive new official bios.

### **June 2012** | MESI Games

AdminSy becomes MESI Games. Two of the three endings for *First Rule* are finished along with half of the main story and most of the art assets. Writing for "Final Rule," the *Lost Code* sub-episode written by Iarumas, begins, and the team begins drafting the extra post-game content. The GUI is updated yet again and, by popular demand, a menu is added showing Players' objectives and Death Rules.

### **July 2012** | Writers Block

Writing stalls for the main episode though presumably remains in progress for "Final Rule." Hijiri updates the Death Rule GUI yet again and teases another demo for the game.

### **August 2012** | "Lost Code"

*Death Rule: The First Rule* becomes *Death Rule: lost code*. By this point, the story was intended to be divided into three episodes: Episode I, "False Execution," Episode II, "Final Rule," and the Final Episode, "Lost Code," which was then divided further into three days. Note the switch in episode numbers since March 2012. From this update on the Final Episode would now be unlocked from the outset, but would yield the Bad End (the "Pre-Completion Path," which would take place before Day 3) if the player had not yet completed the previous episodes. This end was not mentioned during the May 2012 update, implying the planned endings may have totaled at least four by this time.

Katon, though not a writer, vies for a *yuri* route to be added to the game, to little avail. Supposedly the game's GUI is finalized, excepting the Music Room and Image and Scene Galleries.

The MESI Games blog is updated to its current status, hosted by the Visual Novel Initiative. The group distinguishes itself by its focus on plot-focused titles over romance-centered ones. By the end of the month, "Final Rule" is at least 20% complete, and armornick, who had been increasingly less involved with development, begins revising "False Execution."

### **September 2012** | "Final Rule"

"Final Rule" is finished, though not yet coded or illustrated. The team works on the next demo release, titled Solitary Stage. This is the second Stage demo after STAGE 01 in May 2012, though not the second in total for Death Rule: The First Rule.

Writing begins for Death Rule: Fear Complex.

### **October 2012** | Random facts

Hijiri releases miscellaneous trivia for Abraham, Abigail, George, Tina, Hector, Tanya, Dwight, and Lilly.

### **November 2012** | *Death Rule: Fear Complex*

Death Rule's Halloween spin-off, Fear Complex, is released and later updated to version 1.11, though the file has since become inaccessible.

### **December 2012** | *Lost Code* Extras

The Episode Select screen and Bonus Scene Gallery are implemented, the latter of which shows extra scenes for the "Lost Code" story line, including "Killing System," "Labyrinth of the Heart," "New Beginnings," and "Shangri-La." None of these are present in their current form in the final *Lost Code* release, though *Killing System* is now the name of *Lost Code's* sequel.

### **January 2013** | *Death Rule:lost code Solitary Stage Demo -Mayan Apocalypse Edition-*

The supposed second demo is released in time for Death Rule's third anniversary. By this point five endings exist -- most likely the True End, Good End, and Alternative End pitched in the blog post of May 2012, the Bad End added three months later, and the Cruel End detailed in Hijiri's October 2014 blog post. Notably absent hereafter is the episode "False Execution" which was available in its entirety in the STAGE 01 demo.

### **March 2013** | NaNoReNo '13

Hijiri and Katon work on a serious release of *Amity: One Tale,* for NaNoReNo, an annual visual novel jam held in March. Katon begins working on a second version of all the character sprites.

### **April 2013** | *Amity: One Tale*

A single route demo version 0.5 of *Amity* is released under the subtitle "Death Rule Extra Stage I." Katon does not get his Yuri route, though the game follows the exact premise of the supposedly fictitious *Love Rule* posted a year ago. The team intends to expand beyond the existing Abraham route with a later update called the White Package version (later teased *Amity: White Package Edition)*.

### **August 2013** | *Death Rule: lost code Origins*

Hijiri details a new release called *Origins* which would include cut content and developer commentary. This was never finalized but later repurposed into Death Rule: lost code OVERDRIVE Edition. Most of the CGs and portraits for Lost Code are finished.

### **October 2013** | *Death Rule: lost code//Second Stage Demo*

A new demo of *lost code* includes part of "Final Rule" and a planned patch which would add a new part of the "Lost Code" episode and a music room, though said patch never appeared and the download is no longer available.

Katon launches a webcomic called *Hallow's Eve in Amity* which seems to have a connection to the *Amity* AU, though is never updated beyond six pages.

### **November 2013** | Hiatus

The AdminSy dev blog, CrimsonAdmin, is deleted, and the MESI Games blog is not updated for another five months.

## Post-Hiatus Era

### **April 2014** | Fifth logo

*Death Rule: lost code* gets its fifth and final logo design, and seemingly another GUI update since the last blog post.

### **July 15, 2014** | Testing phase

The game approaches its bug-testing stage and the developers look for willing testers.

### **September 2014** | The end begins

The MESI Games blog and tumblr tease the impending final release of *lost code,* set for October 1st, 2014. More than six years after the first Death Rule story, *lost code's* final build, 1.00a, is released to the public, a day ahead of schedule

### **October 2014** | *Death Rule: lost code*

Version 1.00b comes out a day after the game's initial launch. 1.00c arrives a day after that, and four days after, the 1.00d patch follows to fix a minor coding error. Hijiri does a retrospective on development of the game throughout the years in the weeks following this release. Self-voicing support is added.

### **November 2014** | "Mami's Lost Story."

MESI Games plans one last version of *Death Rule: lost code,* called *OVERDRIVE Edition,* that includes an extra episode called "Mami's Untold Story," yet another GUI update, more extras, a preview of the sequel, grammar corrections and a reduction in file size. *OVERDRIVE* is planned for release Spring 2015.

### **January 2015** | New Year's

Some previews of the *OVERDRIVE Edition* user interface are shown on the official blog, as well as plans for another Death Rule do-over: Amity: Endless Dream.

### **February 2015** | New sprites

The developers at MESI opt out of NaNoReMo '15 in favor of focusing on *OVERDRIVE*. Katon begins the process of updating all *lost code* character portraits for the revamp.

March 2015 | "Mami's Untold Story"

The Mami-centric episode is retitled "Untold Story" and some of the *OVERDRIVE* menus are complete.

### **April 2015** | *Death Rule: Lost Code DIGITAL ECSTASY*

Encouraged by fan questions of whether Killer Queen was an inspiration, MESI Games teases a fictional adult version of Death Rule: lost code. Also of note, Death Rule: Lost Code is written with all words capitalized for the first time on the blog.

## References & Notes

1. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20120822084704/http://mesigames.vnovel.com/?page\_id=213
2. ↑ According to blog post Death Rule: lost code (Post-mortem), the highest number of planned endings ever was 4. However, the Lemma Soft development thread circa January 2013 says five endings were written.