One Year in Auresa
One Year in Auresa is an indie game in active development. It's a cozy game about restarting your life in a new country after a quarter-life crisis.Site is new and under construction!
Plot
You get broken up with. You lose your job. And just like that, the future you pictured for yourself has vanished.A small country is offering one-year visas to people willing to start over. You don't know anyone there and you don't speak the language... but what do you have to lose?Throughout that year, you'll learn the language. You'll make friends. You'll find work. Maybe you'll fall in love.And when that year is up? You decide if Auresa has become home.
Gameplay
The game is set in the fictional country of Auresa, which speaks the fictional language of Aurese.The game takes place over 365 days, each of which is divided into two sections (daytime and evening).You can use your time to explore the world, learn the language, befriend characters, earn money, etc. The world is truly your oyster.There are ten love interests (5 female, 5 male) and they are all available to the player regardless of gender. Romance is entirely optional and they each have platonic routes as well.The game has multiple endings depending on your choices.It plays a bit like a mix of Homicipher and Persona's Free Time sections, although it truly is its own thing at this point.
Characters
Credits
This is a solo dev game created by Rylee W. aka GG Gigi.All development, portraits, UI assets and writing is by me :)Backgrounds are currently placeholders and come from Canva stock photos and ran through a few filters. They will be hand-drawn by me in the future.Music is provided by Ovani Sounds (with some light editing done by me) and Nanaki Amane.SFX comes from Sonniss, specifically their QUUTE UI pack - will link specific creators in the future.All things that have not been created by me are licensed to use commercially.
FAQ
Q. What language does your game use?
A: I use Ren'Py's open source engine, and I make extensive use of custom python functions.
I have been a professional enterprise software dev for over a decade, so a lot of my code is custom.Q. I meant your game's language itself.
A: Right! It's based on a conlang created by me. The conlang itself has no name, but its adaptation for my game is called Aurese.
It is entirely built from scratch and has no obvious influences from other languages, although it does follow English grammar for the sake of the game's difficulty.
It is a "real" fake language, in that it works identically to a real language.
Q. Is your game a language-learning game/do I have to learn it?
A: Absolutely not! It's part of the way of conveying the story and showing the process of being a stranger to starting to settle down in the community.
The game will never quiz you and you are not expected to learn a single word of Aurese. If you want to, however, it's fully possible!Q. How did you make a language from scratch? Are you a linguist?
A: I'm documenting my process for creating Aurese on my TikTok - but the short answer is no, I am not a linguist.
I speak English natively, French fluently, Korean intermediately, and I've dabbled in more languages than I can remember. I am fascinated by language, grammar, etymology, etc. and the way it shapes our experiences and worldview.
I did study Translation and Interpretation in college, but that's far from being a linguist.Q. Is your game out yet? Where can I play it?
A: Development started in early June 2026. I'm hard at work at a demo that I'm planning to release in August 2026.
The demo will be available on Itch.io. I'll also add it to Steam if there's enough interest.Q. Do you use AI in your game?
A. No. My art is all done by me in Procreate, and I have turned off AI tools in my code editor. The music and SFX I use are created by real humans.
The only thing I cannot guarantee are some of the stock assets I find on Canva; Canva is a great tool for me in general, but they have embraced AI in some of their features. I do my best to avoid them.Q. How can I follow along with your game?
A. TikTok is the best place to reach me for now! I'm also planning on updating my Itch.io more as time allows.
If there's enough interest, I'll create a Discord in the future!