ILLUSION WORLD, codenamed Project Vexis, is officially iceboxed. This means that while the project isn’t being discarded, it is not currently being worked on and there are no plans to further develop the game at this time.

ILLUSION WORLD was an ambitious follow-up to AFTEREFFECT, an original turn-based RPG where a young theme park employee had to survive a dystopian, twisted society based on Walt Disney’s canceled plans for EPCOT. Many concepts were made for the project and pretty much all of the first chapter had a script - which would have been released as a demo. But as our focus shifted into developing our original game “INTO THE AETHER,” there was waning interest as I suddenly grew dissatisfied with the state of the game and the scripts I had written. The focus on an EPCOT parody, specifically, was the point of contention as I did not feel like it really delivered on the “twisted theme park” fantasy the title is trying to sell you on. Unfortunately, I don’t think I was able to change the story in a way that I think would be satisfactory to players, and I started to focus on different projects. In truth, there hasn’t been much of any development on this title due to our focus on INTO THE AETHER. Nothing was ever made in-engine aside from a few UI mockups and sprites.

The scope of the game also proved to be an issue - its scope was massive for what was supposed to be an “in-between” game. In reality, a true AFTEREFFECT successor should be a bite-sized experience like the original. I thought at the time that I had to make things bigger and better to make an exciting successor, but truly, I think the massive scope of ILLUSION WORLD was its downfall. Well, the downfall of this current iteration.

Ultimately though, it’s still a story I want to tell one day, so that’s why it’s iceboxed and not outright canceled. I’m still passionate about the themes and messages the narrative told, and it very much has the spirit of AFTEREFFECT in it. This is also why I won’t patch out any references to ILLUSION WORLD in the original AFTEREFFECT, as I still consider it canon enough to its timeline. But development has been indefinitely paused as I continue work on INTO THE AETHER and other small projects in the meantime.

As a parting gift of this chapter of ILLUSION WORLD, I would like to introduce AFTEREFFECT’s hidden character for the first time. Please meet the elusive Vexis-Layne, the cunning and playful leader of the Vexii cult, the main antagonists of this iteration of ILLUSION WORLD. She is one of my favorite character designs I’ve ever made, and I sincerely hope I get to make a game with her in it.

Please look forward to future projects by Splee Team Games, and if you’re sad about the lack of AFTEREFFECT content, don’t be. This doesn’t mean there won’t be a successor to AFTEREFFECT, though, just that it would come in a different form than we previously imagined.