After over 12 years of development, the anime-style science adventure game Nonuple Nine: Asymptote nears completion. We asked its solo creator about the painstaking process

Published by Kodansha Game Creator’s Lab and developed by solo Japanese developer Nonuple9, Nonuple Nine: Asymptote is an ambitious science adventure game that boasts 2D anime graphics and a profound story about what it means to be human. As of September 2024, the title has been in development for over 12 years – and during this time, its creator has been through a lot – including the mid-development discontinuation of Adobe Flash, which their game engine is based on. AUTOMATON asked Nonuple9 about their story. This article summarizes excerpts from the full-length interview in Japanese.

In September this year, Nonuple Nine: Asymptote finally opened its Steam store page, with an early 2026 release window. A brand-new demo for the title was unveiled at TGS 2024 too. In this side-scrolling, point-and-click adventure game, you play as a human test subject named Nonuple Nine, who wakes up on the 32^nd floor of an empty building. As she explores her surroundings, she realizes that the 32^nd floor keeps looping no matter how much she tries to get to other floors. A mysterious story unfolds from there.

But when did development start? Nonuple9 can’t remember exactly when they began working on the game, but “the oldest existing records” they’re able to find are from the end of 2012. At this time, Nonuple9 was working for Capcom, participating in scenario writing for the Monster Hunter and Ace Attorney series. With their own game project at Capcom being cancelled due to “cruel circumstances of the adult world,” they decided to try to realize their vision independently, by focusing on their forte – storytelling.

From there, they would sacrifice sleep and use any free time outside of their day job to work on the new passion project. “My day job was busy and stressful, and didn’t fulfill my desire to create, so I didn’t care if my body was broken, I just wanted to work on Nonuple Nine as much as possible. I was driven by the urge to create.”

Nonuple9 started out doing everything on their own, including the game’s script, scenario, backgrounds, illustrations and animation. In time, they came to commission artists for some of the game’s CGs and music tracks, but they had to keep doing animation on their own as the game’s engine was based on the obsolete Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR. Once support for Flash was discontinued in 2020, Nonuple9 started fearing for the worst – that their game could become unplayable before even being completed. From there, they had to time travel, tricking their PC into letting them use Adobe AIR by manipulating the date and time.

Luckily, after signing with Kodansha Game Creator’s Lab, Nonuple9 was able to find an engineer capable of porting Nonuple Nine to Unity, and the port has since evolved into a mostly playable state.

Although the development process remains laborious and “not something a solo developer should be doing,” Nonuple9 is confident that they will finally complete their game by the end of 2025.