AdminOni
Version 1.1
Compile Date: 01/31/2025

AdminOni is a fan-made game based on both "Ao Oni" and "HetaOni".

Ao Oni is a classic RPG Maker horror game about four middle school kids that enter a haunted mansion and find themselves trapped,
having to solve puzzles and run away from a blue monster to escape.

HetaOni is a fan-game that combines Ao Oni's older versions with the web-comic/manga/anime series "Hetalia",
starting as a video series, becoming one of the most well-known Ao Oni fan-games to date.


CHANGELOG
Version 1.0 - Initial Release - 01/30/2025

Version 1.1 - First Bugfix Release - 01/31/2025
Fixed hooded creature walking incorrect path in library
Fixed player going invisible after first clock puzzle cutscene if party has been modified
Fixed rope ladder if player re-enters the cave
Added additional credits in the ART section


-----The Development Story of AdminOni-----


PART 1: THE BIRTH OF STUPIDITY

AdPro had just gotten his hands on RPG Maker VX Ace back in 2013 and decided to make a game.
He was 12 years old at the time.
This game would be named "Zachtalia Oni". 

It was a game that involved the titular character, Zach, 
going into a mansion with all of his friends, 
trying desperately to escape while fighting aliens.

There were three Zachtalia Oni games before AdPro would try his hand at showing off his game to the public.
A YouTube gamer named "StriHiryu" (known for playing Ao Oni and its fan-games at the time) 
was asked to play the first Zachtalia Oni and had practically tore the game wide open with heavy criticism,
all the comments on the video were doing the same thing, and rightly so.

Zach and all of his friends were literally just real life people that AdPro knew (including himself) 
that sported the appearances of several Hetalia characters.

The story itself was all over the place, being completely random and not making any sense.
It was seen as the stupidest and worst fan-game the community had ever seen.
After that, AdPro asked StriHiryu to remove the video, for no one to see nor play this horrible game ever again.

There were people that archived the game, but AdPro wishes for each and every archive to get rid of it.
It does not have any historical value (other than what you're about to read), 
and just serves as the biggest embarrassment and failure AdPro's ever made.

It took a bit for AdPro to accept that ZO was terrible, but he ultimately did so,
hoping to make a better game in the future, or even within the next year.

Speaking of which...


PART 2: THE RESURRECTION AND COMA

AdminOni, much like HetaOni, started as a video series created by AdminProductions (going by AdPro these days).
It was made in RPG Maker XP, and it consisted of 10 Chapters, varying in length.
It was published on YouTube in 2016, marking the first iteration of the game.
AdPro was 15 years old during this time, finishing the series at age 16.
However, the game had no real FULLY COMPLETE playable version for some time.

The original version of AdminOni had a lot of ideas that had potential, even having lore that actually makes up a pretty decent story,
but AdPro had a lot of trouble with writing characters and explaining the lore he was creating clearly so others could understand 
upon a first playthrough.

On top of that, most (if not all) characters in AdminOni were real people, 
ranging from in-person to online friends, just like his previous game.
This time though, each character had their appearances approximated to what AdPro's friends looked like at the time.

Yet again, AdPro would try to show off the original version of game to friends, 
getting met with the same level of criticism he had seen with ZO.
This would soon act as the catalyst for AdminOni's downfall.
With age, the game was beginning to get way harder to look back at for AdPro (not as bad as ZO, but still).

AdPro did try again with AdminOni, attempting to make it better in 2017.
First, he attempted a remake in RPG Maker VX, which didn't get very far and was overall subpar.
Next, he attempted a remake in RPG Maker VX Ace, this one got a lot further and was looking to be pretty good,
but he stopped working on the VX Ace remake sometime after implementing Chapter 6.

By this point AdminOni was considered a failure in the creator's eyes,
as he would go on to remove any mention and evidence of AdminOni's existence from the internet.

People would bring it up every now and again, 
but AdPro would refuse to even show the game, 
let alone let people get their hands on it.

For a while, this was where AdminOni sat. 
A bad memory for a creator whose naivety would be their downfall,
AdPro would never touch AdminOni ever again.


PART 3: THE AWAKENING

After taking a hiatus from making anything in RPG Maker, 
AdPro would come back to the engine to do translations of games, little experiments, and so on, practicing doing things again.

Alongside that were other changes, he wasn't into Hetalia or HetaOni as much as he was back at age 16,
he was starting to broaden his horizons towards bigger and better things,
but the one thing that would never die was his love for Ao Oni, the game that started it all.

AdPro took the time to study how noprops (Ao Oni's creator) would do things,
both from a game development and an individual standpoint.
AdPro had gone and translated every single game noprops ever created from Japanese to English,
understanding the history of someone who made one of the most popular RPG Maker Horror games.

This gave AdPro a massive boost in knowledge for RPG Maker, 
he was slowly starting to relearn why he had fun making games,
but he still had his doubts that he'd ever make a significant game again.

From there, he got inspired by a YouTuber named "LixianTV", an editor for Markiplier.
AdPro watched all of Lixian's videos talking about and going through the history of some of the games he made.
This would spark something in AdPro. 

He had been making games for the sake of making something HUGE and STORY-HEAVY,
when in reality, you don't really need all of that to make a decent video game.

Looking at the games noprops had up on their website compared with the ones that were deleted from it,
and even just looking at the older versions of Ao Oni compared to its latest,
it was obvious that noprops had the same philosophy too.

This would become the breakthrough that AdPro needed to start developing more games.

The first game AdPro made after his hiatus was a little game called "Mannescape" (originally titled "Single Room Escape").
It was made as a tribute to noprops and the games he created (Ao Oni and The Hero's Escape Game series) and was released in 2023.
AdPro was now 22 years old.

At the time, AdPro had joined a group of friends that all had a shared interest in Ao Oni and its fan-games.
AdPro was hesitant at first, but warmed up to the idea of showing his new game to these people.
This time, he had done it. AdPro finally made a game that people could play and ACTUALLY enjoy.
Everyone really liked it. 

Ao Oni fan-games at this point were mostly trying to copy other fan-games, like Siro Oni, HetaOni, and all others,
but very few actually tried to take inspiration from the original Ao Oni.
Mannescape was one of the very first where the entire game was made 
with respect and accuracy towards the original source material,
so much so that some considered it to be as-close to the Ao Oni experience that a fan could make.

After this, AdPro and his new friends would come together to complete a game that became "Oni of the Opera -ENCORE-".
This game was met with MAJOR success with slight criticisms that didn't deter AdPro nor anyone else.
Even StriHiryu played it and absolutely adored it, saying that it's far better than the official Ao Oni games that were released from 2016 onward.

AdPro had finally done it, he had made games that people liked.
With OotOE sealing the deal, AdPro and his friends would come together to form their own indie game-dev studio, "Jailhouse Games".
The team consisting of almost everyone that worked on OotOE and then some.
Their goal is to continue making Ao Oni fan-games while branching off to make original games.
Since Ao Oni is still an intellectual property owned by people, it's technically illegal to sell fan-games made of it.
The team still wants to make fan-games for free, but will accept optional donations when people download the games.
For the original games the team wants to make, they will be sold for money if the game's creator wants things to be that way.


PART 4: THE REVIVAL

Even after forming an indie-dev team, AdPro was still negative about his past.
He told people about his previous works and would only show brief snippets,
as he'd always make comments that his games before Mannescape were awful.

However, January of 2025 rolled around and Mystycitty (original developer and head-artist of OotOE) 
had started making something for AdPro, a game to celebrate his 24th birthday.
This game was called "AdminOni Chapter 11", a non-canon sequel to AdminOni.
Thinking the idea was interesting, AdPro wanted to give Mystycitty material to base this game on.
At this point, since the team had never seen the entirety of AdminOni before,
AdPro decided to brush off the feeling of embarrassment and give the original AdminOni one last look, 
with everyone there, no hiding away anything.

Shockingly, the team all thought it wasn't as bad as AdPro made it out to be,
but it was obvious there were rough spots that needed ironing.
The team proposed the idea of reimagining AdminOni to make the game age less like milk,
but AdPro knew it would take a considerable amount of effort to do it... or would it?

Remember that VX Ace remake from 2017?
Well, lo and behold, AdPro still had the remake all these years later, along with the original version.
When he opened up the project file in RPG Maker, AdPro was shocked. 
He had forgotten what he had done with the remake.

It was a million times better than the original. 
The dialogue was completely rewritten, the plot was better explained and conveyed, 
the combat was so much better, and so on.
Everything here was PERFECT, except for a couple things.

Minus the obvious mentioning of real life people through their names, 
the remake was unfinished and had several glaring issues.
There was code for Chapter 7 in there, but nothing substantial.
For AdPro though, this was just enough of a motivation boost to clean up and finish this remake,
and make AdminOni the game he always wanted it to be.
That's how we got here now.


PART 5: CONCLUSION

The remake of AdminOni is completely done, far surpassing the original.
As of writing the readme, it's unknown how the public, outside of the team, will think of the game.
I guarantee though, that while it may not be the BEST game AdPro's ever made,
it went from being one of AdPro's biggest failures towards one of the greats.

Hopefully with time, this version of AdminOni, 
the one that AdPro is proud of,
will not age like milk as years go by
and the AdPro of the future can look back at it with a smile on his face. 

: )