[VN][WIP] 1 Million D – A hand-drawn Cinematic Visual Novel from Vietnam (bilingual, emotional storytelling) - Sep 2025

[kingsjing]

Overview
1 Million D is a Cinematic Visual Novel currently in development by an indie team from Vietnam.
This game combines fully hand-drawn 2D artwork with realistic storytelling, contemporary urban life, and a touch of mystery — all set in bustling Ho Chi Minh City.

Story
You play as a young man working hard to survive in the fast-paced, vibrant, and occasionally dangerous streets of modern Saigon.
After a strange accident, you meet Kiều Anh — a charming and curious university girl who hides a secret that may be tied to one million U.S. dollars.

Will you pass her by like two strangers in the night, or step into a journey to uncover the city’s hidden truths — and perhaps your own fate?
The choice is yours.

Features

Fully hand-drawn 2D art (no AI), with over 120,000 lines of dialogue planned across 10 versions.

Languages: Vietnamese and English.

Emotional storytelling with modern themes.

Currently in development — teaser & v0.1 expected soon.

Screenshots






Status
Most core art and script for the teaser version are complete.
Currently polishing animations and music before releasing the first playable demo.

Let us know what you think!
We’d love to hear your impressions or thoughts from fellow developers, readers, or just fans of VN storytelling.

Thanks again to everyone who's been checking out this thread — seeing it pass 1000 views was a surreal moment for the team

If you’d like to follow our journey as we build this game, we post regular updates, behind-the-scenes art, and dev progress on:

X (Twitter)
https://x.com/kingsavalon_ent
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/kingsavalon.studio/

(Feel free to drop by — we love sharing little bits of the world we’re creating.)

[kingsjing]

Update: Our official **main menu** is now live.

This is the very first thing players will see when they start *1 Million D* —
a quiet night in Saigon, somewhere between memories and regrets.

Watch preview here: https://streamable.com/k8o5pt
Music: original pop-indie theme, written to match the feeling of a long-lost goodbye.

We tried to capture that fleeting, silent moment before a story begins...
Would love to hear your thoughts — what vibe does it give you?

[kingsjing]

Thanks again to everyone who's been checking out this thread — seeing it pass 1000 views was a surreal moment for the team

If you’d like to follow our journey as we build this game, we post regular updates, behind-the-scenes art, and dev progress on:

X (Twitter)
https://x.com/kingsavalon_ent
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/kingsavalon.studio/

(Feel free to drop by — we love sharing little bits of the world we’re creating.)

[kingsjing]

Devlog Update – Start of Week:

This week’s progress?
Well… let’s just say we didn’t get hit by burnout, but the truck came close.

New background completed
Script for Chapter 1 hit 9,000 lines
Minigame prototype: working, but needs polish

We’re still aiming for a teaser with 70+ minutes of gameplay, hand-drawn VN style from Vietnam.

Here’s one chaotic frame from a scene in progress:

Thanks for sticking with us. More coming soon, unless the truck really wins next time.

[kingsjing]

Another quiet moment from our rainy Saigon scene.
Choices like this are why I started making this VN.
One leads into the night.
One leads to sleep.
But both carry weight—because sometimes, even rest is a decision heavy with meaning.
Still thankful this post hasn’t been removed. You folks are keeping us going.

[kingsjing]

CineNovel (short for Cinematic Visual Novel) is not just an evolution, but a whole new era of visual novels.

In traditional visual novels, characters are represented by “sprites” - essentially static PNG images drawn in a few fixed poses and facial expressions. These sprites are reused throughout the game. The background, or “BG”, typically consists of a limited set of static images that cycle through different scenes. In each conversation, the developer chooses a BG to display, and character sprites appear or disappear to indicate who is speaking.
Moreover, choices in these games are usually sparse. Most of the playtime revolves around reading and listening to music. This has led to a common perception that visual novels are nothing more than illustrated books with sound.

But with our CineNovel, everything changes.
• There are no prefab character sprites. Each scene is a unique CG, a hand-crafted composition where characters and backgrounds are integrated seamlessly. Every frame is designed with cinematic depth and artistic intention, delivering an experience that feels alive and emotionally resonant.
• It’s no longer just about reading. In a CineNovel, we incorporate a wide variety of interactive minigames, each with its own mechanics and purpose. At crucial moments, you’ll need to win these minigames to unlock better outcomes, or fail, and head toward a Bad Ending. You might find yourself fighting, repairing vehicles, cleaning up, playing chess, or even watching security footage to uncover evidence.

You don’t just read a CineNovel - you live inside it.
CineNovel is the new age of visual storytelling: a space not just for reading, but for discovering, experiencing, and immersing yourself in the story.

[kingsjing]

**Is *1 Million D* based on a true story?**
Not entirely. But not entirely fiction, either.

Back in 2019, I wasn’t running a game studio yet -- just a small drawing class for students and young artists.
One of them -- a quiet girl who worked part-time with me -- got a phone call one day while we were working. I didn’t mean to listen, but I heard just enough to know something was wrong. And then I saw her crying.

Her father had fallen deep into debt.
22 billion VND -- nearly a million dollars.
Her family wanted to send her somewhere far away, into hiding. But I felt that would only make things worse.

So I kept her close.

She stayed quietly -- working, studying, trying to hold on. I covered what I could. Rent. Food. A bit of peace. I didn't do much. I just tried not to let her disappear.

And for a long time, I never told anyone.

---

*1 Million D* wasn’t meant to be autobiographical. But as I kept writing, some of those moments found their way in. A girl on the run. A place to hide. A quiet weight that no one else could carry.

So no -- it’s not all fiction.
Some parts are just real memories, retold with new names.

Thanks for reading.

[PyTom]

I've merged the second thread about 1 Million D into this one. Let's keep it to one thread.

[kingsjing]

I've merged the second thread about 1 Million D into this one. Let's keep it to one thread.

Understood, thanks for merging the threads. I’ll make sure to keep it tidy from now on.

[kingsjing]

30% done… and this is what it’s starting to feel like.
We just finished this background a few hours ago.
A quiet desk. A cup of coffee. And a phone screen still glowing after a long night of work.

Seems fitting, because that’s exactly where the team is right now.

-Script is fully done.
In English, French, and Vietnamese.

-This teaser episode will be around 60 minutes of actual playtime.
We’re now at:
-3,357 lines of dialogue
-Over 1,200 fully hand-drawn frames
-Yes. 1,200.

It’s a CineNovel, after all — no sprites, no prefab backgrounds. Every frame is composed like a film shot.
We knew it would be intense. But now that we’re 30% through… well, it’s hitting like midnight coffee: strong, a little bitter, but keeping us going.

Thanks for following along. We’ll keep pushing, frame by frame.