Design Hero

Design Hero is a first-person visual novel adventure game where you play as a newly graduated graphic designer who lands an internship at the prestigious Jagger&Jones agency. Set in New York City, you must navigate the challenges of demanding clients, present design projects, and prove your skills to survive in the competitive industry. The game features dating simulation elements, mini-games, and multiple endings based on your decisions, with over five hours of gameplay that includes customizing your character and office space.

Design Hero: A Cautionary Tale of Ambition and Execution in the Visual Novel Genre

In the vast and often overlooked archives of indie gaming, few titles embody the precarious balance between inspired concept and flawed execution as starkly as Akinaba’s 2018 visual novel, Design Hero. A game that dared to ask if the cutthroat world of graphic design could be the setting for a compelling narrative, it stands as a fascinating case study of ambition outpacing polish.

Introduction: The Promise of a Creative Life

What if your daily grind could be the source of heroic triumph? This was the tantalizing premise offered by Design Hero, a visual novel that sought to transform the all-too-relatable struggles of a freelance creative—the demanding clients, the requests for “exposure” instead of payment, the theft of intellectual property—into an interactive power fantasy. Released on October 30, 2018, for Windows, Mac, and Linux, the game promised a five-hour journey from intern to industry legend. However, beneath this compelling premise lay a product so riddled with technical and design shortcomings that it became less a heroic saga and more a poignant reflection of the very industry it sought to dramatize: a great idea, desperately in need of a more skilled and better-funded team to execute it properly.

Development History & Context: A Kickstarter Dream

Design Hero was the product of Akinaba, a studio that openly wore its influences on its sleeve. As noted in their 2017 Kickstarter campaign, the developers drew direct inspiration from narrative and stylistic giants: the courtroom drama of Phoenix Wright, the quirky romance of Hatoful Boyfriend and Dream Daddy, and the distinct, angular art style of Tetsuya Nomura of Square Enix fame. This was not a project born in obscurity; it was a conscious attempt to court a specific audience by emulating beloved classics.

Successfully funded by nearly 200 backers who pledged well above the initial goal, the game was built using Visual Novel Maker, an engine that provides accessible tools but can sometimes limit technical ambition. The development context is crucial: this was an era where indie visual novels were flourishing on platforms like Steam, offering developers a direct path to a niche but passionate audience. Akinaba aimed to tap into this market with a uniquely professional, rather than fantastical, setting—New York City’s prestigious design agency scene. The constraints were likely a mix of budget, engine limitations, and the inherent challenges of a small team tackling a narrative with branching paths, customization, and mini-games.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: A Story of Missed Opportunities

The narrative framework of Design Hero is its greatest strength and most frustrating failure. You play as a custom-named, recently graduated graphic designer, toiling in obscurity and dealing with the aforementioned indignities of freelance life. A lifeline appears in the form of an internship offer from Jagger&Jones, a prestigious agency led by the legendary Trevor Jagger, whom your character idolizes.

The potential for a sharp, satirical, and deeply relatable story is immense. The game could have been a scathing critique of “hustle culture,” a heartfelt exploration of imposter syndrome, or a comedic take on office politics. Thematic elements are present: the conflict between art and commerce, the search for validation, and the nature of collaboration and rivalry.

However, the execution falters dramatically. The dialogue, as critically noted by 3rd-Strike.com, is often poorly translated and grammatically awkward, with lines like “I fed up with this world” pulling the player out of the experience. The pacing is described as slow and plodding, with long stretches of unvoiced dialogue that feel more like a chore than an engagement.

The characters, while creatively named after Rolling Stones songs and members (a cute gimmick), lack depth beyond their archetypes—the demanding director Angie Jones, the idolized CEO Trevor Jagger. The promised “multiple endings” and branching paths based on alliances and enemies feel underdeveloped, as player choices in design mini-games only affect a monetary reward system that itself has little tangible impact on the world or narrative. The story’s foundation is solid, but the script and narrative design fail to build upon it in a meaningful way.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: A Broken Loop

As a visual novel, Design Hero’s core gameplay loop should be simple: read dialogue, make choices, and interact with light mini-games. Unfortunately, reports from players and critics indicate that it fails at even this most fundamental level.

The most damning criticism lies in its basic functionality. Multiple user reports on the Steam community forums describe a game that is “rather annoying to move through,” with the mouse clicks required to advance text often not registering. “Sometimes you have to really slam your mouse in order to have the game respond,” the 3rd-Strike review notes. This fundamental lack of polish destroys any sense of immersion.

The mini-games, which involve completing design briefs for clients, are grading-based (C, B, or A) but their impact is negligible. Earning more money only allows the purchase of cosmetic items for your office or character, items that can also be obtained for free through social events. This renders the core economic loop pointless. The social simulation/”dating” aspects, where you can go on outings with colleagues, are reportedly shallow, offering little beyond a change of scenery.

Character customization, while offering a progressive choice of male, female, or genderless protagonist, is revealed to be superficial. The genderless option simply reuses the female character model, and clothing options are limited and basic. The gameplay doesn’t support the narrative’s ambition; instead, it actively works against it through sheer brokenness.

World-Building, Art & Sound: Aesthetic Glimmers in a Technical Fog

This is the one area where Design Hero receives some measured praise. The art style, heavily inspired by the Phoenix Wright series and Tetsuya Nomura, is consistently mentioned as a positive. The character designs are varied, expressive, and visually appealing, capturing an anime-inspired aesthetic that fits the genre.

However, the world-building is limited. The game is set in a New York agency, but environmental variety is minimal, primarily confined to the office and a few static locations visited during social events. The atmosphere of a high-stakes creative industry is never fully realized due to the limited scope.

The sound design is a significant weak point. The music is described as intensely repetitive, with tracks that loop ad nauseam. There is no voice acting to bring the characters to life, beyond a single stock sound effect (a voice saying “Rockstar”) and generic grunts or noises assigned to each gender. This lack of aural polish further contributes to the game’s cheap and unfinished feel.

Reception & Legacy: A Footnote of Unfulfilled Potential

Design Hero was a commercial and critical non-starter. Its MobyScore is not rated due to a lack of reviews, but the lone critic score on the site sits at a damning 35%. The review from 3rd-Strike.com scored it a 3.5/10, summarizing that “the game needs a lot more committed work in order for it to stand out.”

Player reception on Steam was mixed but leaned negative, with a Steambase Player Score of 67/100 derived from just nine reviews. Community discussions were quickly overrun by players reporting game-breaking bugs, such as freezes during design tasks that halted progress entirely. Others were baffled by wildly fluctuating prices, with some key-selling sites listing it for over $20, which players deemed utterly unreasonable for the experience offered.

Its legacy is virtually nonexistent. Design Hero did not influence a new subgenre of “professional sim” visual novels. It serves not as a blueprint but as a cautionary tale: a reminder that a relatable concept and stylish art are not enough. They must be supported by competent programming, thoughtful design, and linguistic polish. It stands as a testament to the immense challenges faced by small indie teams and the often brutal disparity between a Kickstarter pitch’s vision and the shipped product.

Conclusion: A Historical Artifact, Not a Classic

In the final analysis, Design Hero is a fascinating artifact for game historians and a disappointing experience for players. Its thesis—finding heroism in the creative professional’s struggle—is brilliant and remains ripe for exploration. Yet, the game built around this idea is fundamentally broken, poorly written, and devoid of impactful player agency.

It is not a game that can be recommended for its quality or enjoyability. However, for those studying game development, it holds value as a clear example of how scope, ambition, and execution can fall catastrophically out of sync. Design Hero is the video game equivalent of a promising first draft: it has the heart and the idea, but it was rushed to market before the technical and narrative craftsmanship could hope to match them. It remains a footnote in the history of indie visual novels, a brief glimpse of what could have been, forever overshadowed by what actually was.