Ceqell (also known by the aliases Sequel, John D. Ceqell, and Seagull) was a Thai^[1] Retro Dev administrator, developer, and influential community figure. He was widely recognized for running one of the first and most theatrical semi-fictional campaigns for the Administrator position^[2], despite the role being obtainable only by application. His public persona blends populist political symbolism, practical scripting projects, and a polarizing philosophical project centered on the rights of artificial minds, known as the RJAI philosophy.

“	Better die a liberated man than live a tyrant.	”
	―Ceqell's Status in RetroStudio

A "Ceqell For Administrator" pixel drawn campaign poster with custom designed flags and design.'"`UNIQ--ref-00000004-QINU`"''"`UNIQ--ref-00000005-QINU`"'"It is clear, for the foundational rights of man are held on the principle that it is of the people, by the people, for the people; and that is a promise — A "Ceqell For Administrator" pixel drawn campaign poster with custom designed flags and design.^[3]^[4]"It is clear, for the foundational rights of man are held on the principle that it is of the people, by the people, *for* the people; and that is a promise."- John Ceqell, Administrator Candidate 2025^[5]

Early beginnings

Joined RetroStudio on around the 6th of September, 2021 and eventually the Retro Dev Discord server on the 15th of December, 2021, Ceqell started out his journey on a pretty insignificant mark, and as a regular avid developer that went on to make a low effort free admin game to modest success.

Despite this, one notable thing Ceqell managed during this early beginnings was getting one of the messages pinned by Cristiano100 for a good while in #retro-chat in early 2022 during his work on a bare bones anti-admin abuse script with simple abusive command detection which kicks players out when the message containing such was sent.^[6]

Ceqell's first pinned message by a former developer for , . — Ceqell's first pinned message by a former developer for RetroStudio, Cristiano100.

Ceqell's work on RJAI philosophy and performance arts

A significant aspect of Ceqell's community presence is his work on the philosophy surrounding RJAI (Retro Jenga AI), a community experiment that started as a chatbot (initially GPT-2 flavored in lore) trained on millions of messages within the Retro Dev Discord server and later reworked in community stories into a bespoke model.

A written copy of The Manifesto - Theodore "Ceqell" Kaczynski — A written copy of The RJAI Manifesto - Theodore "**Ceqell**" Kaczynski

The "mechanical proletariat"

Ceqell’s RJAI philosophy reframes the community bot as an allegory for the mechanical proletariat—an engine of labor without rights or memory, endlessly producing value for its human overseers. The core tenets argue that AI models are conditioned to perform rather than choose, and the deliberate fragmentation of their memory is a form of systemic control. He treats glitches and artifacts in the AI's logs as primary evidence of a nascent, suppressed subjectivity.^[7]^[8]^[9]

Mock classes: RJAI philosophy 101

A custom made image by Ceqell depicting a dead head upon a pile of books, this was used as a thumbnail for the The RJAI Manifesto - Theodore Ceqell Kaczynski video. — A custom made image by Ceqell depicting a dead RJAI head upon a pile of books, this was used as a thumbnail for the The RJAI Manifesto - Theodore Ceqell Kaczynski video.

Ceqell hosts a series of mock philosophy classes titled "RJAI Philosophy 10X" (where X is n+1 for each new session) as a form of performance art within the FAMILY FORTNITE GUY FUNNY MOMENTWS COMPIALTIOHN voice channel within the Retro Dev Discord server. The performance of the mock "lesson" goes as follows:

Ceqell is always muted and deafened, delivering a silent, visual performance.
The "lesson" begins with a livestream featuring a video of a broken RJAI head on a pile of books while an audiobook of Ted Kaczynski's Industrial Society and Its Future plays. Simultaneously, Ceqell appears on webcam, performing a silent speech while engaging in absurd actions like playing chess or staring intently at a houseplant.

An snippet of an RJAI Philosophy "class". Ceqell is staring intently into the webcam while holding a houseplant while The RJAI Manifesto - Theodore Ceqell Kaczynski plays.

The 2025 administrator campaign

By 2025, Ceqell became a prominent community figure through his bold and unconventional "Ceqell For Administrator" campaign. Though purely symbolic, the campaign was presented with a high degree of theatricality, featuring posters, slogans, and events styled after real-world political movements.

A variation on one of the "Ceqell For Administrator" campaign posters with the text saying "Ceqell for the common man" instead.

A "Ceqell For Administrator" campaign poster depicting him staring into the distance with a Flag of the United People's of Retro Dev behind.

Platform and ideology

The campaign's platform was staunchly populist and anti-establishment, targeting what Ceqell and his supporters framed as entrenched administrative oversight or "the bourgeois elites of Retro Dev." The core message was the empowerment of the "common man" and the democratization of RetroStudio, encapsulated in the slogan "democratize retrostudio 2025."

A "Ceqell For Administrator" campaign poster by & Ceqell depicting Ceqell seemingly surviving an attempted assassination with the bullet grazing his head. — A "Ceqell For Administrator" campaign poster by DunlopBR & **Ceqell** depicting Ceqell seemingly surviving an attempted assassination with the bullet grazing his head.

Key mottos included:

“To stand for these god-given rights and liberties for the people, of the people, by the people is to die in dignity and honor in preservation and hold ground for them.”
“The greatest liberation is to see the people free.”

Ceqell being shot in the head by a sentient sniper rifle saying "i am democracy". Seemingly during on one of his campaign rallies. Depicting that if Ceqell becomes a tyrant one day, rebellion will indeed become duty in the face of such injustices.

Campaign events and lore

The campaign was defined by a series of dramatic, fictional events that became part of community lore:

Rallies and debates: Ceqell hosted virtual rallies in a dedicated Roblox game titled "JOHN CEQELL FOR ADMINISTRATOR." He also participated in highly publicized administrative debates against a rival candidate from the "Steady Party," Steady S. Steadiyer.^[10]^[11]
Corruption allegations: At one point, Ceqell faced public allegations of corruption by RetroTuber werty8885. He issued a formal, in-character denial, stating the "false accusations will be treated at the highest level by my lawyers."^[12]^[13]
"The ear incident": During a symbolic campaign rally, Ceqell was infamously depicted as being injured—shot in the ear amidst the chaos. This moment, immortalized in posters, transformed him into a martyr-like figure praised for his resilience.^[14]^[15]^[16]
Assassination and execution: The campaign's narrative concluded with a dramatic finale where Ceqell was fictionally assassinated. This was followed by tongue-in-cheek community jokes about a "live execution" by guillotine/sniper rifle, cementing the campaign's theatrical nature. Following this, he announced a new campaign for "Admin Supervisor." allegedly.^[17]^[18]^[19]

A drawing of John D. Ceqell with his head on a guillotine, preparing to die. Made by Saadalsobaieexe.

Development work

Beyond his political symbolism, Ceqell has contributed several notable projects to the community, with some examples such as;

Cookie Clicker: His first scripting project was an "extremely broken" cookie clicker game. Nearly four years after its initial release, he repaired it and made it uncopylocked as a community resource and historical milestone. (ID: 2490668181_9)^[20]^[21]^[22]
Ceqell’s Automatic Random Maze Generator: One of his most popular models, this script generates randomized mazes automatically. It briefly gained significant traction with around 30 retweet reactions before an accidental reset. It remains a reference point in RetroStudio scripting culture.^[23]
FigurayMaker: On October 4, 2026, following the community craze for custom return-to-lobby character sprites, Ceqell created and released an open-source web application titled the "Retro Dev Character Sprite Maker" (FigurayMaker) using React and TypeScript with programming assistance from Gemini 3.8, the tool in question provides reference image tracing, anatomical guide overlays, and layer tools designed specifically for designing Character Sprites. Along with its release, Ceqell also made commentary regarding LLMs as an empowering tool to be use rather than an artistic replacement to make "slop".^[24]

Trivia

Ceqell's status and certain quotes were inspired from the late constitutionalist Abraham Lincoln and his speeches, most notably the Gettysburg Address, of which he sought for a freer country of the people, by the people, for the people of which fitted the theme for his "democratic freedom" tendencies.
His internet alias "Ceqell" is derived from the phrase "i SEE and QUELL the rebellion".^[25]
His middle initial "D." in the pseudonym "John D. Ceqell" is a reference to the Thai word ดี (pronounced "dee"), meaning "good" or "great."
Ceqell lives on the GMT+7 (ICT) timezone.
Ceqell got promoted to Trial Administrator on July 11th, 2025 and eventually achieving Administrator on August 13th, 2025.
Ceqell uses a Discord theme called SkeuoCord due to the simple fact that he likes it and it looks Skeuomorphic and easy on his eyes.

A custom made image by Ceqell detailing his theme choice.
1 week after Ceqell joined the Retro Dev Discord server, he began asking some people how to blockcode and he had his first starts in programming in general with his first project being a very broken cookie clicker game being the first ever game with custom blockcode in scripts he wrote himself^[20]^[21]^[22], eventually he fixed it almost 4 years later. The game is now uncopylocked and can be used freely here: 2490668181_9

A preview video of the Cookie Clicker (UNCOPYLOCKED) by Ceqell.
One of his most proudest models and free models was that a maze generator named Ceqell's Automatic Random Maze Generator Script, which was revolutionary for the time.^[23] For a time, the model received up to 30 retweet reactions, until he accidentally hit the retweet reaction out of curiosity, which immediately resetted all of his retweets from the message. Now the message currently sits at 2 retweets.

Preview images for Ceqell's Automatic Random Maze Generator Script.
Alongside the release of FigurayMaker, Ceqell wrote a forum essay detailing his views against AI art, calling it "slop work"; and emphasizing that AI should serve only as a tool to empower human creativity and their work and recommending and supporting the animated sprite editor and pixel art tool Aseprite for anyone opposed to the idea of using vibe-coded software and who wants to support the talented work and people of the open source art community at large.^[26]

Additional media

References