Quell's Dev Blog

When creating a game world, you have to tackle various design questions.

We're familiar with the big front-facing design questions - things that require clear intent and are likely to be listed in the game design doc. They'd be questions about the game’s core genre and tone, the gameplay loop, the story, art style, and so on.

But there are other design decisions to make - "little" ones that are almost invisible. They're not likely to be listed in a design doc. Maybe the designer doesn't even think about them consciously...

Then every so often, an inciting incident occurs - a little exchange alerts you to the fact that something you assumed was agreed upon by everyone was, in fact, not. In those little exchanges, the little design questions announce their presence and demand an official, consciously recognized, decision.

Today, I'll talk about some of these little design questions.

Little Design Question 1: Will there be blood?

The inspiration for today's topic came from a real exchange. We were working on one of the bosses, a brutal one, that would try to crush the player and any intruders. So, a dev mate proposed that the stages should have drainage holes so the blood could drain away. Which I thought was really morbid.

I proposed we simply didn't need to have drainage holes at all - no need to invite the imagery. In fact, do we even show blood? 🤔

(Okay, there is blood splatter sometimes, but they're all non-red - and only for the "zombie-ish" monsters)

Blood splatter, when it comes out, quickly evaporates. They don't fall to the floor and pool. In general, enemies don't leave behind a body, they evaporate in a puff of smoke.

Little Design Question 2: Will we have bathrooms?

On a similar note, have you ever thought about how some games feature bathrooms and some don't? Take Zelda Breath of the Wild. You could follow an NPC all day, watch them run around town, do their chores, return home and sleep. And nowhere in the entire day's schedule do they use the bathroom. In fact, you could scour all of Hyrule and not find a single toilet.

That must've been a little design question the designers decided upon at some point. The last occurrence of a bathroom in Zelda was Skyward Sword, and there was only one.

I think I agree with such a decision. Why even invite such… imperfections into the game world? Our characters don't need to poop 😌

(The house in RE7. If the game is in the horror genre, chances of a bathroom increase to 99%)

Little Design Question 3: Can Platforms Float?

In Mario, platforms can just hang in the air and that's not considered unusual. Mario's world is pretty cartoony, so floating platforms feel right at home.

On the other end of the spectrum, consider Prince of Persia. Notice how the pole that the Prince is swinging on has to jut in from the background or how the wooden platform has support beams anchoring it to the stone wall? Everything has to be contextualized.

Star Iliad follows the anchored platform rules, so platforms and breakable blocks need to be contextualized too. In the below picture, the breakable blocks below are fine to have, whereas the breakable blocks floating in the sky would be considered no-bueno.

It might seem like a small decision, but floating platforms have a lot of ramifications. The presence of a background removes dimensionality from the scene, which hurts visibility - and so requires the art team to use very specific lighting to make sure things are still visible.

Anchored platforms also subconsciously convey information to the player. For example, if there's sky above the player, you could safely conclude that there's nothing hidden above you since platforms can't float. The way we design the environment guides the player's eyes.

Little Design Question 4: Do ammo pickups make world sense?

That enemies drop ammo - that's likely to be documented in a game design document. But what about if it makes "world sense"?

In Phoenotopia, you have this green gauge that governs sprinting and attacking. So it's kinda like "Stamina". However, later you get other tools like a slingshot and bombs - they also deplete the same green gauge. So, I guess the green gauge can be considered "general resources"?

That did bother me 🤔

A popular alternative is to have separate bomb and arrow pickups ala Zelda - make the other tools be governed by a separate resource counter. But now, defeating enemies, breaking pots and cutting grass may need to drop bombs and arrows. Shops will sell you restock. So, this is a design choice that has game world economy affecting gravitas!

And it's not the case that by having separate ammo counters, the lore for replenishment gets tied up nicely. Consider Metroid, where fly monsters will drop missiles and bombs on defeat. Needless to say, that makes no sense.

(Maybe the green gauge to replenish bombs and arrows isn't the worst thing…)

I thought Hollow Knight Silk Song did an elegant job with this. Enemies would drop money or "shell shards" depending. If they were once sentient and looked like they would have used money, they dropped money. And if they were more animalistic, they dropped "shell shards" - which was the currency for sub-weapons. There'd even be a little animation to show Hornet crafting sub-weapons when on a bench. You could tell the developers really respected the internal rules of their game world.

Little Design Question 5: Do Abilities make "world sense"?

Similar to ammo pickups, how best to frame abilities?

In Zelda, abilities come from tools that you possess. You have a "Bow", therefore, you can shoot arrows - that makes sense!

But what about when the ability doesn't fit neatly into an "item" package you can hold?

Then it gets a bit trickier. In Phoenotopia, we framed abilities the player learned with technique scrolls. But it would feel weird if the player got a piece of parchment and then could suddenly somersault, so we do a fade-to-black with training montage sound, to imply the passage of time. That's us feeling beholden to the game world's lore rules.

That's all well and good for cartoony worlds, but in more grounded settings, it gets tougher still. I found Resident Evil 7 had a novel solution. To boost health and gun action speed, you literally get steroids to boost your abilities - it even comes with a cutscene of the character injecting himself. That's dedication!

(What if Star Iliad featured powerup injections? A sketch explores this awesome future)

Closing Thoughts

And that concludes a slice of some of the "little" design questions we'll think about.

Devs spend many more hours sweating over the core gameplay loops and balancing combat stats, but it's perhaps these tiny, unimportant questions that define the game's soul. They mustn't be slept on!

Star Iliad uses a "Heart" system to display player health - which is a marked change from Phoenotopia's “HP”. Today, I'll explore why that is. Did we consider other health systems? And is using Hearts simply a cosmetic decision or a major change that will shape the game design fundamentally?

(What if, like in classic Mario, Blythe shrunk whenever she got injured?)

Misc Thoughts as a Youth

My opinions on health systems have changed a lot over the years.

As a kid, Super Mario World and Zelda: Link to the Past were my baseline. They were among my first games, so I took their health systems for granted. I didn't think they were “cool.”

The first time I thought a health system could be cool was when I saw the health bars in Megaman X. For the first time I had a direct window into the boss's health. The moment the boss appeared and his massive HP bar filled up, you knew you were in for a fight.

You started with a small HP bar, while the boss's HP bar was huge. That meant he was dangerous. And that's cool.

(As elementary school kids, I remember excitedly talking about Mega Man X with a friend. Lacking the canonical terms to talk about it, he called the HP bar “Blood.” He’d say, “Use the volt attack on the Octopus," then spread his arms wide, "it’ll knock out this much Blood.”)

Later, around the time of Final Fantasy VIII, HP became my favorite system. There was nothing cooler than watching Squall land a flurry of hits and seeing numbers explode across the screen:

(9999, 9999, 9999!)

Phoenotopia uses HP

HP held its crown as the coolest health system in my mind for many years hence. Thus, by the time we were making Phoenotopia, it was a matter of course that we'd use the HP system.

The benefits of HP are numerous. 

For one, crystal clear readability. Damage numbers are a universally adopted standard - the player instantly understands how effective an attack is when that number pops up on screen.

Phoenotopia's healing items gained flavor too. Small items took up less inventory space, healed a little bit, but quickly. Vice versa for big items. We could mix those values to create different tiers of healing items, which added variety and richness to the game world.

High amounts of HP allowed fine-tuned damage control. For example, a tiny bee sting could deal 1 HP of damage whereas a giant's club swing could deal 100 HP damage.

However, all that abundance comes with a potential downside if the designer isn't careful. With so much HP, the player seemed really sturdy, which made me sloppy as a designer. I stopped being careful with the player’s HP because I felt there was so much room to chip away.

That caused me to create areas over-filled with enemies. Or attacks that were obscure and hard to dodge. It wasn't unheard of for the player to get combo'ed back and forth between multiple enemies.

I didn't scrutinize these moments more because I'd think, "the player can survive it!"

Survivable or not, no one likes getting hit.

(In Super Metroid's end game, the player could have 1000+ HP and some enemies would deal only 1 HP of damage. Even so, you'd still swerve to dodge that enemy. Getting damaged is always unpleasant)

Hearts Re-examined

In the late 2010's, a variety of huge impactful games were using a Hearts display which caused me to re-examine my thoughts on the Hearts-based system. For brevity, I'll focus on the lessons Hollow Knight taught me.

First, hearts weren't fractional. You couldn't lose a fourth of a heart or even half a heart. You'd lose a whole heart, every time. This meant that you could only tank 5 hits at the start. And this rule was strictly upheld for much of the game (double-heart dealing enemies came much later).

At first, it seemed like over-simplification - I wasn't sure I liked it. But as I got further into it, I saw the merits of this approach.

(Technically, they're called "masks", but we'll call them hearts for this blog post)

It wasn't that hearts were simple - rather, they were big, round, and impactful. I remember the joy of the first heart upgrade - going from 5 to 6 hearts felt like a huge moment. It brought back fond memories of a card game I used to play with my roommates called Bang! Note how in the below picture, Bang's health card also shows 5 lives. It seems a base of 5 is tried and true.

(A game of Cowboys vs Outlaws. The attack card was called "Bang!" So whenever you attack someone, you'd say, "I bang you").

The other half to the fewer hearts design was the "economy" around health. Enemies didn't drop healing items randomly - rather, healing was dependent on gaining a resource called "soul" which replenished at a predictable rate based on how many hits you landed on enemies.

Limiting health and tying survivability to the player's performance meant the designer had to be hyper-tuned into the player's health since it could swing in either direction very quickly. It necessitated a level of care and consideration going from moment to moment that was unthinkable to me at the time. All attacks had to be fair and telegraphed. Rooms were filled with a responsible amount of enemies, there were no annoying hard-to-dodge tiny projectiles, and certainly no multi-hit combos.

The way I saw it - a limited hearts-based system was a design that held the designer accountable. It shifted your thinking towards being more responsible and respectful to the player's health... resulting in a better game!

(Not that HP-based games can't be tightly-designed. Another approach can be gleaned from Koji Igarashi of Bloodstained fame: "the developer who creates the boss must beat their own boss without taking a hit and only using a dagger!")

HP bars for some - Hearts for Others

All of these design principles steeped slowly - they didn't affect change in Phoenotopia. But now, in Star Iliad's dev time, I am ready to make a switch to a Hearts-based system 💪

On the surface, it might seem cosmetic. But the way I'm approaching it, the usage of hearts is a marked pivot in my design philosophy. It's a commitment to more clearly telegraphed attacks, fairer gameplay, and tighter controls.

(Hearts for the player. But HP for the enemies)

You might have noticed that in the above shot, there's a damage number popping off of the enemy. That's intentional asymmetry. It'll let us have the best of both worlds.

(Asymmetry in design is all around us. Zelda BOTW employs Hearts for Link but an HP bar for bosses)

Perhaps that can be a topic for another time since this blog post has run rather long.

Happy New Year! 

New years invite reflection. Today, I’ll reflect on dev logs themselves.

More specifically, why do we write them? What are they for? And why do I have writer’s block?

A Quick History

I started my first blog post about 12 years ago. At the time, game dev was still foreign to me, so I lurked on game dev forums quite a bit. I saw mentions of starting a Tigsource dev log, so I started a tigsource. Then I saw mentions for Tumblr, so I started a Tumblr. It wasn’t that I particularly wanted to write a dev blog. It just seemed like the “thing” game developers did. If game developers were jumping off cliffs, I probably would’ve done that too.

Over time, I saw mentions of other platforms: Facebook, Blogger, WordPress. The “meta” of where you should post was always shifting. Long-form posts fell out of favor. Short, frequent updates on Twitter or Instagram came into favor. These days, the long-form dev log meta seems relegated to be Kickstarter – or failing that, Substack or YouTube dev videos.

At the time, after having just moved from Tigsource to Tumblr, I was already tired. Can’t go chasing the latest platform all the time! So, I stuck with tumblr. Not because it was the best platform but because I was already there.

(The first dev log post and fanart. Content-wise, blogs were only a few paragraphs. Much smaller than today’s blogs)

The Types of Content

If you browse dev logs, the kinds of content they contain run the full gamut. I’ve identified these as the most common types:

1. Developmental Updates

“We’ve finished the 5th dungeon, fixed a bug where the player could clip through walls, and enemy 73 has also been completed ”

This is the quintessential form of a dev blog update – it reports progress.

Perhaps they’re a bit dry. And I question the effectiveness of this type of content. After release, it’s a different story. But before release, and lacking additional context, what useful information is really imparted to the reader? Are there 100 enemies? Does finishing enemy 73 mean that the game is 73% complete? (if only)

(We recently discovered glowing particles… That about covers it for the developmental update part of this blog post)

2. Technical updates

Technical documentation of varying levels of accessibility. I posit the common motivation behind these posts is that the developer achieved a hard-earned victory – especially over something that seemed easy beforehand. Writing about it is how they process that experience.

For example, when I wrote about the frog boss long ago and its collision setup, I was genuinely surprised to discover I needed twelve separate colliders to support everything I wanted the frog to do. That clash with my own expectations made it feel worth talking about.

(Twelve colliders. Five to deliver pain. Four to receive it. Three for platforming. And one frog to bind them all.)

As I gain more experience, I find there are fewer of these surprising game dev moments to write about. The things that stump me now tend to be far less interesting (like managing memory or draw calls). They’re not worth discussing in a dev log.

So, perhaps the new meta for technical dev logging is a “how it’s made” video short. They’re positioned like trivia : quick, fun to watch, and appreciable by anyone.

(obligatory game trivia pic – the bushes are clouds in Mario Bros!)

3. The Apology Update

The apology update is for when something bad occurs. Say the game is delayed – or worse, outright cancelled. Or say the dev has gone silent for too long. On Kickstarter, where money has changed hands and the obligation is greatest, these updates are mandatory.

I’d hate to have to make this kind of update. 

I’ve given much thought to launching a kickstarter in the past – not for lack of funds, but rather because it was the best dev logging platform for written posts. But I didn’t trust myself to be able to update regularly.

Interestingly, I feel that’s part of the reason why I DO update regularly now – it’s the canary in the coal mine that reminds me my ambition still lives.

(Blythe doing a Balsana Yoga pose. Not to be confused with a Dogeza motion)

4. Traveling Dev Logs

Traveling sneaks its way into game dev logs too.

Often because the travel is gaming related – for example, attending a gaming convention to show off the game. Other times, travel is simply a vacation. With how much time and energy traveling takes up, it’s only natural it ends up in the dev log.

Lastly, some devs travel to collect references (“the game is set in Spain, so we went to Spain“, etc). This is the kind of travel I’d like to do. Unfortunately, technology has not advanced enough for me to visit a space whale.

5. The Marketing & Hype-Building Update

Marketing updates inform about the game and build excitement.

“In Zelda, you’ll slay the Gleeok Dragon and build flying machines! The power is yours!”

Interestingly, I’ve been trying to avoid this kind of update. To hype the game too early feels counterproductive. It’s like wafting the smell of a delicious steak in front of someone… and then telling them they can’t eat it. It makes more sense to hype when that excitement can be acted upon – nearer to release.

The other reason I find marketing and building hype tricky is because I want to avoid spoilers. You know how in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo hid the entire *********** from all the promo materials? That was awesome!

There’s a delicate balance to hit – you want to reveal just enough so that the player is intrigued – but not so much so that the player is robbed from the joy of discovery. And you have to time it all just right – when hype and action can intersect… It’s tough!

The True Goal of a Dev Log

Therein lies my conundrum.

The topics to cover in a dev log are surprisingly few. Development updates are dry and unuseful without context. I haven’t traveled anywhere recently nor plan to. And hyping readers is unproductive when the game still has a ways to go. Plus, we want to avoid spoilers.

So… what can I write about?

I think I’ve come to a realization. The true purpose of a dev log is to communicate that the game is healthily continuing along. This communication can be direct or indirect.

We know what it generally means when a kickstarter stops updating. But so long as there is continuing communication, the game lives.

Maintaining communication itself achieves this. So, maybe the content contained therein could be more wide-reaching & not focused exclusively on Star Iliad?

Viewed through this lens, I’d have a wealth of things to talk about. Who wants to hear my thoughts on other video games? Maybe my new year resolutions for 2026? Food?

(I got this ramen from Costco and it was pretty good! Also, Star Iliad is healthily chugging along)

I’m curious what dev log topics tend to resonate with readers. Suggestions are welcome.

Spot the difference in this picture of two enemies at the moment of their demise. On the left, an enemy in Phoenotopia. On the right, an enemy in Star Iliad.

Notice anything? The one on the right sports a “hit glow” FX.

Phoenotopia surprisingly never had hit glow – something that is pretty much standard for most enemy hit FX in other games. Other tricks Phoenotopia would employ were to shake an enemy on impact (ok, that one is pretty standard), and to shrink an enemy before disappearing it in a puff of smoke.

The common factor behind using those hit effects was that those techniques were free and easy – they didn’t require installing any additional assets or programming any extra shaders. And they looked “good enough.”

During Phoenotopia’s development, technology was kept frozen. Once a solution was found and deemed “good enough“, we left it alone. We were more focused on the sheer size of the content. Keeping a feeler out for new technology felt more like distraction.

And to our credit – we made a game. AND we dodged this Unity BUG that targeted the more modern Unity versions. (Keeping your technology frozen rocks!!)

Still, I did feel a little insecure that our bag of tricks was feeling pretty dated. With Star Iliad, we would once again raise our sails for “New Technology”. For today’s blog post, I’ll chronicle a few of our technological expeditions and their results.

The Expedition for Heat Waves

I wanted a heat distortion effect to convey that a place is HOT. Nintendo had heat waves in Super Metroid’s Norfair 30 years ago on the SNES!

I wanted a similar effect so I’ve researched a variety of solutions. There’s never a straight path with these things – you’ll find there are dozens of tutorials online – some better than others – a discerning eye is needed to find the hidden pros and cons to truly know which one best fits your project.

In the end, we did achieve heat distortions, but with the caveat that you must target the screen entirely or in large swaths. For example, we can target the lower-half of the screen, which looks great when it aligns with a lava pool. However, as soon as you start climbing, the effect breaks.

Looking at the Super Metroid effect again, I see that their heat distortions target the background parallax only 🤔

So, maybe we won’t use heat distortions for the Lava area afterall ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Luckily, with a bit of tweaking, heat distortions look like watery distortions. And we do plan to have fully submerged aquatic areas that would benefit from watery distortions.

Expedition Result: Half-Success ✅❌

The Expedition for Distortion Waves

I wanted these Distortion Waves for more satisfying explosions and shockwaves. This has been used in a lot of games, but the trailer for “Momodora: Moonlit Farewell” was the one that galvanized me to finally try for it – a result of the time being right and perhaps because the game sports a somewhat similar art style. Once the game launched, I recorded some gameplay footage for study.

(Yeah, I pretty much do this for every game I play)

Their distortion waves imbue each swing with power!! Notice how only one circular distortion wave at a time seems to be supported? If you ring the bell multiple times quickly, the new wave causes the old wave to disappear.

I believe that kind of behavior is for performance considerations. As it turns out, Star Iliad’s expedition for distortion waves yielded similar results and with the same limitations (albeit we made it support 2 circular waves at a time).

Expedition Result: Success ✅✅

The Expedition for Smarter Enemies

The winding caverns of Star Iliad make it so that enemies that are able to fly or climb should be able to continue their pursuit of the player beyond their patrol zones. To that end, we researched pathfinding for enemies.

Luckily, the literature for pathfinding is pretty settled – use A* search (mostly). There is still work to do in integrating it into the project. For example, you need to think about the granularity of the travel nodes, how enemies can get updated information as new paths open up, or whether enemies are allowed to share knowledge of the map or whether they all have their own model.

(They’re not locked in there with you – you’re locked in there with them!)

Expedition Result: Success ✅✅

The Expedition to reduce Draw Calls

This one began when a teammate reported that the game was running pretty slowly – which kicked off a performance investigation. Normally we’d save optimizations for later, but this slowdown was hitting us now.

My research led me to hone in on the number of draw calls. All the lights and graphical effects on screen were exacting their toll on our teammate’s machine.

A draw call is basically the game telling your graphics card:

“Hey, please draw this thing on the screen.”

But each request has some CPU overhead. So the more objects you see – enemies, trees, particles, lights – the more little requests the system has to prepare. Too many, and the game slows down. However, if the graphics are set up a certain way, Unity can batch them together into one bigger draw request. Fewer requests means faster performance!

Our expedition however, sent me down a misleading path where I was told that “Material Property Blocks” would solve all our draw-call issues. And long story short… they didn’t.

Later, the teammate needed to buy a new computer anyway for other reasons – and as we were not able to test it further on her old machine, the expedition was suspended.

Expedition Result: Failure ❌❌

As you can see, not all expeditions result in success – some fail and they take a good chunk of your time with it too. But it’s not the case that if an expedition fails, we give up forever more. We’ll reduce the draw calls yet 😤

Closing Remarks

Hopefully you enjoyed that little peek into the different technological expeditions undertaken. There’s a lot more expeditions of varying sizes yet to be touched upon (maybe a part 2 next year?)

Most expeditions are things under the hood : like updating tile maps to modern standards, better menus, sensible cutscene flow, efficient asset management across packages, etc. These quiet unsung workhorses ensure a smoother, more reliable experience for players. They’re not as shiny as an enemy hit glow effect but they’re arguably the most important ones.

Thanks for reading! Amazing to think the year’s almost over. The next update will be in 2 months at the end of January next year.

One common feedback we received for Phoenotopia was to add a map. 

Unfortunately, it was too difficult to do since Phoenotopia wasn't designed with 2D geometric considerations in mind. Perhaps it's best explained with this picture:

(The starting house. Some say the confusing layout was a metaphor for the difficulties of life in an orphanage home)

Actually, there is a sort of logic to it - if you looked at it from a 3D perspective:

We even animated the main character differently depending on whether she was “running to the front” or “running to the back.” Neat idea in theory, but confusing in practice. Ultimately, it was still a 2D game, and to cram 3D geometry into a flat space just made the world confusing to navigate.

Supporting a map isn’t something you can tack on afterward. It has to be a core design principle from the start. Every level to be designed must be evaluated under the lens of "will this fit into coherent map space?" That’s a very different framework from Phoenotopia, where we treated the canvas as unlimited. That freedom was liberating - but it came at the cost of the game being unchartable.

Communicating the Lay of the Land

For Star Iliad, a map was a priority from day one.

We chose the grid-based format found in classic Metroids and Castlevanias. Since our game is tile-based, this felt like a natural fit: one cell on the map = one room in the game. Easy!

Of course, we studied how the masters did it. In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the player is guided horizontally across the castle first. This tour gives players a sense of scale while teasing locked-off areas to revisit later with new abilities.

For us, we similarly wanted to convey to players the "lay of the land". But I had a different idea for how we could go about this. Set the game inside a giant whale. We know how a whale is shaped, so once the player has explored a little of it, they'd actually get a good sense for the rest.

To demonstrate, here's a whale fin. Take a good look at it.

Now, close your eyes, and imagine the rest.

Perhaps it looks something like this?

(Click to see Image)

When the player knows that it's a whale and they've seen a bit of it, they can infer the rest. 

They've obtained the "lay of the land". Externally and internally. Even without being anatomy experts, we generally know what to expect inside: a heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, and so on. The setting itself helps the player mentally chart their progress.

It also sets expectations for scope. If you’ve cleared the lungs, heart, and stomach, you know you still have the liver, intestines, and brain ahead. You understand you’re approximately in the middle of the journey. And as designers, we can play with those expectations. For example, what if the whale had a mystery organ which has no bodily analog to our own?

Getting the Size Right

Perhaps a little unorthodox, but we also wanted to get the size of the whale just right. Map size affects pacing, which as we established earlier, is very important.

Our starting approach was the question - how much space should players cover before reaching the first boss?

We turned to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, for an answer. Its intro sequence aboard a ship serves as a tutorial and culminates in a boss fight after about 80 rooms. We actually counted:

That pacing felt about right. At the time, we planned for the first boss to occur right at the base of the blowhole just before the player enters the Lungs. We scaled this initial gauntlet to be 80 rooms til the first boss. From that, we extrapolated the rest.

(Click to reveal potentially spoilerific image)

Of course, room count is only one variable - how large the player character is, how fast they move, how many loops, and how dense the rooms are all radically change the pacing. So "80 rooms til the first boss" wasn’t a hard rule - just a starting plan.

And you know what they say about the best-laid plans.

We would later realize the whale needed to be much larger than the draft above. That meant tearing apart entire levels, expanding them, and stitching them back together - a painful, but necessary process. The reasons why (and what we learned from it) deserve their own post. For now, we’ll end here before this log grows too unwieldy.

The game has evolved a lot from whence it started. For fun, let’s dive into some old concepts. Don’t worry, they won’t be spoilerific since the current story has evolved far away from what will be shown.

The First Step

It starts with some programmer art:

(the weird trees above are giant hairs)

From the get-go, we knew we wanted the player to feel like a microscopic entity exploring the inside of something colossal. Something about the interplay between the small and the big just fascinates and captures the imagination.

(“Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” – one of my old favorites)

Organs naturally lend themselves to uniquely themed-dungeons, and the body’s internal features fit neatly into the “lock and key” gameplay of a Metroidvania. “Bone blocks” form hard barriers – requiring missiles to break. “Fat blocks” are gooey and resistant to blunt force – they’d need to be frozen first. Swimming through the Lava of the stomach requires the player to don a special suit, and so forth. An elemental system was forming – one perhaps a bit more interesting and exotic than usual flair.

(originally, the stomach had green acid, but the bright green felt too garish and tired the eyes, so we reverted to a lava-themed stomach instead. The tried and true biomes persist for a reason)

Nature vs Metal

“Instead of a metallic ship being taken over by fleshy aliens, what if it was a fleshy ship being taken over by metallic aliens?” Whales with their otherworldly wails (heh) have long storied our literature – they would serve as the flesh ship. The main villain would be a living metal virus – a corruptor that made things metallic.

(For a while, the villain was internally referred to as “SHODAN” from the game System Shock)

The whale’s immune defense response – white blood cells – made for natural enemies. Story ideas started to form about an inner war between the Whale’s immune system and the Metallic Virus’s infected army. The player would be caught in the middle.

Introducing “Skells”

The White Blood Cells were named “Skells” due to its similarity to the words “skellington”, “shell”, and “cell”. The Skells sported bony exterior armor – I liked the gameplay potential of fighting partially armored enemies with clear strong areas to avoid and weak areas to target. It’d require the player to think about their attack angles.

(another early art conceptualized the Skells as ant-like)

As we added more to the skell class monsters, we realized their design was all over the place. Some looked like bugs, others looked like dinosaurs, and one even looked like an otherworldly humanoid

Skell Rules

We needed to set the rules for what a Skell could and couldn’t be. Like a game of musical chairs, whatever category the Skells occupied, that would rule out that category for others. If the Skells were dinosaurs, non-skell dinosaurs shouldn’t exist. And if the Skells were bugs, non-skell bugs shouldn’t exist. Otherwise, the design language for creatures would get too muddy and the game world’s internal logic would falter. So, some rules were set. Skells would:

have no eyes (reinforces they are hive-minded)

sport white exoskeletons (and distinct purple skin)

generate barrier reefs (think platelets)

be Reptilian

We chose Reptiles in the end – they looked cooler. The decision was also aided a little by the fact that we had good dinosaur sound effects on hand.

Bugs still exist in the game – they just won’t be Skells. See this creature before and after “deskellification”.

(You might be thinking – why would a whale have dinosaur-themed white blood cells? Don’t worry, we’ll answer that)

Is there a doctor onboard?

With the game taking place inside a giant ailing whale, it seemed natural to make the game about curing the whale. The whale’s immune defense response was targeting all things metal – the player’s metal space ship was mistakenly targeted as a result – stranding them. Through curing the whale, the player could secure their escape.

The original designs for NPCs you’d meet on your quest were more doctor-themed. They all sported lab coats. Here’s a look at some early designs:

(Finn, Gort, Irene, and Dewber. One of them only pretends to be a doctor. But who?)

Closing remarks

As these things usually go, the story that we started with has long since evolved into something else entirely. We abandoned the idea of a Metal Virus main villain, and we moved past more literal interpretations of organs – too fleshy and bumpy felt creatively limiting after a point.

(this Titan stomach in Xenoblade 2 shows there’s a lot of ways to interpret what an organ could look like)

We kept the Skell Dinos

Looking back at these early drafts, I’m reminded of how nonlinear game development is. Ideas morph, collide, get tossed, and sometimes circle back in unexpected ways. All part of the journey.

One of the most common requests I received for Phoenotopia was to add a double jump. Of course, once the game was out, adding a new movement mechanic like that wasn’t feasible without dramatically altering the levels and puzzles. It’s one of those deceptively small changes that carries massive, far-reaching consequences.

Still, I mentally bookmarked the idea for our next project.

And now, in Star Iliad, we present to you: Blythe’s Rocket Dash!

(the tells of dash ability are built directly into her suit—no separate dash indicator bar needed!)

At first, I thought dash and double jump were functionally similar—so similar, in fact, that splitting them into two separate upgrades seemed redundant. Why not combine them into one cool ability: an 8-directional air dash? One upgrade, two functions!

Well, as it turns out, there’s a reason most games separate Dash and Double Jump. Giving the player too much aerial mobility too early drastically changes how levels have to be designed.

In Star Iliad, Blythe’s normal jump reaches 3.5 tiles. That means any platform 4 tiles up is out of reach, letting us create dense, puzzle-like platforming segments. But once you add a double jump—or in this case, a Rocket Dash—the vertical reach increases to 7.5 tiles. Suddenly, those once out-of-reach platforms are now trivially accessible, and the whole world has to expand to compensate.

Take these two areas as examples:

The Whale’s Blowhole (Pre-Dash): An early-game area with platforms spaced about 3 tiles apart, creating a tight, intricate route.

The Whale’s Stomach (Post-Dash): After acquiring the Rocket Dash, the spacing between platforms increases to account for the player’s enhanced vertical and horizontal movement.

Once the Rocket Dash enters the picture, moment-to-moment level design has to change significantly. It’s a powerful tool—and if not carefully balanced, it risks becoming the default solution to everything. Cornered by monsters or projectiles? Just dash away!

(Early on, this chest requires careful platforming on wobbly leaves and dodging enemies. But if the player comes here post-dash, they can just hop directly to the chest—bypassing the “intended” challenge)

My go-to methods for guiding or blocking players—tight walls, precisely spaced gaps—needed a full reevaluation.

You might be thinking: “Why not just make the walls higher and the gaps wider?” Sure, we can do that—to a point. But Star Iliad takes place inside the body of a giant space whale, and that carries anatomical limitations and caps how much space we have to work with. 

(Our very first step into designing the map was sketching out an internal anatomy cross-section—and we’ve been filling it in as we go. This early decision has had profound pros and cons)

As we continued building levels, I started missing the denser platforming possibilities from before the player got the dash. I even debated splitting Dash and Double Jump after all—or at least pushing the dash acquisition further back in the game. It’s hard to argue with the tried-and-true design of critically acclaimed games like Hollow Knight and Prince of Persia, which separate these upgrades for a reason. On the other hand, games like Ender Magnolia go the opposite route, offering powerful aerial mobility early and close together – and it works!

Conclusion: Embrace the Challenge!

Ultimately, there’s no “wrong” decision here 🤔

Rather, the designer makes their decision the right one with their ensuing design choices.

In the end, I decided to keep the dash as it was and embrace the challenge of designing around this early aerial maneuverability. They say the best creativity comes when your back is against the wall 💪

And, plenty of head-scratching and iteration later, I’ve since come up with some pretty “novel” solutions that still make full use of the dash/double jump combo—without letting it overpower everything.

For example:

What if there was a dangerous sleeping monster? And loud noises (such as from your gun or dash) would awaken the monster?

Or, what if there was a “goo” mechanic? Contact with goo monsters or goo obstacles could inflict “goo status” on you, slowing your movement, jump, and dash…

Or, what if there were tons of spikes? (And the spikes were insta-kill or something)

And more! The possibilities are endless. Which ones will make it into the game?

Let’s say these surprises are best discovered… mid-dash 😎

That’s all for this update—thanks for reading!

When it comes to making commercial video games, let's just say it's not our first rodeo 😎

(It's our second)

Steam automatically compiles various play data from gamers. From Phoenotopia, I know that we have a roughly even split of keyboard users and gamepad users. From achievements, I can tell which bosses were defeated and how far the player got (although our implementation of achievements requires the user manually unlock it, so it's less useful data). Today, I want to focus on one specific data point—the median playtime for Phoenotopia.

Unfortunately, the median playtime clocks in at 4 hours.

I think that's right when the player reaches Atai.

(Atai - the death place of so many playthroughs)

A working theory has been forming:

Atai is the first real "slog" where players are stuck in one place for a long time. It’s a big town with 70+ NPCs to chat with. It’s easy to get lost, feel like you're not making progress, and then tap out.

Two major quest lines must be completed before reaching the second dungeon: getting the bombs and getting the flute.

Get BOMBS

Meet Lisa and learn of her plight

Find the bomb maker’s house—it's locked.

Tell Lisa you need to unlock a door.

Lisa refers you to Garnet, who gives you a “watch the kids” quest.

Play hide-and-seek with the kids.

Comb through the entire town looking for the kids

Go to the bomb maker's house and claim bombs

Get FLUTE

Meet Lisa and learn of her plight

Find the jailed Ouroboros man—he wants wine.

Go to the tavern—no ID, no wine.

Talk with Lisa and get her ID

Dye your hair to look like Lisa

Buy wine with fake ID

Go to the Ouroboros bandit and exchange it for the flute

Phew. Looking back, that is a LOT. And we don't even have a quest tracker >_>

I love romping through towns and chatting with NPCs—it’s my favorite part of JRPGs (the genre I’d be making if I weren’t making this). But maybe I let that influence the design a bit too much 🤔

During these quests, there’s very little action—unless players explore optional caves (which don’t quite scratch the itch). So after 1-2 hours of town questing, many players drop off. That’s why so many runs end at 4 hours. That's my theory anyway.

That brings us to today’s blog topic: PACING

Long story sequences should generally be avoided—it's a sign of poor pacing. If a long sequence can’t be trimmed down, it should at least be broken up with action. Think of it like making a burger—it needs balance.

(Atai is like the burger on the left—only meaty "story" sequences. A well-paced game is like the burger on the right — it utilizes crucial tomato and lettuce "action" set pieces to mix things up)

Now, one of our new core design goals for Star Iliad is that if you take any 90 minute slice of gameplay from anywhere in the game's campaign, you’ll experience all of the following:

Exploration

Combat

Puzzles

Boss Fight

New Upgrade

Story Progression

That's the core "game loop". Of course, to stay balanced presents its own challenges because we can only control so much. Players set their own pace, and some will inevitably get lost. As designers, we can mitigate this by packing the game with so much content that there's always something new around the corner - make getting lost fun!

(It's going to be a lot of work though...)

It does raise some challenging design questions. For example, how can you deliver "story" sequences when you're deep in the whale's intestines, far away from town?

Our answer is to employ something akin to Metal Gear Solid's codec calls. It's the future and people have "cell phones" (or holographic communicators in our case). You can call NPCs and they can call you (Players can also ignore calls if they'd prefer less story)

To conclude —pacing is important! No more hour+ long story sequences! Excepting a couple scenarios - say at a crucial turning point in the game. Long exposition dumps need to be earned. Pacing is something we’re going to be vigilant about through all of development.

(Steve Ballmer understands how important Pacing is)

Thanks for reading!

We’re happy to announce our next game, “Star Iliad”! Now in development.

Star Iliad is a retro-futuristically themed Metroidvania that takes place inside a giant star whale.

See the teaser trailer!

In the game, you’ll play as Blythe Braves, a Star Ranger who patrols a remote region of the interstellar frontier. Heeding a distress signal, she investigates to find a curious large rock formation in the shape of a whale. Shortly after landing and locating a couple of castaways, her ship is destroyed by unknown alien creatures. Stranded and surrounded, but not outgunned, she joins forces with other castaways in a bid to escape. A big adventure ensues!

Where Phoenotopia had more Zelda-style leanings, Star Iliad dives deeper into Metroid territory with a larger, interconnected map and a stronger focus on gun combat. We’ve learned the correct lessons from Phoenotopia— which is… Guns are Good 👍 Bats are Bad 👎 (joking!)

The story won’t be taking a backseat. While Phoenotopia featured a large ensemble cast, Star Iliad narrows its focus to a smaller group of more thoroughly explored characters.

(Characters can leverage expressive portraits to drive emotionally charged scenes)

Some additional in-development pics. We have both very finished & very unfinished looking areas.

Legacy of Phoenotopia

Since Phoenotopia’s development concluded, we’ve received some really encouraging emails from fans expressing how much they enjoyed it and even sharing their concern about whether we were doing alright. This meant a lot, especially considering Phoenotopia was not a strong seller.

For a while now, I’ve felt the need to allay those fears and let everyone know that we’re alive and hard at work on something new. With Steam’s fourth anniversary for Phoenotopia approaching, it felt like the right moment to finally share an update.

True, Phoenotopia was not a strong seller, but it would not turn out to be as bleak as I previously believed. Long after sales should have dwindled to zero, the game found a small, but steady threshold—a lifeline that has kept us funded. We’ve also been able to rely on family (and the occasional side job or two) to stay afloat.

Lastly, I think the game got some organic word of mouth, so there would be random times here and there where a youtuber or renowned streamer covered Phoenotopia and we’d get an unusual sales spike out of nowhere.

So, to all the fans who supported us, whether by buying the game, spreading the word, or just sending us kind messages—thank you! You’ve sustained us in ways you may not even realize, and we’re incredibly grateful 🙇

Chronicling Star Iliad’s development with a new Dev Log! (on wordpress)

After Phoenotopia, there was a bit of wandering around and thinking about what was next.

I wanted to settle into a quieter pace of development for a while. With Phoenotopia, I had been doing long form dev log updates. I wanted to try something different – a smaller, but more frequent form of dev logging. And it appeared that the new dev blogging meta was social media like Twitter & Instagram.

But there was no point in starting right away. Because 4 years back, we didn’t know what we were working on. It would take about a year of exploring & feeling around before “Star Iliad” developed enough shape and form that it could be talked about. Then we started twitter (@StarIliad) and instagram (@StarIliad), and started posting. Not as regular as I thought I would it turns out – short form updates have their own unique challenges and dev logging is always easy to neglect.

Still, if you’re curious, you can look at the StarIliad twitter account and enjoy the past 3 years of short form dev log posts (it may keep you entertained for all of 10 minutes).

As for the instagram account, it never quite took off, basically dying right out the gate >_>

In any case, we’re in the midst of development. It’s difficult to see the finish line from here, so I can’t announce a release date. What I can announce is the return of the dev log, where like times of yore, I will be chronicling our thoughts and tribulations until we reach the finish line. I invite you to join us by subscribing to the new dev log on wordpress.

Wow, it's been 4 months since the last blog post. As stated previously, I'd return to the blog if any noteworthy news occurred. And that has finally happened with the release of the PS4 version!

This port was handled completely by the game's publisher, Flyhigh. Which I really appreciate since it's freed us to work on our next project. The game runs pretty well on Switch, so the game should run just as well if not better on PS4. And from what they've shown me, they've even improved a few things (like the options menu).

(Much nicer than the debug-like menu I had in the Switch and PC release >_>)

If you've been eyeing the game and PS4 is your preferred platform then check it out!

(NA) https://store.playstation.com/…/UP0881-CUSA28690_00-2406084…

(JP/日本語版こちら) https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP1178-CUSA26867_00-0404947008980030

(EU) https://store.playstation.com/…/EP0881-CUSA28691_00-4791386…

And if you're waiting for the Xbox version, that's still incoming! I'll be back to announce when that’s finished.

Fanart

Lastly, some new fanart! This is by no means a complete chronicle of all the arts that have appeared since the last blog post, just a few that I've encountered in recent memory:

A comic by niitsu_kentaro. Gail realizes the Megalith's potential as the ultimate weapon. The people cowering in the last panel got a big laugh out of me.

Next, what if Gail competed in Smash's Homerun contest? 1k_ammo thinks she’d do really well!

Next we have three different depictions of Gail!

Art by ochan_nu. Manga-style, dark and gritty. 

Art by black8819. Colorful, light and cheery!

Art by Arou03. Cool Action hero!

(Date 2021 MAR 01)

I debated how to open this blog post, but perhaps the main crux of this blog post is the best place to start. The blog is being retired.

The purpose of this blog was to be a "development" blog for Phoenotopia, and well, Phoenotopia's development is done. I'll still be doing bug fixes and maintenance on the PC and Switch versions, and playstation and xbox ports are underway (by a publisher). But I'm not going to be making any more major changes to the game. At some point, you put the paintbrush down and say it's done. Blemishes and all.

Recent Events

The game launched on Steam last month, and like any launch, it was hectic. Bugs Galore. This is our first commercial PC launch, so it was a real baptism by fire. Unlike Switch's one configuration, the PC has multiple configurations and factors to account for. The game needed to be able to handle multiple control schemes, screen resolutions, refresh rates, and more! I had a 60Hz monitor going into launch and didn't know anything about Hz (I do now). There was a troublesome stutter that some players were sensitive to that my whole team didn't notice since our eyes compensated it away. There were a few times where in fixing something at one party's behest, it introduced problems for another party. A few times, due to disorganization, I unwittingly rolled back a fix that was meant to be applied. For some, the game couldn't play at all (really glad Steam allows refunds).

It was messy. It was tiring. I.AM.BEAT.

I think the worst of it is over... I'll still be around to do the last updates and bug fixes, but I'm ultimately ready for what's next.

SO what is next?

What isn't next... is Phoenotopia 2. As you may have heard down the grapevine, the game couldn't be what you call successful. No one's earned even minimum wage on it.

Maybe there's hope in the game's long tail. A year or two down the line... maybe. I won't hold my breath though. At some point in the past few months, I finished processing (or grieving) and it's time to move on.

The game has at least earned enough for us to continue our modest operations. As long as we don't expand the team, and we don't take another monster six-year dev cycle like what Phoenotopia took, we can continue. We'll have to be smarter and faster. Perhaps the most valuable thing we gained from all this is experience.

The Experience

It is a dev blog. Here are some of the lessons I've accumulated from this game's development.

- Have a good menu design. Menus aren't just that in-between fluff before you get to the good stuff. Menus are KEY. Your menus need to be robust, expandable, and *understandable* (to you, the developer). Because once the game's out, you will invariably be asked to add more options. And if your menu design is bad, every time you have to add a new menu option, it becomes a whole new pain all over again. Support mouse from the get-go, etc.

- Focus on features that people will actually care about. For instance, I've never seen anyone praise the camera's zoom feature. In practice, people try that feature a few times and then never use it again. But that feature was a constant consideration factor for every level. Run through it multiple times to make sure the level didn't break, think about which zoom levels made sense, resize rooms because they worked at one zoom level but not the other, and so on.

- Don't do boxes that you can move around. Other 2D platformers avoid movable boxes because they're a huge headache to program and they really complicate the game space. Enemies need to respond to boxes you throw in their path and either navigate around or attack it. When you're moving the box, you have to worry about constantly changing your collision size and reconciling when the box gets snagged on the environment. The boxes were also a constant source of bugs because people can manipulate them to soft-lock themselves and more.

- More focused script. Phoenotopia's 100,000+ word script was panned more for being bloated than it was praised for being lengthy. Long scripts take a long time to write and make the game more unwieldy, increasing the costs of translation and upkeep. Every update we're addressing some textual error or mistranslation. There are some highly renowned games (e.g. Hyper Light Drifter) that do without a script at all!

- Be flashy! A bat and a lightsaber take the same amount of work to program, but the lightsaber will draw a lot more attention and interest.

- Slopes, surprisingly! Six years ago when I started, Unity was ill-equipped for 2D games. If you used the physics that Unity provided you'd have a really floaty character that wouldn't adhere to the slope when going downhill. There were a hundred different tutorials saying different things (use forces, use move position, use translation, etc). You can get rectangular collisions done in a day, but to do slopes took weeks. Meanwhile, games can actually get by fine without slopes. Most people won't even notice. Did you know the Phoenotopia flash game didn't have slopes? Neither does Hollow Knight or Rogue Legacy. You can save yourself a lot of work by avoiding slopes.

(big entities look weird on slopes. Bad slope!)

I could write enough little knowledge nuggets like this to fill a book! But I'd rather just make the next game. 

So… what IS next?

As mentioned previously, it's not Phoenotopia 2. Pirate and I are mostly just tossing some ideas back and forth right now. We'll go silent for a year (or two). Our next game's scope will be more modest in some ways, more ambitious in others. It will definitely be more smartly designed. (There will be a map!)

We'll announce it when it's ready for the public. It might be necessary for us to do a kickstarter. I've tried to avoid kickstarters having been burnt on quite a few myself and also because I worry that mismanaging a kickstarter would earn the ire of backers.

But I did keep this blog regularly updated for six years. So I've gained some confidence in my abilities to at least manage a kickstarter well.

Is it really the last Phoenotopia Blog update though?

Okay, not really. There is some news that I'll need to announce, and this blog is one of the game's main outreach channels. Here are the events that will cause me to update the blog:

Announcing the launch of the xbox/playstation ports when they're ready

If a physical edition of the game happens

If a new language is getting introduced into the game (Korean is a high possibility)

When we're ready to talk about our next game

If (BIG IF) we begin development on a Phoenotopia sequel. I do want to do a sequel one day if we have the means and the demand is there. 

Those updates will be more on a "when they happen" basis, rather than me reporting in every couple months.

Fan Art

As always, I'm very happy to see fanart of Phoenotopia. Major thanks again to Pimez for collecting all the artwork from the corners of the internet! Since this is the "last" blogpost, Sir Pimez can finally take a rest from collecting the fanart :P

ÆV made a series of pictures that tell a story. A Pooki is humanely sheared of its wool to create a hat. The Pooki is unharmed. Nice! Gotta love Gail’s expressions.

Amagoo Mazeru makes a stunning landscape shot of a full moon and shooting stars. It’s a sharp and clear vector art. I like the faint glow of the moon and the fire and the subtle gradient in the night sky. Very skillfully done!

Hah hah. I got a chuckle out of this one. I imagine this is how Gail's enemies see her by the end of the game. CaESar made this image based on TerminalMontage's famous youtube videos. Nailed it!

CrownStar drew two pictures of Gail. I'm a big player of JRPGs, so the first shot instantly reminded me of Persona 4's art style. (Hmmm... Phoeonotopia as a JRPG... there’s potential there...) Next, Birdy is shown carried off after her defeat. I really like Birdy's expression here - she just seems mildly uncomfortable.

There's a bit of a story behind the first image. As Firanka shares it, she wasn't able to defeat the Big Eye monster at the end of the flash game, so she believed a tall tale that what awaited after was a 6 armed Kobold boss. Hilarious! The second is a rendition of the lonely Anuri elder. A rare subject. The loneliness is portrayed well here. I feel lonely just looking at it!

Koo_chop draws the clash between Gail and Katash at the top of the towers. I really like this interpretation of the game's art style. It’s faithful to the in-game graphics. And the lighting, from the glow of Gail's bat, to Katash's sword, and the lightning in the background... Amazing!

Lime Hazard shows Gail with a salute pose. Very appropriate for this occasion. I also like how there's a slight tilt in the angle that Gail is portrayed. Those dynamic angles are always hard to get right, and Lime Hazard pulled it off very skillfully. See you next mission!

Lyoung0J with a digital painting of Gail posed sitting on a rock. I like how it almost seems like she was caught in a candid moment - she’s smiling, but also feeling self-conscious. Cute! The art style really pops, and I like how Gail is sporting what I call the old anime style nose. 

MyUesrNameIsSh*t with a sketch of Gail performing a skillful slingshot. I like how Gail is depicted with her tongue out in a mischievous manner, the way all mischievous people with slingshots do.

Niitsu Kentaro returns with a 2021 Happy New Year picture. That happened didn't it? A New Year... Gail's pose gave me a chuckle with how she seems to be waving the bat around as casually as one would wave hello. And "Phoenotopiyear"... Well said! One day we'll have our Phoenotopiyear...

Ochan Nu breaks all records with a stunning NINE pictures in one session :O

There's so many goodies here. My favorite would be the one with Gail staring intently at the screen - it's like she's looking directly at you. You almost feel uncomfortable.

Next, there's an Animal Crossing villager dressed as Gail and sporting her pink hair. It even looks like a house Gail would live in. Gail is a connoisseur of the arts and likes Mona Lisa. Yes :)

There are various comics of Gail pointing out Gail's weird food habits. A picture of Fran looking really cool, and even Gail rocking a bathing suit. (bathing suit image linked here in case NSFW). Wow!

Pimez didn't just collect the arts, he creates them as well! This one, which he aptly named 'The Year 175' is a depiction of when the dragons invaded the towers as told by an elderly Daean woman. Great pixeling skills! I got a good chuckle from the ice dragon leaving with its stuff slung over its shoulder.

Quo made a stunning picture of Gail playing the flute surrounded by the 5 musical notes and the Phoenix logo behind her. The theme seems to be "fire" and it works really well. Gail herself looks awesome depicted in her red suit - it's like she's leading a marching band!

Rai Asuha depicts Gail in the late game with her red suit, and night star bat, and holding a lamp. She looks ready for adventure! I really like the white outline here and Gail's poofy shoulders here - the art style feels reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics.

Seri also draws Gail bearing her late game equipment. Unique to Seri's drawing is how all of Gail's equipment is accessible from a pocket on her shirt. I also like how Gail is depicted with her lucky earrings - that accessory is often forgotten.

Treedude depicts Gail with a bat and wearing a funny smirk. She looks like she's ready to hurt someone!

Warotar returns with everyone's favorite Great Drake, Bubbles! It seems so happy to be featured!

I'm really grateful for all the fanart this game has received. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Closing Notes

Pirate drew a picture to mark the occasion. It shows Gail enjoying a hot chocolate with marshmallows and a pumpkin muffin. A rest well-earned...

Short update this month. The game has officially been released on Steam! (2 days ago).

You can view the Steam Store Page HERE.

You'd think the game's release would come with a great sigh of relief, but actually I'm running around putting out little fires here and there. The period just before and after release is the busiest and crunchiest development time. 

Which means, sadly, there's no time to sit down and reflect. Hopefully, next month things will have simmered down and the blog can have more of its usual content. Concerning fan arts, I'll comb through them all next month as well.

A small follow-up update for December. The Phoenotopia PC Demo is now out and can be downloaded from the game's Steam Page!

[Visit Steam page here] (Remember to wishlist!)

The demo will cover the first village and dungeon and will stop just before you reach the second town. Should be entertaining for about an hour. The good news about this demo (assuming I've implemented it correctly), is that the save data can be carried over to the full game!

The demo has only been out for half a day, but it has already proven useful as a testing ground for bugs and the like. If you get the opportunity to try the demo and have some feedback, visit the game's Steam Forum and leave a comment! [Visit Steam Forum]

Fan Art

New fan art has arrived! Thanks to Pimez and TastyCactus444 for scavenging the net to alert me of these arts. With the game's recent Switch release in Japan, I think this is also the first time we're getting some Japanese fan art as well!

ÆV draws a cute Pooki! When depicted this way and from this angle, the Pooki's head actually reminds me of a Scarfy from Kirby. It's fitting, because Pooki do have the temperament of Scarfies given the right circumstances.

Rollchan34 creates an interesting picture of Gail wearing a classic Phoenix uniform! The classic uniform was basically a wetsuit, so it kinda looks like Gail is going to the pool :P

Samu made a bunch of characters in an online 3D character creator called Hero Forge. It made me curious, so I gave Hero Forge a try myself. And I thought it was quite hard to use, so I'm impressed with what Samu was able to achieve! Gail holding a bat in one hand and a duck in the other gave me a chuckle - it's like she's ready for Smash Bros. And Katash looks like he came straight from the cast of the Mr. Fox movie.

Mohironk101 posted this lovely sketch of Gail on twitter. The use of graph paper takes me right back to when I used to doodle in Math class. I really like how Gail's eyes are depicted here.

Ryo_w draws 3 Gails in one picture! I particularly like the pose of Gail waking up. So cute! The use of a more contrasting and vibrant yellow and blacks for Gail's costume kinda makes me think of a bee. I like it!

Ochan_nu posted a whole series of pictures of Gail making all sorts of funny faces. Gotta love Gail expressing nervousness and fear at the pile of ashes - feels like a missed opportunity that she didn't have an emote like that in the game (next time). I also had to laugh at the Gail branded, drake flavored ice cream. Savory and sweet combinations seem to be the new hip thing, so I can imagine it tasting really good. And of course Gail waking up looks adorable.

Niitsu_kentaro makes an awesomely adorable rendition of Gail as well as depicting a short story/comic. I really like all the neat details, from the faint blush of satisfaction and smile of confidence on her face as she masters the rocket boots to her rogue tuft of hair that won't quit. This one tells a cautionary tale about the danger of rocket boots, one too often ignored. Please fly safely everyone!

Negativus Core returns with a festive depiction of Gail and friends. Gail is depicted about to touch a falling snowflake... or it's not snow, but falling ash... Hmmm... The layers behind this drawing are impressive. I also really like the use of the heart as the tree topper.

I had to feature this one in the last slot considering the occasion. I really hope everyone can enjoy this time with their friends and family!

Next Time

I, sadly, have to announce we need to push the Steam release back ~one month. I'm expecting the latter half of January now.

There are enough translation groups that would barely finish in the nick of time. After which, we'd need a few days to check the text, and Steam would need another 3-5 business days to evaluate the completed title before it could be cleared for release. Add in the holiday shuffle and people needing time to relax with family (not me personally, but other people!) and it seems better for everyone's sanities if we push it back one month. The added time would let translators really review the script and make sure it's quality. Finally, we don't want to launch in a window where the gaming press is on break since that would guarantee we'd get no coverage.

So with all those factors considered, I decided it was best to delay. It's no substitute, but I will instead be releasing a PC demo of the first chapter. I'll aim to have that out by Dec 18th on the Steam Store page. If you're thinking about getting the game, please consider wish-listing it on steam. [STEAM LINK]

Good news?

Not too long ago, on Nov. 26th, the publisher I'm working with, Circle-Entertainment/FlyHigh works, released the game to Japan! The Japanese version is equivalent to US & EU's v.1.0.9, so I'm hoping it will be received more positively from the beginning.

I've also signed a second agreement with Circle-Entertainment where they'll bring the game to Xbox, Playstation, and maybe Mobile! It's a huge help for me since I didn't want to get bogged down, perpetually working on ports and maintenance. I'm hoping that soon after the release of the Steam version, I'll be full-on working on a new game project!

With the game slated to release on so many more platforms, the chances for the game to recoup expenses and maybe even be profitable has increased. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Flyhigh will also be providing a Simplified-Chinese translation of the game, so we can add that as an extra language to the Steam release as well - however, the Chinese translation of the game may be a few weeks later than the PC release since work on it started only recently.

Art Gallery Feature?

The next patch for Switch (and first release for Steam) will include languages and maybe a new Art Gallery!

I wasn't a fan of how miniscule the Badges/Achievements Menu felt. You do a thing and then you unlock a small trinket. So I've been toying with the idea of tying it to an art gallery for a long time. Here's a preview of how it could look:

Initially, I thought to fill the art gallery with fan art. This blog post was almost the announcement of an art contest!

However, after discussing it with team mates and the publisher, we decided it was better to fill the art gallery with official concept art and early pixel work instead since it could show a lot of interesting trivia and history behind the game's development. For example, Moonlight Ravine wasn't pink initially, there was almost snow in Mul Caves, and we considered having the bandit's leader be a man named Baine. There's a lot more stuff like that hidden in the concept art, so expect to have this exciting feature sometime in January.

Fan Art

While Fanart won't get to be in the game officially, it'll still be displayed prominently here on the Blog and the Facebook! Major thanks to the community and Pimez for making sure I see them!

(Art by Raphael Sampaio - also part of the Portuguese translation team)

(Art by beet4ppy)

(Art by beet4ppy)

(Art by beet4ppy)

(Art by UnrealWorld_32)

(Art by “A rat on discord”??)

(Art by horaceinkling)

(Art by horaceinkling)

(Art by ÆV)

(Art by Firanka)

(Art by Caseus)

(Art by Gamesing) 

(Art by R_Contagio)

(Art by R_Contagio)

(Art by R_Contagio)

(Art by R_Contagio and Pimez)

(Art by Pimez)

(Art by Pimez)

(Art by MilesCPW)

(Art by MilesCPW)

(Art by MilesCPW)

Mmmm... That's some good fanart :)

So... we've launched. And our launch was... actually kind of... bad...

This is a dev blog, so I'll speak on it. But before that, we do have the game's steam page up. If you're anticipating the PC release, please do visit the steam page and add it to your wish list. It would help us a lot.

VISIT STEAM LINK

...

So what didn't go so well?

1. We launched in Nintendo's Americas and Europe territory. If you've been following the release, you'd know that America got the game first. We didn't move to launch in Europe at all since I thought the EFIGS languages (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish) were pre-requisites for Europe. By the time I learned that this wasn't necessarily the case, and attempted to course correct, the damage was done. We had half the allotment of keys to do outreach, and maybe some European outlets that would've covered us, did not.

2. When the game launched, rather than a victory lap, what we experienced was more of a public lashing. We did get some reviews that praised the game highly, but just as many reviews lampooned the game for its high difficulty or other failings. I've since released two patches (or 3, depending on how you count it) to address the difficulty. A lot of overnighters. If you recall in the last blog post, I thought it'd be a good start if we got 20 or so reviews on Open Critic. But we've only 8 as of this writing, and the aggregate score isn't so hot. So that's a fail by my metric.

3. A publisher reached out to us because they were interested in physically printing the game! Yay! But... to advance our talks, they wanted to see the game's sales numbers to ensure that there's a good chance their investment could be recouped. And unfortunately, the game's sales numbers are pretty low. They backed out :(

Some hard lessons were learned. The biggest lesson for me concerns how well we playtested the game. Looking at the original playtester list, it's a short list. You may recall from a previous blog post that our ability to test was severely hampered by technical limitations. Add to that, a lot of people on this list are objectively really achieved players. We're talking power ranked in Smash Bros, regular tournament goers, and people who've played and bested every Souls game. And as the maker of the game, I am most blind to the game's challenges.

Now, I'm definitely more of the opinion that you prioritize PC development first. I still have some reservations about some stages of PC development. But if you do PC/Steam first, you have the great benefit of being able to do Early Access, which gives you access to a greater testing pool. I now view it as an invaluable part of the equation. If we had been able to do Early Access for 1 or 2 months before release, we probably could have ironed out most of the game's difficulty and balance problems. Hard lessons, indeed.

There were a lot of other notable events that occurred over the past 2 months - the travails of press outreach, realizing my own limits as a developer, feeling defeated and getting back up again, etc. There's too much stuff to chronicle or go into detail. But it wasn't all bad.

Some good things did happen...

We got a publisher to publish for Japan! It came as a huge relief, because clearly, we don't know what the heck we're doing.

The publisher has been an invaluable source of information and feedback. They've recommended some changes to the game to improve user experience. Some of these changes I was hesitant to do at first because they concerned systems I thought integral to the identity of the game. But after trying it, I have to admit, they're good changes.

So a Japanese version of the game was moving ahead. And it looked like that'd be it. I wasn't planning to move forward with any other language translations due to the game's low sales and our funds being depleted. 

But, I was approached by a translator who urged me to move ahead with translations. He told me he was willing to work for only a small price initially and then be paid the rest after from a percentage of the game's sales until the cost of the translation was paid in full.

I was surprised translators were willing to work under such a model since it's entirely likely the game's current low sales trajectory would continue and they wouldn't earn back the full cost of translation. But I was also flattered they were willing to take a risk with me. After that, I approached some others with the same hypothetical deal, and long story short, we're now moving forward with French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian translations. As for why these languages in particular, they were languages for whom I had contacts (because they reached out to me at some point in the past). And also because they were deemed more likely to be profitable based on their home country's gaming market/buying habits. I'd be personally happy to have my native language be represented, but it's not expected to be a profitable territory. But if the game does better in the future, it may justify the costs of translation. There could be a chance!

The plan right now is to get the game supporting these first round of languages and then to patch that into the Switch version as well as launch the PC version with these languages - all in December. A lot of things need to align for this to occur, so a delay isn't out of the question. It'll be busy... I'll update the blog again in latter half of December, probably near the game's PC launch date... OR to announce a delay. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Fan Support

While the past two months have been grueling, one good thing remains constant - fan art! Thank you everyone who submitted. It means a lot to me and the team!

Big thanks to Pimez who's taken on watching over the reddit community as moderator. He also combs the other communities and makes sure I see every new art piece. Despite juggling his own life and all these tasks, he still found some time to draw.

Pimez's piece reminds us that just because the new game's out doesn't mean we can't still celebrate the original flash game. The jail dog is a dog found only in jail and only in the flash game. I imagine Gail is just tossing a stick, and they're playing fetch.

A new artist to this scene æv draws both the Phoenix logo AND a super cute picture of Gail playing the flute. So precious, you want to pinch her cheek. Even the Sand Drake is enthralled!

Another new artist, beet4ppy arrives on the scene with two pictures! One features a no-nonsense battle-hardened Gail looking stoic and tough! Kinda reminds me of Vinland Saga actually. The other, a more cheerful group composition - I must say I'm a big fan of Fran's classic anime-style eye!

A returning artist, Cody G, returns with a picture depicting the tribulations of cooking. Gotta love Gail's frantic expression! I've heard the complaints, which is why we've added an option to slow the cooking mini-game down. An improved button font is also on the way.

Gamesing with two undertale x phoenotopia crossovers. Thomas being a robot builder makes sense taking a role similar to Alphys. But why is Alex dressed like a clown? Perhaps there is a hidden meaning here... 

A new artist, Warotar, draws both a pooki wearing Gail's clothes and Gail wearing pooki clothes. Awww. The pooki is a bit scary - it kinda reminds me of a tragic event in a certain anime. But the Gail is adorable!

POL#5655 submitted this one to KM's discord which made its way to me. Here, a stylized Gail appears unnerved by the dark red eyes stalking her in the background. Are they bats or something more sinister?

A new artist, MilesCPW, arrives on the scene with three rare well-vectorized arts! Love it! One scene depicts Gail balancing a bomb on her head - that's a speedrunning trick I only learned about recently after someone emailed me a video O_O

The other drawing gives us new insight into Katash - he could actually look cute if he wasn't trying to kill you.

And the bees... Okay, this one got a chuckle from me :D

A returning artist roccy_chair draws this heart-warming scene from the beginning of the new game. Aww. Mika doesn't get much screen time for story reasons, so it's nice to see her represented.

UnrealWorld_32 returns with another drawing of Gail in Panselo, this time capturing a more idyllic time. I like the tranquil nature of this piece. And Gail does in fact play the guitar, denoted by the guitar in her room.

Returning artist shafiyahh draws a nice portrait of Prince Leo - looking regal and princely. I like the storybook art style of this piece. It made me immediately think of "the Little Prince" - one of my favorite books actually!

Negativus Core returns with a beautiful group composition of Gail and the gang - flying from a Switch shaped window - totally sensible considering the game is only Switch right now. As usual, I'm impressed by Negativus Core's use of challenging angles to frame a more dynamic shot of the characters. Great job!

Phew, it's been dreadfully busy. So busy in fact, that I'm going to have to delay the usual blog update that would have come around this time.

For once, development has moved on time (sorta). I am happy to announce that the "Reveal and Launch" trailer for Phoenotopia Awakening will drop this morning at 9AM. And the game itself is set to launch for Nintendo Switch on August 20th.

You may recognize that August 20th is in fact the 6th year anniversary of the Flash game. I wasn't particularly aiming for this date - I actually wanted August 14th. It's like a minefield - even just one week offset forward or backward could put you into a crowded release slot. And you don't know how everyone's moving because they're also probably considering the same things. At some point you're locked in and you can't change course. In the end, I added 1 week to the time I wanted initially as an error buffer in case some things came up - which they did! So August 20 ended up being about just right for us and a neat coincidence to boot.

First half of July

The first half of July, I threw myself well into the PC port. The controls still need to be figured out, but we did make a lot of progress. I found out about a 3rd party library called "Rewired" which is all about supporting a multitude of different controllers, disconnects, reconnects, and so forth. It doesn't take us all the way there, but it did remove a lot of the headache involved.

There's still a lot of design involved concerning controller rebinding. For instance, how much of the controls do you expose and allow to be remapped? Technically, you could allow so much freedom that you can break the controls. One solution for that is to lock a portion of the keyboard to be unmappable and so you're never without controls that can remap a menu.

(my solution was to have a lock screen that confirms you have the necessary inputs to at least return to the rebind menu and fix the controls should they ever be set in so bad a state)

There are also some things that a joypad can do that a keyboard can't, and vice versa. For instance, the control stick allows 360 degrees of movement and detects sensitivity. How much you push the control stick will determine whether Gail walks or jogs. However, the buttons on the keyboard do not have sensitivity - they're either all ON or all OFF. Thus, there's no way to "walk" if using a keyboard. I could add a separate "hold to walk" button to the keyboard but that introduces an incongruence between the joypad and the keyboard.

(Rewired's interface for mapping keyboard and joypads. If a "hold to walk" action existed, it would only make sense for the keyboard column, but not the joypad column. Finding that perfect balance between joystick and keyboard will be a challenge.)

Another snag we've hit are button names. If using a Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft controller, the Right Trigger is either going to be named ZR, R2, or RT. Rewired can be agnostic about joypads, which is great because it reduces the workload on my end, but the caveat is that buttons like this will simply be called "Right Trigger". (See that first image again). Not really elegant...

I can probably fix this after I've had more time to investigate. However, around this time I had to pause PC development, because the Switch version became unblocked and now required my full attention.

Second half of July

The 2nd half of July proved quite busy. As noted in my previous blog post, I thought the Switch version was on track and off my hands. Turns out there were a few more hurdles to clear, and the ball came back into my court, and it moved back and forth a few times. Luckily, the hurdles are really cleared now and we're set to release (August 20!). The specifics of this process are under NDA, so I won't go into details.

We also went around updating a bunch of the game's social media sites - facebook, twitter, youtube. The second half of July was also when we started acting in a PR capacity - we're combing websites and youtube channels and looking for people who look like they might want to cover Phoenotopia. This was fun! I used to read IGN daily over a decade ago (back when Matt and Fran ran the IGN Nintendo channel). Then college happened followed by early work life, and I wasn't able to follow videogames as much anymore. I didn't even have access to a TV for a few years. And I never found a new landing page after that, so combing for websites and youtube channels was a lot of fun. It was interesting to see how the landscape has changed, and the new depth and variety that exists.

We're set to send out a BUNCH of emails tomorrow. Will they catch? No idea... I think if I had 20 reviews on launch day on OpenCritic, I'd consider that a success. We'll see!

Fan Art 

This past month, we see a lot of fan artists cross Phoenotopia with other universes. Luckily, all universes I'm familiar with. I'm impressed by the creativity on display!

First, what if Gail appeared as an enemy in Undertale? Glittering_Touch_904 depicts the scene. Gale, like Sans, has only one eye shining meaning she's about to dish out some serious pain. Nice! Definitely choose the Mercy option.

R_Contagio answers the question of what would happen if Phoenotopia was depicted in the style of Limbo? And the answer is very pretty! I'm impressed by how everything is done with one color. Using a band of white to depict water, the creepy eyes on every creature, the patience in drawing each leaf... very impressive! I'd play this game!

UnrealWorld_32 depicts a scene that asks what it would look like if Gale was still back in Panselo when the invasion happens :D I'm impressed by the use of colors - they look like they could come from the game itself! I think it wouldn't be a fair fight. For the invader.

A rare scene, Didi depicts Gail, hammer at the ready, approaching a dreaded Phoenix Pod. We get lots of depictions of 66, but rarely of the pod itself! In the Flash game, we skirt around how the pod opens by having it opened off-screen, so it's nice to see the pod up close. The mystery remains... how does it open?

Another crossover of Phoenotopia and the Shrek universe - this "Shrale" is drawn by Firanka. I'm impressed by the use of colors - dominant use of red garb contrasts well with her green skin. She kinda looks like a grumpy Namekian. Hah hah. What is she annoyed at? 

Maybe this little running Gail underfoot (also drawn by Firanka)

Coming Up

We'll continue acting in a PR capacity leading up to the game's release. When the game finally does launch on Switch, I suspect I'll become swamped handling bug reports. When the flash game launched, I remember being swamped for 3 weeks straight! Day in, day out, fixing bugs. I suspect it'll be the same with Phoenotopia: Awakening, but to a heightened degree.