PHOENIXES v11 mid-update report (Patreon)

Hi everyone, this is Agang, and I’m here to share some more information about the PHOENIXES v11 update.

I think this is going to be a pretty long post, and I apologize for that. I know not everyone enjoys reading a lot, but I feel obligated to provide our patrons with detailed explanations of what we've been up to with each update and why we've been doing it. My time was almost entirely consumed by real-life work and game development, and I didn’t have time to manage the community & social media or share our progress more frequently. I can only do posts like this from time to time, trying to be as detailed as possible, to keep everyone informed about our situation.

This post will have two parts. First, I will introduce the biggest change in the game system in v11. Then, I will introduce how we plan to improve and rework the existing game story, text, and images. In fact there will be a lot of other new content in v11, but I won't discuss it here, as this post would become excessively long:

The biggest change in the game system

In v11, we will completely rework the free-roaming system. When you click on a location on the map (e.g. Business District,) instead of just seeing some bland text like before, you'll now open up a menu of actions. Each action will cost 1 AP.

Now let me introduce the different types of action you'll encounter using this screenshot. Please note it is not the final version of the UI:

• Actions to increase a girl's stats (the first icon) 
  This allows you to improve a girl's intimacy level or other stats even when there's no bubble for her on the map. For example, you can go to the business district every morning to meet Osonia, who patrols there every day.

• Scavenging (the second icon) 
  This action will give you the same result as entering a location in v10, allowing you to earn some money by scavenging. We'll also be adding more random repeatable short scavenging events to enrich this experience.

• Dating actions (the third icon)
  Every girl has her own life, and they all eagerly hope for you to be a part of it. Every week, they will do certain activities at fixed times. For example, after watching a movie with you, Molly will begin to ask you to go to the movies together in the business district every Saturday afternoon. As your relationship with her grows more intimate in future updates, things will get increasingly erotic in the dark cinema. Note that each dating action can only be triggered at a fixed time every week. If you've got other plans this Saturday afternoon, you'll have to wait until next Saturday afternoon to watch a movie with Molly again. We'll keep adding more dating actions to the game in future updates.

  

• Actions that are unrelated to the story and are designed to enrich the background settings (Pending)
  For example, you’ll be able to visit the library at the college and read more about the history and background of this urban fantasy world. Of course, it has nothing to do with gameplay; you can finish the game without ever setting foot in the library. These actions exist purely to give players an opportunity to learn more about the world and make it feel more... vivid. However, since these actions are completely unrelated to the story, we may not implement them in v11 since we already have too many things to do on the list.

• Visiting Special Locations (Pending)
  We plan to introduce some special locations in future updates, such as the girls' homes. You will be able to visit these places, engage in special interactions with the girls, and even spend the night there, just as you did at Alnilam's island. But right now I don’t know if we will have enough time to add any of such actions to the game in this update cycle.

If you've been followed us for quite some time, you might have noticed that we had a similar free-roaming system in VIRTUES already. Now I will explain why we initially chose not to implement this system in PHOENIXES and why we now want it back. Feel free to skip it if you don’t have time to read:

From the first day we entered this industry, our game design philosophy has been very clear, and I think I have stated it once or twice before through posts, that we aim to minimize anything that might diminish the player's excitement during gameplay. We don't want players to be turned off by a grindy, aimless free-roaming experience every time they finish an exciting lewd scene.

With this goal in mind, we have always strived to simplify gameplay, making it as easy as possible to increase the girls' intimacy levels, and allowing players to easily know what to do next without needing a walkthrough. In the end, we made the gameplay in PHOENIXES so simple that players can progress everything simply by clicking bubbles.

However, now we have realized that we’ve simplified the mechanics too much. It is right to make players progress the story as easily as possible, but we also need to create a full-featured free-roaming system to better serve the story and provide a more immersive experience for the players.

After all, a 'bubble-clicking simulator' doesn't feel immersive at all, does it?

Therefore, in v11, we will begin to correct this mistake. There will be much more things you can do on the map than before, and the bubbles won’t be your only way to progress the story anymore. We will keep adding more interesting actions in future updates. And while the game has a more complicated free-roaming system, you'll actually find that you can progress the story even faster than before (since you have more ways to do that now.)

Of course, you can keep your old habits if you want, as all the bubbles will still appear on the map during each time period.

Story rework and improvements

As I mentioned in the previous post, due to significant changes in the game system, your old saves will not be compatible with v11. Everyone will need to start the game anew. However, we will be reworking and adding a lot of stuff to the existing story to enhance your replay experience:

•  Adding new events into some girls' existing storylines.
  Since we started working on PHOENIXES, I've received feedback like this every once in a while, that "The girls are great, the story is okay, but some of the girls' storylines seem to have progressed a bit too hurry and fast." Well, I agree. Some parts of certain girls' stories should have been developed more thoroughly, but instead we advanced their stories to the next stage in a rather brief span. It was just a choice we had to make during development.

  We are developing an adult game project, and therefore, the most crucial part of the game is its adult content. While other aspects of the game are certainly important, none of them can compare to the importance of the adult content. We always keep this in mind, and our primary goal for every update is always to "provide a sufficient amount of new adult content." But as a result, we often encounter situations during an update cycle where I realize that a girl might need a bit more transition plot before getting closer to the MC so her character will be shaped better. But at the same time I also need her to have some erotic scenes to fulfill the requirement of an update, which means she actually needs to get closer to the MC as soon as possible. I probably don’t have time to do both in one update cycle, so whenever I face such a dilemma, I choose to add more erotic scenes even if it means cutting some transition plots. It was a pity, but I had to do it. After all, if every girl had a slow-paced, intricate storyline, the amount of adult content in the game would be at least 50% less than now. That would be a disaster. As a writer, I certainly hope to create the best story possible within my limit, but I’m not so selfish as to pursue my writing dreams at the expense of adult content in an adult game.

  However, with the great changes in the game system, I now have a chance to improve the story slightly. In v11, new plots will be added to the existing storylines of Heather, Sorring, Alnilam, Osonia, and Molly. I believe this will enrich their characters and make their story pace less hasty. And don’t worry, I still keep in mind that “adult content comes first.”These new plots will also include some erotic scenes. I believe this will bring some novel and exciting experiences to your replay.

  

  

• Rewriting some events with bad performance
  We believe every event needs to meet at least one of these three criteria: developing the girls' characters, introducing their backgrounds, or providing erotic scenes. However, some events from the v1 or v2 era did not meet the standard, so I decided to completely rewrite them in v11.

• Rewriting the girls' biographies
  In v10, we implemented a biography system, but we only used it to inaccurately describe the stories you had already experienced in a few sentences, which was almost pointless. This needs to change.

  In v11, I will rewrite the girls' biographies to introduce their pasts, anecdotes, and hobbies that were not covered in the main story.

• Revamping Novella's Office 
  We built Novella's office in the club back in v2, but it got no further scenes at all for the next 8 updates because we didn't know what to do with it. I wanted to set some erotic scenes here, but I couldn't imagine what erotic scenes should take place here.
  Therefore, now I decided to give this room a new purpose and redefine Novella's role in the club. In v11, Novella will also serve as the club's psychologist, and her office will become a counseling room. You will be able to watch recordings of the club members' counseling sessions. While it may not feature erotic scenes for now, these recordings will effectively help develop the girls' characters.

• Reworking old images with poor lighting
  I’ve mentioned this in the previous post. After this massive rework, over 85% of the old images from the v1 era will be replaced with better versions.

Alright, I think this should be enough for now. As I mentioned at the beginning, we have prepared a lot of other content for this update, but I don't have the time to add more details to this post—I'm busy working on the new what-if chapter now. See you guys soon~