Hello everyone,
Firstly, I want to say a big thank you to all those who have wishlisted and followed ONE FENIX DOWN. The Steam page was launched just two weeks ago, and I’m overwhelmed by the interest and support you’ve all shown.
I figured the least I could do for the hundreds of you wanting to try the game is create transparency with this developer’s log, sharing my thoughts and progress every 1-2 months. Without further ado…
State of the Game
Overall the main story of ONE FENIX DOWN is approximately 85% complete. Although it sounds nearly complete, I’d estimate the average player will take 35-40 hours to finish it. Therefore that last 15% is still a sizeable chunk outstanding.
Artwork is also making progress, although I’d estimate that being closer to 60% complete. Our pixel artists are hard at work with the next batch of battlers, and here’s a taste:
We’re also constantly getting new portraits from our artist for the 100+ characters in the game, and here’s a sample of those as well:
Q&A from Social Media
I created a few reddit and X/Twitter posts to share the news of the Steam page. There were a few questions that popped up more than once, or garnered a bit of attention, so I wanted to share those here.
Q: When will the game be released?
A: TBD, however the ambition is to aim for a 2nd half of 2025 release.
Q: Is there a demo available?
A: We had an old demo with placeholder art, but that is no longer being circulated. Current plans are to release a final demo for a future Steam Next Fest, likely during the October one later this year.
Q: Why has development taken nearly a decade? Is anyone else working on the game?
A: It's a fair question as someone probably could have done it in half the time. Honestly it mainly started out as a fun side project, and since I had a full time job I'd only work on it here and there. It wasn't until after I had 30+ hours of playtime and a lot of great feedback from testers when I decided to polish it up and get it to Steam.
Although I’m a solo dev, I can’t take credit for the artwork from the talented artists I've commissioned! The main contributor for the pixel art is a Japanese artist named vibrato, and for the portraits it's a comic artist who goes by BeanyCoffee. Shout out to Vit-Tunissy who has been making some great enemies to complement vibrato’s style.
Q: How do characters progress? Is it standard leveling and gearing up?
A: Leveling will be like standard old-school JRPGs where enemies give EXP, and new skills are tied to levels. There will also be optional skills, such as weapon proficiencies, that can be purchased using class points. Gear can be purchased in towns, but the most powerful items will need to be won via boss fights or found by exploring dungeons.
Q: Party members come and go, and don’t stay in the main party? (In response to my post)
A: Yes, party members come and go mainly due to story reasons -- they have their own objectives and it doesn't make sense for them to follow Fenix initially. Most party members end up in the final party though; there will be late-game mechanics like how the Phoenix Cave was done in FFVI where you'll need to split into multiple parties.
Q: Will this be available for Steam Deck and Switch?
A: Steam Deck will be tested prior to release. Switch will likely not be available at release, but it is an ambition to eventually release on the console.
Q: What languages will be available?
A: Besides English I can’t make any promises. There is a desire to translate into several languages such as Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese just to name a few. However, I’m already over budget to see the game to completion, speaking of which…
Considering a Small Kickstarter
Although I started this game way back in 2016 as a passion project/side hobby, it's amazing to see it drastically evolve into the full-fledged RPG that it is today. A few years back I made a budget for replacing the placeholder assets with some top-notch artwork. Well, I’ve long since burned through that budget, but am happy to have saved up and self-funded the essentials up until now. Honestly, RPGs can be quite expensive with all the characters, enemies, animations, map tiles, and so on. Looking at the results though, it was worth every penny.
That being said, there were a few elements that I would have loved to enhance, such as an own original soundtrack and gorgeous pixel art backdrops for certain scenes. For this reason I’m mulling over trying a small crowdsource campaign on Kickstarter in the next few months so we can still aim for a 2025 release. With some stretch goals in place, this may also be a great way to release the game with multiple language support and/or a Switch version near release as some folks have inquired about.
That’s all for now. Thanks again for the support!
-RC