Dear Players,
It has been one week since release, so it is time to talk about the future, Oil Baron, and address some of the criticism.
Overall, the Steam launch went well—really well. I want to thank everyone who decided to play Agent Sherine: Dancing Fox and support the game. Your support means a lot.
First, let’s address some of the feedback. On Steam, the game has been exposed to a much larger audience, and naturally, there has been a wide range of feedback.
“AI slop” — There is not much to comment on here. I am not sure why people who strongly dislike AI pursue a game that openly uses it. It is what it is. AI, in one form or another, is going to be present in more and more games. That does not mean it is capable of doing everything on its own—far from it. When it comes to complex work, it cannot do much without human involvement. But as a tool, it provides a lot of new possibilities, even if the results are not always perfect.
The game is too short. — I do not fully agree with this criticism. The game was never intended to be a 40-hour experience with hundreds of thousands of words to read. I wanted to create a cinematic visual novel that lasts around 6–10 hours, depending on your playing speed and whether you replay certain episodes. It is also not designed for players who simply hold down Ctrl and skip through everything.
The quality varies. — I completely agree with this one. Some animations are not as impressive as they could be. The first animations for Dancing Fox were created back in late 2024 using some of the earliest models available at the time. I reworked some of them, but several of those older animations are still present in the game. I can say that I have heard this feedback, and Oil Baron will take a much more careful approach to animation quality. Besides, success on Steam allows us to put invest some budget in the quality.
Movie Mode is good. — That was always the intention.
I can already say that I am reluctant to keep a non-Movie Mode option in Oil Baron. Part of the reason is that I did not invest heavily in the non-Movie Mode version of Dancing Fox. Creating a high-quality version of it requires a lot of additional resources, and simply using one static image for every line of dialogue in a scene is not enough.
And, as I suspected, that is not really what most players want to see in the first place.
Movie Mode has to be the core foundation of this game. In Oil Baron, I want to focus entirely on improving it and making it much better than it was in Dancing Fox.
So, most likely, Oil Baron will be released with Movie Mode only.
Agent Sherine: Oil Baron
Oil Baron is already in development.
A new Steam page will be opened soon, and all news about the game will be posted there as well as on Patreon.
I plan to continue releasing each episode to my Patreon supporters as soon as it is ready, in the same way I did with Dancing Fox. I tried to maintain a monthly release schedule before, but that may not always be possible. A more realistic expectation is around one episode every 1–1.5 months.
However, I am reluctant to release the game on Steam in Early Access. With only one or two episodes completed, I do not think the game would be ready for a proper Steam release.
I have also heard the feedback that some of the brothel events in Dancing Fox went on for a little too long.
In Oil Baron, there will not be any extended games like the ones you saw in Dancing Fox. There may be a short episode involving a simple card game, but even that has not been decided yet.
Furthermore, Oil Baron will feature much more interaction with the environment inside Ivanov’s mansion, which will serve as the main setting of the game. I understand that players would like to have a little more control and more meaningful choices, and that is something I want to improve.
More About Oil Baron — Episode 1
Agent Sherine: Oil Baron begins exactly where Dancing Fox ended.
Overall, Oil Baron will focus on the negotiations between Oleg and Ramid, with Sherine placed directly in the middle of the nogotiations.
Episode 1 serves as the preparation stage. Sherine will finally meet Oleg, and from there the new storyline will begin to develop.
Take care,
Stay tuned,
And once again, tremendous thanks for your support!