Future of Fuchian Chronicles and the Last Fox Fighter
Hello everyone, I hope you’re all doing well! I know it’s been a while, but I needed some time to properly think things over and come to a decision. That said, this will be a longer post than usual so please bear with me. I’ll have a tl;dr at the end.
First, the Last Fox Fighter. I previously said that there was one more major feature I’d like to try making, and I’m happy to say that it’s done!
Fuchian Chronicles had both ground and space combat, so I wanted the Last Fox Fighter to have them too. Now that the framework is more or less finished, I plan on making a few stages with a short story, and releasing the Last Fox Fighter as a free DLC for Fuchian Chronicles. The web-playable version on itch.io will remain in its current version, and only the Steam version will be complete with separate stages and ground sections. As for a release date… I’m not sure yet, but I’m aiming for a Christmas release, or January 2025 at the latest.
So why a DLC instead of a full game? Well for starters, as fun as it was for me to make the Last Fox Fighter, it’s still more of a learning project than a game I’d feel comfortable selling (I’ve learned from my Space Fox Kimi days!). The other, more important reason would be budget, and this is where this announcement starts becoming a bit of a personal post-mortem, so feel free to stop reading here if you’re not interested.
Without getting too much into details, I made Fuchian Chronicles while living off savings and taking some freelance jobs (which in hindsight, was dumb to say the least). This meant that I couldn’t put as much resources into the game as I would have liked, both in terms of money and time. To me this stood out most in the lack of variety in poses in character sprites/portraits and the inconsistency in art style, which is the result of using a wide array of asset packs instead of sprites from a single artist. The scope of Fuchian Chronicles didn’t help either, especially since it contains both sci-fi and medieval fantasy elements.
That wouldn’t be as big of an issue if I could have taken my time with development, but the fact that I was living off savings meant I couldn’t. I had hoped by putting Fuchian Chronicles out in Early Access would help and that it would do well enough to fund my next game, but unfortunately that didn’t pan out. I have no one but myself to blame for these unrealistic expectations of course, and there are many other things I could have done better. These are lessons I'll be taking to heart for my next game.
As things are, I don’t have the budget or time to make the Last Fox Fighter into a full game. And that is why I will be stepping away from game development after releasing it as a small DLC, to get my life to a more sustainable place. I still love making games and plan on continuing to do so in the future, which includes making a sequel to Fuchian Chronicles. It’ll just likely be a while before I can, and development will be slower when I do. Hopefully by then I'll have more experience and resources that can go towards into making my next game even better. Naturally I’ll still fix any bugs that may come up, so please do report any that you find. I may also participate in the occasional game jam and do some light dev work if time permits, and will be posting updates to my Bluesky account when I do.
And that’s it for this time. I apologize if you're disappointed by my decision, but I hope you'll understand why I made it. I’ll make another announcement when the Last Fox Fighter is finished and ready for download. Thank you as always for your support, and for reading this extra-long announcement/post-mortem. I’ll see you guys soon.
Sincerely,
ShenTzu
TL;DR
The Last Fox Fighter will be a free DLC, aiming for release around Christmas to January 2025.
Web-playable version on itch.io won’t be updated to final version, which will includes ground sections, a short story, and multiple stages.
Fuchian Chronicles sequel on hold until I get my life in order, bug fixes will still be made if new bugs are found.
First, the Last Fox Fighter. I previously said that there was one more major feature I’d like to try making, and I’m happy to say that it’s done!
Fuchian Chronicles had both ground and space combat, so I wanted the Last Fox Fighter to have them too. Now that the framework is more or less finished, I plan on making a few stages with a short story, and releasing the Last Fox Fighter as a free DLC for Fuchian Chronicles. The web-playable version on itch.io will remain in its current version, and only the Steam version will be complete with separate stages and ground sections. As for a release date… I’m not sure yet, but I’m aiming for a Christmas release, or January 2025 at the latest.
So why a DLC instead of a full game? Well for starters, as fun as it was for me to make the Last Fox Fighter, it’s still more of a learning project than a game I’d feel comfortable selling (I’ve learned from my Space Fox Kimi days!). The other, more important reason would be budget, and this is where this announcement starts becoming a bit of a personal post-mortem, so feel free to stop reading here if you’re not interested.
Without getting too much into details, I made Fuchian Chronicles while living off savings and taking some freelance jobs (which in hindsight, was dumb to say the least). This meant that I couldn’t put as much resources into the game as I would have liked, both in terms of money and time. To me this stood out most in the lack of variety in poses in character sprites/portraits and the inconsistency in art style, which is the result of using a wide array of asset packs instead of sprites from a single artist. The scope of Fuchian Chronicles didn’t help either, especially since it contains both sci-fi and medieval fantasy elements.
That wouldn’t be as big of an issue if I could have taken my time with development, but the fact that I was living off savings meant I couldn’t. I had hoped by putting Fuchian Chronicles out in Early Access would help and that it would do well enough to fund my next game, but unfortunately that didn’t pan out. I have no one but myself to blame for these unrealistic expectations of course, and there are many other things I could have done better. These are lessons I'll be taking to heart for my next game.
As things are, I don’t have the budget or time to make the Last Fox Fighter into a full game. And that is why I will be stepping away from game development after releasing it as a small DLC, to get my life to a more sustainable place. I still love making games and plan on continuing to do so in the future, which includes making a sequel to Fuchian Chronicles. It’ll just likely be a while before I can, and development will be slower when I do. Hopefully by then I'll have more experience and resources that can go towards into making my next game even better. Naturally I’ll still fix any bugs that may come up, so please do report any that you find. I may also participate in the occasional game jam and do some light dev work if time permits, and will be posting updates to my Bluesky account when I do.
And that’s it for this time. I apologize if you're disappointed by my decision, but I hope you'll understand why I made it. I’ll make another announcement when the Last Fox Fighter is finished and ready for download. Thank you as always for your support, and for reading this extra-long announcement/post-mortem. I’ll see you guys soon.
Sincerely,
ShenTzu
TL;DR
The Last Fox Fighter will be a free DLC, aiming for release around Christmas to January 2025.
Web-playable version on itch.io won’t be updated to final version, which will includes ground sections, a short story, and multiple stages.
Fuchian Chronicles sequel on hold until I get my life in order, bug fixes will still be made if new bugs are found.