(This story was originally posted to the EIRTeam Patreon here) Hello, sorry for the delay but I've been down for most of the month due to health issues, fortunately I've still managed to continue work full steam ahead. Unfortunately due to a badly timed company restructuring I didn't manage to get into the big studio I told you guys about last time, that was a hard blow specially because it would have been very helpful economically, oh well.

Project Heartbeat Phoenix

I've been struggling with coming up with a catchy name for the new engine update, I think I finally have one I like, Project Heartbeat Phoenix, let me know what you think about it.

Subtick promo video

I've been thinking about making promo videos for Phoenix, this includes the new subtick system, I already have a video ready that I will have Kyuuon voice, hopefully it's well received.

Fonts

I did some work on unifying fonts across the whole game to better support non-Latin character languages, if I did my job well every single label now supports Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Cyrillic characters (I hope).

Localization

I did some work on improving the localization system, it's now basically ready for me to send to translation companies to translate it. I tried to find a service where I can let people contribute localizations, but I would have to self-host and thinking about it with the cost of proper translation it would probably end up being more expensive. I also considered AI translation but people would probably not like it and Valve may be made about it. My current plans for localization languages in PH will be:

• English
• Spanish
• Catalan
• Japanese
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Russian
• Ukrainian

It might take a bit for me to look into paying for these translations because I have to get the car fixed, but hopefully that will be done soon.

SDL on Windows

The game now uses SDL for handling game pads on windows just like on Linux, this is likely to increase compatibility with different controllers and I might do something fancy with the PS4/5 LEDs in the future.

Other minor fixes

• Fixed a long-standing where the waveform would veer off-sync depending on the amount of horizontal scroll
• Fixed async loading data races on boot
• Fix main menu mouse accuracy
• Fix scrolling using the mouse in various places

Swansong

As I said last month I've started working on the combat system for Swansong, it's not ready to show yet, but I've recently added sound events to the animation system, ragdolls and I'm currently working on blood by taking inspiration from Counter-Strike 2. I might even make a video detailing how the system works. I have also been experimenting with some euphoria-style semi-procedural ragdoll physics, I'll probably use them for death poses and maybe for some combat reactions.

Future

Honestly it's been a rough month, I almost though about cancelling Swansong but I got a burst of motivation to work on it after seeing the combat system sorta seem to work. I also went to the doctor the other day for a follow up on my kidney stones, seems like its genetic and all I can do is drink water and pray they dissolve before getting dislodged. See you all next month!