Greetings, everyone! Happy New Year!
After three months dedicated to artwork, I've finally been able to push forward with gameplay development this month. Including the DEMO content, the Lycurgus Corps can now play through 25 missions and level up to level 7. While creating and testing these missions, I've also fixed hundreds of bugs and implemented numerous quality-of-life improvements.
Each protagonist can complete approximately 50 missions. In the full release, the two selectable protagonists will have at least 50% completely different missions. Beyond these missions, players can participate in faction wars, accept military assignments from faction headquarters, and acquire faction-exclusive ships and ARMS. All four factions feature entirely unique units and missions. Additionally, there's an arena system. The game content should be quite substantial. Therefore, I'd like to reiterate that Chaos Front will be released in Q2 2026. I'm hoping for a release before summer vacation.
Finally, some players asking about my pixel art process. So let me use a character portrait I recently completed—Brutalette—as an example.
I've spent over 5,000 hours using Aseprite. When I first started practicing, I mainly drew inspiration from 90s Japanese arcade games like Metal Slug and Street Fighter, following the traditional art approach of sketching first, then outlining, and finally adding colors and shadows. However, as my experience grew, I discovered that pixel art is actually somewhat similar to oil painting—what matters most are the blocks of color formed by pixels, rather than the lines themselves. So my current workflow looks like this:
First, I gather reference images based on the character design to determine the hairstyle, clothing, poses, and color schemes. Then I directly paint basic color blocks on the canvas. This step allows for plenty of adjustment until the color and size proportions of each part are just right.
Next, I outline on the color blocks, ensuring the lines are perfect.
The final step is adding light, shadow, and details—and the artwork is complete.
That's all for this development log. See you in 2026!
Han Zhiyu