Phantom Blade Zero producer Liang Qiwei (Soulframe) shared a development update detailing the studio’s final push before release, outlining the scope of work still underway, including dialogue, character models, combat systems, localization, and performance optimization across devices.
Central to the update was a firm stance on AI: S-GAME confirmed it has not used any AI image generation technology throughout development, and will not use any tools that could alter the original intent of its human artists.
Character models are built from 3D scans of real actors, who also performed the facial animation. The studio said all character models are currently being upgraded, with more reveals planned. Voice acting in both Mandarin and English has been recorded with dedicated casts and directors for each language, with full lip-sync support.
Weapon design draws from China’s vast historical arsenal. When needed, S-GAME brought in swordsmiths to physically forge prototype weapons, specifically to study how weight and length affect movement and animation.
Combat motion capture was performed by more than 20 experienced kung fu performers. To ensure authenticity, the team consulted practitioners from traditional martial arts lineages directly. Sword techniques were sourced from masters at Mount Emei; lion dance sequences involved specialists brought in from Guangdong.
Environmental design followed a similar philosophy. The team conducted location surveys across China, from ancestral halls in Fujian and ancient towns in Zhejiang to a decommissioned steel mill in Beijing. These locations were scanned and reimagined to build what S-GAME describes as “wuxia punk,” an original visual aesthetic the studio coined itself.
Even the game’s navigational maps were hand-drawn, not with digital painting tools, but with ink brushes on traditional xuan paper, created by graduate students from the Chinese National Academy of Arts’ ink painting department.
Qiwei closed the update with a statement on the studio’s philosophy: “Human labor is not a means to value, it is value itself.” He added that S-GAME built its team around a shared love of games, then made a game the team could be proud of, not the other way around.
The studio expects players to feel all of it when Phantom Blade Zero launches in the coming months.
Add hthgaming.com as a preferred source on Google