The first Illusion game I played was Sexy Beach 2, way back in the 00's. It was a huge change from the 2D visual novels I had played up until then. The hot swimsuits, the bouncing tits, the fantasy of being the only male tourist on a paradise island resort full of sexy girls - here was a game that could excite and arouse primarily with visuals rather than words! It seemed like the possibilities for 3D adult games were unlimited.
They did give us one major innovation, the studio! I've had so much fun over the last years making my own illustrations using Illusion characters and maps, both of the sexy and the SFW kind. It's also gotten me into plugin development, which I find that I enjoy almost as much as the games themselves!
So I will end this post on a high note. Illusion may be dead but the community created around their games lives on. With Room Girl being terrible to mod I expect that Honey Select 2 will be the main game the community rallies around. The visuals may be slightly older but still look very good, it's going to be many years before it's visually completely obsolete compared to the state of the art of 3D gaming. And with no more Illusion games coming out, there is no risk that the community will be further split. Perhaps eventually some other company will release a studio-like application that's both as easy to use and powerful as Illusion's studio.
As for myself, I expect I'll also focus on Honey Select 2. I prefer the look of Room Girl, but with no more official content coming out ever, the slightly improved visuals and studio features are not worth the effort of working with a codebase that actively hates modders. I do have some RG plugins in the pipeline that I was working on before Illusion's announcement, so watch this space, there may yet be some cool things coming out.
This is not the end, but a new beginning!
