Aphelion: Phoenix Rising is a turn based 4X(explore, expand, exploit and exterminate) strategy game developed by Wyvern Studios. Take control of one of 6 races, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. Compete with other races in military strength, technological advancement, and intelligence.

Note: these race images are placeholders and will not be the images in the final game.

Little is known about the origins of this aggressive race, though their genetic patterns imply it was not natural. For hundreds of years their planet remained frozen in the shadow of another. A catastrophic event has released the Atrox from their prison of ice, freeing them to swarm and destroy. The Atrox know no fear, or hate, or love. Driven solely by their instinct to expand and thrive, they seek to dominate the far reaches of space.

The Therans are by far the most peaceful race. Never has their civilization been in a civil war. Because of their non-violent society, their military strength lags behind most races. The Therans naively approach other races with the assumption they are as nonviolent as themselves, and are often proven wrong.


No one knows what the Vitruvians originally looked like, but their story is well known. Long ago, a microbe began to spread throughout their race. At first the effects were minimal, but as time went on various organs on their bodies began to fail. Their population declined faster as time went on. The end of their race seemed near when a team of scientists were able to replace failing organs with mechanical parts. This was the beginning of an unwanted transformation into a cybernetic race. The Vitruvians yearn to return to the days when they had no dependence on mechanical parts.

The Atton are a devoted religious race. Images of their gods decorate their cities, and are integrated into every facet of their lives. Expansion of the Atton religion is their goal. The Atton have a good relationship with the Pintar, who bear a vague resemblance to their gods. They also despise the Atrox, which resemble demons from their Holy Book.

Why use a toaster to toast your bread when you can create a rift in 8th dimensional space to do it? What the Greys lack in common sense they make up for in raw intelligence. The Greys are the oddest race in this galaxy. They are a single-sex race that reproduces by cutting off a finger and letting it grow into a new Grey. The Greys supposedly began their existence when they went back in time and created themselves. Yes it's a paradox, deal with it.

The Pintar once inhabited the planet Sol 3. After years of struggle a peaceful civilization inhabited the planet. The Pintar were soon threatened by the impeding collision of a strange mass with their sun. The Pintar, forced to leave their home system, built gigantic space ships to store billions of people and animals as embryos, in the hopes of a new beginning. Three ships set out, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, in hopes of finding a new world to call home. And so the Pintar colonized a system known now as New Sol. Pintar society is suspicious of the Greys, who are suspected of running biological experiments on other races, and who have been blamed for several cow abductions.

A galactic empire is built one system at a time. Each race starts with a single home system, a home base to expand from. Systems are displayed on the galactic map as stars, and can be managed by double clicking on a star to bring up the system manager. By selecting one of three buttons on the left side of the system manager the player can view building construction options, ship construction options, and review existing structures. The ship and buildings construction modules each display a list of buildings and ships the current system can build along with their corresponding construction costs in alloy, gold, and time. Spies can be constructed in the building queue as well. When a ship or structure is selected, the statistics and description are displayed in the bottom box. Constructed structures' descriptions are displayed in a similar manner when selected. The ship and building queues are displayed on the right. When selecting a construction option the choice will be moved to the immediate build queue, subsequent selections will be moved to the waiting build queue and will be constructed once the first selection is completed.

Planets in a system can often be terraformed to increase the system's maximum population. To be able to terraform a planet the planet needs to be in a system in which the player has an outpost or colony. Merely having the system in the players territory does not make it available for terraforming.

To start the terraformation of a planet, the player selects the target planet, which brings up the terraform module. This module displays a list of technologies researched that are selectable for terraforming the planet and show the expense of the terraform method, regarding time, alloy, and money. A description of the technology is displayed on the below the list of terraform options. Not all technologies are equal. Planets have up to seven levels of terraforming difficulty, these are shown as tick marks above the planet. Many planets will be outside the players capability to terraform early in the game. As the game progresses technologies will be unlocked, improving the players terraforming capability.

Research is broken into 4 main groups: Biology, Naval, System, and Physics. There are also two minor groups, Trade and Artifacts. There are 16 levels of technologies that form the main techs along with one super tech level which, when completed, results in a technological victory for the race. Each of the four main tech groups has a random arrangement for every game. This insures that there is no set superior path to follow. Each race has their own individual tech tree, that is unique to them with approximately 200 technologies available to each race.

The trade tech tree group becomes available when you have completed a tech treaty with another faction. Each race has specific technologies that are available for any race that signs a tech treaty with them. The availability of technologies are dependent on the technological levels of the two parties involved. As both parties advance so do the trade techs that are available. Artifacts are researched when they become available. This occurs when you come in contact with an artifact and make a choice regarding it's use. The subsequent results are displayed for viewing in the technology screen.

Diplomacy and Intelligence share the same screen. A player can toggle between the the two using a set of buttons above the options display. Both share the same general interface.

Diplomatic actions generally effect trust, friendliness, and cause for war in the game. Trust is a universal statistic and reflects the player's trustworthiness in the eyes of other players. Actions such as breaking a treaty decreases this statistic, while actions such as honoring a defensive pact increase your trust level. Having a high trust level will increase a player's chances for success when offering another player a treaty. Friendliness is a statistic that is shared between two factions, this reflects the player's citizens' opinions regarding each other. Having high friendliness may make declaring war an unpopular decision to your populace. Cause for war is reflective of how much provocation a faction has for going to war with another. The higher the cause for war the more the general population thinks that it is just, and therefor productivity increases. Conversely if a faction declares war on another without a high cause for war, popular opinion will be against the war and productivity will fall across all sectors, resulting in a decrease in alloy, technology points, crew recruitment, and production.

There are two types of battles in Aphelion: Phoenix Rising, ship battles and ground battles. Ship battles will be fought in a turn based format, with opposing sides facing each other from opposite sides of the map. Battles will take place on a 2-d plane with spaceships being fully 3-d models with destructible weapons and systems mounted on the hull. Battles will be fought until one side is destroyed, or one side retreats from the battlefield. The player will view the battle from above and will give orders from this position. Ships will be moved individually and players will move their ships throughout their turn until all ships have moved, or the player decides to end their turn.

Ground battles shall progress rapidly, with no player intervention during the battle. They should last no longer than a few minutes, allowing the game to continue to progress at a reasonable pace. The player influences the outcome of the battle by the choices previously made, such as structures built and technologies researched. At the very start of the battle each player is assigned three random cards. Each player chooses between the three random assigned cards, giving the user a specific ability or advantage. Cards can boost their units defense/offense, initiate a strike, or change the order of attack in the case of a surprise attack. Once the battles commences the game will cycle continuously through the various phases without stop. Units will fire and be fired upon, destroyed, and reinforced in one large continuous battle until one side emerges victorious.