Weekly Update! (June, week 3)

Providing weekly updates on game development progress, including news, work-in-progress images (to appropriate tiers), and write-ups, as promised!

TLDR:

• Gameworld keeps track of Day and Time now
• Gameworld has a Day and Night Cycle now (Preview below)
• The Roadmap was completed (Link included)
• New Release for Bug Fix is out (v.0.1.05)
• Jessica Rabbit will be in whenever she's 100% ready, not as walking eye candy.

Update 1: Created a Schedule Manager that keeps track of time and days of the week.

This is important to make the gameworld feel alive, and to give the player a sense of the "slice of life" feeling that I am going for. 

This also means the Milfs/Characters will have more developed Patterns-Of-Life in the future, meaning you'll be able to see them in different ways at different times. Maybe one Milf needs extra money so she's shaking her ass in a strip club?? 

Update 2: Day Night Cycle in the Cartoon World of Edgeville

This is important for role-playing and being able to see the world visibly change due to the time. Again, some events will open up at night that won't be available during the day. For Jessica Rabbit coming up, this is 100% crucial since she's not your average stay-at-home type of character and instead is a Jazz singer seductress. 

It's 90% of the way there. Here's a fast forwarded preview (with the time and day at the top of the screen):

Update 3: Roadmap Is Here!

Finally! The Roadmap is up! 

I'm sorry it took so long to get out. It was hard to understand what we were trying to build, until it finally clicked for me. And once it clicked, things were pretty clear from that point on. 

The important thing to remember for the roadmap is that just because something is marked to be completed a long time in the future, doesn't mean you won't be seeing elements for that any time soon. On the contrary, I have to build in layers so you will most definitely be seeing characters and features added before they are complete.

Update 4: Last Week's Poll Results (How would you feel about adding many characters, that walk around, but have no meaningful interactions until the voting?)

Results:

The results were interesting. If you haven't seen the poll, feel free to check it out. Whenever a project like this is being developed, it's always tempting to just do what the majority of the people tell you to do. I disagree. It's important to be discerning and understand WHY people are asking you for a certain feature. Like Henry Ford said when developing the Ford Model T: 

"If I would have asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse."

They would have answered that way because all they wanted to do was to get to their destination faster since horse riding was smelly, uncomfortable and just not a pleasant overall experience. They didn't understand they also had options for smooth rides with AC and cushioned seats in a contraption that didn't also take a shit every ten minutes. 

So what do we do with our results? I think it means people want the Gameworld to feel more alive. I don't like the idea of just having characters walk around like mindless zombies, but I also like the idea of you being able to secretly stare at Marge Simpson's tits. And it occurred to me that Dexter's Mom's storyline isn't even close to complete. You can't fuck her yet, but she's so awesome just to be around it *almost* doesn't matter. (You'll get to fuck her, don't worry). But it would be cool if we had the same opportunity with Lois Griffin, Maddie Fenton, Marge Simpson, etc...

Which means I'll be trying out a few things just to get more feedback from you guys. There's a lot of heart and soul being poured into this project so I doubt I'll do anything that will set us back. 

In short, I'm going to try something similar with a known character that I did with Dexter's Mom. So expect to see someone else walking around soon!

Update 5: Bug Fix 

There was a bug in the last build regarding glass. If you couldn't continue the story because of that bug, feel free to load up the latest build. 

It took me a while to get to that bug. After releasing version 0.1.04, I ripped up the old targeting system for objects and started creating the new one for the next release. (For reference regarding the new object targeting system, check out Update 2 Here). When you decide to redo a large component like that things get messy, similar to what you would expect to see if a mechanic took out the previous engine before replacing it with a new one. In this case, it wasn't the engine I was replacing, but a crucial component of the player that affects a lot of other systems. 

The only way for me to fix it was to open a previous version of the project make the fix, then go back to my current version where I would replicate the changes in this new project. It wasn't pretty, but it was necessary to do it that way. 

Update 6: Jessica Rabbit

Jessica Rabbit (Winner of the last vote) is near and dear to my heart. I want to really make sure I do her justice - and so I have something special planned for her. The idea is that she's a Jazz singer in a nightclub and she'll need your help with something that isn't yardwork. I don't want to spoil anything, but I'm very happy with her story so far, and I think you will be too. She will not be one of the characters we just throw in with the "I'm thinking of moving here" dialogue. You won't see her at all until her storyline and scenes are complete. 

Conclusion:

I'm still focusing on game mechanics that make the game funner to play, provide a gameworld that feels alive through simulation for the purposes of role playing, and still developing systems that will be used for new characters. 80% of what I do is devoted to things like this. The other 20% is art. 

That being said, I'm trying to work as fast as I can to get content out to you, so I'm EXTREMELY THANKFUL that I have you guys supporting me. Some people help with ideas, others with feedback, others with the financial support. Everyone's a HUGE help and one that still humbles me. Love you guys!