Hey lads!

In this devlog, I want to focus on the main changes in Unaware in The City: Revisited (temporary name?). It will be a really long one, as I also want to explain my reasoning behind the changes. But first, I'll provide information on v38 and overall progress since the last post.

So, v38 events will be delayed until early August. This week, I spent two days with my kiddo in the hospital in Warsaw for some tests before her surgery next year. Recently, I found out that since my wife is due to give birth in August, her dad has decided to stay with us this weekend (he's not the type to understand that I have work to do) because he won't be able to see his granddaughter anytime soon otherwise. With five days lost in a single week and work piling up, I'll probably release one event this month and two others early next month in v38a. I also wanted to try adding an auto-save feature, but I haven't had time yet to implement it. And yes, after my second kid is born in August, I might have an even harder time working in the first few weeks, but my wife won't be bedridden due to pregnancy anymore, so things should get better in September. Either way, sorry about the delays.

I'll also be supporting UiTC up to v40 or a lower number of events because we have a lot of work to do for UiTC:R. Romstine is taking a few months' leave due to personal matters, and I don't know if he'll be back or not, so all the writing falls on poor Bubba. With two writers, I could work on events for two games simultaneously, but one won't be able to pull it off alone, especially since it's not his only project. Why won't I try hiring a second writer again? Because it's a really time-consuming process, and finding someone competent and willing to also learn my tools is quite a challenge.

There's not much to show, honestly, because I'm working on the core stuff and UI, and since I'm working on multiple things at once, they are too unfinished to present.

Pathfinding is already done, and instantaneous transitions between locations will be possible by merging them and loading everything at once. This will make the game start/load slower and have higher requirements, especially with all the NPCs being spawned with more advanced art and animations. By default, you'll have to wait for all the NPCs and art to load when changing locations, but I'll make it optional to disable the waiting if you want to switch locations instantly or simply enjoy seeing all the mess getting generated :P It's still very rough and unoptimized currently, but I'll reuse the optimization tricks I applied in UiTC in the past, so it shouldn't take me a lot of time to optimize.

https://mega.nz/folder/OjgVSQpC#9ogrL2ofhqTNJ868XVT8kg

The male front rig is complete. Next, we'll be focusing on clothes & hairstyles, and then we will probably start with some basic animations. Anyway, in August we should have much more stuff to show after finally sorting out the basic stuff.

Also, the game's soundtrack has been added to Steam and will be released on the same day as the game! If you feel generous or simply want to listen to the game's OST, you can get it for a base price of $4.99. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2938520/Unaware_in_The_City_Soundtrack/

Ok, now to the UiTC:R. This is only some of the upcoming plans I have for the game, so more will come, and not everything will be ready for the December's demo, while some stuff can still change or not be added at all in the end.

The most obvious ones are - updating Unity to the newer version, so I can make the game compatible with the newest devices and use some of Unity's new features. Adding 2 new angles, so you get to see characters & animations in more detailed 3 angles (front, side, back), but game still won't be in 3D. Switching animation tool to Spine, so animation quality and customization options get so much better.

We are gonna re-use what we can, then we will edit and re-write outdated stuff, while trying to preserve game's overall spirit. Kevin will keep his charm, Rick will stay an asshole, and Albert will keep looking for hot female tenants. But we are gonna change some core gameplay aspects to make game more entertaining. All these years were a really valuable experience to me, and I will try to make use of it by getting rid of as many issues as possible.

Merged locations, orthographic perspective & instant transitions (partially done already) - Locations will be merged into one based on their theme. For example, Main Street will become a single location instead of being split into three parts. Merging locations will (probably) require changing the background art perspective to orthographic, ensuring seamless connections and avoiding issues when moving and animating characters in the environment. Changing locations will be instant (theoretically), such as moving from Main Street to RLD. This will be the case if you turn off waiting for the art files to load. Even with loading enabled, it should be much faster than it is now in UiTC. Modern PCs and 64-bit Android devices should handle this easily, but it will still require various optimization tricks to work smoothly.

We are still brainstorming about using a perspective vs orthographic view for all the locations. Here's a quick mock-up, showing the shaping of the buildings and combining them into one street that follows the same perspective angle. Yes, you can see here 9 locations in total, because we added 1 more per street part, and then merged them together. Other locations like Slums or RLD will also be bigger and merged.

And here you can compare orthographic vs perspective angle:

Triggering events - Currently, 95% of events trigger upon entering a location while meeting its requirements and passing a successful RNG roll, while 5% are triggered by talking to someone and choosing the event dialogue option. In UiTC:R, events will be triggered by talking to NPCs or moving to the correct spot (e.g., getting near the diner's counter so an event triggers and a man approaches Jane from behind). Most events will have a 100% chance to trigger, focusing on being in the right place at the right time to ensure they occur. However, some random events (designed to be truly random) will still happen. The whole idea is to reduce save scumming and the overall annoyance of being hindered by RNG, while making gameplay smoother and ensuring events feel like an integral part of the world.

Time flow - Passive time flow will be removed, so standing or walking around won’t make time pass on its own, also eliminating the need to pause the game. However, all actions and some events will cause time to pass, such as talking to NPCs or engaging in the exhibitionism mini-game. Jane will still have to manage her time, and time-altering effects will remain in the game. Thus going from one part of the Main Street to the other won't make time pass, but going to RLD will be much more time consuming, as it's supposed to be in the different part of the huge city. This change should make the game less stressful and give you more control over it.

Difficulty settings - There will be 5 (or 3? or 7?) difficulty settings, ranging from very easy to very hard. On the very easy setting, almost all grinding (like experience points, reputation, money, etc.) will be twice as fast, while on the very hard setting, it will be halved (modifiers are still subject to change). I'm still deciding what parts of the gameplay will be affected or if I should add difficulty settings for multiple aspects of the game, like mini-game difficulty, grind difficulty, etc., or just one general difficulty for everything. The idea is to let you customize how easy, fast, grindy, or tough the overall gameplay feels with one button click instead of trying to achieve it by brainstorming with backstories and traits. The game will be balanced with the normal difficulty in mind.

Action tracking - Many of Jane's actions will be tracked, such as how many times she has had sex, engaged in prostitution, dived in the trash, slept, trained in the gym, and more. I don't have a complete list of what should be tracked yet, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know.

Desires system - The system is inspired by the wishes and aspirations from The Sims 3. There will be daily, weekly, and (maybe) monthly desires, each varying in difficulty and rewards. Daily desires would be simple, like masturbating or cooking dinner. Weekly desires would require a bit more effort, like going to the gym 5 times or finding a new job. Monthly desires would be much more demanding, like buying a car or finding a boyfriend. I don't know how many desires will be displayed at once, but it will likely be 3-2-1 for daily-weekly-monthly. I'll start small with these desires, and new ones will be slowly added with updates (similar to weekly buffs). Desires will be rolled based on Jane's current stats, backstories, and choices, so she wouldn't get a "suck a cock" desire without any sexual experience. Essentially, it will be similar to daily/weekly quests in other games, and completing these would reward bonus experience points. The idea is to give you more goals to focus on across The City while being rewarded for doing so and to add more ways to gain experience points, which are used for unlocking new perks (formerly known as traits).

Backstories - Backstories were supposed to be very unique and change how the game is played (e.g., Drifter not having a home or Aristocrat being able to trigger game over), but this caused some customization and freedom problems. For example, what if I liked Drifter but wanted a home? Or I wanted Aristocrat to be forced homeless with negative fame? I tried achieving it with some bonus effects like traits or perks, but it was too convoluted, and people were often unaware of it even being a feature. In UiTC:R, backstories and traits are getting a rework to allow further character customization without overcomplicating things. Complex underhood, simple on the surface. Backstories will still provide some bonuses and penalties, but they will now focus more on background stories and main goals. Multiple backstories will share the same main goal - for example, Aristocrat was about making a name for herself in The City, and now a few other backstories will have the same goal. This approach allows us to add more backstories without requiring a ridiculous amount of work to create unique paths for each story. If you want to play a sex-oriented backstory like Slut, or you liked the backstory's main goal, you will have more backgrounds to choose from who shares the same stuff.

Traits - They won't use Neo Scavenger's concept but will instead follow Fallout 2's approach. All traits will have both a positive and a negative effect simultaneously. They will be optional, can only be picked during character creation, and cannot be removed later, as they describe what your character is (and if possible, I'll generate a small bio based on your choices). This way, you won't have to brainstorm which negative traits to pick to gain TP to unlock positive ones. If you see a trait you like, you just pick it - it's as simple as that. For example, the Indebted trait will let you start with $3000 extra, but you will have to pay $6000 after 30 days or face game over.

I'm also experimenting with something I call Personality Traits (which I've mentioned a few times before, and now it seems possible). You would choose what Jane loves/hates about other characters, like muscular/obese bodies, and it would trigger different reactions from Jane during events and provide some bonuses or penalties. At the moment, I don't know how advanced the system will be. It could be as simple as 1-2 bonus sentences per event with a few Personality Traits to choose from, or it might become something more advanced.

Mini-games - Fully operating the game through the dialogue system becomes bland and boring really fast, which is why I decided to add mini-games to various aspects of the game. But don't worry, they won't be as dumb as clicking as fast as possible or comparing numbers/shapes on the screen. I want them all to make sense in the game and be enjoyable, not a chore, as I personally hate 99% of mini-games in games. And yes, if possible (depending on the mini-game), they will be optional and skippable, rewarding you with an averaged outcome.

Prostitution mini-game - It will be used in brothels, street whoring, or random prostitution events across The City (like in the diner's toilet cabin). I still don't know what to do with the glory hole yet, as I'm unsure if I should reuse the same mini-game system or create something simplified. There will be 4 gauges - satisfaction, pleasure, stress, and time. Different clients will have varying needs and behaviors (for example, a young, stressed virgin who is easy to satisfy or an old veteran without any stress but very difficult to satisfy), thus the values and requirements for filling each gauge will always be different but somewhat predictable (perhaps using client ID cards with stats or small hints).

Satisfaction - Represents how satisfied the client will be after the visit. Jane gets rewarded in the form of tips, experience points, and reputation. Your goal is to maximize this gauge. The exact percentage needed to pass the event is yet to be determined.

Pleasure - Filling this gauge will make the client climax, greatly increasing their satisfaction. However, if the client climaxes too many times, they will leave, so you need to manage this carefully. Different clients will have different climax number limits, demands, and actions with different multipliers will be pleasurable to them (someone into anal won't have much fun from vaginal sex, and someone old won't cum as soon as someone young).

Stress - Represents how stressed the client is. You will need to perform certain actions to lower this value initially. High stress will limit the filling of the pleasure and satisfaction gauges, potentially preventing you from passing the event. Clients can vary greatly in their stress levels.

Time - Represents how much time is left before the client leaves. It acts as a time limit to prevent spending too long with one person trying to fill their satisfaction gauge. Clients may request different durations (e.g., 30 mins, 90 mins), and you must manage your time accordingly.

Diner (cooking) mini-game - This one is really tricky because I'm not fond of cooking mini-games, but I know many people enjoy them (including my wife). Since "Good Pizza, Great Pizza" is one of her favorite cooking games (check the screenshot), I decided to adopt a similar (albeit much simpler) style. If you're unfamiliar with it, I recommend looking it up on YouTube. There would be 3 phases - taking the order, cooking, and delivering the dish. Each phase will have a chance for a touching mini-event (based on multiple factors). Jane will continue working until her shift ends, or she can decide to end it sooner with a penalty. The entire mini-game will be skippable, rewarding Jane with averaged results.

Phases:

1st) Jane simply talks to the client and takes their order, so she knows what to cook, with a chance of being touched by the client.

 2nd) The main aspect of this feature is the cooking mini-game. The UI covers the entire screen, and Jane selects the base dish (burger, pizza, etc.). Based on the chosen dish, different ingredients appear (beef for a burger, salami for pizza, etc.), and she either drags them using the mouse or clicks to add them in appropriate amounts (undecided). Essentially, she must prepare the dish as accurately as possible according to the client's order, and the more clients she makes happy, the better her overall evaluation score and rewards. Kevin has a chance to appear during this time, interrupting the mini-game UI for a brief moment.

3rd) Jane delivers the food to the correct clients, with a chance of being touched by the client.

I imagine 2 ways of doing it (I might add both, still undecided):

Longer, more immersive variant - Jane starts by speaking with Kevin, then she manually interacts with each client to take their order. Next, she heads to the kitchen behind the counter where the cooking mini-game UI opens. Finally, she delivers each dish to the client individually.

Shorter, more automated variant - Jane just clicks to instantly teleport and get to the next phase. All three touching events will still take place.

I guess that it's enough reading for one post, so I'll announce more plans in the next one!

After reading all that your question is obvious - how the fuck am I gonna do everything mentioned above in mere 6 months? Well, since I won't be doing animating and most of writing anymore, because I hired people for that, I'll have more time to work on these features. And no, there's no guarantee that I'll add everything in those 6 months, as it's just a plan. It can change, it can expand, it can get delayed, but that's what I'm aiming to add currently and I will try, so please don't take it for granted. Feature order is random, and I didn't mention some basic changes like stats, while some features won't be possible to add until we are done with the other stuff first.

Also, even if only temporarily, I've surpassed the $5k threshold and made it to the top 380 among NSFW developers on Patreon. Either way, the UiTC:R release isn't endangered! Special thanks to the multi-annual pledges that helped me significantly fund the freelancers! Thanks a lot, everyone - you are outstanding!

Cheers!