Hey lads!

It looks like we’ve gone from biweekly posts to monthly updates... When I’m really busy, I tend to neglect all social media, and right now, I’m trying to move mountains to release the demo of the remastered version (Unaware in The City: Revisited) by the end of this year. So I apologize for being less talkative lately, but I’m afraid that’s going to stay the case for a while longer. If you have any questions and need them answered ASAP, I strongly advise you to join my Discord, as I’m more accessible there most of the time, and others should be able to help as well.
Discord link: https://discord.gg/qmuBF7pdZv

This is my first time posting on Steam, but since I manage all social media myself, I’m not going to write different posts for each platform. Writing these posts and adjusting them accordingly is already pretty bothersome and time-consuming, so please bear with me.

With the recent beta release of v38b on Patreon/SubscribeStar, it looks like the game-breaking bugs have been fixed, so you should expect a release in the first half of September.

Here are some NSFW sneakpeaks of the new v38 content: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MrxgOOriev4zbji_p9kOXAuDDYSHdlhs?usp=drive_link

The v39 beta will also be released on Patreon/SubscribeStar in the first half of September, and it will expand the hobo stress relief scene with vaginal and anal sex. It will also add another event where a hobo, who has lost his wife, is comforted by Jane with multiple choices. I want to put more emphasis on dialogue choices in the upcoming remaster in a similar manner. While v39 will focus on the hobos, it will be the last update centered on them. With v40, I will shift focus to different events. For Steam, I also plan to add Steam Deck and Steam Cloud compatibility in v39.

Now, let’s get to August’s progress on UiTC:R.

With my second child arriving in early August, I’ve once again forgotten what sleep feels like... The summer heat (which I absolutely despise, as I’m a fan of cold weather) and the lack of air conditioning at home have made my daily life pure hell. As I’m writing this, it’s 28°C (82°F) in my home... So my productivity has dropped a bit. But!

Mainly, I’ve been working on integrating the Spine animation tool into the game, character customization, working on core aspects of the game, mini-games (mostly for Kevin’s Diner), overall game design and mechanics, syncing the game’s database with Google Sheets, and learning a new UI tool. So, it’s been a busy month, and as you know, I'm the guy who works on multiple things simultaneously to keep myself entertained and to prevent from burning out. As always, it’s a challenge to wrap all this up into one post for multiple platforms, especially when some allow NSFW content and others don’t...

Since I can't directly post movies, here's a link to all of them: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1H1d-XGuHv-ewyfHYEfbvZQh_5HXhMdfW?usp=drive_link

For now, we only have a 3/4 front view, but in the near future, we’ll also add side and 3/4 back views. However, that's not a priority at the moment. Our focus is on setting up the game logic and mechanics to ensure the core features, like animations, the clothing system, and integrating Spine with the dialogue tool, work correctly. Once those are in place, we’ll add the missing views and ensure they function seamlessly.

Body customization will be taken to another level, with around 20 options (not including the face), such as the length and width of arms, forearms, stomach, legs, and the size of breasts and butt, among others. Breast size can range from very small to really huge. Both female and male characters will use similar customization options, so you’ll get to see a wide variety of body types in the game. Check out the linked video, as there’s also an updated character creation window.

Facial expressions are now fully animated and use transitions, making them look much more fluid. The overall number of female expressions will be expanded, and male expressions will be added, so no more NPCs will have the same expressions throughout entire scenes.

I had planned to release a simple character creator for my patrons in August so you could see for yourself how powerful the body customization currently is, but my character artist had to deal with some personal matters, so we haven’t finished it yet. Sorry about that.

Performance-wise, it’s also working really well so far. With 20 walking characters continuously randomizing their bodies, I managed to stress my i9-14900K to 15% and my RTX 4070 to 20%. This is without much optimization yet and with multiple features still missing, but it shouldn’t get much worse once released. I doubt you’ll encounter situations with that many characters at once. Overall, I’m pretty happy with what we’ve achieved so far. Keep in mind that the game will run on Android, so it needs to be optimized to run smoothly.

I’m also adding a mini-game to Kevin’s Diner. The mechanics for changing dishes and placing ingredients, with detection for placement and coverage, are working. The concept is inspired by the game Good Pizza, Great Pizza, but I’m not trying to recreate their entire game. Instead, Jane will take orders, prepare the dishes, and deliver them, all while being touched by the clients and Kevin. She’ll see the order details and aim to get the correct amount of each ingredient (e.g., 40% salami, 20% onion). The closer she is to meeting the client's demands, the happier they’ll be, while Kevin will get annoyed with every ingredient placed. She’ll have limited time before her shift ends. Placing ingredients on top of each other won’t please the clients and will waste ingredients. Her total evaluation will depend on the number of dishes cooked, client happiness, and Kevin’s level of annoyance. Getting a raise will trigger harder orders, with difficulty further adjusted by Jane’s stats, perks, and skills. And yes, the mini-game is fully optional!

We are also working on merging locations to make them larger, eliminating the need for loading screens. And don’t worry about having to do "more walking" as fast travel will be added within locations, allowing you to go from the western part of the main street to the eastern part with a single click on the corresponding map icon. There will be small details like moving cars, walking pedestrians, and movies at the cinema that change every week.

I’ve synced the game’s database with Google Sheets, which should make working on the game faster and easier. I've already synced some data, but there’s still a lot to adjust and sync, so it will take some time before everything is fully set up. However, it’s working well so far - it’s fast, more readable, and that’s great.

Some of you might remember the constant BSODs I was getting while trying to release updates. The culprit turned out to be my Intel i9-14900K, but the recent BIOS update finally fixed the issue. Better late than never, as I was already going mad.

And here are some more plans for upcoming features:

Exhibitionism mini-game - This is probably the most challenging feature/mini-game to develop so far, as it requires me to override default gameplay mechanics and dialogues. In this mini-game, Jane will need to initiate Exhibitionism Mode, which will lock her into a specific location (e.g., only Main Street or only Park). For example, Jane might start the exhibitionism mini-game by clicking on the toilet seat in the park's female restroom. This will cause time to flow passively (still only outside of dialogues). The objective of the mini-game is for Jane to avoid being seen by NPCs while performing acts of exhibitionism. There will be two gauges: Excitement and Stress. The excitement gauge will start filling up as Jane performs acts of exhibitionism, filling up faster when the situation is more dangerous, such as when she is close to NPCs. Meanwhile, the stress gauge will gradually accumulate over time (acting as a time limiter), but if someone gets too close or notices her, her stress will skyrocket much faster than her excitement. If the excitement gauge fills up first, Jane wins and is rewarded. However, if the stress gauge fills up first, Jane will return to the toilet, ending the event and giving her a "stressed" debuff. By default, this can be performed once per day, but like everything in the game, it can be altered with skills, perks, clothes, and so on. The mini-game will have several stages. The first stage might involve flashing underwear, like lifting a skirt. Later stages could involve masturbating or walking naked. As Jane becomes more skilled, it will become harder to excite her, so flashing underwear might not be enough in the later stages, requiring bolder actions (e.g., day vs night, main street vs park).

Each location will be a different "mission" with varying difficulty levels and different NPCs (e.g., rich people, homeless people). NPCs might play with their phones and ignore Jane, randomly turn and walk around, or if they notice Jane doing something lewd, they might react with shock or even try to "help" her out. The course of the mini-game will vary based on the chosen stage. There will actually be two different mini-games. Flashing underwear wouldn’t make sense when Jane is naked, so the second mini-game will involve getting from point A to point B while in underwear or naked. However, this is something for the more distant future, and I’ll fine-tune it later. This mini-game is almost like its own separate game, so it will take "a while" to complete. Early builds will likely include only the park location and 1-2 stages at best. By the way, the park will be a much longer location.

Upgradable home - In the earlier stages of development, I had plans to include multiple living options for Jane, but since the 3 flatmates form a significant part of the gameplay, everyone will likely want access to the flat at some point. Despite resigning from multiple permanent flat options, Jane will still be able to rent a room in a hotel, sleep with the homeless, crash on a park bench, or stay in various other places. There will also be an option to buy the flat from Albert. Since Albert's flat is a core aspect of the game, I've decided to make it upgradeable and customizable to some extent.

Please don't think of it as The Sims, with multiple furniture options to choose from and the ability to move them around. It won't be anything like that. It will be pretty simple - Jane will move into a somewhat neglected flat with low-quality or broken/missing furniture, and she’ll have the option to spend money on buying and upgrading them. These upgrades won’t be mandatory to play but will make gameplay easier; for instance, a better bed will reduce the required sleep or increase the benefits from the well-rested buff.

Furniture will likely have 2-3 upgrade levels, depending on the type, as I don’t want to make this a huge or overly complicated feature. For example, there will be options like adding locks to doors to prevent break-ins from burglars or Rick, getting decor to passively boost stats, or upgrading the kitchen to make cooking easier. I’m also putting more emphasis on the flatmates - since Ben is a handyman, he’ll make repairs easier. Rick is a rich and spoiled brat, so he will help with buying new furniture. The third flatmate, Rachel, will make these upgrades and their buffs stronger. Having to repair or buy furniture would also lead to bonus events, like calling a plumber, etc.

The idea is to put more emphasis on RPG elements & make money more significant. Since we already need to make multiple edits to the art due to the merging of locations, this is the perfect time to add this feature. Otherwise, we’ll end up with a lot of extra work if we decide to do it later.

Albert suspicion mini-game - Since "criminal" playthroughs will be available, one of the ideas is to let Jane break into Albert's flat and stay there instead of renting it, leading to the Albert suspicion mini-game. Essentially, every time Jane does something in the flat, it increases the suspicion meter. It also rises for every hour she spends at home (as she leaves evidence behind). The higher the suspicion meter, the more frequently Albert will visit the flat to check if anything is out of order. To reduce suspicion, Jane would need to clean the house or simply stay out of it, causing suspicion to drop over time.

When Albert visits, Jane will have a few seconds (depending on the current suspicion level and her skills) to hide by quickly clicking on the appropriate furniture, like a wardrobe. The exact form of the hiding mini-game is still undecided. Options include manually moving around the flat, clicking on one or multiple pieces of furniture to increase the chance of hiding, or simply using a UI where you must quickly select the correct option.

If Albert catches her, an event will trigger based on Jane's choices, which could lead to a sex scene or even jail time. Additionally, she either won’t be able to upgrade the flat or get flatmates this way, or she will be able to but at the cost of greatly increased suspicion, requiring her to work much harder to reduce it (living a crazy life). This feature has a low priority and might not appear in the game anytime soon, if at all.

Regarding the pricing, versions, cheats, and overall business model of the upcoming remaster - I have no idea yet. Right now, I’m completely focused on releasing a playable demo in December, and I’ll figure out the rest afterward. The general idea is that I won’t be increasing the prices on Patreon/SubscribeStar, though the tiers might change. I’m not sure how things will look on itch, but everyone who bought my game there will definitely get a free upgrade to the remastered version. As for Steam, I’ve only just released my first game there, so it’s still the most enigmatic platform for me. I can’t say much at the moment, but I do plan to release the remaster on Steam as well. Since I released the first game for less than $1, the remaster definitely won’t be a free upgrade. And yes, UiTC:R will also have a free public version.

Cheers!