July winners + August check-in (Patreon)

Hi! August is here so let's talk.

July vote winners

It's time to tally up July's open vote winners. The top 5 is:

Inde Navarrette

Nina Dobrev

Léa Seydoux

Meghan Markle

Minka kelly

Yanet garcia

Eiza González

Keira Knightley

Cailee Spaeny

Margaret Qualley

Since Nina Dobrev, Meghan Markle and Minka Kelly were already on the list to be added these won't count. Keira and Cailee have the same amount of votes so I'll consider that a tie for fifth and do them both. I feel bad for Margaret just barely missing out a second time and I do love her so she's going in too. So that's seven new girls going on the list (won't mean they're all in the next update necessarily).

August release(???)

Last month I was considering a release very soon and I still aim to do just that. The game is almost ready from a technical standpoint. I've been playtesting a lot and most of it is working well. There will not be a lot of content regarding dates and sex but that will fill in with more updates.

Late august or early september is my goal right now. Playtesting is becoming more and more time-consuming as the game progresses and I still have some kinks to iron out (and some other kinks to add :D).

From there on the idea is that you're all going to play the game and tell me what's still broken! And then I start releasing more frequent updates and hotfixes. That way we can build it together again now that the new mechanical backbone is in place. It's been a long wait but it is almost over.

July's achievements

This past month I've been working on several things. The three businesses are now ready for launch and functioning. It was pretty tough to code but I'm happy with where they're at. There's a simple, cheap option with no managing needed. Then there's a low-priced but closed business you have to fix and open up again alongside a new friend. Once it's opened up it's up to you to grow it back to its potential. And third is a shop that been run well by its prnstar owner. It's expensive but it's ready to earn and upgrade.

I've also been finishing up the new travel mechanics. They are working well now. I had to re-code cars completely and have updated the car roster a little (less options but more details. More options will be added back in later). This in turn meant redoing a lot of mechanics. It's worth it tho. It makes everything more dynamic. Travel can lead to events (meeting celebs in traffic, car breaking down, sexy hitchhikers etc.) and it makes sure you actually have to visit the gas station sometimes to fill up. This keeps everything dynamic, with the goal of eventually having a goal for revisiting each location in the game and actually making it exciting by adding a lot of random events.

I've also been working on items a lot. Buying, using and collecting things should be a fun part of the game. I've added new things to collect and reworked the "keepsakes" you find throughout the story into a more fun and easy setup. I've also added a lot of usables. This ties into what I talked about: giving you a reason to (re)visit locations. You'll run out of groceries, lube, shaving cream or booze or whatever. Then you'll have to travel to another area, maybe find a fun event along the road and go to the store where you interact with the girls there and maybe get another event. It's all meant to make each day unique instead of making players just click through days as soon as possible to grind money and status.

This in turn ties into the new extras system. I've been adding extras and I'm up to around 100 girls for you to meet and hire in the world. Each business has girls tied to it and you'll meet them when you go to the businesses. You can talk to them, ask about things in the store etc. It's basic for now but eventually I want to add more options to build (shallow) relationships with them.

I've also improved the time mechanics. This means you'll actually go through the days, months and years now and it means that later on I can add events based on the date (Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of july etc.). I also have been perfecting how time passes, making sure everything you do takes time so the day progresses more naturally. This will all be very useful in the near future.

Dates and relationships

I'm not gonna lie: I'm still struggling here. I've been postponing and redoing things over and over but I think I settled on a way to make this viable for me. I'm gonna use the archetypes I talked about earlier instead of dynamic personalities (meaning girls will now have 1 archetype instead of being allowed to have multiple personality traits).

Dates are still so complex and overwhelming. I keep running into more variables. Let's take an example I've been working on. When I let the player flirt with the barrista at the coffeeshop, I have to consider so many things. Is he in a relationship with the date? If so, are they monogamous? How sexually open is she? Is she bisexual or not? And if they're not in a relationship yet, is she romantically interested in him or not? And how do I calculate that specifically? There's so much detail in the character sheets now and it's gonna be a lot of fun when it works but a simple flirting scene quickly turns into like 10 different reactions and it quickly becomes messy and complex for me behind the scenes.

This is why I plan to drop with very little options. You'll go on coffee and lunch dates and there'll be a few choices but it's gonna take time to fill in.

That's all!

That's all for now! Thanks for the continued support. It should pay off soon :) May I remind everyone that if your favorite girl didn't make the vote, the $50 tier is still available if you want to make sure your favorite gets in. These girls get priority and will be in the next update for certain.