Course of Temptation Dev Diary #133 (Patreon)

Greetings! I hope everyone has had a good week. It's time for another dev diary!

We are currently on version 0.8.2j. And we're just a few days out from early access, which will contain some more fixes, plus everything we've been working on this month.

This week, I first spent time writing the roommate events I had outlined. Most of them are sort of baseline events, covering things your roommate might be doing and sometimes giving an opportunity to join them — like watching a movie, watching a streamer, playing video games, and that sort of thing. As I mentioned last week, while having a roommate should come with some annoyances, it should have some benefits too, and these mostly take the form of easy need boosts.

I also heavily expanded the roommate-in-the-shower event so it's now a fairly large branching event depending on the exact circumstances. I'll do a second pass on roommate events — probably not before early access is due, but definitely before public release — with a focus on exhibitionist/voyeuristic type events and other erotic stuff.

I was also glad to see that you all mostly liked the idea of housework and chores as another lever to pull when it comes to roommate dynamics. Thank you for giving your feedback! I'll be working on that as part of continuing to expand the roommate event set.

After writing those events, I then wrote a whole bunch of code to determine whether NPCs want to become your roommate, handle moving them in and assigning them a bedroom (are they a partner who will share your bedroom? or is another roommate a partner of theirs and they can share their bedroom? or will they need their own bedroom? etc.), and reshuffling roommates in case circumstances and relationships change. Previously, only romantic partners would give you access to their housing, and that system is still in place, but now you can ask romantic partners as well as good friends to move into your apartment or suite, and as long as the circumstances are right, they'll agree.

Adding roommate(s) means they take on an equal share of the rent, which makes the larger apartments and suites much more affordable. And, speaking of levers for roommate dynamics, a friend or partner owing you rent certainly is one:

That particular branch is in progress and I'll expand on it a little more, but I do read the comments, and I saw what you wanted, so there you go! Currently, that mostly applies to more submissive roommates — other roommates will typically just hand over the money, though if they don't have much cash, occasionally they will genuinely need to ask for a break.

So, that's where I am for now! My checklist for the remainder of the time I have for this update is basically:

Expand on roommate events

Implement chores

Implement NPC decor so they can personalize their bedrooms

I've also got some contributions to integrate: Rfpnj is expanding on food selection here and there and more clearly labeling vegan foods, noonycurt is adding in some secondary physique effects from diet, exercise, and pregnancy, and CGeorge is doing a QoL pass on clothing styles, taking the guesswork out of how an outfit will be perceived. Please look forward to it!

You'll hear from me again on Monday with early access and our changelog so far. Until then, I hope you have a great weekend, and as always, thank you for your support, it really means a lot!