Ch5 dev update 09-22-2024

Happy Sunday! Hope you enjoyed episode Mika that launched last Sunday! If you somehow missed it, it's available for all paid members here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-mika-112083042

This week I've kept busy working on Kasumi's route.

 (Of course, you will see Mika in action more...!)

It's always hard to make these Sunday updates and restrain myself to not spoil too much but safe to say, a lot will happen with Kasumi's rivalry with the Shimada clan.

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Another huge gameplay change: CH5 dates will be handled very differently!

In the past, the 'non-story' dates always happen in random order.

I wasn't veery happy with this as it felt like players could miss out on fun dates - especially when GIFTING will allow you to progress with a girl faster.

So for chapter 5 I wanted the dates to be something you decide.

But the menu choice system looks cluttered if I add more than 4 choices, and it wasn't very visual.

So I came up with a great solution: The Date Map Screen!

When choosing to meet a girl, and you aren't ready to progress with their story yet, you will be presented with this screen.

(video demo, to demonstrate that hovering over a location shows a little explanation and a preview image: https://youtu.be/WMlTJePe7cU )

On this screen, you can freely choose where to take the girl. In order to make it robust I decided to come up with 11 different locations.

I workshopped a lot to make this system function well, to make it look and feel nice. I look forward to hearing your feedback once you get a chance to play it! The background image is a stylized screenshot of Tokyo Bay I grabbed off google earth. I played with the idea of having a full color background but it became very cluttered and ugly. I find that this stylization of the map provides a good balance between accuracy and aesthetics.

As I worked on the concept I came up with the idea that - what if the type of date also awarded affection points depending on where you take the girl? So for example, bringing Kasumi to the Shiba cafe will not be the best match, awarding you 1 point instead of 2 if you take her to the Pub. (However if you do take her to the Shiba cafe you will still learn something new about her)

Some bullet points:

• Get points depending on where you bring the girl!

• Some date locations are accurate to real world places - (Shopping in ginza, Tsukiji fish market, Odaiba)

• Map screen icon will vanish once a date is selected - (can only bring girl to same location once per playthrough)

• Once Icon has vanished, the slot still remains, to give you a visual representation of how many dates you have completed with current girl.

• Each date gives a chance to give a gift.

• You do not need to play every date to advance the story with the girl - you need a certain amount of affection points which will be awarded based on location + gifts.

• Each date will be somewhat lengthy, and will allow you to learn something new about the girl you are bringing.

This evolution of the game will provide a lot of wiggle room for players who like to optimize runs.

Of course, writing 11 dates for each girl will be a bit of a lengthy process. As such it is incredibly hard for me to estimate just how long it will take to finish chapter 5. I am working on the game with every shred of free time I have so hopefully the wait won't be too long!

I hope I covered most of it but I am sure you have questions - Let me know in the comments or you can @ me in the discord in the game discussions.

I still intend to have a playable side story available every month so I hope this can tide you over while you wait for ch5. Next month's side story poll will be up this week for Super tier and above to vote. I will also release the unused art for Episode Mika for all Ultra subs.

Fino's AI workshop is now live!

If you are into tinkering with AI, and want to be a part of the development of more muscle girl models, then check out Fino's patreon page https://www.patreon.com/aiworkshop

Fino is the technician who helped me get the stronggirls AI model made. He has been cooking more muscle models over there for everyone to use to check it out!

You can also join the discussions for his ongoing work in the AI workshop channels on the discord!

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That's it for this weeks post! Have a great Sunday and a fantastic week ahead!

-Jon