Pearly's Salon: Road to 0.5

First of all, big thanks to the supporters for feedbacks on build 0.4 (now at 0.4.03 as of writing this), which is here.

Once I'm satisfied with the current demo, I will make it publicly available and the Mac port as well, hopefully pretty soon

As for what's next, of course I'm still working on the major contents for Pearly's Salon, I have several ideas in mind and tho I did a roadmap of sorts back then, I need to think over to keep the scope realistic with my current ability.

I can talk about what is coming and in active development, that will add more depth to the game,

First of all, the "home"

This is the earlier sketch of it, but it is coming along well.

Pearly's apartment is where some of the other features that player a home, and lot from the original demo build will be carried over here, such as:

- The bed for sleeping to progress or skip time, or other activity,

- The wardrobe/makeup table to customize Pearly's appearance/clothings

- The computer/laptop to view your statistics or other content (such as "DVDs"

- The bathroom where some of Pearly's hair related items are (such as clippers)

- Probably more

So its not just the room above, but other things need to be done as well, I still need to finish Pearly's other layered graphics as they are tied a lot to this.

Another major addition I intend to put back into 0.5 is the hair loot system (imma call it that). As you can see from the sprite (still WIP) above, I'm want to reimplement the hair drop on the floor after finishing your shift, the types and amount depends how much you cut, which Pearly can sweep and collected into your storage.

As the image suggested, I also intended to bring a variety of hair color, some natural and a system to dye hair in different colors.

This also means I need to work that into the code extensively so that it can work something like this:

- Client with black hair wanted to have her hair cut and dyed red, so red dye alone can be used. Hair that was cut before dyeing will drop as black hair "loot", but if the hair is dyed first before cutting, it will drop as the red "hair" loot.

- Another Client wanted to have her hair dyed BRIGHT green, so player will have to use hair bleach first, then wash it off with shampoo (skipping this process could "damage" the hair), then proceed to use the green dye to achieve this effect. If the original hair is already light (such as blonde), perhaps bleach may not be needed.

- Another scenario, a blonde client would want her hair dyed black, but with her bangs dyed bright blue, so player can dye one segment of hair differently.

- several more idea, but some I will keep in the dark for now.

Also that stonks image I placed there, is a callback for an idea that I wanted to put in long ago, the "hair trade" system, which is tied to that system of collecting hair loots.

For example, on some day or week, the market will demand hair of certain types or color, which increases the value of it, so selling it during that time will be very valueable.

There is also another system tied to that, but Im still mulling over it, but it is to prevent hoarding as much hair as possible.

Another little thing Im working on is redoing the assets for the game such as the toolsets, to harmonize the graphics style of the UI, bit by bit.

I'm also planning to add more tools, but it will take some time because I need to make sure the code for everything is not a major mess first.

These are things I'm actively working on for the next major update, a foundation that needed to be done before I can start working on story episodes, salon progression and special clients.

Hopefully development wont be hindered as much like last year's, I'm wary of my ability but I am confident I could, thanks to your support.

Till the next Pearly's Salon blog then.