Looking for play testers! Also, the weekly devlog!
Added 2019-04-24 23:08:36 +0000 UTC
Hi all! I hope you're doing well. I wanted to start by saying I just made a release yesterday and I'm looking for play testers to give me feedback. If you'd like to try the game, write a comment here or send me a PM. You can also ask me on discord (my preferred form of communication): https://discord.gg/kpEFKft
Here are the two major things I added this week: The catalog and the integrated tutorial.
Catalog: Every day, you get a random list of equipment you can buy. Each piece of equipment is associated with a need. So normally, with Mia's "Play with me" need, you have to click on her and type in the series of actions to complete the task. But, if you buy the equipment for this need, all you have to do is click on her and then you get the rewards.
Here's a GIF of it in action:

See how the icon is a little gear and no dialog popped up?
Integrated Tutorial: I got a lot of requests for this. Plus, a lot of people would completely skip the non-integrated tutorial, start playing, then tell me they were confused for a few in-game days until they figured it out. I realized learning how to add a tutorial to the game will help me in other areas, because the tutorial library is the same I'll be using for the actual story, so what the hell?
Of course, I made it a little rude and some may not like that, especially because it looks like I'm saying the rude things. In future versions, it'll be Eva saying these things so I don't think it'll have as much of a bite to it. I hope most people like this kind of humor.
Here's an additional GIF of the tutorial:

Before I get into the devlog, I wanted to let you all know I experimented this week by slicing my work into really small pieces. I'm talking really small. I decided I prefer to work this way because it makes me feel like I'm making a lot of progress when I can complete 10 things in a day instead of 3, but more importantly, I think it actually does make me more productive. When all I have to do is add a label, there's no need to think about anything else but that. When the task is large, I usually have to consider multiple things before it's done. In other words, the smaller the task, the more I can focus.
- Save the version number in the repository data instead of in the player prefs name - This is a technical detail, but at a high level, this'll make it easier to make saves backwards compatible in the future.
- The catalog doesn't have need titles, it has equipment descriptions - In other words, catalog equipment has its own name.
- Upgrade unity (then undo) - Ah... OK so, I'm using Unity's preview animation library and it's caused a lot of problems. This isn't Unity's fault, it's mine because I decided to use a tool that isn't production ready. I tried to upgrade Unity and it failed because I'm using this library, and I had to undo my upgrade. The good news is I'm going to replace this library with another animation tool called Spine which I've already purchased. I think in a few days all the animation code should be replaced and that'll mean that all the characters in the game can have wardrobe systems!
- Needs should know which character they're associated with - I wanted to say, "This equipment automates Mia's "Play with me," need, but in my code, I didn't know who the "Play with me" need was associated with.
- The catalog should have an explanation label. e.g., "Automates X's Y"
- The catalog items have a buy button
- You can buy something from the catalog, and once you own it, it says purchased
- When you buy something from the catalog, it stays there when you load the game
- When you revisit the catalog page, purchased items are still purchased
- The buy button says how much the catalog item costs
- You can't buy a catalog item unless you have the proper funds
- When you buy catalog items, your funds are subtracted - Hopefully the above is self explanatory. Here's how the catalog looks (Placeholder art!):

- Create an "automated" icon - This was just about adding the art that you can see in the GIF above.
- Create an "Automated" popup like the Need popup but with a different icon - This is about using the art.
- If you own a catalog item and that automatic need is chosen, the automatic need icon pops up
- Find a better sound for when you highlight a character - Heh, little tangent here: Someone told me that the sound for when you highlight a character is really annoying, so I found a replacement. Unfortunately, today someone told me the same thing, so I guess I gotta replace the replacement :T
- If you click on an automatic need, you instantly get the reward without a dialog popping up
- You wait only 5 seconds before the level's first need appears - When the game started, you used to wait 8 seconds or so before the first need popped up, and when the game started it was like, "Uh... what am I supposed to do?" for 8 seconds. That's not a good feeling, so my dumbass reduced it to 5. Of course, 5 seconds of "Uh... what am I supposed to do?" isn't much better.
- There is less time between an automated need and the next need. - There's probably too much time between needs as it is, and if you immediately get a rewards from clicking on an automated need, that time between it and the next one will feel even longer. That's why I made it so that once an automated need pops up, the next need will pop up even quicker than usual.
- Put a label on the catalog page explaining that equipment breaks randomly
- Equipment should keep track of how many times it is used
- Equipment should degrade so it doesn't last forever. Randomly weighted - Right, so, I don't want the equipment to last forever, otherwise you could buy all of it and then the game just becomes "click when there's a popup," and nothing else. That's why I have to make it break randomly. I didn't want to be a dick, so it's randomly weighted so it feels fair most of the time. The equipment will never break on the first 5 uses, either.
- Weight catalog item randomness so there's at least one that you own. - The list of catalog items you can own is random from the pool of any need you could buy, but I thought it would be kind of lame if day after day, you could only buy equipment for needs you DON'T own. That's why I ensure that every day, there's at least one kind of equipment that will help you next level.
- Enable catalog after 3rd day - Yay this is cool. Because I now have enough in-game content, I can actually unlock gameplay elements progressively.
- Add convenience code that always enables the catalog, regardless of what day it is. - This is just for my convenience. I didn't want to have to play the game for 3 days to try out the catalog, so for me only, the catalog is always unlocked. Sorry other people. You'll have to work for it :P
- If you've never visited the catalog, the catalog button shakes so that people notice it - Funny, I noticed today this was not enough for people to notice. I'll have to make it even more noticeable.
- When the first need pops up, have a tutorial dialog box pop up
- When the tutorial dialog box is visible, the game (clock, needs) do not progress
- When the tutorial dialog box is visible, clicking on a selection has no effect
- The tutorial should explain how to click on characters
- When the dialog opens, explain how to play
- If you haven't seen the dialog tutorial, it's hardcoded to go to Mia first
- The tutorial should mention Mia and her dialog specifically - My game is pretty random, and I was hoping I could get away with a tutorial that's generic enough to make sense regardless of who gets the need first, but I quickly realized that it is far more helpful to explain the game in terms of what's actually on the screen. Therefore, I force the first need to be Mia's so I can refer to her specific need and what to do for her.
- When you press A in the dialog tutorial, move on to the next tutorial
- Bug: The key stays held down after you press A in the tutorial
- speed up tutorial dialog text - I didn't like how slow the text of the tutorial is by default, so I sped it up. The gif at the top of this post is before I sped it up, though.
- Have a tutorial that teaches them what happens when they press the wrong thing
- When maintenance pops up for the first time, explain it.
- Change maintenance failure text to say x needs, not actions
- Remove the old tutorial
- Rename the tutorial scene to the StartMenu scene
- Rename the old tutorial script to StartMenu
- Reduce the time for the first need of a level even more - Hah, yeah, well I got feedback today that it's STILL too much time, even though it now shows up after 3 seconds. I guess I'll make the tutorial pop up after 1.5.
- Add rule to discord to say trans instead of trap, shemale, etc. - I don't think a lot of people are aware that shemale, trap, etc. is often considered a slur, so I added a rule to not use these terms or any racial slurs.
Phew, and that should do it! Remember, I'm looking for play testers so if you're interested in helping to improve the game, let me know and I'll send you a link!