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December Devlog - A Busy Year
🕑 Added 2024-12-30 03:53:15 +0000 UTCHello again! Since it's the end of the year, this month's devlog will be a little different. Thanks to your support, I've gotten a lot of work done this year and I'd like to revisit some of the highlights and discuss my plans for next year.
First thing's first, however: a Rockin' Resort progress update!
Rockin' Resort
Due to the holidays, I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to work on Rockin' Resort, but I have gotten some notable progress done. The main thing I've been developing is the menu system as well as some fancy transitions.
Menus aren't really anything new and they're still in relatively early development but I'm pretty happy with the progress so far. I was able to reuse a lot of the code from Date a Mink 3D which has given me room to add improvements as well as make everything a bit more modular.
The new transition system is also nothing special but the transitions add-on I used back in The Blind Date Game and Lust Potions broke when I moved to Godot 4, so I've built a replacement that's a bit more specific to my needs. The main feature of this system is that I can specify a loading screen that (hopefully) doesn't freeze and display a progress bar as the scene loads. It's a small flourish but I feel these loading screens should make my games feel a bit more polished.
The last effort I've been working on is the script and art assets needed for the demo. So far, I've written and drawn assets for Coral's introduction but I haven't implemented them quite yet. The full demo is planned out and should be quick to put together once I have all of the assets ready, so I should hopefully have something playable ready early in 2025!
Looking Back - Date a Mink 3D
Most of Date a Mink 3D's development happened in 2023 but it released early this year. I'm still pretty happy with what I released. It's a small project, but it showed that I can pull off the higher quality visuals that I plan for future games without too too much work. I also feel that Eris is fairly well presented and the little narrative I created achieves the casual atmosphere I was after.
As far as problems go, the main issue that I've seen from players is that the game doesn't run on low-end hardware. The game was developed for virtual reality so this shouldn't come as a surprise but I may still develop a compatibility option in the future.
I've also learned a lot from the technical challenges during development. Node-based narrative scripting is a chore to do anything with so I've switched to text-based scripting which has proven to be much much easier and faster. I've also improved a lot on my 3D characters and tools for future games.
Catgirl Care Chibi
Catgirl Care Chibi is largely finished but I would like to go in and polish off the beta with additional outfits, hairstyles, and the like. I'll also probably add basic mod support but I don't really expect modding to take off.
Since this game is fairly small, this will likely be another free release on itch.io once it's complete. I don't think my bank account likes that I'm releasing 2 free games back to back (even with paid extras like soundtracks) but your support here on Patreon should keep me afloat until I can have another paid product available.
The main focus for this project isn't Catgirl Care Chibi itself, of course. Instead, I plan to focus my effort on Catgirl Care proper once Chibi is finished.
Lust Potions on Steam
This was an exciting moment for me as a gamedev. When I started making games with Date a Mink, I never intended to take development seriously enough to release anything on Steam. Now that I've started putting more work into my games, Lust Potions' Steam release feels right.
I'm still not sure if I'll release all my games on Steam but my larger projects like Rockin' Resort and Catgirl Care will definitely release there at some point. Thank you all of you who purchased the game on Steam!
Art in 2024
While I typically only focus on my game development with my devlogs, I'd like to mention that I've made over 300 pictures this year! Now, the number of unique pictures is probably a lot smaller but I've also done a lot panels so we'll just say it evens out I think. This pseudo-comic approach is something I've been working at more since I feel it compliments my art style a lot more than plain pin-ups.
I draw a lot, so this isn't anything especially new but most of my art this year was from commissions and the weekly art poll, so it really was thanks to all of your support that I was able to get this much art done!
Apart from paid work, I have done some additional art - usually of my OCs. The most notable is the introduction of Sabrina and Lobelia who I'm still very happy with. I have a lot of ideas for them, so I hope you'll continue to support me for when I can eventually find time to work on their project (might be a game. maybe.).
Plans for 2025
As fun as 2024 was, I'm far from done with all of my planned projects. I'm fortunate as a creative to have a lot of ideas and the drive to work on them consistently. For this upcoming year, I have a lot of plans and a lot of art to draw!
The main goals currently are to work on Rockin' Resort and Catgirl Care. These projects will take up most of the year and I'm excited to see where they go. Hopefully I can have something for you all to play soon!
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As always, thanks for your support! It's thanks to your support this year that I've been able to continue improving my art and pursue game development. I hope you all will continue to support me into the next year!
