2023 recap

Much happened  in 2023, some of it you still have to see:

We defined, updated and polished a lot of the initial design ideas that we had, which sometimes is a bit of back and forth as some good ideas don’t work out quite well in practical application. Others then suddenly give great potential for extending them and so forth. Now we have a pretty stable design documentation, a description of the mechanics and a general map throughout the entire game up to its very end. It is time consuming work, but it will enable us to deliver game content at a steady pace once we have all the designs in place and introduced into the game.

To give you a better example of what we are talking about - let’s use Claire’s dream of becoming an actress for a little walktrough how the design and implementation would look like for a new location that is being added to the game:

Conceptualization

For the initial introduction of the location you need to define the repeatable actions that will be possible there, the influence on stats and how it all interacts with the rest of the possible activities.

In addition to that you need the art for location (outside, inside and some additional sets), Characters that you meet there and a definition if their personality, etc.

Polishing/Writing

Once the basic premise is set we need to polish the art, create expressions and potentially different clothing options if required.

For each location you need an “Intro Event”, which defines and describes what happens when Claire get’s there for the very first time. Which usually entails a conversation with some characters, introduction of the options and (if applicable) explanations of some pre-requisites that Claire has to meet.

Once this is done, the basic and repeatable actions have to be defined and wrapped into a bit of narrative as well.

Implementation

Then it all has to be assembled in game code and tested - maybe polished a bit and balanced until it is finally ready to be released in the next update.

Now this is done for every single location that we integrate into the game - whether it is a movie studio, a photo studio, cosplay sessions or a porn studio. Once the basic setup for each new location is done it can be visited each day (at opening hours) and Claire can work there, earn money, etc.

Of course it will not all be repeatable actions - this also allows us to place certain triggered events at locations at defined points of the story (example: Meeting Sofia while exiting the porn studio may lead to some interesting conversations).

The advantage here is that we can always extend on the triggered events and add them to a specific day/time even at a later stage - so this gives us quite some flexibility to expand the story and content. It also means that there is the possibility that you miss some stuff during a playthrough, but that will increase the replay value as you can explore different decisions and paths in a subsequent session.

Current status

Currently we are assembling everything in the code to have a version to test and an update to release in Jan 24. We probably will need to balance and polish the income and expense mechanics over the course of a few updates so it all fits together nicely and we don’t break the economics part of the game - but this is also something where we would value your feedback once we are further down the path.

Outlook 2024

We are committed to give you a good and enjoyable game and a steady flow of updates in the coming year. As in 2023 we will keep up with weekly development upgrades to keep you in the loop and so that you can see the progress that we are making.

We wish you all a happy new year 2024

The City of Dreams Dev Team