Alpha 0.7d update is released on Steam Early Access. Most of my time is taken now by making assets for a new location, but it can be released only when that location is finished, which still will take a while. That’s why all the recent updates were small and didn’t have any new major features. Major updates are coming in Alpha 0.8 (in 1~2 months, hopefully), but until then I’m trying to add at least some new things to play with. Here is what is new in Alpha 0.7d update:

☆ New equipment slot

The last empty equipment slot is now put in use. The new slot can be used to wear a second bracelet on the other arm. There are also two new bracelets you can buy and wear.

☆ New clothes and accessories

• Black socks and black highs socks (Fashion Store).
• Wooden beads bracelet and plastic beads bracelet (Fashion Store).

☆ Dynamic personality

One of long-term development goals is implementing girlfriend’s dynamic personality, which will allow her skills and likes/dislikes to gradually evolve throughout the gameplay depending on your actions.

Right now it works for music skill/interest. After starting a new game, your girlfriend’s music interest will be set ranging from 0% to 100%. This skill directly affects her performance on piano. If you get good total piano score (over 80%), her skill will increase. If you get bad piano score, her skill will decrease. Also, if her interest is above 50%, she will talk about music in dating dialogues, and if her interest drops under 50%, she will stop talking about it.

All personality changes are now announced by a new “skill” notification icon appearing in the right part of the screen after completing any activity affecting girlfriend’s skills.

☆ Improved personality builder

Now the girls will have more consistent personalities due to linked interests mechanics (this will work only if you start a new game, it won’t work if you load a saved game from previous version).

How it worked in the past: every personality detail was random, so your girlfriend could be interested in shopping, but not liking money at the same time, which didn’t make much sense.

How it works now: if your girlfriend is interested in shopping, she will always like money at the same time (and vice-versa: if she is not into shopping, she won’t care about money either).

A list of all linked topics thus far (it will be expanded in the future when new topics are added):

• money – shopping;
• sports – tomboy;
• astrology – destiny;

☆ Other additions and improvements

• Now you have an option of skipping a day without a date (penalty: -10 relationship score). This was added to prevent possibility of being stuck without money (when you can’t have a date without feeding your girlfriend first, and don’t have money to buy food).
• Default apartment computer in your room is now replaced with a new mini-computer (if you start a new game). I’m planning to make these computers usable in the future, but for now they are used only for decoration.
• All kitchen utensils and the the recipe book now can be bought in the convenience store.
• Improved UV maps for legs to fix small mipmap artifacts that were occasionally visible on panties and socks if you zoomed camera out to maximum distance.
• 18:9 and wider screens now have more accurate gui scaling in 18:9 fixed aspect ratio mode.
• Small redesigns in the title menu.

☆ Translations

All translations are updated according to the wiki.

Free demo version for Windows & MacOS is updated to version 0.5 and now has numerous new features and fixes, including all the recent cosplay outfits, new sky, and selfies. Download links are in the sidebar menu on the right.

Alpha 0.7b update is released on Steam Early Access. Here is what is new in this update:

☆ Swing

Next to the Neko Cafe now there is a mini-playground with a swing. If you date a girl she will swing on her own, and if you date a pillow you can just place it on the second seat. The swing will be a part of a larger playground area in a different location, but since it will be quite a while as yet before that new location is released, I added the swing to the school map for now.

☆ Rain

Now every day there is a 50% chance of rain, which will last for several minutes. The rain will prevent you from having outdoor dating activities unless you give an umbrella to your girlfriend. More weather effects (and, hopefully, dynamic day/night cycles – which are in research/experimenting stage now) are planned for future updates.

☆ New hair style

• One additional hair style and a new hair color are available in the beauty salon.

☆ Other additions and improvements

• Configuration dialogue for screen resolution settings now has game logo.
• In addition to fixed 16:9 aspect ratio now there is an option (in the in-game smartphone) to set fixed 18:9 aspect ratio. This can be useful for ultra-wide screens (20:9, 22:9, etc.), since more screen space will be used for the game. Screens wider than 18:9 can be used only with fixed aspect ratio, for all other screens you can set aspect ratio to “free” and the game will adjust UI accordingly.
• In phone settings menu now there is a new setting for adjusting mouse wheel scroll speed. Depending on your OS and mouse this speed can be different, so this setting is useful for adjusting scroll speed.
• “Hidden recipes” are removed – now you can see full recipes for all food in your recipe book. Unlocking full recipes by trying to put random ingredients wasn’t as interesting as I originally thought it would be, and resulted in people mostly ignoring the cooking feature and using cafe instead. That’s why hidden recipes are removed for now.
• Fixed an issue with water refractions not working on Windows 7/8/10 (DirectX 11 issue). Now you (hopefully) will see correct water distortions in the school pool and in the shrine pool.
• Fixed a minor issue with incorrect camera placement that happened if you used quick camera mode in places with fixed camera view.
• Fixed an issue with coloring of certain clothes and items with multiple materials that happened if you used color umbrellas.
• Fixed a bug that happened if you opened your pillow’s status window while sitting.
• All bushes in the school are replaced with new models.
• All texts in the girlfriend’s status window now will be displayed correctly for chosen language (depending on whether they were translated in the wiki by contributors).
• Fixed several small animation issues.
• Fixed several minor collision issues that happened if you attempted to push your girlfriend while she was performing sitting animations.
• More accurate attaching of cosplay tails.
• Better textures for cosplay tennis shoes with red stripes.

☆ Translations

All translations are updated according to the game wiki.

☆ Alpha 0.7c hotfix (April 5, 2018)

There was a significant bug in the 0.7b release disabling AI of your girlfriend if you turned off “selfie mode” by using “Q” keyboard key. This bug if fixed in 0.7c update.

A small preview of the new weather & rain system for Shoujo City. This feature is still being worked on and will be added in one of future updates.

As it was mentioned many times already on this website and on Youtube, the 3D version of Shoujo City for iOS and Android is planned for release later this year, and today I started some preliminary testing with building and running it on iOS. From the very beginning the game was designed to be fully cross-platform compatible between PCs and devices with touch controls, so a lot of things are working already (most of user interface, movement, mini-games), while some others still need work:

• camera controls, which don’t work at all right now.
• remaking some shaders.
• changing settings and testing all game textures which should have different compression options for iOS.
• testing and optimizing performance for all scenes and all gameplay elements (this will take the most time and may require remaking various game scripts and scenes).

I hope to get all of this done and prepare the game for publishing on App Store within one-two months, unless I encounter some issues. I’ll keep posting updates about progress with iOS version on this website and Youtube/Twitter channels whenever I have something to report.

As to Android version, it may require a lot more time due to abundance of various devices from different vendors, each coming with its own modification of Android OS, so there are no set schedules for it for the time being.

BTW, the iPad you can see on the photo above was bought two days ago with money I got from App Store thanks to people who decided to support the future development of this project and bought “Master Key” in the 2D version of the game. Every single cent I get from App Store/Google Play (and, since this year, Steam) will be a direct investment into the future of Shoujo City. This project has made a huge progress already since 2015, and it will keep evolving and getting better – as long as there are people who like and want to support it.

This is a very small update, and it’s released mostly to fix a memory leak issue that existed in previous release. But it also has a new selfie feature.

☆ Selfies

Now you can take selfies using in-game smartphone. After clicking on front camera button, your girlfriend will walk towards you for a photo (unless you stay too close to some obstacle). You can also take selfies with a pillow (in pillow dating mode) or with items in hands (e.g., ice-cream).

Right now photos are not used for any purpose, but in the future it will be possible to print them to use as wall posters (or collect in albums). Taking photos with your girlfriend also will be used as one of dating activities in certain locations.

☆ Other additions and improvements

• Fixed a memory leak issue while using in-game smartphone.
• Fixed a bug that prevented closing girlfriend’s inventory in crawling mode.
• Fixed a few minor issues that happened if you managed to get arrested while swimming in the pool, eating in the cafe, playing piano, crawling (there were a few variables not cleared correctly).
• More accurate eye tracking of targets for all characters.

Alpha 0.7 update is released on Steam Early Access. Here is what was added in this release:

☆ Cosplay gestures

Now if you put certain cosplay hats or accessories on your girlfriend’s head, she will perform small cosplay gestures when you talk to her (instead of regular “Please take good care of me” message). Right now these gestures are working for these cosplay items:

• military caps (A and B).
• cat ears (black and white).

☆ Improved pocky game

The pocky game now has an additional effect of swirling sakura petals (if you reach stage 6). Also, it can be played both while standing or sitting on the ground. If you date a girl, she will choose to play it while standing or sitting depending on whether she has “cute” or “sexy” as a part of her personality. If you date a pillow, you can choose it by yourself.

☆ New sky and clouds

Now there is much better looking sky in all locations.

☆ Redesign of the Shinto shrine map

The map is extended and now has a small lake and a wooden bridge across it. “Sacred rock” is replaced with a new sacred tree. Now you can pull the rope in front of the main shrine building to ring a bell attached to it (this is one of actions traditionally performed by worshippers at a Shinto shrine).

☆ New clothes and accessories

• green school jacket.
• 2 military uniforms for cosplay, both consisting of caps, jackets, and skirts (Fashion Store).
• 8 panties (capsule machines in front of the Fashion Store).

☆ Other additions and improvements

• Convenience store in the school map is redesigned and decreased in size.
• Now the game interface will scale correctly for screens with 4:3 and 18:9 aspect ratios without using enforced 16:9 ratio with black bars on sides.
• Improved and more responsive controls for both “direction” and “rotate” movement modes.
• “Item zoom” feature is changed: now instead of clicking on items on racks you can view items in 3D mode directly from your inventory by clicking on them. All items that have “3D view” feature enabled now have an additional “3D” mark in inventory. The original idea of placing items in racks to be able to view them in 3D was unnecessarily complex and confusing to players, so I’m trying to make this feature simpler and more logical.
• More accurate camera rotation and controls while taking photos with smartphone camera.
• Fixed a minor bug that occasionally prevented starting kissing-mini game if you took off your girlfriend’s shoes.
• Better performance for pool water physics, more stable buoyancy. “Placing pillow on swim ring” mechanic is temporarily removed, since it still needs further work.
• Improved arms animation for eating from table.
• More accurate collider for crawling mode.
• Fixed a minor bug with incorrect scaling of pillow when you placed it on chairs.
• Improved meshes and weight painting for school dresses, t-shirts, fuku, mini-skirts, ponytail hairstyle (there were a few issues with animations).
• Camera rotation and moving items in inventory now can be done with both left and right mouse buttons.
• Omelette recipe is changed to classic Japanese “tamagoyaki” omelette.
• Various small fixes for camera movement and transitions.
• Fixed issue with “relationship level required” messages on girlfriend’s clothes showing incorrect values.

☆ Translations

All translations are updated according to the game wiki.

A new revision of the pocky game now has swirling sakura petals (if you reach stage 7), and can be played both while sitting on the ground and standing. This will be one of new features added in next game build.

This update is available in both Steam and Free versions of the game
(Steam update is 0.6a and Free update is 0.4.c)

☆ Swimming pool

Now you can swim with your girlfriend in the school pool. The pool comes with new shaders, wave and floating simulation physics. In dakimakura dating mode you can place your pillow on a swimming ring or on inflatable dolphin and then swim with her.

Before going to the pool you can buy new school swimsuits in the Fashion Store.

There is a new option in the in-game smartphone to disable water physics (can be useful for older hardware).

The pool is not used for any dating activities as yet, but implementing swimming animations and water physics is an important preparation step towards future beach location (which is planned for summer 2018).

☆ Other additions and improvements

• A new script for in-game smartphone camera functionality – there was a long running issue causing various graphics problems with displaying sky, glass, foliage, etc. in the smartphone camera. Now this issue is (hopefully) resolved.
• Fixed GUI scaling for screens wider than 16:9 (e.g., 18:9) with “forced 16:9” aspect ratio option enabled – now the game will scale correctly for such screens.
• All looping animations are improved (better transitions between looping cycles).
• Semi-transparent materials for accessories (bows and umbrellas) are replaced with opaque ones due to camera z-sorting issues for transparent materials.
• Fixed the bug with some variables not being cleared on level transitions.
• Numerous small fixes for game physics, including the issue with speed increase for diagonal key directions (now the speed is the same in all directions).

☆ Translations

All translations are updated according to the game wiki.

While working on the piano feature, I had some time to think more on how girlfriend’s personality should work in the game. Here are all my ideas thus far, something like “development roadmap” for building girlfriend’s personality in the future.

In addition to conversation topics, some aspects of girlfriend’s personality will be determined by parameters ranging from 0% to 100%, linked to conversation topics. Range from 0% to 100% will mean girl’s interest and/or skill in some particular area. If her interest is above 50%, it will also appear as a conversation topic in her dialogues. Depending on particular activity, % of interest/skill will directly affect that activity (uniquely for every activity).

Music parameter example: interest from 0% to 100% will affect how good your girl performs on piano. Every time you get good score from piano mini-game, her interest will grow by a few percent, until reaching 100%, when she will always play with 100% accuracy. On the other hand, if you fail at the piano mini-game, her interest will go down, possibly reaching 0%.

This can be used to gradually change personality of your girl throughout the game: if in the beginning you got a girl who doesn’t like music, but you want to get a music-loving girl, you can repeatedly use piano as a dating activity to increase her interest for music – and since she will be bad at it in the beginning, you’ll have to play the more difficult parts by yourself. Later in the game, when your girlfriend’s skill increases, you can use it to get top scores from piano dating by letting her play the more difficult parts.

Shopping + money parameter example: interest ranging from 0% to 100% will affect how often your girl demands new clothes, or expects you to give expensive gifts to her. If you do both, her interest will grow, resulting in her being more demanding. If you don’t buy her clothes and gifts often, her interest will decrease. Increased money interest could have some bonus, e.g., the girl helping you to catch squirrels, while decreased money interest could have some negative effect (e.g., no relationship points from receiving expensive gifts). Choosing to eat in cafe instead of cooking at home could also increase “money” interest (since your girl will think you are rich and like to spend money).

Cooking parameter example: if your girl has high cooking skills, she will help you to cook by saying what optional ingredients you need for unlocking full recipes (or maybe even cooking instead of you?) If you eat at cafes, her cooking skills will decrease, and if you cook at home, they will increase.

Additionally, increasing interest/skill for all these activities can be achieved by dating in specific places (e.g., dating in the Shinto location will increase her “Shinto” topic interest), or giving your girl specific gifts (e.g., giving her a basket ball will increase “sports” topic interest).

Some interests will be linked, so increasing one stat will also increase some other (e.g., “shopping” will affect “money”), or decrease it, if these interests are mutually exclusive (e.g., increasing “astrology” interest will decrease “astronomy”, and vice-versa).

There is no guarantee that everything will be implemented exactly as described, these are more like outlines for general direction of future development of girlfriend’s personality, the way I currently see it. If anybody has more ideas and suggestions, please post your comments.