2019 Development Roadmap

      15 Comments on 2019 Development Roadmap

There were no major updates for Shoujo City 3D in a few months, so I wanted to show a small preview of what I’m currently working on.

☆ Akihabara UDX map

This is how a new Akihabara map currently looks like (50% complete as of December 2018). It will be released in the first half of 2019. There are no outsourced or store-bought assets in this map, all 3D models and textures are created from a scratch by me personally, so it will take a while as yet to prepare everything required (and that’s why there were no major updates in a while).

The map is an accurate recreation of the real UDX Akihabara area in Tokyo, and includes the Akiba bridge, Dai Biru & UDX complex, JR Akihabara train station, and surrounding area. Alongside with the main Chuo Dori street (where most anime, manga, and game shops are located) this place is a well-known Tokyo landmark for all anime fans, and for decades contributed to shaping anime and otaku culture in Japan. The map was also prominently featured in ai sp@ce MMO (which was the original source of inspiration for Shoujo City), so recreating it always was one of my main goals for this project. You can check the actual map here: Akihabara UDX on Google Maps

☆ 100% yuri

From now on this is a pure yuri game. Originally I planned to add an option to play as a male character, but this feature is cancelled, due to these reasons:

  • Most people who asked to add males didn’t want as much to play as males, but rather wanted to have an option to date males. This is by far more complex feature to implement (compared to just choosing to play as a girl or a boy) and would require not only new assets for characters and clothes, but deep reworking of many game mechanics, animations, dialogues, and gameplay ideas.
  • Realistically speaking, full implementation of “play as a boy” feature would extend game development time by about one year, and full implementation of all gender dating options (girl x girl, girl x boy, boy x girl, boy x boy – that’s what most actually asked for) would require about two more years of work on top of what is planned already. So the final game would be released in 2022 instead of 2020, at best.
  • I don’t think I can keep people interested enough to actively follow development of this project for that long. This game is quite an ambitious project for one person already, and since it never gained any wide popularity and recognition after initial release, there isn’t any chance already that at some point in the future it becomes popular and profitable enough to expand development team. Whatever development goals I set, I will be the only person to carry them out, so I should concentrate on what realistically can be achieved by one person. Otherwise there would be a high probability that this game joins the vast mass of “good concept, never properly executed” other Early Access games with ever slowing down development progress and ever dropping interest from players. And never finished.

Long story short, I think it’s much better to have a complete game with smaller scope than to keep dragging development for years and risk having it never finished.

☆ 2019 development goals

There are a lot of things to work on as yet. Here are the most important goals for 2019:

  • Adding NPCs in all areas with different behavior and more interaction options with NPCs.
  • Improving girlfriend’s AI and behavior patterns so she acts more realistic.
  • Adding more interaction options with one’s girlfriend (including school clubs).
  • Most importantly, building clear and logical gameplay based on improving one’s skills and completing dating activities, so that players have real goals to achieve throughout gameplay and can finish the game. While the game visuals improved a lot compared to the first alpha release in 2017, gameplay didn’t do the same progress. That needs to be worked on.

The final version of the game is scheduled for release for summer of 2020 (hopefully).

Finally, I want to thank all people who decided to support this project by buying Steam (or premium mobile) version of the game. Every purchase is a direct contribution towards the future of this project. It is alive and keeps developing thanks to you.

15 thoughts on “2019 Development Roadmap

  1. Himitsu no Shoujo

    I love this game.
    But there are two things that bothers me.
    First, I really like buying clothes, but recently I run out of space, I would like to know if you are gonig to add more space in the wardrobe. Beacause I want to buy more and more clothes ^^
    And the second thing is that when I want to buy new clothes, I do not like how it looks. And I would like to know if in the future one is going to be able to try the clothes.
    That’s all.
    Thanks ^^

    Reply
    1. Laika Post author

      Well, if you don’t like some clothes after buying, just put them in the garbage bin. There aren’t that many clothes in the game, so buying all of them and recycling those you don’t need won’t take much time.
      As to additional inventory/wardrobe space, it will be expanded in the future, yes.

      Reply
  2. jerry143

    Thanks for playing. I’m glad you created this masterpiece. I hope that you will continue to please me with cool ideas. I bought the game on steam for a long time and do not regret it.

    Reply
    1. Laika Post author

      Next update (0.8.14) is coming in about two weeks. Akihabara map update is coming in about 2-3 months.

      Reply
  3. Taji

    Does it mean that there will not be a male protagonist anymore? Not even as a DLC? I wanted so much to be able to play as a male (I did not care much about dating a guy, I just wanted to be able to play as a male character)

    Well, if the full game goes very well and does not want to do a DLC, then some chance of having a “Shounen City” to be able to play as a male?

    Reply
    1. Laika Post author

      I don’t really know. Whatever I work on after 2020, most probably it will be a completely new project. For the time being my main and only priority is finishing Shoujo City 3D.

      Reply
      1. Nanatsumi

        Props to you, I’m excited to see how this masterpiece ends up!!! 😀 only suggestion I have is add collecting M A N G A
        (Lowkey just wants to be a virtual otaku)

        Reply

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