A new game from Shoujo City series is in development. While it is not a dating sim, it shares many common elements with the two previous games (original 2D Shoujo City and Shoujo City 3D) and happens in the same continuity.
The working title of the new game is “The ghosts of Shoujo City” (could be changed in the future). It will be a quest/adventure story about a high school student investigating paranormal activity in her school. The game will have much smaller area to explore compared to SC3D (only one school map), but that smaller area is also why it will have much better quality and amount of details for every object.
I know that many people would rather prefer to see this or that content added to SC3D instead of a new game, and that no matter how much content is added, there always will be someone asking to add more. Exactly the same happened when I started working on SC3D instead of endlessly updating the original 2D version. In the end, SC3D turned out to be vastly superior to the original game. I would not want to get stuck forever just making updates for the original 2D game, and, likewise, I would not want to get stuck forever just making content updates for SC3D.
Shoujo City 3D was my first 3D game, and I had to learn modeling, texturing, UV mapping, animation, shaders (and many other things required to make a 3D game) on the go, while making the game itself. Now that my skills have improved, I want to move on to better, higher quality works. The new game is a logical next step in the evolution of the series, moving to the next level of quality, design and gameplay.
There will be a few small updates for Shoujo City 3D, but all the planned major features and content are added already and the game is largely finished, don’t expect any major updates.
If you want to keep track of development progress of the new game (The ghosts of Shoujo City), you can follow/bookmark official Shoujo City Twitter account:
The new game is still in early stages of development, so it’s not known when it will be released (definitely not this year). Target platforms: Windows, MacOS, iOS (only high-end devices), Android (only high-end devices). I am also hoping for release on consoles in the future, but it is unknown at this point how that will work out.
UPDATE (May 2021): information in this article is no longer accurate. “Ghosts of Shoujo City” was cancelled in favor of a new dating/social sim. Working title for that new game is “Anime City” and preliminary release date is beginning of 2023. More details can be found on Twitter.
Update 1.1 is released on Steam and Google Play (iOS version update is coming later). Here is what is new:
☆ Steam achievements
Seven achievements are added in Steam version of the game (for seven possible endings in story mode).
☆ Jinja water gun event
In addition to Akihabara, a separate water gun event with new enemies (ghosts) is available in the shrine map. Prizes:
ghost warrior mini-figurine (new)
summer hat
summer hat with sunflower
☆ Other additions and improvements
Street tables in the Summer Town and in Akihabara now can be used to eat food brought from home.
A new food stall selling taiyaki and other snacks in the shrine map.
Controls are modified to make character movements more responsive. Now the character always walks in direction the camera is facing and begins to move immediately (without delay for rotating before beginning to walk). This affects default (“direction”) control scheme.
Mirrors in the beauty salon (school map).
All translations are updated according to their current state in the wiki.
Fixed a minor bug with incorrect sky color on photos.
Version 1.0 of the game is released on Steam and Google Play. Free version for Windows and MacOS is also updated. Some new content for iOS version will be released later, but due to the way the App Store censored it, it’s impossible to release the story mode on iOS, so it will remain sandbox-only game.
Here is what is new in this release:
☆ Story mode
The game now has two separate gameplay modes. In free (sandbox) mode you can play with a custom girlfriend for unlimited amount of days. There is no final goal to achieve.
In story mode, you have 7 days to attempt winning heart of one of NPC girls. You will also have to study in school (minimum 50 points to pass) and pay weekly rent for apartment room. Failing to do either will result in game over (on Sunday). On day 8, if you reached score 150 or above with any girl, you’ll have a confession scene with that girl on school rooftop.
Every NPC girl in story mode has different requirements (depending on her interests), so you’ll have to work on different skills during walkthrough depending on what girl you decide to pursue. When you start a new story mode game, you’ll have to complete a survey during a train ride. Answers you choose will affect initial distribution of skills, so choosing correct answers can help you to approach certain girls faster.
In total, there are seven possible endings, and seven prizes to unlock. Prizes can be viewed from the main menu, and will be added to your inventory when you start a new (story mode) game.
NPC girls available for asking out:
Ririka (School map, on Sunday in school library)
Anette (School map, on Sunday in Summer Town)
Kyoko (School map, on Sunday in Akihabara)
Laika (School map)
Yuki (Jinja map)
Elke (Akihabara map)
Pillow can be bought in Akihabara. Putting it in hand slot activates pillow dating mode (unless you are dating somebody else already).
☆ New drinks
shiruko (azuki soup)
strawberry milk
apple juice
Sold in red vending machines with drinks.
☆ Food preferences and requests
Each girl available in story mode has her food preferences grouped around several specific tastes. This information is shown in her status window.
During dating scenes (both in story mode and sandbox mode), girlfriend now will ask if you remember her food preferences:
drinks
snacks
ice cream
food
In story mode, instead of asking for specific food, girlfriend now will request either drink, ice cream, or dish/snack. You should get some food according to her preferences. E.g., if a girl likes everything with matcha, you should give her matcha tea (if she asks for a drink), or matcha ice cream (if she asks for ice cream). This way you can get additional score while dating that girl.
In sandbox mode, girlfriend will ask for specific food until her score is below 100. After that, she will ask for some food, ice cream, or drink, without specifying what exactly she wants. By that time, you should remember her preferences and give her what she likes.
If girlfriend ask for non-specific food (anything else apart from drinks and ice cream), she will complain if you give her the same food you gave her earlier (she will remember up to five items). You should try to give different food every time to get additional score points. This affects both story mode and sandbox mode.
Pillow doesn’t have food preferences, so food-related questions will not appear in pillow dating mode.
☆ Save slots
Now there are two separate save/load slots with small preview screenshots. These can be useful for playing story mode and free mode without losing progress in either.
☆ Other additions and improvements
In school and Akihabara maps, music from cafe now can be heard everywhere across map.
Kissing mood is activated only if your total score is above 100 (for pillow there is no limit).
Fixed a bug that allowed to go through walls using bicycle.
Summer Town baseball cap (can be bought in the Summer Town map), brown casquette (convenience store).
One new hairstyle (messy hair).
Akihabara t-shirt (can be obtained as one of random prizes in the water gun mini-game).
Deck chairs in the Summer Town now can be used to sit on.
Fixed a minor issue with shadows missing on some plants.
Fixed a minor issue with dark color for dandelion flowers.
If you don’t have a computer and girlfriend sits at desk in your apartment room, she will play a game on her smartphone instead.
More inventory items now can be viewed in 3D mode: all hats and head accessories, glasses, bracelets, computers, backpacks, pillows, umbrellas, swim rings, and several other items that can be placed into “hand” slot.
More accurate queuing for dialogues during dating scenes.
Next update of Shoujo City 3D will be release of the full game (version 1.0), with story mode and achievements. Coming in 1-2 months, no exact date as yet.
Story mode will be available in both paid and free versions of the game (Windows, MacOS, Android). You will be able to date one of story mode girls and unlock achievements in free version. But some girls and achievements will be limited to paid version only.
Due to censorship requirements of the App Store, which requested removal of all dating/romance features, it will be impossible to release the story mode for iOS version, sorry for that. iOS version of the game will remain sandbox-style “friendship simulator”. I will attempt to add some smaller updates to iOS version in the future (clothes/accessories, house decoration items), but due to policies of the App Store it’s difficult to predict when exactly such updates may happen.
Update 0.9.16 is released on Steam and Google Play. Here is what is new in this update:
☆ Bicycle
A bicycle can be used to ride in the school and Akihabara maps (can be found in bicycle storage in the school and under bridge in Akihabara). In pillow dating mode you can place your pillow in the back.
☆ New trees
Most trees in the game are replaced with new assets: sakura trees, maples, pines, bamboo, palm trees. All these new models have small wind animations, better textures and shading.
☆ Other additions and improvements
Improved camera performance for taking photos. In the past the game used two separate cameras – to render (blurred) world outside of camera view and to render photo preview inside in-game smartphone. This setup was very expensive to render and caused about 50% FPS drop whenever in-game smartphone camera was activated (both on PC and mobile). Now there is only one camera with blur effect outside of smartphone view with much better performance.
In-game smartphone (while in camera mode) is now placed correctly in the center of the screen, in all aspect ratios.
All characters now have small quick eye movements (saccades), similar to human eye movements in real life.
Fixed an error that occasionally produced two same numbers as choices in math tests.
Kakigoori and handmade chocolate are excluded from the list of food girlfriend can ask for (affects only new games and not loaded games).
Fixed a minor issue with girlfriend sitting on the ground while holding objects which should prevent her from sitting.
This is a very small update adding new bed decorations – this feature was requested by many people. Steam and Google Play updates are released. Updates for PC free and iOS versions are coming later.
Here is what is new in this update:
Bed in apartment room now can be customized (one slot for bed cover and four slots for pillows or other items on top of the bed). You can buy cover and pillows in the convenience store (3 designs).
Better textures for all curtains and one new curtain design.
More objects in the school map now use LODs (to improve performance).
