Shoujo City update 0.9.8

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Update 0.9.8 is released on Steam, Google Play, and the App Store. Free version for Windows and MacOS is also updated.

☆ School grades

Now in addition to skills, you’ll get school grades after completing tasks during classes (Math, Japanese, and P.E.). Grades will accumulate during a week and get reset in the beginning of next week. To check your current grades, interact with chalkboard in the school (near entrance lockers).

Much like skills, grades don’t affect gameplay in current sandbox mode. They will be used in story mode (coming in a future update 1.0)

☆ New framerate settings

  • In the past, game FPS (amount of frames shown per second) was always limited to 60. Now this limit is removed, and FPS is controlled by V Sync setting instead (can be enabled/disabled in game settings).
  • Enabling V Sync will synchronize game FPS with your display refresh rate. Disabling this setting has no effect on mobile, since both Android and iOS always limit application FPS according to screen refresh rate. Most mobile devices limit FPS to 60, on some older devices it’s limited to 30. A handful of newest and most powerful mobile devices allow 90 or 120hz refresh rate.
  • On PC, enabling V Sync will make the game to update frames according to your monitor refresh rate, while disabling it allows the game to utilize all available CPU/GPU resources to run with highest possible FPS. Higher FPS improves quality of game visuals/animations, so it is recommended to disable V Sync on PC (by default it’s enabled). Also, now you can toggle FPS counter on and off in game settings, if you want to check actual FPS rate.
  • All game mechanics and animations are updated to make them independent of frame rate.

☆ Other additions and improvements

  • Additional dialogues for dating scenes.
  • Fixed Ferris Wheel texture error.
  • Small improvements for physics of all hairstyles.
  • One new hairstyle (single front tail) and two new hair colors (white and sand) are available in the beauty salon.
  • Fixed a small polygon error for glasses 3D model.
  • New glasses can be bought at Shoujo Mart.
  • Fixed a bug that happened if you pushed girlfriend into pool (sometimes she disappeared due to being teleported to wrong map position).
  • New dandelion crown can be bought in the Summer Town map.
  • Additional interior details in the school first floor.

Shoujo City update 0.9.7

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Update 0.9.7 is published on Steam. Updates for other versions are coming later.

☆ New start menu

Now there is a separate game scene for the main menu and character creation. When you start a new game, now you can customize appearance of your girlfriend instead of getting a random one. For pillow, you can choose one of two available pillow covers.

☆ Other additions and improvements

  • Shopping street in the school map is redesigned. Clothes shop is merged with Shoujo Mart. There wasn’t enough content for two separate shops, so now there is one shop with a lot of items, instead of two half-empty stores.
  • Caught squirrels now should be released in a new squirrel enclosure in school to get a reward. Walk towards information stand and click on action button to open selling dialogue. Pine cones and seashells can be traded for money in Shoujo Mart.
  • Stamina cost of playing piano is decreased from 5 to 3.
  • Tanabata tree can be bought at Shoujo Mart and used for house decoration.
  • Chance of rain is decreased to 25%.
  • Fixed a few minor clipping issues for maid dress.

Shoujo City update 0.9.6

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Shoujo City update 0.9.6 is released on Steam, App Store, and Google Play.

☆ New dakimakura and item management

In pillow dating mode, pillow cover can be changed using additional covers. Thus far there is one new cover, sold in Akihabara map. Drag and drop it on your pillow.

In pillow dating mode, your pillow now can be moved from “hand” slot into inventory, or stored in the wall closet in your apartment.

All clothes now can be stored on item racks, in cupboards, and in fridges. Since most clothes don’t have 3D models suitable for placing on shelves, they will be shown as small generic cardboard boxes.

Frying pan handle is shortened to allow placing it in all kinds of storages.

A new drawer chest can be bought in “Shoujo Mart” and used for storing clothes.

☆ New photo features

Now you can take up to 5 photos with in-game smartphone and use them as wall posters in your apartment. You can also write something on the back of a photo by placing it in your “hand” equipment slot.

In-game smartphone “gallery” button is removed. All photos are now placed in your inventory (when you click on “save” button after taking a photo).

☆ Other additions and improvements

  • More screen resolutions are now available in the drop-down menu on game start (Windows/MacOS version) – including 4K (if your monitor/graphics card allow it).
  • Anti-aliasing option in settings now has more values: you can set it to “off”, x2, x4, and x8. x8 will give the best visuals, so it should be set to this value if you don’t have issues with performance. If you use a weaker device and experience lags and low FPS, you can decrease anti-aliasing or turn it off completely – this will significantly improve performance.
  • One new hairstyle (long hair with buns) is available in the beauty salon.
  • New military helmet can be bought in the clothes store (for cosplay).
  • Fixed wrong polygons in corners of eyes (all characters).
  • Fixed a minor issue which prevented using corrupted pocky (with quality below 100%) for the pocky game.

Shoujo City update 0.9.5

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☆ Math class and art club

New Math (Arithmetic) class was added to the school schedule. Now it looks like this:

  • Monday : Arithmetic
  • Tuesday : Japanese
  • Wednesday : PE
  • Thursday : Arithmetic
  • Friday : Japanese
  • Saturday : PE

Math test consists of 20 tasks with basic operations (addition, subtraction, division, multiplication). Completing a test (one error is allowed) will give you +5 science skill points.

In the school art club you can color pages to increase your arts skill (+5 points if you color a picture with at least 90% accuracy).

☆ UI changes

Girlfriend’s inventory and status buttons were removed from toolbar and in-game smartphone and now are available through new menu in the top-right corner appearing when you talk to your girlfriend.

In pillow dating mode, pillow’s status window appears if you click on pillow in your inventory.

☆ Other additions and improvements

  • Fixed a bug that didn’t allow to start a date in pillow dating mode.
  • A new setting was added to the main menu and in-game smartphone allowing to disable anti-aliasing. Disabling it will significantly improve performance and increase FPS (about 30% improvement) on weak devices (at expense of game visuals).

☆ Update 0.9.5a (July 9, 2019)

  • Fixed a bug with NPC not saying correct messages after some interactions.
  • Fixed a bug with incorrect camera angle during date in some cases.
  • Fixed a bug with incorrect camera position in the title menu.
  • Fixed a  bug with math test that produced two identical test answers in some cases.
  • Fixed a bug with character interaction triggers that caused incorrect look angles (for NPCs) under certain circumstances.
  • Restored a missing collider on one of tables in the Akihabara cafe.
  • Plants in pots no longer lose leaves if not watered. Watering is now required only to get fruits from mikan and orange trees.

Shoujo City update 0.9.4

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Update 0.9.4 is released on Steam, the App Store, and Google Play.

☆ Better hairstyles

All hairstyles in the game have new textures and UV maps, with significantly higher quality.

☆ New piano pieces

Two new piano compositions are added: Flohwalzer and Minuet in G Major (BWV Anhang 114).

The way piano scores are calculated is changed: if you play on the left side (easy) you’ll get lower skill score, and playing on the right side (where you’ll have to play more keys) will give you higher arts skill score. Also, longer pieces will give you higher scores than shorter ones. Relationship score doesn’t depend on piano side and music length, and is affected only by final accuracy.

☆ Screen interaction (date)

If you click anywhere on screen during date, girlfriend will look at the mouse cursor (this feature doesn’t affect gameplay in any way, and was added just for fun).

☆ Other additions and improvements

  • Better textures for all baseball caps.
  • New “study” omamori can be bought at the Shinto shrine. It affects success of language classes. If you pass a test, omamori will add +1 on top of your science score. If you fail, it will prevent your science score from decreasing.
  • New straw hat with an attached sunflower is available as one of random prizes in the water gun mini-game.
  • Fixed a bug with cooking skill showing incorrect value.

Shoujo City update 0.9.3

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Update 0.9.3 of Shoujo City 3D is released for PC (Steam + free version), iOS, and Android.

☆ School classes

Every day time will go from 8 AM to 17 PM. Time can be checked in the in-game smartphone, on the school clock, or on clocks that can be placed in your apartment room. Current day of the week can be checked in the in-game smartphone, and is also announced during next day transition.

There are two classes available in the school, and three new NPCs who will attend these classes.

  • Monday : language study
  • Tuesday : language study
  • Wednesday : physical education
  • Thursday : language study
  • Friday : language study
  • Saturday : physical education
  • Sunday : free day

You can attend these classes to improve your science and sports skills. In the language study class you’ll have to pass Japanese kanji tests (if you set game language to Chinese you’ll have to pass Chinese characters tests instead), and in the PE class you’ll have to run 50 meter dashes. Both these classes will deplete your stamina like all other activities.

Sports girl NPC that was formerly running in the sports field now works as PE teacher.

Student council NPC now also works as language class teacher (in addition to her regular routine of patrolling the school).

☆ New skill system

The skill system was redesigned. Your character now has the following skills:

  • science (improved by passing language tests).
  • arts (improved by playing piano).
  • sports (improved by playing tennis and running on the sports field).
  • social (improved by dating).
  • cooking (improved by cooking at home and during maid cafe mini-game).
  • fashion (improved by buying and putting on new clothes and accessories. Each item will upgrade your fashion stats only once).

Skill and relationship score announcements have new icons and show exact scores you get (or lose). Announcements now queue correctly one after another (if there are multiple simultaneous announcements).

☆ Other additions and improvements

  • Several new dialogues for dating scenes. Some conversation topics were renamed. New and changed dialogues will appear only if you start a new game.
  • New plush bunny toy (can be obtained as one of random prizes in the water gun mini-game).
  • One dating spot in the school map is removed.
  • Playing hide-and-seek now doesn’t affect sports skill (it affects only relationship score).
  • When you have food in hands during maid cafe mini-game, now you can’t talk to NPCs. This makes serving food easier, since there is no overlapping between NPC and table triggers.
  • The recipe book now correctly returns to the previous page instead of resetting to the first page (after checking a recipe).
  • While operating water gun, tennis racket, broom, and watering can, your character will stand with feet shoulder width apart.
  • Fixed several animation issues related to using water gun, tennis racket, broom, and watering can.
  • Fixed a bug with tail not being restored correctly after sitting on some chairs/benches.
  • Fixed a bug with incorrect body placement that happened if you jumped on a rocking horse while it was moving.

One year until release

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There is approximately one year remaining until release of the final version of Shoujo City 3D (planned for summer 2020), so I wanted to outline main development goals for transition from the current alpha version to complete game.

Right now the game has many various dating activities, but they don’t provide consistent gameplay as yet, and the entire skill system is not used at all. The main goal of all the changes explained below is building complete and logical gameplay, which will also allow to replay the game several times and choose alternative walkthrough routes.

☆ Heroine & skill system

The main planned change is removing “default” girlfriend every player automatically gets at the beginning of each game, and replacing her with several heroine characters one can meet during walkthrough and choose one of them for dating (how many girls will be available for dating is to be decided as yet). Approaching and asking out one of girls will require your stats (skills) meeting her minimum expectations, which will be different for every girl. This way you’ll have to work on increasing certain stats of your character, depending on what girl you’ll decide to pursue.

Some girls will be easier to win, while others may require you spending the first few days working solely on your stats, before they agree to go out on a date with you.

“Pillow dating” mode will remain in the game, but instead of choosing this route at start, it will be available as one of dating options during walkthrough.

☆ School schedules

School will be used as the main location for meeting (and asking out) girls on dates, and also for attending classes. School grades will accumulate during a school week, and if you fail to get the minimum required score, you will be expelled from school, resulting in game over.

Classes will be held on certain hours according to daily and weekly schedules, and, like all other activites, they will deplete your stamina. In order to succeed in both school and dating activities, you’ll have to plan your actions accordingly.

☆ Game win & game lose conditions

The game will have a limited amount of days. On the last day a girl with highest relationship score and highest compatibility % (which will depend on how her interests and your stats combine) will confess her feelings to you.

The game can end before the final day if your school grades drop too low, or if your money balance drops below zero.

Shoujo City update 0.9.2

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Shoujo City version 0.9.2 is released on Steam, App Store, and Google Play.

Game engine is updated from Unity 5.6 to Unity 2017.4. Updated engine comes with a lot of subtle changes in game physics, path finding, and graphics rendering, so bugs are possible. If you encounter any bugs, please report by email.

☆ New hairstyles

  • short front tails
  • buns with short tails
  • buns with long tails

☆ New clothes and accessories

  • white skirt – sold in the clothes store
  • hair bows (4 colors) – sold in the clothes store
  • flower hairpins – sold in the clothes store
  • cat face hat – sold in the clothes store
  • dandelion flower – can be obtained from dandelions (school map)

☆ Secondary hair accessories

Now hairstyles with tails and braids have additional slots for attaching hair accessories (through top-right equipment slot which is also used for Shinto amulets and glasses). Affected hairstyles:

  • single braid
  • double braids
  • double long tails
  • double short tails
  • front short tails (new hairstyle)
  • long hair with strands on sides

Accessories that can be used for attaching to tails and braids:

  • daisy hairpins
  • butterfly hairpins
  • school bows (4 types)
  • hair bows (4 colors)
  • flower hairpins
  • dandelion flower

If you had these accessories in inventory/equipment and load a saved game (from previous version), they will be marked as “deleted” (since they have different IDs in this update). Put such items into recycle bin and buy new ones from the clothes store.

☆ Other additions and improvements

  • All game settings now can be changed in the main menu.
  • On first run, the game will detect wide screens (18:9, 20:9, etc.) and change aspect ratio to 18:9 automatically (this can be changed later in settings).
  • All sitting routines are shortened. Now characters will sit down and stand up about two times faster.
  • Fixed a bug with stamina calculation during the maid cafe mini-game.
  • Fixed a minor issue with arms animations for NPCs (while consuming drinks).
  • Fixed a minor issue with camera controls while operating tennis racket and water gun.
  • A small improvement for walking animation (fixed stretching of textures on upper back).

Plants and flowers (update 0.9.1)

A small update 0.9.1 for Shoujo City 3D is released on Steam, App Store, and Google Play. Here is what is new:

☆ House plants

New plants in pots can be bought at “Shoujo Mart” and used for house decoration:

  • wild rose
  • mikan tree
  • orange tree

Mikan and orange trees will produce fruits (it takes two days for fruits to grow). All plants require watering, or else they will lose all leaves after three days. Watering can be done using a watering can or a water gun.

☆ Other additions and improvements

  • New recipe: gyoza.
  • Fixed a minor issue with the Ferris wheel rotation speed.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed to walk outside of Akihabara map limits using escalator slopes.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented obtaining ingredients during the maid cafe mini-game if you didn’t have enough money.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed to walk into cafe kitchen while not in the maid cafe mini-game mode.
  • A rack with fruits is added into cafe storage (for usage during maid cafe mini-game).
  • Fixed a bug with sound of walking in shallow water sometimes not being replaced correctly with regular walking sound (when getting out of water).